And Away We Go!
Posted by Rick - 18/12/07 at 11:12:42 pm
Planning the trip seems easy compared to the hoops we had to jump through just to get to the airport to start our trip.
A snow storm dumped about eight inches on most of New England, making it difficult to get the dogs to camp (read: the kennel) in East Montpelier before the trip. Being a Sunday, the drop-off window was from 3-5 p.m., meaning we had to leave around two. The round trip was slow, and we had to stop once to scrape the windscreen when the snow turned briefly to sleet, but the dogs got to camp. We hate thinking of them like children, but it always difficult to drop them off when we leave. Not so much because we will miss them (we will), but because they don’t know we are coming back. We worry less about Haley, but Mickey was bounced around between homes before we finally adopted him and he doesn’t do as well with extended periods of our absence.
This morning we got up, packed the truck with our luggage and stopped by Chelsea Station in South Royalton for a big breakfast before continuing on to Lebanon, New Hampshire to catch the bus to Boston. The Dartmouth Coach is a great service, which saves time and money. Instead of having to drive to Burlington and pay for an extra flight to Boston or New York, we took a 2-hour bus ride directly to Logan airport. We arrived at the bus station, with plenty of time to spare, and were pleased to see that they had plowed the parking lot.
When the bus arrived, we piled on. I finished reading “Equal Rites” while Sarah worked on a set of socks she was making for our host’s mother. For the most part the bus trip was good. The only downside was a small child, wearing her father’s noise-canceling headphones while watching the film (”Rudy”) the bus was showing, was sitting across the aisle from us. She didn’t understand the film, which was excusable; but she also didn’t understand that she was shouting “DAD! WHY IS RUDY SAD! DAD, WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS FRIEND! DAD! DAD!” The father didn’t make much of an effort to explain to her that she didn’t need to shout, and instead tried whispering to her… while she wore the noise-canceling headphones. “WHAT!? DAD, DID SOMETHING BAD HAPPEN TO RUDY’S FRIEND? WHAT? DID SOMETHING BAD… WHAT!!!!!????” I put in my earplugs, which I carry for just such occasions. So instead of hearing this little girl shouting, I just heard her talking really loud. Well, at least they weren’t on our flight.
We arrived at Logan airport so far in advance of our flight that no one was even at the Virgin counters. So we read and knitted and had some coffee and chilled until it was time to leave.
As for the flight, it was horrible; for me at least. Virgin provides the video screens in the head rests, and they show movies, TV shows, and one can even play games. However, my system was wonky, and because the same controller that runs the video also controls the light above the seat there were times when the light wouldn’t turn off. This was a red-eye flight, so the wonky light was irritating, and the flight attendants were unable to do anything about it. Every once in a while the video system would just reboot. Not just my screen, but every screen I could see would suddenly reboot. This did not build confidence in the plane.
All of this was tolerable, but once the plane started dropping suddenly, shaking, and people screamed I was a basket-case. I was holding on to Sarah and rocking back and forth. I had told Sarah many times that I don’t like flying, but this was the first time she had been with me on a plane where we encountered turbulence this bad. The turbulence/shaking lasted for a long time. When I checked the in-flight navigation system I noticed we still had two hours in the air. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Thankfully things calmed down shortly thereafter.
We arrived at the airport a little later than scheduled, and Chris Mear was there to pick us up. It was 8 a.m. GMT, but it felt like 2 a.m. to us. Sarah rode up front on the ride from Heathrow to Chris’ place in northeast London. I eventually fell asleep in the back awaking as we go to our destination.
Once at Chris’, we met his mum, chatted a bit over tea, and then took a 2 hour nap to recharge our batteries. When we woke up, Chris walked us down to the closest Underground stop so we could get our bearings and an Oyster card. Naturally we stopped by a local pub and had a pint to help split up the trip. When we got back we hung out some more with Chris and his mum. Chris’ brother, David, stopped by a few hours later to start his Christmas holiday.
It was at this point that Chris’ mum really began the process of spoiling us rotten. She cooked an amazing Chinese meal made up of spring rolls, sweet and sour pork, glazed chicken, and a curried beef dish. YUM!
After we were too tired and too stuffed to do much, so we played Wii. Neither Sarah nor I had ever played Wii, but now we are very interested in getting one ourselves. We’re not big gamers, but we really liked that the Wii is more about movement and less about sitting on your bum and using you thumbs.
Next: Playing Tourist
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