Flights, Fajitas and Fiestas - San Antonio, Texas July 2017 - Day 1

[BONZO]

Flights, Fajitas and Fiestas

Cast:

Alison – early fifties, with wanderlust (but insists on travelling in comfort and style)
Me – Shaun, mid fifties, also with wanderlust (used to be happy to travel anyhow but the comfort and style option is more appealing now!)

Link to trip report index:

Here

Saturday 15th July

This part really fits into the pre trip report, but we always feel like the holiday starts as soon as we finish work on the Friday! As we were due to start our travel on Sunday we had most of the weekend to get prepared although we were travelling hand luggage only as is our preferred way of travelling when possible. We were out and about late afternoon on the Saturday when I got a puncture. No worries I thought, quick swap to the spare - which is a space saver tyre, so not ideal but good enough to get us out of the shopping centre we were parked up and anyway, tyre shops are open until 6pm aren’t they? No – 5pm on a Saturday! Panic!

A quick search by Alison on Google showed a tyre place in the back of beyond on an industrial estate that closed at 6pm so off we went and luckily they stayed open for us even though we arrived just at 5.58pm! I’m sure their hearts sunk when they saw us drive in! They said they’d take £5 for the repair but I only had a £10 note so I told them to keep the change – we were just very relieved as we had a drive to Heathrow the following morning!

Sunday 16th July

I took the Rusty for a walk while Alison finished off the last of the packing before we set off to the local kennels to drop him off. He appeared to be happy enough to go with the kennel staff to his digs.

We had what we’d refer to as an easy M25 trip - spots of hold ups here and there but nothing significant. We parked in Heathrow Business parking this time round as our preferred POD parking seemed excessively expensive (unsurprisingly really, for a week-long stay). We didn’t have to wait for a shuttle bus as there were several parked up and ready to go. They are small mini vans – new and smartly decked out, leather seats etc.

After arriving at the terminal we made our way through the First Wing (courtesy of our gold cards!), had our boarding passes checked and sped through security without any issues.

As we approached the lounge my heart leapt as a sign announced that it was the BA Gin Festival with about 12 different gins and assorted mixers. From addled memory this consisted of Sipsmith’s, Bulldog, Gvine, Silent Pool, Elephant, Thomas Dakin, Caorunn, Whitley Neil, 6 O’clock and Hendricks amongst others.






Well, it seemed rude not to try ones that I hadn’t had before, some were ok and others very good but I kind of overindulged a bit and can’t remember which was which although time did pass very quickly. We had some food and drink and I neglected to take any photos at all of my food for some reason but Alison took a photo of her cake and scone, jam and cream.



We wandered down to the gate (unluckily gate A4 – a bus transfer gate) for our first flight of the trip - to Manchester as our “positioning flight”. It was one of the golden planes, decorated ready for the 2012 Olympics I think.



We settled down in row 1 and I had a lovely plate of cold meat, cheese and scotch egg washed down with some red wine, with Alison having the sandwich option and a gin and tonic. I just had enough time before touchdown to finish the food and drink although it was touch and go. We were only in the air for about 30 minutes!








We arrived at the airport and checked the directions we were given as to the position of the courtesy coach to take us to the hotel. We checked out the relevant area only to find a couple of huge coaches which couldn’t possibly be the one unless there was a massive tour party arriving. I approached one of the drivers just in case but politely declined his offer of going to Scarborough. Nothing against the seaside resort, just wanted to get to the hotel where we were booked in for the night!

Alison rang the hotel and after a short period of time our mini bus arrived and whisked us off to the Clayton Hotel Manchester Airport. The hotel room was spacious enough with a lovely view of the train station and free wi-fi available which was a real bonus.



Before going to Manchester I’d managed to touch base with an old friend, Petrina, who I hadn’t seen for donkey’s years. We keep in touch each year by Christmas card and swap Round Robins letting each other know how our respective families are getting on but that’s about it. I’d contacted her a couple of weeks previously and we’d arranged to meet up in the evening.

After we had got ready for the evening I rang Petrina a couple of times who was having trouble locating the hotel. Eventually she managed to find us as it was a bit tricky navigating the roads around the airport. We hopped in her car and chatted away catching up on everything that had happened in our lives over the years.

She drove us into to central Manchester and had a fantastic meal at Sapporo in Liverpool Road. Amazing! The set up here is pretty much the same as Tepan Edo in Epcot with food cooked on the hot plate in front of us flying food and lightly fried potatoes being thrown around into people’s mouths. Great fun – and the food was great!







We talked and drank throughout the evening and vowed to catch up again but not to leave things for so long until the next time which we agreed to do, time will tell.

Petrina dropped us back at hotel where we said our goodbyes and we crashed for the night.

[Melbatb]

Glad you got the puncture fixed si quickly!

Great first day! Look forward to hearing about the rest!

[Pussycat Doll]

Looking forward to more, sounds like a great pre travel say although I know you were travelling!

[Glee Fan]

What fantastic timing to be there at the same time as the Gin festival!