We have Arrived!

Our day of travel proceeded with very few hitches. We left Atlanta on Tuesday, Aug 5 at 1p arriving DC around 3p. We left DC at 6p and arrived London at 6a (their time; 1a EST). Fortunately, Rachelle and Noah slept for about 3 hours, Liv for about 3, and I think I tucked in 30 min. I might have slept more if the 4-foot tall elderly Spanish woman behind me had stopped pushing and kicking my chair. After several hours, she leaned forward and asked if I would raise my seat. I noticed that her seat was leaned all the back as was the person in front of me. Did I mention she was about 4 feet tall? I pulled my seat up about 2 inches, sat in a huffy mood for about 5 min, and then I leaned it back again. Fun, fun, fun. I probably would have slept more if they hadn't been showing 'Leatherheads' and 'Prince Caspian', which both demanded my attention.

Upon arriving in London, we found that we could fit all of our luggage on 3 push carts. We packed for a year, so we had 6 large suitcases that had been checked, 2 bikes in boxes, and 5 or so carry-ons. Needles to say, the carts were put the test. Upon first inspection I was pleased with the carts: they were free, they were not much bigger than a grocery cart but much stronger, and - best of all - the wheels were not locked allowing them to roll in any direction. If you have ever pushed an Ikea cart, you get the idea. They can spin, be pushed sideways, as if you are pushing a box on ice.

My second inspection was that we had 3 carts each weighing roughly 300 pounds (I know this because each of our checked bags weighed up to exact maximum allowable weight of 50 pounds and our carry-ons, which have no weight limit, each weighed a ton; this is pretty exact including me having to divide up a pair of shoes between cases because 1 shoe tipped the case over by 2 ounces) and we had only 2 adult drivers, who were both sleep-deprived.

We had a little scare when the customs officer asked me for my work permit. I knew exactly where it was - sitting on the 2nd to top shelf in my brother's old room in my father's house in Atlanta. As the customs officer stared expectantly at me and Rachelle stared at me with an odd expression consisting of a mixture of hope and fury, I realized that our trip had just hit a major pothole. I meekly admitted that I thought the work permit was just necessary to procure the Visa. The officer said that was probably true and ushered us on our way. Phew. Bullet 1 missed with Rachelle's lingering anger leaving only a minor flesh wound.

We started off with me driving 1 cart with the 2 bike boxes and several cases, Rachelle driving another cart, and Noah on the 3rd (which annoyed our sleep-deprived Liv to no end). At first Noah managed to steer the cart okay. He made it from baggage claim toward the exit door. Yes, toward the door. As I and then Rachelle passed through the door and saw it close, we realized he should have been between us. Rachelle and I looked at the closed door labeled in American and British English "NO ENTRY. DO NOT ENTER", we looked at each other in horror, and then Rachelle turned and ran back through the door.

Just to clarify, it is post-9/11, Rachelle just ran from the open-to-the-public-water-bottle-carrying part of the airport through the customs exit door into the secured-screened-allowed-to-buy-duty-free part of the Heathrow airport. Yes, London, Heathrow, 3rd busiest maybe top on terrorist hit list airport. While I considered screaming but not wanting to draw attention to the situation and watched the door close behind her, I thought to myself that Liv and I had 2 of the 3 carts and could still have a grant time in England.

A few heart-beats later, Rachelle emerged with Noah...and the cart! No bobbies or alarms! Despite that she did not stop in and buy a bottle of Bailey's from duty-free, I was quite impressed. Bullet 2 dodged.

So, our journey through the Heathrow airport (3rd busiest behind Chicago and of course Atlanta) to the National Express bus station. Although the bus station is technically 'on-site', we had to walk a country mile, take an elevator, and maneuver through a series of hairpin ramps. Fortunately, the carts had brakes, which slowed the pace of the cart a bit before it smashed into the walls of the ramps. The kids - now both controlling the 3rd cart - found this fun and bullets 3-5 were dodged as they smashed their way through Brits.

At several points, such as the elevator and some of the particularly steep ramps, we used our sleep-deprived brains to figure out how to get from point A to point B. It was not unlike the riddle where you must get a dog, cat, and mouse across a river with 1 canoe and you cannot leave the dog and cat alone or cat and mouse alone. If you have 2 kids who are sleep deprived and both trying to control the same cart, you can imagine the gravity of the situation.

So, I would push Noah and a cart to a location just out of eye-shot. Leave Noah and the cart, sprint back to Rachelle and Liv and then I would push cart 2 and Rachelle and Liv on cart 3. Smooth.

We found our bus and the driver saw us coming. He shook his head, pointed at the bikes, and say, "I don't have room for them". He waited a few harrowing seconds before admitting that this was just a bit of the Brit humor and tossed our luggage under the bus.

On the bus ride Rachelle and Liv slept an hour, Noah 30 minutes, and I grabbed 20 minutes of shut-eye.

We arrived at the Bath bus station! Upon helping us unload the baggage and bikes, the bus driver told us that there were no cabs and not luggage carts at the Bath bus station. Rachelle and I waited for him to grin. And waited. As we stared, he told us that he was not kidding. As he headed back to the bus, he suggested we phone a taxi. I told him I had neither a taxi phone number or a phone. He read our pain and called a taxi for us. As he headed off, he told us to wait across the street. The area was about 30 meters (I was in England now) away and through a fence and across a busy street. As we now no longer have the death-carts, and it is starting to drizzle, Rachelle and I push our half-asleep brains to the max to figure out the situation.

Once again the dog-cat-mouse solution. I tote a bag and usher Noah to the spot. Leave Noah to guard the bag and head back. You keen blog readers might recall that I have thrown out my back. I had been popping Aleve since leaving Atlanta. Carrying 50 pound bike boxes was not the most fun and Rachelle and I could not both carry a box without leaving our bags unattended.

The taxi driver showed up, took us up to campus and the accommodation office. After a phone call, the office Brit found our key and pointed us and our cab to our new home.

We are living in a 2-story 4-bedroom unit on campus. It is fine. Pictures to follow. The kids played with the neighbor, a 9-year-old name Nezu, I walked in search of information technology to initiate our internet access, and Rachelle unpacked. All was good.

The new neighbors are great. They are from India but have lived in Bath for 7 years. The father is in charge of student residence and takes the job very seriously. He had to leave twice on apparent emergencies. As he pointed at the student housing around us, he mentioned that if we take student partying and noise in stride, we might love living there. If we are annoyed by the undergraduate mayhem, we might look into moving. Given that it is summer and students are away, I reserved judgment. His wife, Angela, brought over some wonderful homemade Indian food. Yum. Kevin came by and took Rachelle and me on a walk around campus. All was good except we hadn't slept and our brains were turning to mush.

Upon putting the kids to bed, English time around 10p (5p EST Wed, Aug 6), we learned that they had mixed reports on their new neighbor. I hoped they were being overly critical/sensitive because of being so tired, but Rachelle did pass on to later that night that Angela said her son has social skills deficits. As I write this, I am hoping that I didn't just foreshadow some horror show.

It is now 4:30a Bath time (11:39p on Aug 6 EST) and I did sleep for 4 hours or so before I woke with a start and the thought, "We made it to Bath!" I will now get back to bed in hopes of falling into a deep sleep.