{"id":278,"date":"2016-03-29T02:58:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T02:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wordpress\/?p=278"},"modified":"2016-03-29T02:58:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T02:58:08","slug":"departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/2016\/03\/29\/departure\/","title":{"rendered":"Departure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The day had arrived. \u00a0The start of our two week adventure to Europe. \u00a0We got up early, considering that we were on vacation, to prepare to catch a 10 AM bus from Madison to O’Hare. After several nights of frantic packing and planning we still felt unprepared, in spite of Ethan’s binders full of flight plans, tickets, maps, and many other necessities (he really is quite the organized planner). \u00a0Our flight was scheduled to depart from O’Hare airport at 4 PM. \u00a0We had a 10 AM bus ride lined up to take us from Madison to O’Hare (I had phoned ahead 48 hours in advance to make sure the bus had the lift and accessibility accommodations ready to go).<\/p>\n

I had called for a cab to take us to the bus stop on campus, though the distance would normally be easily walked, but with all of the luggage and my old chair, the Tank, ready to roll down the streets of London once more, were much more easily handled via a short cab ride. \u00a0Having arrived at the bus stop early, Ethan and I decided to grab some\u00a0coffee at the cafe across the street. \u00a0As we sat sipping our steaming beverages, I asked Ethan how much time until the bus arrived. \u00a0It was at that point that we both realized that we had no way of telling the time. \u00a0We had decided to leave our phones behind, as they would be of little use abroad, and neither of us had a watch. \u00a0Frantically Ethan dashed\u00a0to the adjacent Walgreen’s to find\u00a0a cheap, but usable, watch. \u00a0This sort of omission often leaves you wondering what else you may have forgotten, but upon checking we had the essentials: passports, tickets, wheelchair charger, etc.<\/p>\n

The bus ride was rather uneventful. \u00a0The Illinois countryside rolled by as we rode into the outskirts of Chicago. \u00a0We arrived at the airport around 1 PM, and patiently waited for our flight, wandering around the airport some until closer to 3. \u00a0We decided to have lunch at a Chicago style Hot Dog restaurant. \u00a0Of course, I wound up making a mess of my shirt (when you can barely lift the dog to your mouth, let alone even open your mouth that wide, eating becomes a bit of a chore). \u00a0Why is it that the tastiest things are the most messy?<\/p>\n

The flight loading started a bit behind schedule (which is common for international flights at O’Hare). \u00a0The airline staff assured us that we’d make up the time mid flight and would arrive in London on time (I’ve always wondered how that works out). \u00a0I was the first to be seated on the plane. \u00a0Ethan and the staff lifted me into a tiny wheelchair designed to just barely fit down the aisles, and rolled me to the assigned seat. \u00a0As a side note, I had picked seats at the front of coach, to give Ethan, who is 6′ 3″, plenty of leg room, as well as room to maneuver around while helping me.<\/p>\n

The flight went smoothly. \u00a0I had asked the flight staff for multiple pillows to sit on, as anything short of my thick wheelchair cushion becomes painful after an hour, and this was going to be an 8 hour flight. \u00a0Even so, Ethan had to keep helping me re-position every hour or so.<\/p>\n

We arrived in London around 6 AM London time, and had a cab waiting to take us to the hotel. \u00a0We were staying at the Radison Blu Portman, near the Kensington Palace Gardens. \u00a0It was a nice hotel and a great scenic location. \u00a0For a fun bit of trivia, Kensington Palace was the royal palace and residence of the British royal family prior to the construction of Buckingham Palace, and is still used on occasion by the royal family.<\/p>\n

\"Kensington<\/a>
Kensington Gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kensington<\/a>
Kensington Palace Gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Upon checking in and unpacking we came to a rather unpleasant surprise. \u00a0The\u00a0international outlet converters we had brought along didn’t fit the three prong plug of my wheelchair charger.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The day had arrived. \u00a0The start of our two week adventure to Europe. \u00a0We got up early, considering that we were on vacation, to prepare to catch a 10 AM bus from Madison to O’Hare. After several nights of frantic packing and planning we still felt unprepared, in spite of Ethan’s binders full of flight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","category-trips"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stayingfrosty.net\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}