I'm going to put my 2024 Camino Story on my Blog for you all to enjoy :
I put the story of my first day in Spain on the blog as soon as I returned home and then life interfered !
But...today I'm going to add my handwritten Blog to my my Computer Blog.
May 22nd, 2024
Jim drove me to LAX at 2 pm. Iberia was due to arrive and I would board the plane for a long flight to Madrid overnight.
It was difficult to find the departure gate and so I spent several hours in the waiting area meeting new people. I continued to get up and check the boards for updated information on the departure gate. On one of these checks I was not looking where I was walking when I returned to my seat and suddenly I was flying through the air over a table that was about 12 inches high. I had hit both legs midway between the ankle and knee. Everyone came running to offer help. But I said "NO" I'm okay...as the lumps on my legs began to rise! But...fortunately ; within a few days.... the legs were ok as the lumps went away.
I finally found the gate number from a clerk in one of the shops in our area of the airport. So I moved to that area and began a long wait for the the plane to arrive from Spain. Yes; we were scheduled to fly to Spain on the same plane that my son-in-law was returning on. Eventually it arrived and we boarded the plane... about 300 of us... including many families with children. (I never saw my son-in-law as they took them off at a different gate. )
Once everyone was seated they took the plane out on a runway and there we sat for about four hours before they finally announced that the plane had a problem and we were going back to the gate . The good news is that they kept the air conditioning on the whole time BUT no water or food was ever offered. The plane did not move....they off loaded us and we boarded buses for the trip back to the terminal. After several hours of standing in line we were finally given a local hotel to go to for the night; we still had no clue when we would be on an airplane....It was after midnight before we got to the very nice hotel. Some food was provided and off to bed.
MAY 23rd (United States)
Last night was a nightmare.... But I was assigned to the Hilton Hotel and it was very nice. I did meet a lovely family from Riverside and they added me to their group as we went together to the Hilton Hotel.
Early this morning I returned to the International Terminal where I discovered that the Iberia Terminal would not be open for assistance and tickets until the afternoon. Several of us were talking about the situation when a stranger joined the group and told us that we should check American Airlines as they sometimes worked with Iberia when they had issues with flights.
I immediately rushed next door to American Airlines Terminal, I found an employee that was not busy and asked her to put my name in the computer to see if I possibly had a ticket that I was not aware of.
