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An eight and a half hour flight to Chicago? Followed by a transfer to another plane and another 45 minute flight to the middle of Indiana? With an eighteen month old child? That's going to be a breeze right?
Actually it wasn't too bad. I don't know how we got this calm and cheerful baby and I am sure there is a storm coming. But with the help of my wife's mum and brother we got through it in more or less one piece.
Given the disruption to her freedom and her sleep it was amazing how Phoebe took all this in her stride. She slept for a couple of hours as we tried to navigate ourselves from our international flight to the domestic one to Fort Wayne and was then woken with a jolt as we had to take her out of her pram (they call it a stroller over here - it's like a whole new country, but it's much easier to learn the language) to go through security, which seemed mean, but you can't put it beyond IS to put a bomb inside a baby, so fair enough. The trip was stressful enough anyway without considering the baby so I felt pleased for us (and the other passengers on our flights) that Phoebe didn't make things too much more difficult.
I managed to watch 10 Cloverfield Lane, which I enjoyed a lot and half watch Hail Caesar which was nearly good and had lots going for it, but somehow fell short. But that is judging it by the high standards of a Coen Brothers film.
In Chicago as we struggled to find the right terminal for domestic flights - my in-laws insisting we just went upstairs, me suspecting (correctly, because I am the best) that we had to go to a separate terminal - we got in a lift, my wife with the baby and my mother-in-law with a trolley and went up to the third floor (my brother-in-law) had to wait for the next lift). I got out of the lift, expecting them to follow me, walked a few steps and realised we were indeed in international departures (I win). I turned round to tell them but my wife and mother-in-law and daughter were nowhere to be seen. They had disappeared into thin air. There was nowhere they could have gone. Had they been told they were on the wrong floor and just got back in the lift? But then why didn't they call me. I was only feet away. I wondered if the lift had had two exits and walked round to see. But there was no sign. I went down the escalator to confirm that we needed to be on level 2 and not 3 and to see if my family were there. But they weren't and they didn't show up. I texted them, but got no response. Had they disappeared? Had I gone through some kind of wormhole in time or space? Where the Hell were they?
I was already planning my new life when I went back up to the third floor and saw the rest of my family standing there looking around trying to work out where to go (not sure they'd actually missed me at this point). It turned out that they hadn't got out of the lift in time and the doors had shut, taking them back down to ground level. I suppose that was a more obvious explanation. But then who has ever failed to get out of a lift in time? No wonder I was confused. Maybe I should have been helping with the luggage.
To be fair I did then carry two suit cases on to the train and around the correct terminal. I am only slightly useless.
We were picked up at the airport by my wife's aunty and driven for an hour to Warsaw, Indiana where we'll be staying for the next week or so. It's sort of the middle of nowhere and in some ways an unusual holiday destination, but I am quite looking forward to exploring the real America and eating junk food. At least we will get to see what the people who are voting for Trump are really like.
Today was the first tricky day to get through without a drink, partly because it's fun to get drunk on a flight, but also exhausted at Chicago airport a beer might have slipped down nicely! I resisted for now. Having seen the selection of food emporiums on the drive from the airport my guess is that it's going to be tough to eat very healthily while I am here, but we will see.
All pretty exhausted from our 6am start and extra six hours in the day, we just got to the hotel and got everyone into bed and hoped for the best.
