Leaving Blighty

The alarm went off at 5am. I was well in the land of nod, dreaming the car had broken down in a tunnel somewhere. Up we got and by 5:45, we were on the road. It was then I realised that amongst all the other stuff going on in my head, the directions to the parking lot (talking yank already!) weren’t. No problem, we stopped at the service area on the M25 and programmed the phone, Purple Parking, Heathrow.

I didn’t recognise the way were we being directed. A “you have reached your destination” confirmed what I had feared, there is more than one Purple Parking at Heathrow! DOH!   Postcode entered, we arrived at the correct PP within 10 minutes. Still on schedule.

To greet us, the heavens opened. Shan’t miss this. Have a nice wet Bank Holiday everyone.

Cases loaded, we were the only 2 people heading for Terminal 3. The driver a chatty fellow was very accommodating, getting us as close as possible to the terminal door and grabbing us a trolley. He got a tip for his trouble, practise for us for the coming 3 weeks.

Check in was slick enough, security not so but we made it through. Catherine, as usual, set off the alarm, giving the lady on the gate the excuse to stick her hand into Catherine’s pants!

Making our way to the gate, we hadn’t even sat down when they were ushering us on board the aircraft. Lady Love she was called. Taking our seat, with the other 123 passengers, we  prepared for our 8 hour 9 minute flight.

Counting the Days

Seems like only a year ago I started talking about this trip and yet here it is, within touching distance. Oh wait, it was!  Anyway, there is now less than a week to go before we fly into the Windy City, Chicago. Weather forecast for the day of our arrival, is high eighties fahrenheit, so if it lives up to it's name, that might be just what we need, a cool breeze, as we are doing our sightseeing. It's a little warmer than I was expecting, if I'm honest but not too hot that Ms Dozey will go into shutdown. The photo you see of her on the blog was taken in Vegas and the temperature there was 114..... way too hot for Ms D.

This will almost certainly be the last time I post from Blighty. I have too much to get sorted now and still have to take care of the day job too. Little piles of papers, plug converters, chargers, etc, have started to appear around the place but I've not yet started to 'pack' as such. As I write, I haven't a clue what I'll be taking on the clothing front but if the weather is going to be that good, the whole time (fingers crossed), then I can probably afford to travel light.

Wifi and my stamina allowing, I'll aim to update the blog at the end of each day, though I know some places we won't get free wifi, so there may be some days delay, coz I'm damned if I'm paying for it! If I can, I may even knock out a quick update during the day, on the phone/tablet. Again that is wifi dependant. Even if I can't post, you'll be able to see from the hotels listing, where we are along the route and track us that way. We start the drive and thus end the day in Springfield, IL, on Wednesday 2nd September.

That's all for now. Looking forward to the ride and having y'all along with us.

Till next week.

Three Weeks and Counting

Yes, can you believe it?  Three weeks today we'll leave Blighty for the new world across the Atlantic.

When I left you last, we'd sorted our sightseeing day in Chicago and were turning our attention to Los Angeles.  Well, we have that pretty much sorted, though we've yet to sort out when we'll meet Dean & Carol and we've also logged our must do's for our spare days in Springfield, Illinois and Santa Fe.

The admin side, i.e. our ESTA, has been sorted and I finally managed to book our room at the Cactus Inn, in McLean, Texas. You may recall the Cactus Inn were proving difficult to get hold of  previously and when I finally got a response from them, they said to wait until August to book. Well, after another email and Facebook message, in July, for which I got the standard silence, I decided to bite the bullet and call them. I think the woman who answered the phone was a bit thrown by my accent (she sounded just like Sheldon Cooper's mum from The Big Bang Theory) but it could have just been the delay on the phone. Let's just say it wasn't a free flowing conversation. Booking though was as easy as mom's apple pie! I gave her my dates and with an "awl righdee", it was booked.......I hope.  We'll find out soon enough, as we're due in town 9th September.

Now, it's just a case of double checking I have all the paperwork sorted, getting the route maps downloaded to my TomTom, preparing what we want/need to take with us and making sure we don't have any last minute panics.

No Problemo!

That's all for now.

Cactus Inn, McLean, TX

Chicago Sightseeing

Sorted. Well, sort of.

Cath and I have sat down and taken a look at what Chicago has to offer. To be honest, we've not found a whole lot that is of real interest to us. It's become clear though that what we did have an interest in, was going to be too much for the time we have available, so the Gangster Tour and the Wrigley Field tour have been sidelined.  Most of the stuff we have identified is within a couple of miles walk of the hotel, which is perfect, as we both like to walk but even now we aren't sure we'll be able to fit everything in, as we don't know quite what time we shall get to our hotel and/or whether we'll feel like going out straight away, after the long journey over. We'll find out soon enough though, only 10 weeks to go now.

This has been a useful exercise, as we now have to look at what we can fill our spare day with in LA. The added 'complications' there, are that we aren't in the heart of the city and we also want to include  spending some time with Dean & Carol (my buddies from the Wild West Tour 2013). All I can say is, I hope they don't mind walking!

Till next time.

Chicago planning

Following on from the last post, Cath and I decided we'd sit down at the weekend and spend a couple of hours planning what we shall do on our sightseeing day in Chicago. There were a couple of other things thrown into the ring, such as the baseball stadium and an architectural boat trip, so it seemed sensible to check these out. Least that was the plan, but we fell at the first hurdle!

Thanks to Mr Branson, our flight out has been moved forward a couple of hours, meaning, where we had imagined we would use public transport to Heathrow, we will now have to arrive so early, that we need to leave before the trains start running. Consequently, rather than seeing what delights the Windy City has in store for us, we spent our time reviewing the different options for getting us to Heathrow. In the end, the most sensible option was to drive and park the car in long stay parking. Looking at the costs involved and logistics, it was  a no brainer and I have duly booked our space.

In the meantime, I've had a quick look at some of the attractions in Chicago and found a gangster bus tour, which may be quite interesting. Cath and I will have another shot (no pun intended) at planning this coming weekend and hopefully we'll be able to get some sort of plan together. Once that's sorted, we can turn our attentions to the other end of the Route, LA.

Thrill of a lifetime

Or maybe not.

When we arrive in Chicago, we shall have a day and a bit to do our sightseeing. One of the places I definitely want to visit, is Lou Mitchells. I'm hoping that they will be able to squeeze a couple of Limies in for breakfast. And what better way to start your first full day in the Windy City?

For those that don't know, Lou's is a famous Route 66 eatery and has been serving the Chicago population since before the route was created even, from 1923. When I did the route in 2010, I didn't have any layover time, just a couple of hours in the afternoon to visit the Willis Tower, so there was no chance of indulging in some pancakes and corfee at Lou's. This time, we'll hope to rectify that.

Mentioning the Willis Tower, brings me to another visit I'm planning. Like I said, I did the WT before, including standing on the 'Ledge' or skydeck, which is basically a glass box hanging out over the side of the building. I had in mind that Cath, despite her fear of heights, might like to go up the second tallest building in the US but I've recently discovered something different. 360 Chicago is basically the same as Willis, a viewing floor up in the clouds but this one puts a new twist on the Ledge theme, with something called Tilt. What this is, is 8 glass panels, with handles either side, that tilt out hydraulically 30 degrees, thus giving the punters an unforgettable view of the street, a thousand feet below. Now there's no way Cath will do that but if she won't do either the Ledge or Tilt, then we may as well go to the one I haven't already been to, even if it is only the seventh tallest!

The Ledge, Willis Tower

After that, I'm not too sure what we'll be up to. Our hotel overlooks the park and Lake Michigan, so I expect we'll spend some time around there but apart from that, I'm not too sure. I'll maybe check out some Chicago websites and trip advisor, for suggestions or just leave it to Cath. The next day we'll be up early and on the road, once I've picked up the car that is. Course, I should say, up early and on The Route!

Till next time.  

147 days and counting!

Yes, less than 5 months now until we jet off to Chicago.

Since my last post, this being my first of 2015, Mr Branson has changed our flight times once again and I have secured a room booking at another of my first choice hotels. That leaves just The Cactus Inn, Mclean, Texas as the only first choice hotel not confirmed. For some reason they prefer booking to be made only a couple of weeks in advance. Should be interesting, as it took me months to get any response from them at all, either through email or messaging them on Facebook. I do have a backup booked in Amarillo though, in case the Cactus doesn't come off.

Apart from that, it's all been very quiet, with only some minor tweaks made to the route, such as the 'singing' road, near Albuquerque. This is a stretch of road that has grooves cut into the tarmac, that when you run over them at a certain speed, 40 mph, 'sing' out the tune of The Star-Spangled Banner.

I did have concerns over the planned route, at the far end of the tour in California for a while, as last autumn/fall, flash flooding washed away part of the roads around Amboy in the Mojave. Imagine my shock when the route planner suddenly showed a massive (400 mile) detour back up to i40 and around the impasse. That all seems to be cleared up now, so fingers crossed there's no more before we go and especially whilst we are on that stretch of road in September. Apart from that, I read that an old R66 bridge had been closed, the Gasconade River bridge in Missouri. Seems it has been allowed to fall into some state of disrepair and has now become potentially unsafe for traffic. There's even talk of demolishing it, which surely can't be allowed to happen. This is the roads' heritage and should be preserved, not destroyed.

Gasconade River Bridge, now closed to traffic

Ms Dozey has started to compile her list of music for the trip, though I'm not sure she has got past the obvious yet, referencing Tulsa, Amarillo and Winslow! Feel free to post your suggestions.

Lastly, I'm waiting to hear from our sunshine state buddies Dean and Carol, as to whether they will be around when we arrive in Los Angeles. As Dean is the Wild West Tour guide, it's possible they will be on a tour when we arrive in town. We should know by the end of the month.

That's all for now. Till next time.

Keep your motor runnin'