GLASGOW Airport welcomed a sea of Scotland fans when they jetted off to America for the World Cup today.
Scotland will play Haiti in Boston in what will be the early hours of Sunday morning in Glasgow and 9pm on Saturday night over there.
The airport's only direct flight to the USA left for Newark at 2pm, but most of the travelling fans were heading elsewhere.
Donnie and Veronica MacNeil from Barra booked on to a flight to Iceland with a view to changing over and heading to New York from there.
Donny said: "So far, we've got 10 flights booked. That's not including if we go to Mexico.
"As soon as Scott McTominay put the ball in the back of the net against Denmark, we booked our flights to New York."
The Iceland check-in desk dwarfed that of the Newark flight, as fans had seemingly followed Donny's methods of snapping up flights ASAP.
Smarts were saved for the booking stage, however, as the fans turning up embodied the unbridled excitement that built over the 28 years since Scotland last went to a World Cup.
Del, travelling with his son, Harvey, said: "I'm really looking forward to it. I've not got the words. I've been sitting with my Scotland top on all week with the tunes going.
"So the wife's happy to see the back of me."
When asked to sum up the feeling into one word, Harvey settled on "exquisite."
Older fans may describe it more as relief to finally be following Scotland across the globe again.
That's certainly the case for Eddie Park, who arrived at the airport in the very shirt he wore to the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
He said: "I was in Italy in 1990. Obviously it's been a long, long time and [my boy's] generation hasn't seen Scotland [at a World Cup] so it's a big thing."
Eddie's son isn't the only one excited for their first World Cup as fan Mark, travelling with friends Ciaran and Jacob, said: "This is the first one in 20-odd years and we're all 31... we were all in nappies at the last one."
Elsewhere, Scott Meikle echoed Mark's sentiment, saying: "I was seven years old at the 1998 World Cup so didn't have any chance of going to that. We're buzzing, but nervous."
They day did have an undercurrent of anxiety as fans placed all of their faith in Steve Clarke's men, embarking on a generational footballing odyssey.
But, thankfully, football fans have a long-tested, ever faithful cure, as Scott explained: "Once we get checked in and get a pint we'll be sorted."
Scotland will kick off their campaign in Boston when they take on Haiti at 2am Glasgow time on Sunday, June 14.
