Breathless

I am grabbing a few minutes to say that there aren't enough hours in this day to get everything done. But when I walk out the door this afternoon I will be forgetting Park Lane College and looking forward to the Big Adventure. Do you think I could turn this into an Enid Blyton story - complete with Grog and Pemmican sandwiches. Or was that Swallows and Amazons? I forget.

We head for Manchester this evening and then fly out at 10:40 tomorrow morning. I spoke to the chauffeur who is meeting us at the airport to relieve us of the car. No doubt he will park it in the Tesco Car Park in Stockport or use it to go on his jollies! I am almost to the weight limit in the suitcase, but can't think of anything to leave behind except the bottle of Theakston's Old Peculiar!

Next post will be from either The Windy City or Springfield Missouri, Mecca of The Assemblies of God! Yee Ha and Giddy Up!

A word from the other half

I thought it was time you heard from the other half!

Crikey! the time is almost here, just a week away from, for me, the journey of of my life, this trip is something I have dreamed of doing ever since I would ride home from the Saturday matinee on my imaginary horse after being spell bound watching Hopalong Cassidy or Roy Rogers either kill or bring the celluloid outlaws in for justice to make them pay for their dirty deeds, pinch me! I am literally days away from visiting the very locations I marveled at as a young boy who wanted to be nothing else but a cowboy. ( Some of you will say that is what I actually grew up to be but that is another story)

Can you believe Carolyn and I will be traveling over two and a half thousand miles sharing the driving (and discussions otherwise known as arguments!) going through towns and cities I have read and heard and even sung about whilst pursuing my love of American country and folk music, and yes we will be singing more than a verse or two of Bobby Troups classic song (Get Your Kicks on ) "Route 66".

The holiday not only gives Carolyn the chance to meet up with some of her family again but also gives me the wonderful opportunity to meet them for myself, Carolyn has told me so much about her family in the two years we have been together that I feel I almost know them already so greeting them personally is going to be an highlight of the journey for me, and of course the icing on the cake (quite literally) will be the marriage of Patrick and Laleh in San Francisco.

Saturday the 23rd of June and I am now counting down!

Bags packed

Checked with the agent and the car does include extra driver. So that's good.
Got my sandals today. In fact I got two pairs. One of the shoe shops in Otley is going out of business and after I had bought the sandals decided that the discounts were too good to pass up so I ended up with 4 pairs of shoes not one! Imelda Marcos move over!
Repacked my bags after instructions from Len to roll everything. Amazingly it worked. Took up so much less space. However the suitcase weighs 21 kilos so almost to the limit. Might have to transfer some to my carry on luggage.
Selected a few good books to take to read. Last time I flew I read Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani so I am taking the sequels to read this time, Big Cherry Holler and Milk Glass Moon.
Have a couple other books to read - one an historical novel about The Cold War and the other short stories by women writers.
I have been searching the internet for things to see and do, particularly in San Francisco and discovered a concert in Berkeley by the guitarist Ed Gerhard so we are going to do that one day. Also thought we'd take one of the free walks round the city - the one called Gold Rush Town.
It is all very exciting but I am panicking now that I won't get everything done in time!

The countdown continues

I looked at our travel documents today and discovered that the car we have rented doesn't seem to have the additional driver included. I thought we had ordered and paid for the Gold Standard so will have to go back to the agent. As much as I love driving I think it might be expecting a lot to drive all 2,500 miles!

It is getting hairy at work at the moment trying to get all the tasks completed before next Friday. So many deadlines to meet and things that ought to be done but I suspect some will simply have to wait until my return. Anything can happen in three weeks actually (like moving me to a new department and neglecting to let me know about it) so I won't worry about that.

One or two things still to shop for like a decent pair of sandles. And I need some nice accessories for the wedding. Something to complement the dress. A flat stomach would be nice.

I am including a picture of the groom in his school uniform with one of our cats (name of????anyone remember?)

Who will we miss?

The ones we leave behind - although Sheila and Elis only temporarily.

This is how we look now. How we will look at the end of 2500 miles is another question!

Counting Down

The departure date is fast approaching. I have been doing all the background searches for places to stay and what to see on the journey.
We are taking 18 days in order to not kill ourselves. However some days are long (10 hours) and others very short (60 miles) and there are a couple of stop-overs along the way.
The bit I am not looking forward to is driving through the desert. The height of summer is not exactly the right time to do it but then Patrick would decide to get married in July!
I can honestly say:
"My bags are packed, I'm ready to go. I'm standing here outside the door, already I'm so excited I could cry. But I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again....."