Day 1 – Getting There

Welcome to the Distinctly Bronze European Tour Travelblog. Through these writings I hope to bring you along on our adventures as 38 of us make our through Scotland, England, and France. Before I begin, I need to provide a little background about our trip. Our group of 38 includes 29 ringers, 1 director and 8 others along for the ride. The 29 ringers have been working independently these past several months on Distinctly Bronze repertoire. We will not ring together until we arrive in Dunblane, Scotland. Then, we will have about 2 days of rehearsal before our first concert. We will be ringing one 7-octave and one 5-octave set of bells, and one 7-octave and one 3-octave set of chimes. All but 3-octaves of chimes were procured for the group’s use through the amazing efforts of Keith Rowland. Keith also found us rehearsal space in a school in Dunblane. The 3-octave set of chimes comes from Greenhills Community Church Presbyterian in Cincinnati, OH, where I direct the bell choir. Day 1 started off with me hauling my luggage, which includes that 3-octave set of chimes packed in a 24x24x24 box weighing just under 50 lbs. Checking in bags went well – the agent did not charge me any additional fees for my box of chimes and I was on my way to security. Just as entered the back of what appeared to be very long line when I heard my name being called back to the Continental ticketing counter. SO, out of line, back up the long escalator to the agent who had checked my bags to find out she had made a mistake and additional fees were required. No problem – credit card was presented, fees paid, and I was headed back down that long escalator to find that the already long line had gotten even longer. Somehow I found myself in the middle of 25 teenage girls and their chaperones from a high school in Louisville, KY who were leaving on 9-day tour of Italy and Greece. The line moved quickly as I chatted with this group. As I told them about our trip, they were very excited to tell me that they have a bell choir at their school and they love the bells. Some around me even played in the choir. They did not know if their director is a member of AGEHR, but promised me they would find out. I arrived at my gate for my flight to Newark, where I would meet up with the rest of the group for our flight to Glasgow, to discover that the flight had been delayed one hour because our plane was late getting to Cincinnati from Newark. It is now 10:30 AM and I should have realized then just how long “getting there” was going to take. The flight to Newark departed as scheduled (actually re-scheduled) by noon and I arrived in Newark at 2:30. I made my way over to the international terminal and settled in for what should have been a 5-hour wait for the flight to Glasgow. One of my responsibilities in Newark was to make sure that everyone in the group made it on the flight. So, I had my check list ready and kept my eyes open for people who looked like bellringers and the few on the trip that I have already met, hoping they could help me identify the others. Slowly the group members started to gather, each recognizing someone else and calling them over to join us (me checking them off my list as they arrived). While this was happening, I was checking e-mail on by Treo phone and receiving phone calls from Brenda at Witte with updates. One of the updates was the news that our planned rehearsal for the next 3 days was not going to work with the school’s schedule. They needed us out by 4:00 PM each day and we had planned to rehearse in the evenings as well. So, I sent an e-mail to Sharon Schmidt and David Davidson who were already in Dunblane with Keith and Wendy Rowland, letting them know of this snag in our plans. I soon heard back from Sharon via a call to my cell phone that they were going to try to get to the school today and work something out. By 6:30 PM we had all but 9 of our group gathered at the gate for our flight that was supposed to depart by 7:45 PM. At this time, I received a phone call from Cindy at Witte travel informing me that all flights coming into Newark were being delayed and that 8 of the missing members would probably not make our flight. No worries though, there was another flight at 10:00 PM that they should be able to get and meet up with us in Scotland. The 9th would be coming a day later because she was still waiting for her passport to arrive by Fedex. 7:10 PM – boarding begins for Flight 16 to Glasgow. By 7:30 PM, everyone is boarded and the doors are shut. 7:35PM, the pilot greets us from the cockpit and tells us that he’s been hearing over the radio that there is some delay getting off the ground so he is going to wait at the gait until he knows more. 8:00 PM, we push back from the gate and seem to be on our way. 8:05 PM, we are sitting on the runway – the pilot comes on again and says we are going to be delayed about 30 minutes as a backlog of planes takes off. We aren’t moving. 8:30 PM, still sitting. Turns out the delay maybe a little longer than expected, they’ve moved us into an area called the “ball field” (because it used to be a baseball field) and we could be there for a long time – feel free to use the rest room, turn your cell phones back on (that is never a good sign). 8:35PM, change of plans, air traffic control has now told us to move to one of the runways – back in your seats. 9:15PM , still on the runway, no idea when we will move, but they’re going to turn off the engines to conserve fuel. They start the in-flight entertainment – “The New Adventures of Old Christine” – and tell us we can use the restroom if necessary. We get water and a small bag of peanuts. 10:00 PM, still no change, the pilot comes on and says he is going to start one engine to support the air conditioning. 10:30 PM – the engine won’t start, we are going to have to be moved somewhere that maintenance can take a look at it. I e-mail Sharon & Keith to let them know our status. 11:00 PM – we still haven’t moved – the pilot wanted to try starting the engine a few more times – still not working. We are going to return to the gate. 11:15PM – we arrive at the gate – but must stay on the plan while they try to determine what’s wrong with the engine. Everyone is up and walking up and down the aisles at this point. Our group is spread out all over – so we’re moving back and forth talking. Some are able to sleep through all this – but not many. 12:00 AM – they’ve found the problem – its fixed, Just 15 minutes to top off the fuel and we’ll be on our way. 12:15 AM – New York Port Authority has shut down ramp service because of lightening in the area – we can’t get fuel yet. But, the lightening now seems to have passed, so we should be moving soon – another 15 minutes. Someone behind me has a birthday – some of our group is singing happy birthday to them. Several minutes later, the flight crew all walk past me and sing happy birthday too. 12:30 AM – Still at the gate. By now everyone is back in their seats and more are sleeping. I’ve been able to confirm with the gate agent that our missing 8 made it on the 10:00 PM flight (which just took off – so they will end up beating us there). 12:45 AM – We push back from the gate again and get in the long line of planes still waiting to take off. No word from the cockpit about where we are in that line. 1:30 AM – 6 hours after boarding the plane – we finally take off and are on our way to Glasgow. 6:08 AM – I am typing this blog. We got some dinner at about 2:00 AM and most of the plane is asleep. They should be waking everyone soon for breakfast. The sun has been up outside the plane for a long time. Thoughts going through my head at this moment… Will the 8 on what was supposed to be the later flight, realize they have arrived before us and that they no longer have to take the train to Dunblane – they can ride the bus with us. Did Sharon & Keith get my e-mail about the delay? I didn’t have a chance to e-mail again – so they don’t know it was another 4 hours after that e-mail before we took off. How are we going to have a rehearsal tonight just 3 hours after we finally land in Glasgow? I hope the hotel has comfortable beds! I need to start thinking in Glasgow time which is 5 hours ahead. So it is now 11:17 AM. How much longer till we land?? More to come from the ground....