Day 88 to 90 Bedford to London 11 - 14.07.12

Day 88  Bedford, Pennsylvania  11.07.12

Oh no! Woke at 5.30am feeling really poorly, my throat feels like I’ve been eating razor blades & I’ve kept Roy awake with my snoring. (I only snore when I’ve got a cold!) I managed to doze until 8 then slowly got up & had a shower. It’s a good job we haven’t got much planned for today. Managed a bit of breakfast then sat outside reading & writing the last few postcards. Have to send some Niagara Falls ones even though they’ll get there after we do.

We went for a drive to find a chemist for some more cold & flu tablets, I hope my cold goes as fast as Roy’s, he’s much better today. Bedford seems like a lovely place, very quiet & quaint.

Got the ‘big sort out’ to do today so we emptied the car & I got started. It’s amazing what you accumulate over 3 months, toiletries from the hotels, tea, coffee & sugar sachets, leaflets, anything in fact. I ended up throwing away about 4 carrier bags of rubbish then started packing the cases. We’re really worried as we’ve bought so many things for people back home, especially the children, that we may well be over with our weight allowance. Oh well, I’m more bothered about lugging the cases back than paying a bit extra at the airport.

Day 89 Bedford to Washington DC 12.07.12

Still full of cold this morning but managed a bit of breakfast & got ready for our last drive. Set off just before 12 as we haven’t got far to go & can’t check in until about 4.00pm. It’s another lovely, hot, sunny day.

Got to the Americana hotel about 3.30pm & the guy on the desk was quite abrupt, in fact he was having a go at a foreign chap because he was reporting his toilet as being blocked & the guy on the desk insisted that he’d blocked it himself! Anyway, we checked in & have got a nice room for our last night on American soil then we drove the car back to Ronald Reagan airport to the Alamo place. All went smoothly considering we’ve done over 13,600 miles in 13 weeks, they even gave Roy the money back for the oil change.

We rang the hotel & the shuttle picked us up from the airport & dropped us off at the hotel. We’re going to the sports bar where we had a meal when we were in Washington at the start of the trip. Roy printed our boarding passes & we walked to the pub. Seems strange not to have a car!

Had a New York strip steak & a beer for our last meal out & sat by some Police officers complete with guns, really made us feel safe!

Day 90 Washington DC – New York – London  13.07.12

The last day has finally arrived & we got up at 6.30am, showered, had breakfast & got a lift to the metro at 8.20am. My throat is still sore but hopefully on the mend. Packed the last few bits & kept my jeans out for the plane journey, it’s too hot to wear them all day so I’ll change at the airport.

We got to the metro, bought our tickets from the machine after a kind lady showed us how to then got the 2 trains to Union station to catch the megabus to New York. Got to the station ok & joined the queue for the bus. We’re a bit early but did get close to the front of the 10.00am bus queue so should be able to pick our seats. Last time we went on the bus they moaned at us about my case which is hand luggage size for the airport but not for the bus. I needn’t have worried because they didn’t even mention the case.

Got a decent seat & settled down for the 4 ½ hour journey to NY. Nice not to have to worry about traffic & road works & everything. When we got to NY we had to walk a few blocks to Penn Station to get the 2 trains to the airport. The streets were absolutely crammed with people & we had a large cases, 1 small case & a holdall to carry, all very heavy.

The worst bit was when we got to Penn station, Roy left me with all the luggage & went off to get the tickets. Wherever I’d have stood I’d have been in the way, I lost count of the number of times bags bashed into me! Saying that, it was great to be back in the Big Apple. It would have been lovely to spend another couple of days there, maybe another time.

We got the train to Jamaica station then the next one to the airport. When we got there I got changed & then we weighed our cases in case we’ve got to juggle things around. Miraculously they are all ok! So we checked the cases in & prayed they would meet us in London, then went for a drink & a snack before going through to departures. 

The flight was called on time & we boarded at 6.30pm after being on the road for 10 hours already. A young girl was in the window seat, then me, then Roy. She was very friendly & when everyone was on the plane she checked if there were any spare seats. She found a whole row of 3 so took herself off to get some sleep so we had all 3 seats to spread out on.

Unfortunately we missed out take off slot so had to leave 1 hour 20 minutes late. Not long after taking off the meal came around with a nice glass of wine & then we settled down to watch ‘the best exotic marigold hotel’, which we both enjoyed. Breakfast was brought around before we landed & we added 5 hours onto our watches so it was 8.00am on 14^th July when we landed. Both of us had gone deaf & it took several hours for our ears to clear.

We went through passport control & collected our luggage – it all came with us! Louise was waiting at the barrier for us, great, she knows the tube so well she will be a great help. Lovely to see her too!

The next leg of the journey now begins! 2 tubes to Euston station then the train to Birmingham & another train to Tame Bridge where Ernie, very kindly, picked us up & took us home. 24 hours travel completed!

Strange to be back, we could see signs of the flooding in the fields everywhere & it’s been drizzling all day. My cold seems to have come back worse than it was in the first place. Oh well!

What a wonderful adventure we’ve had & it will take quite a while for it all to sink in.

There is nothing we would have changed about any of it.

In a few weeks, when I’ve had time to think about everything I’ll do a finishing piece on the blog so have a look if you want to. I’ve really loved doing this blog, maybe it could be something I’ll revisit in the future, who knows. Thank you for supporting me.

Lots of love

TTFN xxx

Days 83 to 87 photos

Speaks for itself really!

In Toronto

 An old church in amongst the sky scrapers in Toronto!

 View from the CN tower.

 My feet standing on the glass floor in the CN tower.

Our lovely Africa room in Niagara

 Niagara on the Lake

 A piper at Niagara on the Lake

 Horseshoe Falls & Roy!

Falls from the Maid of the Mist

 Right in the middle of it! Fabulous!

 Looking a bit bedraggled after the boat trip!

 Behind the Falls

 Roy looking like he's joined the 'moonies'!!!

Hope you like these photos
TTFN xxx

Days 83 to 87, Toronto to Bedford, Pennsylvania 06-10.07.12

Day 83 Toronto, Ontario, Canada 06.07.12

Moving on from Ann Arbor to Toronto for a couple of days.  We’re hoping to watch some of the men’s Wimbledon tennis semi final with Andy Murray before we set off.  Unfortunately he’s playing in the second match so we’ll try to find a radio station so we can at least listen to it. On the way we filled up with petrol before we crossed the border as it’s cheaper in the USA then crossed over into Canada again. Did find a sports station that was covering the match so we were very happy to listen to Andy win his match.

After crossing we stopped at an ‘en route’ place, which is a bit like a motorway services in the UK. We had a horrible, cold coffee & there were flies everywhere so we won’t be stopping at any of those places again in a hurry.

We found the Country Inn by Carlson & checked into a lovely room, unpacked & made a cuppa. We thought the temperature was going to cool down but it’s just as hot here as it was in America. That was when we realised that the air con wasn’t working so Roy rang reception & a man came up to check it. The compressor has broken (not our fault) & we’ve got to have a new unit. Hands up to them, the new unit was fitted within half an hour & worked perfectly, talk about service.

Had to go to the garage next door for a pack of water then went to Wendy’s for burger & fries for tea. Lovely girl served us & she loves England, especially London & Bath! Then came back to the hotel & Roy did 2 loads of washing. Watched ‘Heartbeat’ on the tv then settled down for the night.

Day 84 Toronto 07.07.12

Happy birthday, James!

Got ready & went for a lovely breakfast then did the ironing as it’s been raining in the night & needs some time to clear up. We’re going into Toronto to go up the CN tower later.

Had a nice relaxing morning then drove into town & found a parking space for $7.50 for 3 hours. We walked up to the CN tower but the queue was quite long, serves us right for coming on a Saturday, so we decided to go for a drink first then go back later. The Toronto Blue Jays stadium is next to the tower & there is the first American Football match of the season today for the Toronto Argonauts who share the stadium. There were lots of people going into the ground for the match. Had a drink then went back to the tower to buy our tickets, $67 for the 2 of us but the queue is 1 hour to go to the observation deck & another hour to go up to the sky pod so we went for a walk around town until 5.30, then back to the car to put another 3 hours on the parking ticket.

Absolutely shattered after all the walking around in the heat! Back to the tower & we queued for half an hour just to go up in the elevator to the observation deck. I’ve rarely seen so many people in so small a space with so many babies (most of them screaming!) To my view it’s not really a place to take little ones as it’s crowded & you have to stand around for ages several times when you’re in there.

We got to the obs deck & tried to look around & get to the windows, difficult with so many people there, then went on the glass floor & joined the queue for the sky pod. After a while we decided we didn’t have time as it would take another half an hour to go up, same to come down & then again to get out which would have taken us over our car park time. Maybe because we’ve recently been to the Chicago Willis Tower, which was brilliant, it wasn’t the right time to go to another tower, which was sadly lacking in comparison. I think we’d both rather have gone to the American Football game!

We looked around the pier but couldn’t decide what to eat so drove back for a baked potato & chilli at Wendy’s! Watched ‘Inspector Morse’ then bed.

Day 85 Toronto to Niagara Falls 08.07.12

Feeling really tired today even though I slept well, all catching up with me I think.

Sunday again, how quickly they come around. After breakfast we stayed to watch the Men’s Wimbledon final with Andy Murray & Roger Federa. Brilliant first set which gave us hope but, alas, the 2^nd didn’t go to plan & then the rain started so I took the chance to ring home then we set off for Niagara. We just arrived at the Rex Motel when the game was ending & were greeted very warmly by Emilia, the owner. Our room wasn’t quite ready so we went to Walmart for a drink & to do some shopping before going back to check in.

The motel is an old fashioned lay out where you park in front of your room but that is where the old fashioned bit ended. Our room is the Africa room with the decor, bedding, pictures & ornaments all African themed. Absolutely lovely & a real change from the generic big chain hotel rooms. Emilia was so friendly & told us all of the places to go & where to park, which made it very easy for us when we drove a few miles to Niagara on the Lake, a lovely village which was founded by the Irish. There were flowers everywhere & lots of people around, even a newlywed couple. We had an ice cream & a good look around then went by Lake Ontario & sat by the water for a while. Emilia had left us some home made cheese pastries in our room while we were out.

Day 86 Niagara Falls 09.07.12

Didn’t sleep very well due to a French family in the next room who thought it was ok to come home after 11, talk really loudly outside the room & let the kids scream & shout until after midnight! Grrrr! Inconsiderate people make me see red!!!

Really looking forward to going into Niagara today, this is our last big experience of the holiday & it would be great if it really was a grand finale. We parked at the casino & walked down towards the Falls. I can’t describe the sound of the water, it roars! My goodness, they are spectacular! So many people but because you’re outside it doesn’t seem too bad at all.

Again the weather has been kind to us, it’s lovely & sunny & we bought our tickets to go on the ‘Maid of the Mist’ boat, lined up, got our bright blue plastic ponchos & waited to get on the boat. There were about 10 people in front of us so we knew we’d get near the front on the top deck.

On we got & set off firstly for the American Falls which are smaller & quite different as they’ve had a rock fall so the water goes over them too. Then towards the Horseshoe Falls, which are magnificent. The boat got right into the middle of it & we were getting soaked & loving it! It was like being tossed around on the high seas in a storm at one point & we loved every minute & even managed to take photos & film! All too soon we were heading back so we went for a well earned cup of coffee overlooking the Falls, great.

After a sit down we walked down to the other end to the visitor centre & got our tickets for the ‘Behind the Falls’ experience. This time we had bright yellow ponchos & went down in the elevator. You can go to 2 openings that are behind the Falls, but, to be honest with you it was just noisy & wet & you couldn’t really see anything so you have to imagine what was going on in front of it.

We went down to the viewing platforms outside, absolutely amazing & very loud & wet. Had to drag ourselves away but went into a gift shop then walked around a bit more before sitting on the grass with a drink to dry our footwear out. While we were there I discovered that my walking sandals, which have been fantastic for all the trekking we’ve done, are actually falling to pieces so will be staying in America when I come home!

Sometime later we walked past the Falls to see the river that feeds them & spotted an aerial tramway up the hill so got on it to go to find the ‘Outback Steakhouse’ to see if it’s as good as the American ones. Unfortunately it wasn’t anywhere near as good, it was dark, dismal, empty & over priced so we left & went into ‘Applebees’ for something to eat. Roy had chicken salad & I had ribs & the lad who brought the food tried to give me the salad! If you’ve been to Canada or America you’ll know that salad is loads of lettuce, 2 cherry tomatoes & 2 rings of onion, not what I call salad.

Set off back to the hotel & more pastries have been left in our room, we’ll save them for the journey tomorrow. We relaxed for a little while then went to Walmart to get Roy some cold remedy & strepsils, poor thing. Next we drove back into Niagara to see the Falls lit up & it didn’t disappoint at all. Still loads of people around & the atmosphere was good. It’s a lovely place to visit but you should go to the Canadian side as it’s much better.

Day 87 Niagara to Bedford, Pennsylvania 10.07.12

Leaving Niagara & setting off on the last leg of our trip back to Washington DC to return the car, (‘baby’!) I’ve woken up with a sore throat & cold but not the cough, thank goodness. Packed up & said goodbye to Emilia, she gave me a big hug, what a lovely person she is. Certainly deserves to make a success of her business, she works so hard.

We set off for the border again & all of the vehicles had to wait until the dog walked around them, not sure what it was looking for, drugs, firearms, explosives? After getting through the border interrogation we drove into Buffalo looking for petrol, & looking for petrol, & looking for petrol until we found some, phew, that was touch & go whether we ran out before we found any.

Because of this we got onto the freeway a different way which meant we had to go a different way but it was through lovely, residential farmland , so we didn’t mind & arrived at the Fairfield Inn in Bedford at 5.30pm, both feeling wrung out. After checking into our lovely 5^th floor room we went to the restaurant next door for tea then back to the room for a relaxing night. Tomorrow is a sorting out day & making sure we can fit everything into the luggage allowance. As we’ve had the car all through the trip we’ve spread our stuff out & now the day of reckoning is upon us, will we be able to carry the cases onto the train in London? Watch this space!!!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this part, probably will do one more finishing off the trip & an overview a week or so after we get home.

TTFN xxx

Photos Days 78 to 82

He's a big bald eagle in Oacoma!

 The view driving into Chicago

 Recognise the name of the road, Steve?

 What about this house?

 And these people?

 Me in Rugeley Road, Western Springs, Illinois! A long way from home.

 Chicago from the Willis / Sears Tower

 Me on the glass platform, do you like my 4th July top?

Our feet on the glass platform 103 floors up!

 Patriotic on the 4th July

 Roy by the river in Chicago

 The fireworks on Navy Pier

Hope you like the photos.

TTFN xxx

Days 78 to 82 Albert Lea to Ann Arbor 01 - 05.-7.12

Day 78 Oacoma to Albert Lea 01.07.12

Can’t believe it’s July already! When we set off it seemed ages away & here it is.

We’ve got a 310 mile journey today & it’s very hot & sweaty so we’ll be having the air con on – do you hear that Roy? We drove for a while then stopped for a break & a drink then carried on to America’s Best Value Inn. Also the clocks went back an hour so we’re only 6 hours different to the UK. The room is nice & it doesn’t take long to settle in as we’ve done it so many times.

We decided on a pizza from a place a block away so walked there, ordered & had a beer while we waited. What was I saying about not being able to be understood? It came to about $5 more than we thought but we didn’t say anything as I was sure we would just get some potatoes or fries to go with the pizza & onion rings we’d ordered. When we picked it up we had a pizza box & 3 other large polystyrene containers. What was in them? Goodness only knows!

When we got back to the room we quickly had a look, as well as the thin crust chicken pizza & box of onion rings we also had 2 boxes with a piece of fish between 2 slices of French bread & wedges, the girl had also put so many condiments in the bag it was unbelievable! Mustard, salad dressing, ketchup, toothpicks, serviettes & about half a pound of mints. We tried our best but had to throw quite a bit of it away.

Roy tried to find the football final on the tv but it wasn’t being replayed so we read for the rest of the evening.

Day 79 Albert Lea to Madison, Wisconsin 02.07.12

Slept well as the room seemed ‘homely’ & I could relax. Funny how I get a feeling about some places & not others.

We went to the restaurant joined on to the hotel as we don’t get a complimentary breakfast but do get 30% off the bill. Had one of the best breakfasts yet, 2 eggs over easy, bacon, sausage, potato rosti, toast & a whole pot of coffee to myself all for just over $15, great value.

It’s very hot & muggy again, sorry if you think I’m moaning, it would be different if we were at the beach or by a pool but travelling & sight seeing in this heat is quite uncomfortable.

When we arrived at the Days Inn, Madison the receptionist was very abrupt & quite scary but the room was excellent & even had a rocking, recliner chair. Just relaxed & ate in the room.

Day 80 Madison to Chicago 03.07.12

Got ready & set off for Chicago about 150 miles away. On the way we stopped at an Oasis, which is a bit like our motorway services only with more food outlets & less retail. We had a drink & a muffin then continued on our way.

All I can say is, ‘thank goodness for Roy’s written instructions!’ The roads are all at least 5 lanes each way & with very fast moving traffic, so if we didn’t know where we were heading for we’d have no chance. On the way we had to pay about 5 tolls but they only added up to $8 so not too bad apart from some where you have to have the right change, often something like 90cents & they won’t accept a $1 note.

Our hotel is the Carlton Inn Midway, which is a suburb of Chicago & we were greeted by the most informed staff ever. They gave us several maps & even printed one out for Western Springs when we said we wanted to go there. Nothing seems any trouble to them. As far as the room, by Chicago standards it’s pretty good & has the best tv so far with free movie channels so we might even find something to watch later. I'd already found old episodes of Rawhide & Gunsmoke, brill!

Forgot to say that the temperature hit the 100 degree mark on the way here & seems set to continue like this or get even hotter.

Anyway, after unpacking we set off to find Western Springs which is twinned with Rugeley & found it quite easily with our maps from the hotel. We got to Rugeley Road & prepared to get out of the car only to find that, for the first time in 80 days we’d forgotten to bring the cameras!!!!

As we had driven over we decided to still see if Ray & Jeannine were home. These special people were involved in setting up a trip for a young lads football team to spend about 10 days in Western Springs staying with local families 35 years ago. My brother in law, Steve, was the one who stayed at their home & we’d promised to look them up. Unfortunately when we got there & rang the door bell there was no answer so Roy took a photo of me by the house with  his phone & we thought we’d give it another try in the morning as we had to come back to take more pictures. Before we returned to the hotel we drove past the shops, park & railway station. Western Springs is a lovely, residential area with beautiful houses & a very nice feel to it.

On the way back we stopped at Arby’s for some food & had a very interesting chat to 2 young people who worked there. The girl thought we’d driven from England & asked if we’d spoken to the Queen!

Also when we got back the tv came up trumps & we watched a film called ‘Salt’ with Angelina Jolie in it, actually it was quite good!

Day 81 Chicago 04.07.12

4^th of July, a big public holiday & celebration in America.

Breakfast was an experience today, breakfast bagels with sausage, egg & cheese on that you had to warn up in the microwave, horrible! Stuck with yogurt & a donut.

Afterwards we got ready & made sure we’d got both cameras for our return visit to Western Springs. We decided to see if Ray & Jeannine were in & had just started to drive away as we thought they were out when Ray came out the front. Roy stopped the car & I asked if he was Ray. He invited us in to their lovely home & we spent a wonderful hour chatting about our trip, the time they had the football boys over & their family, it was really lovely of them to welcome 2 strangers into their home the way they did. We took photos to take home for Steve & took our leave of them to go round the rest of the village. We took video & photos of various places that we thought Steve & his friends might have been to & also Rugeley Road to prove it’s there before heading back to the hotel.

Everything happens for a reason & we forgot the cameras so we could have a lovely visit today.

After a while we walked to the train station down the road & got on the orange line to the Chicago loop & got off at the stop nearest to the Willis / Sears Tower. It was $17.50 each to go up the tower & we watched a short film about the making of the tower then got on the elevator to the top. The views of the city are amazing & it was a lovely clear day so we could see far. It’s 103 storeys high & standing on the glass platforms over that drop was scary so I did it but didn’t look down!

Next we got back on the train to go a couple more stops to as close to Navy Pier as we could then we walked to it past the Chicago Tribune offices. Outside the pier there are fountains & jets of water that lots of children & adults were using to cool down, this looked great fun.

On the pier there were more & more people arriving all the time & many had already got their places for the fireworks at 9.00pm. We had a walk around & then got some Chinese food from the food hall & sat outside to eat it. There’s a stained glass museum inside & it was lovely & cool to walk around it out of the heat for a while.

As we had about 2 hours to go before the fireworks we walked down by the water & looked for a good place to watch them. There were lots of people celebrating 4^th July on small boats & yachts moored up & some were even swimming to cool off. I got us some cold drinks & we settled down to wait for the display on a jetty near where the Police boats & helicopters are kept. A lad by us of about 19 / 20 was shining a laser gun on the ducks, buildings & finally a Police helicopter that was circling around. The helicopter shone the spotlight on us & told him to stop as it was illegal, we thought we were going to get an armed response unit coming to sort him out but thankfully we didn’t. What an idiot, he thought he was being so clever too!

The fireworks started at 9.00pm & lasted about 15 minutes but they were spectacular & the view of the Chicago skyline in the dark was really something not to be missed. Wonderful! It was still so hot that I don’t think I stopped mopping my brow all day & even at 10.00pm at night it was the same.

We walked along to the train station with hundreds of others & the atmosphere was great. When we got back to Midway there were fireworks going off everywhere & they continued late into the night.

Day 82 Chicago to Ann Arbor, Michigan  05.07.12

Slept better as I had a very cool shower before going to bed last night. We drove out of Chicago &, finally, the traffic got less & the width of the roads got back to a more normal 2 lanes each way.

As we were driving the dark clouds got bigger & darker like something out of ‘War of the Worlds!’ After a while we went through some really heavy rain but only for a few minutes then we were out of it. The temperature started out at 100 degrees but has dropped to between 70 & 80 degrees so feels much more comfortable. We had to put our watches forward an hour agains so we are now 5 hours behind the UK & will stay that way until we return home.

Checked into the Microtel Inn & suites, Ann Arbor, Michigan & have a lovely room. We went over to the Holiday Inn & had a meal in their restaurant, Roy had lasagne & I had stuffed smoked pork with mash & vegetable then we shared a chocolate brownie with ice cream & whipped cream before waddling back to the room. 

Hope you liked this part of the trip, we did.

Photos separately as usual.

TTFN xxx