(Saturday September 21, 2024)
It was so sad to have to leave England, and now it’s sad to finish this because it means…it’s really over! Of course it was really over seven months ago. Which also means that I did not do this quickly as I had planned, although at least it did take me less than a year, unlike the last trip. I actually did the other two considerably faster than this one, which surprises me since I thought I’d drug them out forever, but oh well - it’s not a competition. With myself. For the first time I don’t have any of Kim’s pictures, sadly. She’s still not gotten hers uploaded to somewhere she can share them, although we did do a lot of airdropping this trip, which I don’t think we’d been able to do on past trips. So I did get some, usually of us or me, but I’m dying to see the rest! And will post some when that happens.
We had intended to leave Chedworth at 6 am since the flight was at 12:15, but of course we didn’t get gone until 6:30. We made it to the shady car rental at about 8:30, so were still in good time. It was an easy drive with a little rain but it wasn’t pouring like the night before. We took the route that goes by Oxford, although looking at the map it says the fastest way right now is to go through Swindon. I’m sure it depends on the time of day. We hadn’t been that route before (the A40 to the M40), and I was sorry we didn’t actually get to see Oxford. And its shocking number of crime scenes. I’ve watched Inspector Morse, Lewis and Endeavour fairly recently so I know there’s a whole lot of murdering going on in Oxford! Maybe it was good we didn’t have time to stop.
I’d dreaded the short drive back into London to the shady car rental, since when we arrived it was quite nerve wracking to get from the car rental to the M4, but that was my first time driving in England for seven years. Coming back it was perfectly fine, and no worse than driving through Bath. I’d also slightly dreaded turning the car back in because they were so very shady and I was a little afraid they would come up with all sorts of stuff to demand I pay for even though we forked over extra for their insurance. There were a few scuffs and scratches from all the trips I made into the side hedges on those narrow little roads, but nothing major like dents. There was a big scuffed up/scratched place on a hubcap which the guy checking me in looked up in their records (I also had taken pictures of the entire car but oddly didn’t even think of showing him mine) and it was pre-existing, which was a relief as the insurance of course would not have covered it.
Turning the car in seemed to take forever but we still got checked in at the airport before 10. The only odd thing was that after we’d gotten seated in the waiting area for our gate, security came by and made us all … go wait in the main corridor. For ages, with people pouring by us rushing to and from their gates. It was very weird and had something to do with security - they couldn’t secure the gate?? Maybe??? There were still customs strikes going on at Heathrow so it may have had something to do with that. We all hung out in the corridor until they eventually let us back into the seating area. But that was the only strange thing we encountered, happily.
The return trip went surprisingly well. Perhaps the Universe was making up to us for that horrible initial plane-cancellation nightmare. Our flight was straight through and although it was crowded, we had the four-to-a-row middle of the plane seats so the couple sitting beside me (Kim had the aisle since I had it going over) went in and out on their end and I only had to climb over Kim to get in and out. I was able to put my personal item bag under my seat and then stretch my legs out under the seat in front of me far enough that I wasn’t all smashed up. It wasn’t any more uncomfortable and boring than it had to be, and they gave us free wine twice which was very helpful! They had Apple TV with limited selections on the flight entertainment thing so I watched the first three episodes of Slow Horses, which I had actually already seen. but Slow Horses is great, and well worth a rewatch! Also the 4th season was just airing at the time so it was a good refresher. Then I watched some of The Morning Show which I hadn’t even heard of, but liked so much I’m watching it right now. And I read a huge hunk of Ann Cleeve’s latest Vera novel - The Three Wives. So, I kept myself occupied pretty happily.
The plane left on time and arrived an hour earlier than planned, which was great since we both still had to drive home from Charlotte. Customs was a breeze and getting our luggage took no time at all. Baker B met us in Morganton again for a happy reunion, and drove me back to Boone where Phillip immediately glued himself to me. Much better than being mad and biting me!
And a very few wrap-up pictures:
No David Bowie bidding us farewell this time, or our actual tour guide from the Tower of London tour in 2013 (the only woman Beefeater so she got featured in the airport!) but a horse guard at least. I wish I’d gotten a picture of the line of us waiting in the corridor but I didn’t. This was back at the gate seating.
Getting ready to leave London, waaaahhhh!!!!
Well, I thought this was at the airport for some reason - perhaps because it’s the very last photo in the England albums - but I think it was actually Lower Slaughter. How untimely! Oh well, here we are, still enjoying the trip despite my perplexed expression (again). And it’s a good one to end on, although I feel like there are not nearly enough pictures in this entry!!! Next time I’ll do more arrival/departure pictures. Which will hopefully be next year sometime, as Baker B is dying for another trip and he wants to visit the Lake District and hike. If we wait much longer we will be TOO OLD. Can’t have that. Better go SOON.
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