London to Atlanta...the long way

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Thursday/Saturday, June 26-28
We are back to the USA! I am writing this final blog on Sunday, June 29, 2008. I will do a brief wrap up of our return trip.
We are happy to be home but it seems strange to have no place to go. We had the time of our lives. We have lots of people to thank for their support. I also want to thank all of our blog readers. I saw noticed on the travel blog site that I have had over 1600 hits on the blogs. Thank you for taking the time to follow our journey.
Thursday
This was our planned return date. Dianne and John were returning too. We all were traveling on a stand-by basis. However, we did not have the same priority. John works for Delta and thus carries the highest stand-by priority. We were traveling on a buddy pass. It has a lower priority but can still get good benefits. For example, we flew over to Munich at the beginning of this trip in business-class.
We arrived early at the airport and registered for the first non-stop flight to Atlanta. Surprisingly, none of us were successful to board this flight. As we discovered, there was a mechanical problem on this same flight the day before and the flight cancelled. These passengers would then have top priority on the following day flight. So, the first flight was full. Plus, the second and last flight to Atlanta was also near full
Dianne and John were successful on this flight and left for Atlanta. We considered our options at this point and decided to find a hotel nearby and return on Friday for another try for a direct flight into Atlanta.
We found that a hotel was located at the airport and took a room there. We booked it on Hotels.com and got the room at a price that was half of what we were quoted at the airport information desk. It turned out to be a good idea since the hotel was very nice, convenient and had several nice restaurants to choose from. We got ourselves rested and organized for the flight back. Only, we did not have any idea what faced us on the following two days.
Friday
We repeated the routine from the prior day with much the same results. This time we discovered that there were seats on the flight to New York-JFK airport. So, after we did not get on the Atlanta flights, we were pleased to get on anything back to the USA. We were to arrive about noon. That should give us plenty of time to catch a flight to Atlanta.
The flight went well but after we arrived we found that the flights out of JFK airport were all booked. We also discovered that our luggage was not so lucky. They were left at the airport in London, to be sent on to Atlanta the next day.
We took a bus over to La Guardia airport where more flights were scheduled to Atlanta. What we had not anticipated were hazardous weather conditions along the east coast. Many flights were being delayed or cancelled. Getting to Atlanta soon became a lost cause.
So, we chose to fly to Florida. We flew into Orlando and shuttled over to a nearby hotel. It was nice to rent a room at US prices and US dollars.
Saturday
We got up, had a nice breakfast and headed to the airport. This was now becoming a daily routine. We caught the 10am flight to Atlanta. We arrived about an hour later.
Home, at last!
I need to thank many people now. Starting with Jackie. She knew that this trip was my dream. She was a great travel partner, during the good and bad days. Thanks, Honey.
Also, we need to thank Peter and Hilary in Romsey, England. They were great hosts. I owe Peter an apology. I described one of his cars incorrectly. I described his 1951 MG TD as an Austin Healy. My bad, Pete. I also must tell Hilary thanks for driving out to bring us my electrical gadget bag that I had left at their home. I could not have continued with this blog without it.
Thanks to Meg & Mike for giving us advice on golf and to all other family members for their recommendations. Thanks to John and Dianne for travel support.
Thanks also to my friends in the Manhattan Condominium, particularly Andrea and Rich. She picked up our mail and Rich kept the car battery fresh.
And I want to thank John Wood, the BMW agent that took care of my car in Hamilton, Scotland, and took car of us as we traveled through Ireland. He kept us informed and allowed us to continue with our vacation even though we had the problem with my 535i. Thanks, Mate.

Cheers to all, Tom & Jackie Dorsey

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Photos

JD is still smilng
Our last dinner in Europe

Airport Hotel
View from the room into the atrium.

Gatwick Airport
We are on board the plane ready to fly to the USA.

Jackie is still smiling
We are in the USA but not in Atlanta yet.

Jackie is near tears
That's Atlanta that you can see. We are home at last. Cheers everyone.