London

Started: 2002-09-01 17:00:47

Submitted: 2002-09-01 17:18:17

Visibility: World-readable

I don't want to go to London,
I told you I don't care,
I don't want to go to London,
To live there

Yesterday afternoon, we managed to stuff two of Bethany's suitcases, her snowboard, and Dad's excellent Kelty softframe daypack (I love that pack!) into C-3PO and headed down to DIA. Bethany checked in to British Airlines flight 2018, direct from Denver to London (Gatwick), and even managed to get her snowboard checked without incurring a US$103 excess baggage charge. (I played a small but important role, carrying it away from the check-in counter when the check-in person informed her that she would be charged.) We took Bethany to the Concourse A security screening checkpoint and said goodbye. The Federal rent-a-cops wouldn't let Mom take a picture of Bethany going through security, but they didn't seem to mind pictures of us in the foreground in front of security. (I couldn't help but remember the scene in Ronin where Sam and Deirdre manage to get pictures of the group carrying the mysterious package by posing as tourists snapping pictures.

Bethany (occasionally referred to as "The Slayer" by another member of the former Content Solutions) successfully cleared security and disappeared into the bridge across the tarmac to the concourse. Not wishing to mention the word "terrorist" in an airport, I resorted to single-letter abbreviations: "The Federal rent-a-cops are afraid that a T might analyze a picture of the security checkpoint, find a weakness, figure out how to exploit it, and sneak past a B." When we returned to C-3PO, we saw newer Honda Odyssey parked across from it with a larger H, so we added that letter to our vocabulary: "A T might be tempted to put a B in an H and drive it too close to the terminal." (I'm still mystified what exactly the feds expect to accomplish by blocking off parking space close to the terminal.)

Bethany's plane landed in London some time around 0800 London time. She had fourteen hours or so to wander around London before catching another flight to Geneva, Switzerland, where she'll cross the border into France (which she's probably doing at this exact minute) and head to the Adventist school where she'll be spending the next school year, learning French and maybe taking a few pseudo-useful classes on the side.