British Airways were fantastic and looked after Sophia well as she deteriorated, sore head and more vomiting. It was a short flight though and we landed after less than an hour. At Heathrow they provided a wheelchair and we wheeled Sophia out.
We had a pre-booked taxi but as we entered the arrivals lounge no one was waiting. A friendly porter offered to lend us his phone and we rang and were told to meet up on Level 3 where the taxi was waiting. Of course when we got there they weren't and we rang again, 5 minutes later. It was a seven seater and when he saw us he didn't look happy. We ignored him and started packing. It fitted in, with one big bag on me otherwise good to go.
The Travel Lodge was clean and fantastic. By the time we got there it was straight to bed 10pm. Sophia was quite bad. A very nice English guy noticed me carrying her and offered to give her some medicine as he also had his family there. You can't get enough of the English.
It was getting on now so we went straight through departures etc. What a process and of course as in Manchester two of our hand luggage bags didn't pass and needed to be opened. We went through to the main departures lounge about 11.30am and had a little lunch. It was getting late and we headed off to the gate. On the way I saw a board which said gate closing so we took off. Julia, Sophia and I were there at the gate but Holly and Sue were no where to be seen and we could see a long way down the corridor. I ran back down and worked out where they had gone the wrong way. I'm not sure why they had all boarded the plane so early as we were still well on time.
Anyway the irony was that there was some sort of problem with the plane and we had to wait an extra hour before departing anyway. There was also a fault with the entertainment and they needed to reboot the system which took over two hours.
It took two hours before I began to feel sick. It was like your head was expanding but your skull wasn't. Came on real quick and I found myself in real agony. Of course the cabin crew initially got really concerned and lay me down in the rear, gave me oxygen and did various checks. Once they established I just had some sort of flu they wanted me back into my seat, oh great. All I wanted to do was sleep. I suffered for the next 8 hours.
The Virgin cabin crew were concerned that the plane would be put into quarantine for 5 hours so wanted me to walk through customs to avert customs concerns. I had asked for a wheel chair and for someone to help with the luggage and they agreed. In preparation I drank and ate a little which brought on the intended vomit and I immediately felt temporarily better. As soon as we got to the exit of the plane they decided they could not help at all and left us to it. Virgin are what I would call highly unprofessional. The worst thing was as I struggled along the corridors towards customs carrying two big bags they walked past chattering away. Won't use them again.
I had heard bad stories about US customs staff but these guys were fantastic, friendly helpful and on the ball. After a short time one of the officers pushed us onto a short track queue as Holly was literally falling asleep. By now it was 12.30am UK time. Even the Budget Rental staff were fantastic. It wasn't to long before we were at the car.
I had to drop three of our biggest bags in San Francisco at the hostel we will be staying at on our last nights in the US. The traffic was quite bad as it was near peak hour and it took over an hour for the return journey. We all packed into the car and headed to Modesto. So by 9pm US time and 5am UK time we arrived at our accommodation. Time for some rest.
Ok so after reading this more closely I realise it was you being sick Henry. Hope Sue & the other 2 girls manage to avoid succumbing. Hand sanitiser all the way!!
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