It’s the waiting I hate the most.
Packing takes a while to track down gear spread out across the hobbies of kayaking, cycling, and the Red Cross. However, I had everything packed a couple of weeks in advance except for a few things needing replacement. Packing early also meant plenty of time to identify, order, and receive needed replacement gear. I even packed the bicycle box a few days before the flight, reusing the box from our last trip from Munich. We carefully packed gear in the box to a precise 49 lbs. just below the 50 lb. limit.
Last night all that remained was packing the last bits of food and sealing up the bicycle. Linda had reserved an e-bike in Stockholm to avoid dealing with the bicycle after we separate (and get to ride an e-bike).
The taxi arrived early, with space to carry the bicycle. Reasonable traffic had us at the airport three hours before our intended flight.
We had carefully selected the flight with one ~4 hour layover. I prefer about a 4-hour layover for international flights–enough time for the bicycle to transfer even with delays, but not enough to have it lost in a forgotten corner. We would land in the morning in Stockholm, with plenty of time to find and assemble my bicycle. We would pick up Linda’s e-bike before cycling a short distance out of Stockholm before collapsing at our hotel to address our jet-lag induced sleep-deprivation.
The Delta scale weighed the bicycle at 32 lbs.! Then Delta measured the (totally regulation-size box) and determined the bicycle wouldn’t fit on the plane. Over an hour later we passed through security.
Instead of RDU > JFK > Stockholm, we’re flying RDU > Atlanta > Amsterdam > Stockholm. Their first proposed change had us on separate flights. Not much of a problem except we checked the bicycle on Linda’s ticket. Linda wasn’t a fan of risking wrangling the bicycle. Another flight had us landing in Stockholm at 6:30 pm–too late to pick up Linda’s e-bike.
We now have a 3-hour layover in Atlanta, and land only an half-hour or so later than our original plan in Stockholm. That said, our boarding passes only go as far as Amsterdam. That final transition we know occurs fast enough they added a “Rapid Transit” tag to the bicycle box, which doesn’t bode well!
We’re now waiting to board a fight, departing an hour earlier than our original flight. For now, less waiting!