Erin McElvaney

     Too many hall noises to sleep well. Checked out @ 11 am. Argued with the hotel manager @ Econolodge that we needed either free parking or a refund. He finally conceded to free parking. Hopefully Nate's car will survive 14 days in the ghettos of NYC.

     Caught a $12 cab to the nearby airport. Waited for 2 hrs in Au Bon Pain and playing Rummy (I kicked his ass) until Iberia opened its windows. Our flight got overbooked and we were switched to American Airlines, a direct flight (saving 6 hrs) instead of one with 2 stops. The A/C on our AA flight broke and we sweated for a while before disembarking while they fixed it. We left JFK 1:30 late, at 7:45 pm Eastern, and arrived after a long uneventful flight, in Paris at 8:30 am.

     PS at the airport JFK, we had a couple delicious red beers and struck up a lot of great convos w/ other travelers. Several just returned from Europe. We got some tips for travel from them :). A great start!