Well . . . I've jumped the pond for the first time in my life.
It is surreal to me. I mean, I watched the progress of the trip starting out from IAH and watching us navigate past Mont Belvieu, Winnie, China, until we began angling more to the northeast. At first we were flying the equivalent of a little over 200 m.p.h. And then the altitude grew and the speed increased until we were going well over 600 m.p.h. and flying in excess of 39,000 feet. I nearly froze my finger off to see how cold it was outside. It was like 60 degrees below zero fahrenheit at that altitude!
It was a mammoth jet of Continental's that seated way over 250 people. There were two access points just to get on the jet. They had three different accommodation sections--elite, business, and financially embarrassed.
We flew for 9 1/2 hours. I got all of one hour of sleep. I just could not find a comfortable position. I knew England was 6 hours ahead of us timewise. And as I watched our progress, I knew there was going to come for us a very short night. And short it was.
The food cart came clanging up the aisle and pseudo cheerful voices clamored about breakfast being served.
I looked out the window and the blue of the sky was brilliant. We were, at that point, over the Atlantic. It amazed me. I knew that if I kept looking, I'd never get any shut eye.
The breakfast cart got closer and closer, and the warmed croissants were smelling more and more appetizing. I gave up. I threw up the sash so to speak. Down below I could see some land masses. It was something I had never seen before. There was England. I could not believe it. Before long we were going to land in Heathrow.