My Trip to the UK and Ireland, Day 1

Date: Thursday, June 3, 2004

Path: Pictures / Trips / My Trip to the UK and Ireland / My Trip to the UK and Ireland, Day 1

Contains: 12 Photos

We drove out to Illinois, and met up with my folks. My dad drove us out to O'Hare, and we then flew from Chicago to New Jersey, then on to London. In between, we meet people that suck, and people that do not. Also, I did not pass out on the plane.

Here is Robb and Joel, all packed and ready to head out. We're at my place, and about to drive off to Chicago, to stop at my parent's place.

The picture taken has quite obviously already begun. I must admit, at this point, it felt very kewl [to me, anyway] to have those packs back on... It felt like we were headed off to do something adventurous.

I caught my mom in mid-sentance. When we arrived, she made us some lunch. It was delicious. We are now at my parent's house in Lansing, Illinois.

Here we are, with our fairly matching packs... That's Robb's on the left, the "black and brick red" pack. In the middle we have Joel's, with his special "newer edition" model. Then there's mine, the "Orange and Gray" bag with the green sleeping bag. I was very pleased to not be carrying a tent this time. Very pleased.

We're now waiting around in O'Hare. We got booked on an earlier flight, which was pretty kewl, so we didn't have to wait around too long.

That would be our plane. We'd be boarding soon, and flying off to Newark, New Jersey. I'd stopped off there last year on my trip as well... and then gotten very, very lost.

Remember this? It's the "Air Train" in Newark's airport. Last year when we were hear we hopped on this thing, and it zipped right on by our terminal, and went on to the next one, and everyone had to get off, and get on a different one to get to the right terminal...becuase our driver was an idiot.
This picture was taken becuase Joel had just made a[nother] snide remark about how horrible the labeling/signs were at this airport, and how "it'd be nice if they told you were these things were going..." Yeah.. it's going to Terminals B and C. In Joel's defense, this was the only place where it did actually tell you where you were going, as I complained about last year..

It was a beaitiful clear day, and we could see the New York skyline from the Air Train. It was impressive.

This guy here... sigh... Okay, so the sign behind him says that everyone connection from another site has to go see him. Makes perfect sense. So he stands up by that desk... and then anytime anyone comes up to him, he says "Can you just give me a few minutes.. I'm setting up." Okay, I guess that's kewl. Then he would walk away, and do a lot of nothing... then head back to the desk, and someone new would walk up, and the same thing would happen... and this went on for at least 25 minutes. Here's a hint... if you're busy, don't put up a sign telling people to come up and see you, and then stand right at the desk, looking out towards those people in a "come on up" type way.

I appear to have already injured myself, most likley putting on/taking off my pack. Tis but a scratch.

It's the famed Underground! We're in London!

We've found the station, and now we need to figure out where we're going, and what tickets we need. And with that, our journey really began. It was now around 8 or 9 am London time, and we still had a full day ahead of us.