SEA-JFK-ACC

OK, I figured I’d try a blog this time to update you all my travels without doubling up work by writing a hard copy travel journal as well since I don’t have time and wireless connection is precious.  FYI, for  those you that don’t know, I’m in Ghana for two weeks, helping staff our executive team on retreat and site visits.

Heading into this trip, I was ecstatic at the propect of flying over to Ghana on British Airways business class, especially since my leg to London was on a 747 and my seat was in the upper deck.  But then 6 hours before we were due to leave, the travel desk called.  The baggage systems at Terminal 4 in London were completely broken and would not be fixed for at least 3 days.  This meant they were not accepting any “transfer luggage” unless you had a least a 4-hour layover.  We only had two hours.  We worked every angle we could to no avail – our only option to still get to Ghana for our Friday meetings was to cancel our BA flights and re-book.

How the mighty can fall so fast – we were re-booked on the Jet Blue red-eye to JFK (economy class since they don’t have any first class!), with an 8 hour layover, then on Delta JFK-Accra.   So sad.  Going through security at Sea-Tac we all got pulled over for an extra security screening since we had purchased one-way tickets six hoous before departure.  I barely slept as we winged our way east and landed in the frigid 21 dgrees of NYC, which we were not dressed for.  Rather than spending the whole day at the airport, our awesome travel folks had gotten us two rooms to hang out in at a nearby airport hotel, so we shivered in the taxi line, loaded all our gear in, and shoved off.  BTW, traveling with me were Shelby who some of you know, and two ops guys, CS & RC.  While I’d like you to assume that Shelby & I are so important the org felt we needed personal escorts, that’s sadly not true.  They just needed to get the Ghana at the same time as us to advance all the sites we’d be visiting with those who are actually important.

Once our taxi driver found our hotel (seriously, we got lost for a bit looking for an AIRPORT hotel), I enjoyed some french toast and then went to work out while Shelby napped.  5 hours flew by between breakfast, the gym and showering, so we were soon headed back to JFK, where we met up with our trip coordinators from Chicago:  Rick, Kristi & Carly.  They too had fallen prey to the BA dilemma, but since they were only coming from Chicago had just flown into JFK.  We kicked it in the Delta lounge until boarding and then got on for our second night flight in a row.  This time we were at least in business class, but it was no BA and we left nearly an hour late.  The seats did not fully recline and initially they forgot to take my dinner order, and then they forgot to bring me dinner.  Talk about salt in the wounds.  At least I got slightly more sleep than the night before.  I just had to keep remininding myself about where I’d be at the end of this horrendous journey.