Bill and I have officially started our journey to Lisbon and beyond as of 5:15 am. Jocelyn drove us to the airport bright and early and we checked in. Our baggage was so far over the weight limit it was almost comical. There we were shoving things wherever possible. I dragged the offending suitcase back to the scale and low and behold 49.5 lbs. Sweet! We dropped the bags off and headed to security. Now remember this is Washington DC so we removed most of our loose clothing and they scanned our entire bodies. First problem. For some reason I blew it up. I was almost strip searched with what remaining clothes I had managed to hold onto. They ran there lovely gloves hands up, down and all around. Disturbing! All good, I moved forward. Next our backpack was nabbed for so long we thought perhaps someone had stolen it. No, it was finally pushed along the line. An offending bag of peanuts and two granola bars were scanned for whatever and we were told we could pack up. Once again we moved on. The flight went pretty smooth I must say. We landed in Newark airport to start our almost 7 hour layover. That’s a long time but we walked the airport of the future. Every restaurant/store was equipped with tablets to order, pay etc. we walked trying to find a place to eat and figure out how things worked. We then decided we should catch the shuttle to the B side where we would board just in case 5 hours was not enough time. Dang it this really is the B side, as we actually had a waitress. Her attitude while not good at first warmed up with every Thank You using our best CDN manners. We ate then entertained ourselves with walks, cribbage, watching sewing videos and trying desperately to get our flights credited to our aeroplan accounts. No luck thus far. We look up and we only have an hour or so left to wait. The plane has arrived and excitement is building. It’s about to get real. Well hopefully the Aleve PM works and I sleep then it gets real. Otherwise you will find Bill and I wandering the streets of Lisbon at 5:30 am with a glazed look waiting to check in. We won’t be alone with any luck as we should be with at least a few other tourists who wish they could have booked tickets that didn’t involve 7 hours in Newark and arriving in the wee hours. Who cares, I’m sure some of that delicious sweet berry liquor our bicycle guide bought me last trip can be found somewhere. Stay tuned folks.