Dallas to Heathrow

Thursday, May 10, 2012

7:37 AM Arizona, 3:37 PM England

Liz was my seatmate for the flight from Dallas to Heathrow who is an English woman married to an American and has lived in the U.S. for 21 years.  She was heading home to visit family in Taunton and Cardiff; we share our experiences of the two cities.  Very bumpy flight with so – so service.   After watching a movie with poor sound, I managed to get a few hours’ sleep before landing.  Having arrived a half hour early but are put in a holding pattern that puts us in a bit late.  I am feeling the peace that settles over me whenever I land in England.  I am happy to be “home,” apprehensive about getting to Salisbury, then on to Paris and making all the connections.  As we are about to land, the flight attendant announces that there is an Industrial Action (a strike) going on in customs and it would take longer the normal to get through.  Oh Joy!  It only takes about an hour to get through customs, pick up my bag and get to the bus ticket counter.

“I’d like a one way senior fare to Salisbury please.”

“You have a senior bus card?”

“No.  I have a senior rail card never needed a senior bus card before.”

“The government has stopped subsidizing seniors so you need a card which is 10 pounds.”

“How much is the ticket with and without the card?”  The prices given did not offer that big a difference so I opt to pay full fare.

“Next bus is full next one is a 4 pm or you can go through Bristol now and arrive in Salisbury at 4 PM.”

“No thanks let’s see what the train has to offer.”  NOT “why the freak didn’t you tell me that in the first place!”

The train counter attend tells me I have twenty minutes to catch the bus to the train.  I by a train ticket which will get me to Salisbury by 12:45 PM.  I will have to take a bus to Working where I will catch the train to Salisbury.  Mark and I have done this when we leave to go home.  This will be the first time I am doing at the start of the trip.  With ticket purchased it is out of the terminal to the bus stand where I watch the bus driver and several passengers watching, and discussing fluid dripping from the back of the bus.  I guess they decide that the bus will not blow up so we load and are off.  Out of the bus into the train station and five minutes later up pulls the train.  The reason I wanted to take the bus is that I’m going to be lugging a 49 pound bag around in addition to my backpack (rutsack in England). The bus station in Salisbury is closer to Hayball’s, where my bike is stored, then the train station by about a mile.  I decided that I will take a cab from the train station = what the hell.  The train arrives on a track that is close to the station bike rack.  I walk along the parked bikes looking to see if my old bike is still there.  Low and behold there she sits waiting for me only there is a note taped to her.  “You have fourteen days to remove the bike or we will remove it.”  The note has a date of November 2011 on it.  MMMMMM do not count so good do they I think.  I dig out the keys for the locks, move the bike to a new position and put a rain cover on the seat.  That will do for now I hope.  Outside I ask how much for a ride to Haybills, liking the answer I am in the cab and we are off.

Cab drops me off at Haybills where I receive a warm welcome from Gram the owner.  He assures me that he has tuned up my new bike, checked it out, and it is ready to roll.  The sky has been gray since arriving and I am hoping that it will not rain until I get on the ferry later tonight.  I roll the bike out of the store, down to the corner where there is a bench.  I can get my panniers open pull some stuff out and get them ready to put on the bike when it begins to rain.  I gather the bike, panniers and all the stuff and hustle down the street to where there is a kind of min-mall. Once inside I finish getting the panniers packed and attached to the bike.  Now it is time to go to the bank gets some cash, then off to Pound Land for some things of necessity after which it’s time to hit the King Head Pub for lunch.  There is a corner in the Kings Head where Mark and I have sat in the past.  It is lonely sitting there having lunch without him.  During lunch I catch up on emails, and Facebook posts for a message from Lisa.  After lunch I return to the train station and ask for a ticket to Portsmouth.  The attendant tells me that the train leaves in twenty minutes.  I have made some great connections so far relieving much of my anxiety about getting to Paris on time.  After arriving at Portsmouth I ride over to the New Ferry terminal.  The last time Mark and I were here construction on it had just begun.  I make some adjustments on the bike and rearrange the stuff in the panniers.  I still can’t figure out why my bags weight so much.  I have less stuff then last year, but more weight.

I pre-purchased my ticket for the ferry about a month ago.  Purchasing the ticket was quite a process as at first they told there was not room on the ferry.  Therefore, I checked and found out that there were motorcycle openings.  Writing back, I requested one of the motorcycle slots because I had to get to Paris to meet my girlfriend for a romantic getaway.  Therefore, I stretched the truth just a little.  They informed me that there was now a slot open for a bike which needed to be secure quickly.  I purchased the ticket and now bike and I will arrive in France tomorrow morning around 8:30 AM.   If all goes well we will dock in in time for me to catch the 9:00 am train to Paris.  In the snack bar I find an outlet, pug in the phone and computer and it is time to have a snack, blog and wait.  The Ferry does not leave until 11:00 pm so after riding my bike onto the ferry I climb the five decks to the passenger lounge and find a spot to bed down for the night.  I have to give a little background to explain that the first time I took the ferry to France it was this very spacious ship.  It had seating from one side of the ship to the other.  There were several rows of seats which faced windows overlooking the front of the ship.  It also had a bar area, formal dining room, night club, kids play room full noisy machines and a buffet dining room.  A year later when Mark and I took the ferry we were on about ½ the appointments of the first ferry.  This one has about a quarter of the second ship.  It seems there are not enough seats for everyone to sleep in.  Nor is there any space to throw down a sleeping bag and stretch out like I did in previous years.  I put my stuff in a seat near an outlet and head off to the cafeteria for some dinner.

After dinner I see that a section seats that had a “reserved” sign on it beginning to fill with passengers.  So I take a look around and spy a place that would work for me to sleep in.  This “place” is between two rows of seats.  The rows need to be long enough so that my head and/or feet do not stick out into the aisle.  I blow up my air mattress and slide it between the seats, then slip into my sleeping bag, and settle in for the night.

Buen Camino!