A Long Overdue Wrap - Part Two

After a dodgey start in a dodgey taxi, we quickly found our way to our final hotel. And when we walked in, we nearly walked straight back out - surely this wasn't the right place?? It was quite amazing and looked somewhat out of our price range - but I'd pre-booked back at the family's and had a reference code, so let's just see...

Turns out we were in the right place and as we made our way up to the 16th floor, I was quite excited! We opened the door and I felt like someone 'upstairs' was making up for that stupid journey from New York to Mark and Tracy's house. We had a view straight over the Chicago River and had a couple of the most comfortable beds we'd had the pleasure of sleeping in across the country. (Bar The Jensen's of course!)

Everything was pretty perfect, apart from our stomach's telling us they needed something to satisfy them, so we went off in search of food... and after finally managing to find our way out of the mall that the hotel was attached to, we found something to eat and skated home.

And this is where I tell you the secret we've been keeping from you since Washington D.C... we changed our flights home and are leaving America for England a good 10 days early, which means we're going home the day after tomorrow! Nobody but my obedient brother knows (someone had to pick me up from the airport!) and I am so very excited!

So, last full day, I woke up relatively late, Cal had gone for a swim (The only indoor heated pool and I sent my swim wear home in that box back in Jacksonville, Florida!) and I got ready for a bit of sightseeing-come-shopping. Unfortunatey it started to rain, but we perservered and took in the skyline of Chicago. We meandered our way through the crowd on the Magnificent Mile, bobbing in and out of Crate And Barrel, The Disney Store and a few souvenir shops for those final presents for home, and took a walk down to the shore of Lake Michigan. But then the rain picked up and then so did the wind, so we headed back 'inland' and agreed we'd seen enough of Chicago to deem it fit to go and sit in the cinema out of the rain! Along the way we saw the stereotypical jazz clubs, the blues clubs and the... English pubs! And after taking in our final film of the travels, we headed back to the hotel for a spot of packing and our final meal!

I had such a mix of emotions running through my head whilst packing for the last time, I was so very excited to go home and see the faces I love and had missed; but I in no way wanted to end the adventure.

We splashed out a bit then on one of the best meals I'd had in America...just to ease the emotional rollercoaster, of course! We took a table in the hotel's own restaurant and felt like part of the Belagio crowd as we were waited on. A few drinks later, a few perfectly cooked scallops later, and a few more dollars down later, we went back to our room and ordered room service!!! Something I've never done before and something I'd never do again! But at that point, I didn't really mind that it took 45 minutes to bring an incorrect order and then charge 50% more than a normal glass of wine and bottle of beer usually costs... but never mind, we were celebrating the end our our American journeys and the start if those that would take us home.

6 am came with a hangover as did the rather brash alarm from my phone telling me to get out of bed and go back to England! So that we did. We got to O'Hare airport, me, again having to pay a ludicrous amount to make up for the fact that my bag now equalled Callum's weight. Not Callum's bag, but Callum himself.

After O'Hare to Newark, we had a four hour lay over, easy peasy lemon squeezy - we'd waited before, this was child's play - we were pro's at waiting! We grabbed a bite to eat, read a little - you know the drill and then Continental Airlines welcomed us on board.

As we took off, it was amazing to know that in six and a half hours, we'd be landing in Manchester to see my brothers face and Cal's dad's. Six and a half hours was again, child's play! We'd travelled for much longer in one day when we were on the road. We left each other to it, and watched a few films. Callum laughing at me, as for some reason, I'd elected 'Philadelphia' as my film of choice - and every twenty minutes or so, I'd be blubbing and weeping and sniffing and generally making a bit of a show of myself!

And then we arrived. And although I know my brother loves me and had missed me, I knew he didn't love me at that point as it was early, and he'd had to leave his house a lot earlier, and he was tired!!

So Callum and I said goodbye, I got in the car - on the wrong side, of course and I went home. And that, my friends, was the end of the trip.



So...

Miles travelled in Car - 5558
Miles travelled on Coach - 2172
Miles travelled on Train - 564
Total Miles Travelled - 8294!

Cars Hired - 4
Buses Taken - 9

Favourite Place - Utah/Captiva/Traverse City
Worst Place - Miami Beach
Favourite Moment - Getting to America, Driving through the desert, Arriving in Captiva, Christmas
Worst Moment - Cancelled Buses in Detroit

Number of arguments - 3
Number of laughs - Too many to count
Number of films seen - 18
Number of films seen in the Kodak Theatre, home to the Oscars - 2
Number of Western Saddled Horse Treks with Genuine Marlboro' Man - 1
Number of Al Capone's Houses seen in Michigan (That I didn't tell you about) - 1

Scariest Place - New Mexico/Washington DC
Scariest Moment - Taxi Drive in Detroit

Alcohol Units Consumed - Many
Dollars Spent - Many

Bag weight at start - 45lbs
Bag weight at end - 65 lbs

Good time - Yes
Do it again - Yes
Anything different - No

Thanks for reading guys!

Jen

A Long Overdue Wrap - Part One

Ok ok, I know, it's been AGES! But once you get into the spirit of coming home, one can easily get side tracked!

So I shall pick up where I left you, shall I?!

We'd packed our stuff and settled in for our last night in the Big Apple. Drifting off thinking of the long journey ahead, knowing that by the end of the next day, we'd be with my family - was a little bit special!

Penn Station only being a hop skip and a jump away from our hostel, we were able to trundle our bags and ourselves along and find the correct gate to wait at. An hour of sitting on a perfectly comfy floor later, we were boarding our train. We looked around, turned around and made for the next coach, clearly we were in First Class. "No ma'am, no sir, you're tickets are correct, you just make yourselves comfortable..."

Ok - I wasn't going to argue! This train was unbelievable, the leg room we had was indescribable! Suffice to say that Callum and I are quite tall and we were able to fully stretch out without wanting to nut the person infront had they wished to recline their equally as comfortable chair!

And luckily so, as we were on this train for 15 hours! We left New York City at 4.00pm, excited. We read, listened to music, chatted, laughed at the windy woman sitting in front of us, got annoyed by the windy woman in front of us, nodded off for a while then I decided to venture down to the food coach. And who was serving? A man from Nottingham (And for those of you who don't know where that is, it's about 3 hours away from where I live in England), not only that but he'd worked the trains from Liverpool to Nottingham only a few years ago (And for those of you who don't know where Liverpool is - shame on you because that's where the Beatles came from - and is also ten minutes away from where I live in England!) So we chatted for a while about home... England... Where everybody knows your na-a-ame (You know the song, sing along!) And where you're always glad you ca-a-ame...!

Anyway, I left Paul serving the rest of his customers and I went back to find my seat with a bagel, some cream cheese, a Bud and a little bout of homesickness!

Some hours later, we arrived in Toledo, Ohio... it was cold... it was very cold... it was snowing and our bus was there ready to take us to Detroit. Now this was apparently a bit of a scary journey, but having not slept properly for quite some time, I nodded off. I woke to see we'd arrived in Detroit, an hour late to the thickest snow I'd seen in pushing 5 years. We disembarked and hauled the bags over to the bus terminal. A nice lady behind the bullet proof glass rang a taxi for us to get to the Greyhound station. We waited and waited and waited and then waited a little bit more. The taxi finally arrived and we pulled ourselves into it, plus a girl we'd got chatting to who had 'no money' to get to the Greyhound station.

Now I have to tell you that, at no point through this trip have I ever really felt that I was going to lose my life - but all that changed as we slid to the Bus Station. Seriously, it was just crazy scary, there was no stopping, as the brakes just wouldn't have worked - there were no road markings - because of the snow - and there was a chance I would of, at any moment, gotten out of the taxi, mid Detroit - and bloody well walked! Self Preservation - there's a lot to be said for it!
So - taxi ride of hell over, we skated up to the Bus Station to another blow - ALL buses cancelled due to the snow storm. ACES! And in all honesty, I lost it, the tears being the only form of washing my face had had for 24 hours, didn't really do the job as I sobbed into the snow. How the hell were we going to get to my family's house today - 8 hours away, if the Greyhound's were cancelled?? Pray, Tell Me - Do!

We sat, we waited, I rang home, I tried to convince Callum that spending $600 each on a plane ticket to the family's was a good idea and we listened to music - for 11hours. And then FINALLY the snow held up for long enough to allow the transort system to get going again and we boarded our bus - quite honestly the BEST bus we'd ever seen -I told the driver I loved him and settled in for a four hour journey to the lovely, but small Grand Rapids Bus Terminal, a quick transfer, another relatively short four hour journey and then we would be with the now, infamous family!

But alas, this is the day that best laid plans go out of the bloody window. We arrived at Grand Rapids at 11.45pm... when was the next bus to Traverse City????? 4.15pm THE NEXT DAY - oh well, we'll just get our heads down and make do. No biggy... "Good evening - just a reminder to those travellers who have just arrived, this bus terminal will be closing in 15 minutes, please make your way outside and arrange your ongoing travel. Thank you and good night."

Ha ha ha ha - oh what great news that was to our ears!!! Cal went for a smoke, and instead of losing it again, I decided (probably for the first time in my life) to be proactive - there was absolutely NO use in crying over a closed bus terminal, I mean really??!!

So - I left Callum with the bags and went off in search of some sort of authority/help... turns out I found both. And that came in the form of two security guards whom I managed to charm with my lost British accent - they were a little bit fantastic, much like our angel of Phoenix.

We managed, between the security men, my uncle, a rather stuck up car rental representative, a taxi driver and ourselves to make it to Grand Rapids Airport at 12.55 am. Were we going to fly? No - we were hiring a car for 24 hours to drive the final four hour-long road. Again, probably not the best idea, as by this time, we'd been up for 42 hours... but it was a bit bloody exciting!!! We found our car (the biggest and posh-est one we'd had) in a foot of snow - threw our bags in and plugged in Nancy Drew... Panic Not, my friends - Nancy hasn't gone to the Sat Nav/GPS resting place in the sky - she's just resting in my bag, and we have a replacement (shh!!) in the form of an American lady - Nancy Drew, and I hate to say it, but it seems that she went to the finishing school of GPS and learnt things that Nancy can ever only dream of.

So, my uncle tells me that they're three and a half hours away if we drive 50 mph - we got some food inside us for the first time since the Nottingham Bagel and hit the road running, as I begged the question, how far away are they if we drive 70/75 mph?

Turns out it took us four hours??!! Not sure what happened there (I blame it on the snow holding me back), but we didn't care as our radio would only tune into the Christmas stations and we had one damn fine sing song all the way to the picture post card sight that is my uncle's house. I signalled and we turned, and for the first time in the four hour drive, I lost control of the car as we slipped and slid our way up the drive to the garage, where my weary uncle was waiting.

And I couldn't have been more proud of us for finally making it there. I would say that I was proud of myself for that last four hours of driving - but I say us as Cal kept me awake with his more than adequate versions of 'I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas' and 'Santa Baby'!

We hugged our way into the house, Mark (uncle) and Tracy (aunty) welcomed us warmly and in a - I'm assured lovingly way - basically said (as it was 4.30am) go to bed, we'll talk to you in the morning!!! Which Cal and I didn't mind one bit and we were out like a light as soon as head toucheth the pillow!

Waking up at a respectable 9.30 am, we finally managed to greet each other properly. We had so much to talk about and we wasted no time in filling everyone in of our travels. Introductions went smoothly - a lot more so than I had anticipated - I always fear that friends will let you down when meeting families, but Callum was a little bit special and now is more family to my family than I am, who is actually family!!

Everybody got on like a child with one of those 2 week old wrinkled faced puppies - and remained so until we left them.

They made our stay more fantastic than fantastic, we made plans to do many things, but ended up staying in the house, watching the snow, drinking, eating and being in brilliant company. The house was picture perfect, set within acres of snow covered land - it was quite possibly the most stunning place to spend Christmas.

Daniel and Samantha (cousins) whom I'm sure were worried about who their cousin was bringing to stay in their home over Christmas, were elated that they had someone who they bonded with so well and aided us in our first Christmas away from home. Sammy playing surrogate little sister, and Dan replacing the boys for the festive season. It couldn't have been better.

We met many of their friends and even managed to attend Church on Christmas Eve - and after it didn't burst into flames as I set foot in the building, we had a lovely time, meeting various characters from the community in a beautiful church, again - covered in a fresh helping of snow.

And after our good deed was done for the day, we set about drinking - again... Tracy and I having drunk the Champagne region of France dry during our stay, opened yet another bottle to bring in 12am. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas (away from home). Made all the more special when we spent Christmas morning drinking another bottle of Champagne, opening presents with the new, extended family. We had yet another fall of snow, which I had yet to play in.

How did we fix that? Tracy, Sammy and I pulled any old piece of clothing on, boots, coats, hats, scarves, gloves and sledge and headed out of the back door. We made snow angels, sledged down the snow padded steps and clambered through the garden over the 4' of sparkling goodness! It was perfect. Snow is beautiful. Beautiful. It makes everything else around it beautiful and the silence that echoed around us enhanced the pangs of pain that Christmas Day was our last day with - now 'our' - family.

The rest of the day was spent drinking and eating and laughing and drinking and eating and laughing a bit more. Time spent in great company - I didn't want the night to end. But when it got to the latest time I knew I could stay awake til, I think my heart broke a little, and I sulked my way to bed.

Up bright and early - was that a twang of a hangover?! - no, surely not. Mark, Tracy and Sammy escorted us to the bus station. Dan snoring away in bed was left with a call of goodbyes. Tracy and I had made a pact to be just plain nasty to each other as to stump any emotional farewells that may have reared their ugly head, but it wasn't even her that set me off, bloody Mark did. And as I bade my farewells to him, then Tracy then Sammy - I was comforted by the knowledge that I have some of the best family going. And sod the emotional goodbye, there were tears and I hated every second of having to say goodbye and I longed for someone to come on the tannoy saying 'The 10 am bus to Chicago is cancelled, and there won't be another one - EVER!'. So a few more hugs later and a few more tears later, they left and we waved until they were a mile down the road and I sloped off into the toilet so Callum couldn't poke fun. But I'm quite sure he was pretty gutted about saying his goodbyes too.

And I'm happy to report that we seamlessly made it to Chicago - our last stop, in one piece - no delays - no cancellations - no hassle. Great.

Jen