I'm Connie, and I'm from France

Stephen J. iFlipFlop saw London. He saw France. He saw Amsterdam in his traveling pants.

Young iFlipFlop, 14, went to France on Wednesday night. Kinda. His British Airways flight was to have left at 7pm out of Philadelphia. In fact, when I checked on BA66 on Flight Tracker, it left on time. And when I checked at around 8:45pm, it looked like the plane was at 37,000 feet and leaving North American airspace, dipping just below Greenland.

Then the phone rang.

"Mom, we still haven't left," said Stephen.

It was 9pm. Since his connection in London was only 90 minutes to get him to Lyon, that meant he'd already missed it. Plus, to start off the day, BA wouldn't let Mrs. iFlipFlop into the waiting area, so the 14-year-old was on his own since about 4:30 in the afternoon.

"Okay, let me make a few calls," said Mrs. iFF as she looked for customer service numbers.

After 30 minutes on hold she finally got an agent. They said Stephen would be booked on the next flight to the south of France. But how would he know that?

Mrs. iFF got up at 4am and checked. Stephen would be rerouted from London to Amsterdam to Lyon. And his final leg would have to be on Air France, which meant a change of terminals in Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. Great.

The phone started ringing at 4:30am our time. "I'm in a really long line and I'm not sure I'm going to get my new tickets," said Stephen.

"Don't worry, here's what to do," Said Mrs. iFF. When the chips are down, you want Mrs. iFF working the action for you. She can get it done.

Well, after nearly 18 hours of travel, Stephen finally made it to Lyon, where he met up with the family he's staying with in La Drome. The father is the Minister of Tourism for that beautiful part of France, where lavender fields go on as far as the eye can see, and the Rhone Alps frame the views. Ah, La France. Now he's there.

We got this note from Stephen last night. I think it captures the essence of what it's like to travel unattended at 14, and pull it of with aplomb:

I made it to Charles' house perfectly fine, and my luggage is expected to come in by tomorrow.

I am pretty tired, so I am going to bed right after we eat dinner, which is in a few minutes.

I just wanted to give you the update.

Hope all is well over there.

I am going to a music festival tomorrow morning.

I will talk to you later.

Bye.