Day 0 : Travel Day[s]

The first day of the trip is officially here.

I have the longest trip of the 3 of us from NY to Chennai so my journey started a bit earlier than the rest. I decided to ask google what the actual distance was between the two points. Distance between Staten Island, New York, USA and Chennai, India.... 13508 km = 8393 miles. WOW! So then I had the thought, well what is the circumference of the Earth. I must be half way around the earth by now.  Not really. The circumference is 24,901 mi, so about 33% around the world. :)

After 2 teas, a seltzer, some chips and an undocumented British airways piece of beef, the first leg of the trip is over and I made it to London! G'day mates! 😊 just kidding that's my greeting for the future Australia bike tour.

British airways was fantastic on this first part of the journey. They checked in my bike in minutes as a piece of my 2 bag luggage for free! Then they gave me lounge access because this trip popped me to Silver member status. I was riding high. 

After my previously mentioned tea latte, seltzer and chips, when I was about to board the plane, my life came to a screeching halt. A red light flashed as my ticket was being scanned. "I'm sorry sir, your ticket isn't working. Please get off of the line and go over to the desk". I knew it was going too smoothly for my luck. Typical. I was done for. I go to the desk and the lady gives me a sad look. "You have a seat change." My heart sinks to the floor. I had paid for exit seats weeks before and BA had trouble with my credit card a few days earlier. I knew it, something went south. So I asked the attendant like a nervous patient "is it bad?" and she replies "it is really good!". The gods of long haul travel have given me their blessings with an upgrade to the next cabin! The stars aligned again and all was good in the world. The cabin ended up being 70% empty, and I had a very nice lady Betsy sitting next to me on her first trip to London. After I bestowed upon her my vast knowledge and immense wisdom of all things London ... she moved seats. She swore it was to just get some sleep. :) I actually moved too to a free 3 seater for a fantastic 3.5 hours of sleep.

 

 

So I made it to London!

As you can see the weather is fantastic. The trip to Chennai starts in 5 hours. Which is the 2nd and final leg. the flight clocks in at 9.5 hours.

Time for more teas!