News from Les (his e-mail posted with his permission!)
Friday July 3rd started out badly.
After suffering a bad night’s sleep I was informed that Ippany couldn’t find her passport, causing my heart to nervously skip a beat or two. After appropriate castigation and some delay she found the passport but we worried about the delay in getting to the airport
All problems solved until I realized that I had misplaced my car keys. No point in flying to Newark without my keys and finding ourselves stranded in the parking lot at EWR! Eventually after repeated searches of my luggage, unpacking, repacking and unpacking yet again, Ippany found the missing keys in the most obvious compartment in my bag. Stupid me!
All problems again solved albeit we were now running late for the trip to Birmingham Airport. Chantal quickly ate up the miles until we were on the M6 in slowing traffic. Slow became a crawl and Chan’s GPS directed us to take an alternative route. After considerable delay we finally exited the M6 and traveled through what seemed like the back streets of Greater Coventry and beyond to find ourselves near the airport with just enough time to catch the flight. Rushing around seeking our boarding counter, with Pierre taking care of my luggage and preceding me by 50 yards with Ippany also way in front, we finally found the flight security guy who was checking documentation etc. prior to embarkation. No problem I thought, we still have 30 minutes before the flight leaves.
No such luck….I was not allowed to emplane (love that word. No its not a spelling mistake, I checked the dictionary) as my “Green Card” had expired in June. Holy crap!!!! Now we’re in really serious trouble. Quickly discussed with Ippany and arranged to give her my car keys together with the EWR parking ticket so that she could drive herself home while I visited the USA Embassy in London and begged for documentation in order to fly home as soon as possible thereafter. The security guy took off with my expired green card while we debated what to do next. I was then called over to a counter where the security agent was on the phone with some branch of the USA immigration service who asked me my father’s full name, my mother’s maiden name etc. Apparently I am well and truly embedded in the system as I was given permission to fly on our particular flight. Rush, rush, rush and fast-tracked through all the controls to just make the flight.
Nice flight, plenty of room with 3 seats for the two of us. Good service, decent food, good entertainment system etc. We arrived 15 minutes early at EWR and quickly reached the immigration desk. They were expecting me and must have been waiting for a grey haired octogenarian traveling with a 20 year old Anglo- Asian girl. Big Brother is alive and well! Next I was escorted to a backroom, with Ippany in tow for moral support, where a couple other “aliens” were also being grilled. This caused some delay, but otherwise wasn’t too bad and my interviewer was kind of sympathetic and kindheartedly read me the riot act advising me never to repeat my cardinal sin.
Finally we arrived on the bus to long term parking and exited the airport for the drive home. Beautiful weather, light traffic, 3 something in the afternoon…this is going to be a “breeze”. After half an hour of fast moving things slowed to a crawl…visions of Birmingham. Holiday weekend traffic!!!!! Stop and Go for the next 70 miles until we approached the North country.
Home at last. Lessons learned. Ruth and dogs happy to see us. All’s well that ends well. Went to work today for a rest!!!!!!
We had such a wonderful vacation making all the travails seem meaningless.
To Chantal and Neil in particular and to the rest of the family, Many, many thanks for making an old man so happy.
XXXXXX
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
