Isabella and Morgane on the plane to San Juan
Everyone got up on time and was dressed and ready when the limo got to the house. The thermometer read -12C at our house as we talked out with our luggage to the limo. The trip down to Logan was uneventful. There was barely any traffic. We arrived shortly after 5 in the morning and found the airport terminal in a mess of people going to all different places. It took us a while to find our line; they had sectioned things off by destination. We saw Thierry and Brigitte and were then introduced to Susan, Naveed and Barry. They were all ahead of us in the line. For a while the line did not move much. Even though we did not bring much clothes with us to the terminal, we quickly got very hot. We got through check-in by 6:10 and had plenty of time to get to our gate. During the first flight we rearranged the kids a little bit so that the boys were able to sit with each other and Isabella could sit with Morgane.
Isabella and Morgane on the plane to San Juan
We made a brief stop-over in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and adjusted our clocks for the one hour time difference. You could feel the temperature difference as we stepped off the plane. This was certainly not New Hampshire. Some of us changed clothes or at least pealed off a few layers. The kids jumped around and chased each other, all were completely full of energy. I called Neco Engines up in Manchester to confirm that they had indeed gotten my message about the broken transmission in my Ford Crown Victoria, that was now sitting in our driveway. They had and were going to pick it up.
Our next hop was with a smaller turbo prop to Guadeloupe. The flight was about 1 1/2 hour and was pleasant. The flight ended up being a bit late arriving in Point-a-Pitre. This worked out well for us because by dad's plane from Paris was a bit early. So as we walked into the luggage area the passengers from this plane, which must have been very large, started to pour into the luggage area too. Fortunately dad and Sophy only had a small suitcase so they were ready to exit with us within a few minutes. I tried to activate my GSM phone but it was not able to pick up a provider; perhaps the local provider did not want to let me register there?
The car rental place, Pro-Rent, had their main office quite a distance from the airport. You had to call a local phone number at the airport to get a little shuttle ride. All four drivers (myself, Thierry, dad and Susan) rode over to their office and did the paperwork. It took more than a while. We decided to drive in a convoy back to the airport where the others were waiting. Within a few seconds I lost my dad and decided to pull over by the side to collect up everyone. Within 30 seconds a work truck cut me off and scraped my left front panels as I was parked. I could hear the truck's big bumper rip against the car. I hoped it had not also taken out a head-light. I honked at the driver of the truck who stopped. Fortunately this was mainly superficial scrapes. But still. We haggled for a long while. I insisted that we drive back to the car rental place and deal with things there. They insisted that they had work to do and did not want to go there. So, in the end, we wrote down a "constat" outlining the accident. I had to do that for the insurance company and for the rental place too. The truck driver indicated on the form that I had been illegally parked, whereupon Thierry pointed out that that was not a reason to scrape the car. Either way, it took a long time to get the form filled out. On top of this we had lost my dad. He probably passed me as I was blocked by the truck...
The truck that hit Per's car.
We had planned to be away for 30 minutes but it took two hours to get the cars and deal with the accident. My dad had somehow found the airport. Those who waited did not seem too unhappy. We loaded things into the cars and hit the road. It takes about 30-40 minutes to go up to Vernou and Domain de la Glaciere.
When we arrived, Jean-Jacques was waiting with Pepita and their two children. We received a warm welcome. We had asked Pepita in advance to order up some local food from a restaurant that could be picked up on our first night. That turned out to be an even better idea now that we ended up being late. As we unloaded bags, Pepita went to the restaurant to pick up the food with Jean-Jacques. Jean-Jacques had even left breakfast and dinner items to get us started, including wine. Wow! How nice it is to come back down to Guadeloupe again. The weather was just swell. After unloading we ate dinner together up by the common house of the bungalow property. It was very nice.
Eating dinner together. Jean-Jacques and Pepita brought us
prepared food!
Tired, we went to bed early.