The ongoing story of the Chuckster - May 15th, 2005
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09:50 pm
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Long day
Bath England
As Neville pointed out it's been a long day because it started 43 hours ago. But let us go back to the beginning, so that we can take it in chronological order.
I woke up hung-over after Matt and Julie's wedding day. I started to get up several times, but kept deciding it wasn't the best course of action. Eventually I ingested some Tylenol and got started.
Julie and I finished up packing, cleaning and generally preparing the house around noon. We got some sandwiches from Subway and rested up for the trip. Terry got to the house around 2:30 and Myke and Julie (three Julies!) dropped by to say good bye.
Chris popped over a little before 4:00 and we all changed into our travel clothes before Chris drove us to the airport. I'm usually pretty paranoid about getting to the plane on time, so we got there around three hours early for our 7:40 flight.
We made it through ticketing and security with plenty of time to spare before flying from gate E3 so we stopped at TGI Friday's in concourse B for dinner. We had to wait for the SCUBA group for 28 to be seated before we could sit, but eventually we got a table and had dinner. We finished up around an hour before the flight left and headed out to the international (E) concourse.
On the way I stopped to grab water for Terry and Julie. I handed it off to them at the gate and then headed back away from my pre-flight pee.
When I returned I noticed there weren't a lot of people at the gate. Then I noticed that the departure time posted on the gate was wrong. Only then did I notice that the posted flight was for Charlotte, North Carolina,
As you may have imagined (knowing as you do how anal-retentive I am) I got just a tad panicky and ran around insanely to find our flight which was fortunately only a few gates away at E6 and was already more than halfway boarded.
We got re-arranged and seated but they had changed planes, and not only did Terry and I not get bulkhead seats but we didn't really have legroom at all. The plane seemed to be set up for domestic flights, and we were clearly in for a night of pain. Not as bad as Julie who had the mother of all sinus infections, but bad enough.
I tried to sleep, but probably only got a few hours and I was wide-awake at 2:00 (no wait 7:00) in the morning. After a coffee and a not-to-bad airline breakfast we descended into Gatwick.
The forecast was for cold and rainy weather, but it was actually very pretty. The sun was out as we walked out of the terminal and over to the rental agency.
Some of you may remember when Julie and I last came to Scotland that our rental was upgraded to Sparky the sportscar. We apparently we've started a tradition, because this time we got upgraded from a Focus Wagon to a Volvo V70. Man the car drives great, but it's wide. Too wide for Scotland? Let's hope not.
We hit the road, and then realized that we didn't know where we were going. So I drove in circles – aided greatly by the roundabouts – until Julie worked her navigational magic with the map.
Pointed more or less in the direction of Bath we set off in the lovely unexpected sunshine. We stopped once for groceries (they have a better selection of Rogue Ales than we do, how is this possible?) and once for a 45-minute traffic jam. We finally got to Bath around 2:00. We checked into the hotel and immediately called Neville who was hanging out in a park five minutes away.
He came right over and took us to lunch at a nearby vegetarian bar (yes really) where I drank a Doom Bar Extra Special Bitter which was a warm brown ale with a pert aftertaste and a half pint of "Smile's Best", brewed in Neville's hometown of Bristol. I also had an unremarkable, but good quiche.
We walked through Bath with Neville who was an awesome tour guide. We saw the place where the first postage stamp was made/used, one of only three bridges with shops lining both sides, the Roman Baths (of course) and the Abbey. The lobby had lots of plaques for dead folks on the walls and floors. It was literally paved with them. I could have read the texts for hours, perhaps even days, but everyone else was ready to go.
We walked back to the hotel, and made dinner reservations at the Olive Tree, which is the restaurant run by the hotel.
We rested for an hour and a bit; Terry in her room, Neville, Julie and I in ours. While chatting, I fell asleep once or twice. Eventually we walked over to get Terry for dinner only to marvel at the sight of hot-air balloons from her window.
After watching for a while, we went down to the negative first floor for dinner. The restaurant was a tad pricey, and we were underdressed; but embracing our "rock star" lifestyle we ate there anyway. The food was really good, especially Julie's tomato and red pepper soup with Mozzarella and basil beignets, and my desert which was a selection of local cheeses.
After dinner we said goodnight to Neville and headed to bed, where I wrote this, and now (yes! yes! yes!) I'm going to sleep.
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