6 HOURS ON THE RUNWAY

6 HOURS ON THE RUNWAY

HEATHROW AIRPORT, LONDON

Delayed overnight in Los Angeles was heaven compared to what we endured in London. We arrived after a 10 1/2 hour flight to snowfall and and an airport that perhaps is not prepared too well for snow. After being huddled up in a small lounge we were told that our flight was delayed because of the snow. We waited over an hour and then were placed on buses to drive to the plane which was not near the terminal. When we departed the bus, it was snowing. We had to walk up stairs to the plane in the snow. Keli liked this but it was cold. We stuck our tongues out to catch the snow and had some fun. We got settled in to our seats and found that we were surrounded by a certain ethnic group that loved to talk loud amongst each other. They had a dozen children and just had to scream across the isles to talk. After a while the pilot came on the intercom and announced that we would be delayed one hour so they plane could be de-iced. I tried to sleep but a two year old in front of me was hanging off the back of his seat screaming. The lady behind seemed happy to continually grab my seat back and bounce me around a bit. Our one hour delay soon turned to two. Then three, then four, then five hours. Thankfully the crew busted out free wine and beer. The loud got louder and the quiet got drunk. We learned the life stories of the people in back of us and a little bit about the drug cartel in Mexico that forced our friends on the other side of the isle to move to Arizona. Everyone was yapping in a dozen different languages. The bathrooms ran out of water, the wine ran out and there was no food. After six hours of this crap the plane finally departed for Barcelona. SIX HOURS ON THE RUNWAY GOING NOWHERE. Got to hand it to the British Airlines crew. They were really relaxed and treated everyone well. They kept the booze flowing until they were completely out of stock. The flight to Barcelona was two hours. We arrived after midnight and got to our hotel around 2:00 am.