Jay drove us to LA airport. We checked in at 4:30 PM then the three of us went up to the Host International Restaurant for a glass of wine. Our British Airways flight number 282M left at 6:30 PM enroute to Heathrow airport in London. Lucky to have our tickets for plane and cruise after our travel agency closed its doors without notifying us. Fortunately I called Royal Cruise Line in San Francisco just before they mailed our “paid in full documents” to the agency. Guess he would have had a fine time on our vacation.

Our seatmate, Ray, said his son was a supervisor of air traffic controllers at LAX. He was of Latin descent and had led an interesting life. His second wife was a stunt actress in the movies. She was the one in the wheelchair who was pushed downhill in the Alfred Hitchcock film. She was also injured in the film “How the West Was Won,” being dragged along by the train in that scene. Ray thought Jim was a builder because his hands were cut from his recent outdoor chores. Ray took a swig from his Maalox bottle after every food serving and lost the cap once, making it necessary to take his seat apart.

Jim and I played games of stones (dice) and pinochle but were unable to get any sleep during the 10 hour flight on the 747.