We left New York on Wednesday evening on Delta Flight #1 to London. We got out of town ahead of the hurricane. Quite unexpectantly, when we went to board the plane our boarding passes triggered a message. It seems they had oversold the flight so they bumped us up to Business Class to open some seats in Coach. That was a nice start to the trip. We stayed in a small hotel near Hyde Park that was quite comfortable.
On Thursday we met an old friend that I hadn’t seen in 38 years. Marie had never met him and I had never met his wife. Although it had the makings of an awkward situation it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening. It was great to bring each other up to date on our families and what we have been doing.
We didn’t do much on Friday other than a long walk in Hyde Park. Friday afternoon we took the train from London’s Paddington Station to Penzance. The bike tour company arranged accommodations for us in a Bed & Breakfast called Blue Seas. It was extremely clean and very nice. Dinner in a pub helped kick things off in a very “English” fashion.
For some reason we have felt inordinately “jet lagged” this trip. We have been sleeping a lot and we are not sure why. Maybe the old body knows something is coming and is getting rested up.
Saturday afternoon we got a cab to Land’s End which is where we start the trip. We are staying at the Land’s End hotel. The bikes were waiting for us and we unboxed them and reassembled them. They survived the ocean crossing in fine shape. We met up with our friends, Mike and Janette Heitz. We made the Across America trip with them in the summer of 2007. It was nice to catch up with them.
Tomorrow morning we start the journey.
