Elijah Thompson

August 15-16, 2014

Yesterday Sir Ed drove mom and I to Birmingham Airport to begin our journey home. Ed and Carol-Angela took care of every possible detail the entire trip so that we stayed safe, well fed and so happy! I can never thank them for everything they did to make this dream come true for me. So many people had to work together to bring it to life.

Everything went fine at the airport. We made it easily on our flight to Dublin. Next we found a map and basically hiked as far as our legs would go to the airport bus. It was slightly sketchy looking, but anything to get to the hotel. Kind people helped us with our heavy bags and where to get off for the Academy Plaza Hotel. Mom didn’t like the noisy bar next door, but I just bee-lined for the elevator and bed. It was after midnight when we arrived.

Shout out to the Academy Plaza desk clerk who came to the rescue with our devices, charging and downloading what we needed when there was no service in the room. Nice people are everywhere in the world. Mom and I both got about 2-3 hours sleep before we had to leave for our Canada connection. We bailed on the bus and called a cab! Another super nice Dubliner! He took us literally to the gate we needed, 15 minutes flat and would not take a tip from us. Bless him!

Security was a bit tricky. For the 3^rd time my grip bag was completely searched! They do not like the elastic bands I use for physio, or chalk dust! The plane to Canada was pretty delayed, but at least we hadn’t missed it. There were plenty of great people on board as well, which we met in the waiting area. Lots of people were from St. John’s, Newfoundland, which was our first stop in Canada. The view of the sky was awesome.

We arrived in St. John’s and went through a long customs’ line. It was no big deal as we had quite a wait til the Toronto plane could leave. It was great to be back in Canada! I was already looking through my photos of GB friends and missing them.

We really did not want to miss our Toronto connection by a delay in Newfoundland, but thankfully we didn’t. Here in Toronto we met up with Calgary people who had been on our original plane out of Calgary August 4^th to Dublin! They had missed all their connections too, but instead of finding a different airline like we did, they hung out in Newfoundland for 3 days and explored there. We had fun talking about our different travel adventures.

After over 32 travel hours, I was home again, 6pm Calgary time on Friday. I was exhausted, but so happy to see my family and Toby! I got my energy back when I opened my bags and shared the gifts with everyone and showed them my Great Britain Gymnastics gifts! It’s so much fun telling your family about everything you saw and did. It really was an experience of a lifetime.

Toby!!

This is Sir Ed's backpack from the 2012 Olympic Games where Team GB came from behind to win the Team Bronze and inspire a nation (and Canadian!) of gymnasts!