Here There and Everywhere

British Isles: Leaving Pensacola

We were so relaxed Adventure Man and I, leaving at a very reasonable hour of 8:15 when our Pakistani friend would pick us up to take us to the airport. We really like this man; he sends a text early the morning of the day before departure to confirm he will pick us up at 0815.  He is never late. He is occasionally early. That’s just fine with him; we are ready.


We are flying United; we hardly ever fly with United. When we arrive at the airport, there is a large crowd checking in, but they are all at Delta and American, and there are clerks waiting to check people in, and no other United customers. Check-in is a breeze, we zip up to security, which is also a breeze – now we no longer need to take off our shoes. Our flight takes off on time, we arrive in Houston early, we have time for a sit down lunch.


We wanted Texas barbecue, but have you noticed, airports are changing. There are fewer and fewer people, fewer personal kinds of shops, almost all generic, and almost all self-serve and self-checkout using machines and credit cards. 


We look for a real restaurant with Texas BBQ, but all we find are these kiosk-ish kinds of places with BBQ that has clearly been prepared somewhere else. Se settle for an Oriental-ish kind of restaurant, where you read a menu by using a QR code, and you choose and pay and give the tip with no interaction with a human being. A woman served the drinks and orders, but would (maybe could not) not answer any questions for those for whom the technology was too confusing, or not working as they had been told.


I had one of the most expensive miso soups I had ever had, and shared some dumplings with AdventureMan, who had a great big bowl of soup, both delicious, but the dumplings were served with Thousand Island dressing, so jarring to the way things “ought” to be. 


Our flight boarded quickly, we took off on time, we were served dinner immediately, and I slept as best I could. I didn’t think I slept, but my Fitbit said I slept four and a half hours, so I may be wrong.

We have found that we don’t have the latitude we used to have when making travel plans. We learned on the Elbe trip that it makes a difference having airlines reservations made by Viking. When things go wrong, when flights cancel or weather intervenes, their travel people jump into action and take care of things, while those who have made their own arrangements struggle. But it means we sometimes fly airlines we don’t prefer on routes we find less desirable. This time, we just sighed and accepted it, and – had a perfect and comfortable flight, arrival and transfer experience.

December 30, 2025 - Posted by intlxpatr | British Isles Viking Jupiter, Travel | Houston