Saturday - Coming home

It was before dawn when we left our little cottage, our suitcase wheels rattling along the cobblestones and echoing in the narrow lane. We’d had a fine week in this ancient market town, well off the beaten track. Many American guide books don’t even mention this part of England, and a number of our friends from nearby Cheltenham had never been there as well. Interestingly, Robert Frost and his family lived just four miles away for several years in about 1910. While there, he wrote The Road Not Taken. We were glad we took the road to Ledbury.

We tried to compute a reasonable amount of gas to put in the car so that it would be almost empty but still driveable by the time we reached the airport in Manchester, a bit over 200 driving miles to the north. Our estimate turned out to be much too timid, as we ended up donating over a quarter tank to the rental car company, at a bit over a pound a liter (about $7/gal!). It’s so much easier when they have you bring it back full. Maybe that’s why they do this.

We had allowed plenty of time for contingencies, and going through all the various procedures at the airport went quite smoothly. Until we got to security. Steve aroused their suspicions and got the shakedown. There was apparently a metal spine in his shoes that looked quite menacing on the x-ray—they even took him over to the machine to see it for himself—and they were also quite fascinated by the package of sardines and tube of Smarties (like M&Ms) in his backpack. Sue Anne and Bruce ate all their Smarties before we got to the airport!

After the authorities came to conclude that Steve was indeed one of the good guys, we ate lunch, sat around for a bit, read the paper, and finally went over to our poorly marked departure gate. People were packed in rather tightly there, the acoustics were bad, and the announcer had a local accent that was really tough to tune into. But Sue Anne and Bruce did manage to pick out our last name in the middle of one announcement. Upon investigation we found that we had been chosen for an upgrade to Economy Plus, this apparently because Economy had been overbooked. By then we had gotten separated from Aimée and Steve, so we weren’t able to advise them of this news. We spotted them getting the full shakedown at the random inspection table just before boarding, a procedure that was mercifully done away with in the US and Canada many years ago. And as Murphy’s Law (Sod’s Law in the UK) would have it, their inspection was completed just as we arrived at the front of the line, and we became the next victims.

It was nice to finally settle down in our front row, wider than normal, more foot room than normal, Economy Plus seats. Sue Anne’s feet couldn’t even touch the wall in front of us. And we were soon to discover that the seats came with unlimited free wine, something no longer offered to those in the back of the plane.

Considering our brief and fitful sleep of the night before, it wasn’t at all difficult to doze off for much of the flight. We arrived on time in Chicago, easy trip through customs, good byes all around. Aimée and Steve took off toward the bus stop for the ride back to Madison, and Sue Anne and Bruce waited a few hours till our plane left for Manchester—the one in New Hampshire this time! We ransomed the Forester out of the parking lot, easy drive back to New London, and found the house in fine order. Simon the cat was asleep on the upstairs bed. He’s not much of a watchcat any more as he’s pretty much lost his hearing.

Home! And this time the New Hampshire house, which we had just moved into for real after years of a back and forth existence with our house in Maryland, really did feel like it was home.

Thus wraps up our journey. But stay tuned. We’ve got lots of drawings, pictures, and videos to put up here over the next few days, and we also plan to summarize the major impressions we took from this trip.

Saturday - October 18