June 5, 2011 - Sunday

I’m up before sane people so I can be out the way when everyone else is scurrying around, getting ready for our six o’clock scheduled departure.  Of course by the time we are actually on the road it is more like six thirty;  but our flight doesn’t leave until nine, so no worries.  There are six of us so Steven and Jarrett have been “volunteered” to taxi us in their cars.  I feel as though I’ve known them most of their lives, too, like Ben and Andy.  Randy is a slightly newer addition to our family, since he came into our lives with Nick;  but we’re all family now!

It works out that all the younger generation is riding in Jarrett’s car, with the “grups” riding with Steven.  We’ve been on the road about twenty minutes when Ginger asks Nick is he has his passport.  He knows Ginger is kidding because he asked her about it last night.  Turns out she hadn’t heard him and in fact his passport is not with any of us. 

Steven is an incredible driver!  We get off the interstate at the next exit, head back home, stop for gas, retrieve the passport and get to the airport by 7:45!!  And he didn’t even get a ticket!

The guys told us they had no trouble using the kiosk to check in, so we head straight for it.  Yea, well, that doesn’t work for us!  We get all the way to the end of the check-in procedure; the machine has read everyone’s passports and found our itinerary and everything;  the attendant has inserted her card and made a visual check of the passports; it’s all over but the shouting when the darn thing says, “No, no, no, that will never do!” or words to that effect!

The lady sends us to Gate 65, behind about a million other people with problems.  It’s now well after 8:00 and we haven’t even been through security!  After five or ten minutes, the same lady comes by and takes us to a different station where we get our boarding passes in just a few minutes and we head out.

Security it pretty easy and we get to the gate where the guys are waiting, wondering if they will be alone in Turkey!  We swap our bags around so that everyone once again has his own, since they were mixed up in the two trunks.  They haven’t even started to board and we have a moment to sit, breathe and count our blessings!

The flight from Atlanta to LaGuardia is a bit bumpy but other wise uneventful.  We had to leave our bags as the plane’s entrance as we boarded, so now we have to retrieve them and find our way to a taxi stand.  Easily done, except that New York has stairs where we would expect escalators.  Good thing we packed light!

We fit in two taxis and our driver asks if we are paying with cash or credit.  When Nick says cash, they just agree on a price and the driver doesn’t turn on his meter.  Good thing we did our homework and know about what the fare should be! (It’s about $35 from LaGuardia to JFK, if you ever need to know!)  Ben’s driver hollers at him before he pulls away and says Ben overpaid him!  He returns the overage!  Who ever heard of such a thing!  A cabbie!  In New York!!

Once in JFK we locate Turkish Air and see that the ticketing window won’t be open for another forty-five minutes, so we go in search of food.  (Those hard-boiled eggs that sounded like such a good idea last night, didn’t sell well this morning!)  We find a Korean hot dog stand that sells bulgogi hot dogs which were voted New York City’s Best Hot Dog last year!  Four of us order that, while Ben and Randy go for the kimchi dog!  I get one bite before Ginger asks us to pose for a picture.  Well, she doesn’t have her battery in, so I hop up to do the honors, dumping my gorgeous, yummy, exotic dog on the floor!  GROAN!  Nick gallantly gets me another and says that the girl at the counter gave us the employee discount!  I love New York!  

After lunch we head back to Turkish Air and think we are first in line.  It takes a while to realize that the real line is around the corner!  In the meantime, though, we meet a charming Nigerian man who is going home and a couple of ladies who are going through Istanbul on their way to Africa with baby formula and tee shirts to donate.

The poor little girl at the ticket counter is fighting with her remarkably slow computer system.  She says that if it keeps going down she will have to do everything by hand, including tagging baggage and printing boarding passes!  It takes a long time, but our bags are finally tagged and our boarding passes printed.  We take our bags to the x-ray machine and wave them good by!  Security has short lines and I breeze through, but Ginger’s quart bag of liquids is so full that they have to hand check it!  Even with that we get through before the guys!

Now that everyone is secure, we can go on to our gate and settle in for the next couple of hours, ‘til our flight boards.  There is supposed to be a WiFi signal, but I can’t connect to it, so I work on this in Word, to copy/paste later into the blogspot.  There are electrical outlets nearby so I plug in and Nick uses his USB to connect his iPad to me and we both get a charge out of it.  (sorry!  Fatigue setting in!)

Things that make you go, “Hmmm”.  Ginger just pointed out to me that there are three pilots at our Turkish Air gate pouring over a map.  Should we be worried??

Boarding was to have begun at four and it isn't much later than that when the first-class passengers are summoned forth!  We are sitting three rows from the back of this very large plane with its three sets of three seats across.  I've bargained for the window seat, so I have to take enough pictures to justify the exchange!  Here's a shot of NYC as we were taking off.

We aren't in the air very long before we are given  drinks and a snack.  No peanuts for Turkish Air!

The seat backs all contain entertainment units similar to those we enjoyed on our trip to Japan.  there is an almost endless choice of movies along with music and information channels.

Shortly after our snacks, dinner appears with a choice of chicken or pasta as the main entree.  Can you guess which one I chose?  Here's a hint!

After dipping into a couple of movies, I finally settle on "Red" with Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman.  It is fun and I almost miss sunset!  But not quite!  Somewhere along the line Sunday blends into Monday, so I'll stop here and pick up later.