It starts again

Given how much I travel to England I thought it might be fun to give a running account of my adventures and misadventures (i.e. Stonehenge at night!). This trip did not start out very well. As usual, I fly from Indy to London through Chicago, giving myself plenty of time in Chicago (2 1/2 hours). There were thunderstorms in the midwest that caused my flight to leave Indy late; although they were nice enough to go ahead and let us board the plane so we could sit on the tarmac for 90 minutes. No worries, I still had plenty of layover in Chicago because my connecting flight was in the same terminal at Ohare. We landed in Chicago and were promptly moved off to side to park on the tarmac to sit and wait for a gate. When we finally got a gate we sat and waited for another 30 minutes for ground personel to let us off the plane. After all this waiting I missed the connecting flight! American Airlines was very good and automatically booked my on the next available flight (2 hours later). We boarded that flight on schedule and promptly sat at the gate for over an hour (not sure because I fell asleep) while a thunderstorm went through. So, after all this I ended up arriving in London about 4 hours after I had planned. As I waited for my suitcase I thought through the rest of the trip; pick up the rental car, drive the 90 minutes or so west to Bristol, check in to the hotel, grab a quick shower and head to work. Because of all of the delays I would only be at work for an hour or two. On a positive note, my suitcase is easier to spot now that I have army green duct tape on the corners due to rips (I've gone through 3 suitcases since I've had this job). It easy to see the wear and tear that all of the travel has done to my suticase; harder to see the wear and tear on me (although the waistline is a good place to start :-) ).

I picked up the rental car only to discover that it is a manual transmission. Not a huge deal because I have driven a manual transmission in the past; but sitting on the left side of the car and shifting with my right hand. It really is a cruel prank to play on a brain that has already been through so much and quite frankly isn't as young as it used to be. Fortunately, I made it to the hotel with no problem.

I've spent some time the last couple of days trying to decide where to go this weekend. I'll most likely stay in the south west of England. I'm sure the siteseeing will involve visiting some castles, stately manors and hopefully some scenery. Options include the Hay-on-Wye book festival, the RAF museum in Yeoville, Oxford is a short drive, etc...

Stay tuned...