Wednesday 24th July

We begin our summer holiday with an overnight train journey to London, arriving at 5:15am. A quick transfer to Heathrow airport, through check-in and passport control, and we’re ready for a wake-up coffee.

The flight across the Atlantic is smooth and trouble-free; two Gerard Butler films ~ Chasing Mavericks and Olympus Has Fallen ~ make the flight a little less tedious!

I wear my wonderfully fetching flight stockings, but my foot has become quite swollen. I need to find somewhere to sit and elevate it.

We find our departure gate at Charlotte Douglas airport and settle down to wait for our onward flight to Myrtle Beach. Suddenly the air is filled with the ear-splitting sound of dozens of fire alarms!

The moving walkway is burning, and giving off dense smoke. Steel shutters are lowered, and the concourse is in shutdown! New planes arrive, disgourge their passengers, but they have nowhere to go. Seemingly trapped! Plus, a storm approaches, with lightning preventing the travellers from transiting to coaches to bus them to other parts of the airport. Chaos ensues!

Eventually we are allowed to leave the airport and climb up the ladder to our plane. However, as soon as we sit down we are told we are not going anywhere because of the lightning. We remain in limbo for another hour! When we do finally take off, it is dark, raining, lightning, and very bumpy. Yikes.

Some forty minutes later we land in Myrtle Beach. We collect our hire car, drive to the hotel, a quick shower to wash away the grime of two days travel, and then a very welcome sleep zzzzzzz.