| October 4 - Home again |
| We've been home over a week now and our life is starting to settle into the routine that we knew before our adventure in England. As with everything else the trip home was not without its challenges and tribulations. Leaving England was hard. We met a lot of people and became close friends with many. Having to say good-bye to these new friends, knowing that there was a chance that we might never again cross paths with them, was difficult. Getting packed to go home was as traumatic as getting packed to go to England in the first place. The airlines limit travelers to two checked bags weighing no more that 50 pounds each and a hand carried bag weighing no more that 45 pounds and having dimensions allowing it to fit under the typical airline seat. Trying to cram six months of life into containers of these limits was challenging. Coming home we had the same problem. The stuff we took had to be brought home; plus the stuff we acquired while there. To add to the problem, because of the terrorist threats, the hand carry bags were extremely limited. We were able to leave some stuff behind - but not all that much. The penalty for exceeding the weight limits meant we had to bring the luggage within limits at the airport, or an additional fee had to be paid. When we had exchange students we went through this ritual with every kid - repacking at the airport to stay within limits. The penalties for luggage violations have been pretty high in the past. |
| The good news was that because of the restrictions on hand carry bags, the airlines relaxed their limits on the number of checked bags. The rules kept changing even as we were preparing to come home. At one time the airlines allowed an extra checked bag per passenger. They then loosened up on hand-carry luggage and no longer allowed the extra bag - but the charge for an extra bag was considerably less than it had been. The bottom line was - the extra bag,that we bought in England, cost us an extra $25 and we were allowed to hand-carry a reasonable bag, and the computer and Nancy's purse. It all fit. The next problem was that the allowable luggage was too much to carry - seven bags weighing close to three hundred pounds. Pretty much ruled out coaches, buses and trains. We taxied to the airport in Bristol and used a shuttle service from the San Francisco Airport. We had a 10:45 AM flight out of the Bristol Airport and had to be at check-in three hours prior. Because we had checked-in via the internet the day before, we wisked through check-in. Our next goal was pre-boarding security: take off your shoes, remove the computer from its carrying case, x-ray the hand-carry luggage, pass through the metal detector, get patted down (just Nancy - not me), answer a lot of questions about our luggage, etc. Everything was routine and we started to walk away when I realized that I didn't have my hand-carry suitcase. We doubled back and the inspector said that we had a pair of scissors in the case - impossible! We proceeded to dump everything, including our dirty laundry bag on the counter - no scissors. We had used this same suitcase for our trip to Ireland and Germany and hadn't been stopped. Nancy remembered that we were missing a pair of scissors. Nancy took a good pair of barber's scissors to cut Jerry's hair and we couldn't find them the entire time we were in England - could it be? All the obvious places had be emptied so we looked in the inconspicuous - tucked away in the pocket used to store the straps (making the suitcase a backpack) was a little cloth bag containing the scissors and a comb. The scissors were confiscated! Now Nancy has to purchase another pair of hair cutting scissors - bummer! They were nice ones, too! The flight was uneventful. We got to Newark, New Jersey in the early afternoon with two and a half hour wait before for the next flight. We had to go through customs but that turned out to be a piece of cake - they were really busy and just passed us through - maybe we just looked honest or they trusted planes from England. The only thing upsetting was we needed a cart to haul all that luggage to customs a couple of hundred feet and they charged three dollars to rent a cart - what a rip-off!pppThe flight from Newark to San Francisco was jammed to the gunnels but the flight was without incident except that Nancy's ears weren't plugged and hurting. After years of ear pain when flying, Nancy found some special earplugs that eliminated the problem. We landed at SFO just before dark and by the time we collected all of our bags it was totally dark. We had reserved a shuttle service over the Internet and it was waiting. We got another luggage cart (no charge), and this time we went more than a couple of hundred feet to get to the shuttle. The shuttle in this case is a van that was carrying seven people. The van is set up to deliver the customer to their door-step by a route of the van companies choosing. The driver used a GPS system and input all of our addresses and followed those directions and delivered us all right to our doors - pretty neat! Once home, the next goal was to get over "jet lag" as quick and a painless as possible. Once we got the critical stuff out of the suitcases, we went for a walk to the grocery store to get Thursday morning breakfast, to get a little fresh air and to work out some of the kinks from sitting for 14 hours on planes. We stayed awake until midnight (local time). Woke at seven AM the next morning reasonably refreshed. I would like to tell you that we had no trouble with jet lag but we did. It took several nights before we could sleep completely through the night and we ate based on the clock rather than our hunger for a couple of days. But, we did adapt. Thursday for lunch we did Mexican fast food, Taco Bell. There is nothing comparable in the UK and we were really ready for a taco and a burrito. Our second meal was "Tung Kee", a Vietnamese "Pho' restaurant. Pho is a noodle soup - a meal in a bowl. Next in priority was a dinner at a good Japanese restaurant and then a nice thick New York streak, barbequed. When we had B&P (Bruce and Pam, our friends who summered in Southwell) over for dinner we cooked up some nice big, juicy steaks. Streak may have been available in the UK but we never got close to one. The house was in pretty good shape, considering that we rented to a family with three teenage boys. What damage we found was well within the bounds of normal wear-and-tear. We had told the man who rented the house that if the goldfish were to die, they had a replacement price of ten cents apiece. We have to chemically treat the pond water to keep the fish alive, so, to leave the fish in the custody of kids was risky. The fish died. The only strange thing to have happen was the minute hand on the hall clock. The minute hand is missing. We've looked everywhere that might be hiding the missing hand, but no luck. The missing clock hand is well within the bounds of normal wear-and-tear, but you have to admit that something very odd must have happened. |
| We're getting back into the swing of life here and helping our son Adam with a remodel job in his house on the weekends. Evan and his mom, Leslie, are doing great. Adam got a new job while we were in England and he loves it - he's project manager to develop equipment to focus radiation into the body for diseases like cancer. Nancy hasn't gone back to the yarn shop yet but has visited and will be starting at the end of the month. We didn't make the jaunt to the Northwest as we thought we might have to when we left Britain. All in all, it was quite an adventure to live in another country for six months. We saw lots of the country, met many nice people, learned how to drink some wonderful cider (Magners), learned how to effectively use bus and train systems. And, we got around a couple of countries without a car by using public transportation. Setting up housekeeping in another country was a challenge, but we overcame it! Thanks to everyone who read our weblog and enjoyed our adventures. Check back in a couple of weeks and we will try to put together a summary of our time in England. Right now we need to get settled here and get a little distance from our adventure to separate what was truly important. Jerry and Nancy |
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| Pictured is the luggage. The bags may look a little emaciated because the picture wasn't taken until daylight and the critical stuff has been removed. Trust me - while in transit the bags we full and plump |
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