From Jennings to London in 25 Hours

August will take a last gap and leave us tomorrow night at midnight.  It has been a long, humid one.  We welcomed it in in the hollow on a Sunday and it will depart after, hopefully, we are checked into our hotel in London.  I did not look up the weather in London today, but since we are heading on to Dublin on the first of September, I did check the next ten days and it sounds like it will be cool with a fair amount of rain.  It is good that our hooded windbreakers are nestled in our luggage ready to ride to Orlando.  I have checked my list tis morning, emptied leftovers out of the fridge and a lot of the other things that need to be done the day we leave for a trip.  After the bags are in the car and Klep is showered, the thermostats will be set on 82 and the hot water heaters will be turned off.  The ghost who lives in the attic does not need hot water.  Meanwhile, it is pleasant to sit and relax a few minutes before we head south on interstate 75.

By five o’clock we were at Anne’s townhouse in Orlando for a rest before we are picked up by Deborah who will take us to Orlando International Air Port.  It is so good to have people who are willing to take care of us!  When we return, Anne will be there to pick us up, but right now she is in Ghana.  We came through some torrential rain just before our exit off the turn pike and our GPS routed us a little differently, but with a little patience, we wound around and got on 528E and then off and into the development where Anne lives.  All of this land was orange groves or farmland when I taught in Orlando during those last pre-Disney years.

We worked our way through the air port from check-in to pre TSA to TSA and then to the gate in a little over an hour.  We felt fit from all the walking we did to get to Gate 28.  Our premium seats loaded right after the "needs assistance" folks and we settle in to head across the Atlantic Ocean to Gatwick.  We had dinner served at about two thirty a.m. and then we both managed to sleep off and on until six Eastern time.  After a light breakfast of bagals and fruit, we landed early at about one-thirty p.m. London time.  Subtract five hours for EDT.

It took us over an hour to make our way through the marathon that is walking from the arrival gate to pass ports to luggage claims through customs and to the exit.  One of the interesting sights (other than the people) was the portrait of Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother that looked like a mosaic from a distance but up close was a composite of thousands of small pictures of British citizens.

Our driver collected us at the exit and took us on Mister Toad's wild ride into the heart of London where we will stay the night.  We got quite a tour because the major roadways were backed up and he took us in a circuitous route!  I shall include some of the shots Klep took from the car, but my creative self is jet lagged, wants something to eat, and a hot shower before I crash!

List, Stacks, Plans: Getting Closer

For six weeks we have been heading toward our departure which is now down to just a few days.  Any trip any where requires planning and strategizing if every thing is to go well.  That is the case with us if the trip is anything more than a quick dash over to the beach for an overnight. It is even more necessary when we are leaving the country. 

The early days are the decision days.  Do we really want to do this?  How are we going to get there?  What do we want to do when we get there?  Shall we opt for an all inclusive tour or do we want to control what we do and where we stay?  Who has been there that we know?  What can they tell us?

All of those preliminary steps are behind us now.  We are booked.  We have researched.  We have done the last minute shopping.  We have made lists and more lists.  Now, it is execution time.  The dining table was chosen for our base of operation for assembling all the things we need to take.  Since we are both plus seventy decades, we had to get our various meds and remedies together.  After all, there will probably not be a CVS or Walmart close to our hotels in either Dublin or London!  We also had to consider the weather and the places we would visit.  Traci advised that the Cliffs of Mohr are always cool and windy.  One of Klep's responsibilities was to shop for hooded wind breakers for both of us.  I also needed a new card for my camera.  Something tells me 16 gigabytes should cover the trip.

The stacks are now appearing and clothes are hanging in doorways.  We made the decision that we did not want to deal with more than one bag each in Gatwick or on the train and ferry.  We will make do with the clothes that we can get in these bags.  If worse comes to worse, we will hand launder items at night.

Monday will be folding and putting clothes in the luggage.  It will be the day that Klep checks off the travel documents and information that he will include with the cameras and laptops along with all their accessories necessary to keep them charged while we are away in the computer bag.  I will organize my purse and put all unnecessary credit cards in the safe.

The days grow short.  The stacks get taller as we prepare to leave.  We take a few moments each day to be thankful for the opportunity and the blessing of traveling.  We pray that we can be a blessing to others.

From Mosquito Gardens to the World

Klep and I are getting excited as the day for our next adventure rapidly approaches.  We have made lists and more lists.  Klep has explored websites endlessly and printed sheets for me to see the next morning.  After all, he is the night owl; I am the early bird.

Our next trip is something we have been dreaming about for years and this late summer just seemed like the right time to do it.  We will fly to London, overnight there, take a train and ferry to Dublin and spend a week seeing things on day trips from there.  We are not going on an organized tour, but we will take advantage of tour excursions which start in the capitol city.

We expect to have a wonderful time.  We always, no matter what, seem to have a good time, meet interesting people, see fascinating places, and come home with a renewed sense of just how beautiful this world that we live in is.

So, with our new blog started, we will be sharing experiences and photos on From Mosquito Gardens to the World.  We will share the trip to Ireland and then the week in London.