Out of America - July 10-11, 2010

African Proverb:
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

Even though Jet Blue set a record for the number of flight changes to my itinerary before I left, I breezed through the check-in process and they departed from Dulles on time. And, just like Southwest, my bag flew free.

Well, that euphoria lasted only a short time until I arrived at JFK Airport in NY. I had 5 long hours to kill before I could check my bag with Virgin Atlantic to Nairobi, Kenya. Terminal #4 had absolutely no seating for passengers, even though most, if not all, check-in counters for international airlines were located there. I tried the cart railing outside, the double railing under the inside stairway - even went outside the terminal in search of a seat. Sat for an hour on the bench in the Air Train hallway until the stench of a fellow traveler became unbearable. I never saw so much confusion among so many passengers in my life when it came to that Air Train. And of course, there is no one available to point you in the right direction. If you make the wrong decision, you could be on that train for a very long time...

What a zoo with Virgin Atlantic! First, their 4 kiosks weren't working, so you couldn't book a seat. Then, when they were working, I was assigned a horrible seat in the middle of the row in the middle of the plane. No way I was going to be OK with that! (Ask Deb how much I enjoyed sitting in a seat like that next to an obese woman on a 7 hour flight back from Hawaii). After minimal complaining, I did get an aisle seat. I had to insist on them ticketing my luggage all the way through to Nairobi as well - finally got the supervisor to fix that problem. I'm not looking forward to a repeat performance with Kenya Airways once we arrive at Heathrow. I just cannot fathom in this day and age why one can't reserve a seat online with every airline.

OMG - just when I didn't think it could get worse, it did! After an hour delay we finally arrived at Heathrow. We had to sprint to the connecting flights gate, following the signs for terminal #4 (which of course was the furthest away - Murphy's Law and all). We boarded a shuttle, ran some more - only to enter a very long security line - without having our boarding passes for the Kenya leg of our travel. (Who ever heard of going through security without your boarding pass anyway?)

After going through security, passengers needing boarding passes (all of us)had to line up according to their airline. Of course the person we needed to speak with was alone, handling 8 different airlines - while, about 6 other people, who handed one airline each, were laughing, talking and eating - making no attempt to help our guy or any of us. I think I actually aged a few years while waiting in this line, and I thought the tail end of our group was going to miss their connection to Nairobi.

But all these experiences were nothing compared to the luggage fiasco in Nairobi. Who puts international luggage from Paris and London on the same conveyor belt anyway??? Two hours later, half of us still had no luggage. Three people left without luggage - which didn't catch up with them for several days. When we finally piled into our van, we asked the driver how far a drive the lodge was from the airport (he said 15 minutes). When Oscar, our tour director, arrived and we asked the same question, he said 45 minutes - welcome to African time!

Finally arrived at Safari Park Hotel & Casino and checked into our rooms around midnight. The first thing we noticed upon arrival was the gigantic elephant in the center of the lobby. Also, what was to become a post journey ritual, we were met with a moist washcloth for our hands and face, and a small glass of juice - so very civilized!