Journey Back to the USA

Trying to get some sleep at the airport

OK so we all knew the flight back to Louisiana was never going to be easy.  With 8 people, 10 pieces of checked baggage and enough hand luggage to bring across huge amounts of possessions.  Added to that I (Martin) had to go through an immigration check in as I was travelling on my newly acquired K1 visa,  it was always going to be a challenge.  However little did we know of how much of a challenge it would turn out to be.

So the initial getting to Heathrow wasn't too bad although the check in was a bit complicated as a lot of our stuff was cross packed in all the suitcases, (when you move abroad its cheaper to bring an extra suitcase and pay than to ship anything by about £100).

The airplane (American Airlines) was hardly modern and only had one screen per every 30 or so passengers so unlike other times we've flown you have no control over what to watch or when. For a ten hour flight this was pretty poor but somehow we managed it.  So we eventually get off the plane in Dallas and head for the dreaded immigration.

As previously mentioned Martin was travelling on a K1 (fiance) visa basically meaning that I was intending to marry and stay in the USA.  Although i had been a little nervous about the whole thing it actually wasn't too bad.  I handed over the unopened envelope and was escorted to another waiting room with approx 15 other people.  We all sat looking nervously at the window and after a few minutes my name was called.  After a quick chat with the immigration officer and a few forms being signed I was sent on my way to catch up with the rest of the family (Nan, Grandad, Kelly, Dawn and the children).  Checking my watch as I left the room I saw we had about an hour and a half to get across the airport to catch our next flight to Baton Rouge.

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and a huge storm caused many flights to be cancelled (including ours).  Now we had to queue to get a place another plane, nothing was flying to Baton Rogue so we opted for a flight to New Orleans (after arranging for Dawns dad to meet us there).

With 20 minutes to go before the New Orleans flight we were informed that this flight and every other flight had been cancelled till the next day.   More queuing and trying to get confirmed flights ended with Dawn and 2 of the children confirmed for the 7.30am and the rest of us on standby.

So now we attempted to settle down to sleep in the airport, the staff did supply camp beds and thin blankets but needless to say there was not a lot of sleep for anyone.

We managed to get Tyler onto the 7.30 flight with Dawn and the girls which left Nan, Grandad, Kelly and Martin now needing flights.  Kelly managed to get on a flight at about 10 (she had to fly on her own).  Nan, Grandad and Martin finally managed to board a flight at about 12.30.

All in all a nightmare of a journey, we had attempted to fly on no less than 7 flights which were either cancelled or full, we were so happy to get home.