And we're off!

June 7, 2013.  We successfully made it to the bus stop, although we cheated.  Pete dropped me off with the luggage at the stop three blocks from our house, and then he walked to the stop after taking the car home.  We ended up having one more heavy piece of luggage than we had originally planned.  We were transporting Lisa's new quilt (which I had just finished a few days before) and her VERY HEAVY book about Michelangelo.

As a rule, we "travel light" -- one piece of rolling luggage each, plus a briefcase (yeah, I know) and a laptop.  This time, we just didn't feel like knocking ourselves out to make it those three blocks.

The bus and lightrail trip to the airport were uneventful.  Our connections were amazingly quick.  We checked the big heavy bag for Lisa and Pete's rolling suitcase, and took mine as a carry-on.  Delta Airlines only allows a single piece of checked baggage per passenger, and we didn't want to pay the $75 for the third bag.  But then, wonder of wonders, the gate personnel were checking all rolling luggage anyway, so we saved $75.  We'll remember this next time we travel.

We changed planes in Atlanta and continued to London.  We actually slept a couple of hours on the plane!  Our three bags arrived the same time we did, first thing in the morning. We bought tube/bus passes good for a week (and stood in "queue" for about 45 minutes).  The Piccadilly Line goes directly from Heathrow to Wood Green, Lisa's stop.  As luck would have it, part of the line was out for repairs, so we had to transfer to a bus and then back to the tube.  We dragged our jet-lagged selves about 5 blocks to Lisa's flat, and were happy to arrive.