we ate a late lunch (or early supper?) at the mall near the airport,
and we arrived at the airport by 4:30 for our 6:50 flight to NY-JFK....
however, the international flight line was quite long, because the American Airlines RDU-London/Heathrow flight (which unfortunately we were not on)
was checking in at the same time....

nevertheless we arrived at our gate with plenty of time to spare,
boarded our plane on time, taxied to the runway, and were about to take off, when
the engines died and pilot announced the flight was on hold due to air traffic in NYC...
we waited on the tarmac for about 35 minutes, eventually took off, and thought we
were well with in time for making the 10:35 flight to London/Heathrow on British Airways...

we landed at 9:20 pm, but were held on the tarmac there for 25 minutes
so as to allow previously-held traffic a chance to take off.... 
we then had to change from the domestic terminal to the BA international terminal,
which involved quite a hike plus a tram,
and as we climbed the last escalator at 10:20
we were sure we had missed the plane...
(since we were told the gate closed 20 minutes before take-off),
but, their take-off had been delayed by 20 minutes (because the plane coming in was late also),
so we were going to make the plane after all,
although we were told the luggage would almost certainly not....

we boarded the plane, and then were delayed even further (40 more minutes)
so maybe there was hope for the luggage after all...

we landed at Heathrow about 30 minutes late and with only an hour
to make the 12:10 pm connection on Iberia airlines to Madrid....
but   (you knew there was a "but")
the plane couldn't connect to the gate, so they had to call for buses
in order to bus us to the terminal;
that took 30 minutes, plus another hike to change terminals,
plus going through security again (the third time!), so we arrived at the Iberia desk at  12:40 pm,
30 minutes after our flight was supposed to leave....
but that turned out to be the ONLY plane leaving Heathrow late....
and it left so late that our baggage accompanied us as well
(well, most of it but not all; Natalie and Brenton were the unlucky ones,
although their luggage was finally waiting for them when we arrived in Granada Sunday)