Finally!

I have finally made it to England.
We were delayed 4 hours by mechanical and weather delays at our originating airport, which demolished our trip plan. We missed our connecting flight, and there was some concern whether we would be able to get another flight for 23 people from O'Hare to Heathrow.
Somehow, American Airlines was able to accommodate us. Why they had 23 empty seats was beyond us. Ken and I speculated that the rest of the plane was filled with a leper's convention or something.
Anyhow, the AA flight did not leave ORD until 910am the next morning, so we got to spend a lovely evening in the terminal.
First we had to transfer from one terminal to another, which in any normal airport would be a simple matter of catching a subway or a bus, but no, not in Chicago. We found a shuttle bus, but he didn't want to take all of us, and there was no later bus. Finally he agreed to take us if we all could find a seat. 23 Strangers sitting on each other's laps is a great way to build camaraderie.
Then we got to the gate for our AA flight, which was about 900 miles from the shuttle stop. There's no way we would have made the journey as scheduled on our original itinerary. Also, for reasons best known to Mayor Daley, there were no shops open at all. Nor were there any vending machines to get a snack or water. This was another great camaraderie building exercise, as we took it in turns to watch luggage and keep an eye on those crazy enough to sleep on the floor.
Eventually 5:30am rolled around, and we were able to get food, then we had to figure out how to get on the flight. We didn't have boarding passes, and the airline was spectacularly unhelpful on that front. A few of us got booked piecemeal, but the staff wasn't overly friendly about it, plus they helped start a rumor that the flight was seriously overbooked. This lead to a mad rush to get boarding passes, which was met with admirable stonewalling.
Meanwhile, Jan, Ken, and I burned up a zillion minutes on my phone card trying to get hold of our tour organizer to inform him of the delay. He never answered. Fortunately, the bus company leapt to the rescue. They arranged a rescue bus, and got hold of Maria, the tour guide who was to meet our flight, and got her to the airport at the correct time.
We had a very uneventful, if really long, flight to London. Smooth as glass right up until about 1000 feet from landing at LHR. That was bumpy, and the pilot must have caught a cross-ways gust of wind, because we swerved all over the runway for a few minutes. Very exciting stuff.
We cleared passport control in a breeze, and miraculously, all our bags made it to England with us. Nobody got lost, or held up in Customs and we were able to get to our hotel.
It looks, as Bryan put it, like it'd be more at home in East Berlin, but it's clean and efficient, unlike anything the East German Government ever built.
More to come, but now it's breakfast time.
P.S. God bless whoever thought up the idea of Free wi-fi. I'm lobby-blogging and loving it.