19. Heading Home

 The Final Itinerary:
 

Day	Date	Activity	Mileage	Time (hours)
Saturday	July 25	Cathy, Robert and Mara to London (Willett Hotel), Michael, Jeffrey and Thomas to Calais
Sunday	July 26	Michael, Jeffrey and Thomas to London
Monday	July 27	Michael and Robert to Saffron Walden for the day
Tuesday	July 28	London to New York City (Barbizon Hotel)
Wednesday	July 29	New York to DuBois, PA (Ramada)	300	6
Thursday	July 30	DuBois to Chicago (via Sturgis, Michigan for lunch and Notre Dame) (Palmer House)	530	10.5
Friday	July 31	Chicago
Saturday	August 1	Chicago
Sunday	August 2	Chicago
Monday	August 3	Chicago
Tuesday	August 4	Chicago to LaCrosse, WI (via Milwaukee) (motel)	305	5.5
Wednesday	August 5	LaCrosse to Chamberlain, SD (motel)	442	8.5
Thursday	August 6	Chamberlain to Gillette, WY (motel) (lunch at Mount Rushmore, etc.)	392	11
Friday	August 7	Gillette to Cody, WY (car problems in Gillette [back hatch]) (motel)	256	5
Saturday	August 8	Cody to Ogden, UT (via Yellowstone, Jackson) (motel)	491	16
Sunday	August 9	Ogden to Las Vegas   469/8	469	8
		TOTALS	3,185	70.5

 Tuesday 28 July.  We take an aborted ride to Kew, not leaving hotel until about 11.  We arrive around 11:50 (a 25 minute Tube ride from Sloan Square, no changes), but, confronted with a long queue, we immediately turn around and go back to the hotel.  Our minicab, a Volvo wagon, picks us up at 12:45.  We all fit: with suitcases on our laps and on the floor, me in front, five in the back seat.  Nice Pakistani fellow, studying management at Manchester University, sister is an anesthetist, brother a physician at Harvard.  Easy check in at the airport, very early; I have a bitter at cafe/bar.  The plane leaves about on time, lift off at five o'clock.  Lovely views of checkerboard countryside, then west England and eastern Ireland before the clouds take over and we settle into the movies. There were three on each channel!  I watch "Medicine Man," "Shining Through" and "Wayne's World."  The best is last, worst was M. Douglas and M. Griffith.  Pretty good service, I use my earphones, more comfortable than usual.

 We arrive around 7:15 p.m. but have to wait for plane door to be fixed.  New York is humid, but not too hot.

 Customs.  We walk down two very long, empty corridors (alone, almost, as we are the last off the plane).  We retrieve our bags and hem and heave through customs, putting $3500 estimate of value, paid $110 duty.  Customs agent (avuncular, slightly stern, but not bad) asks to inspect luggage.  The first one he chooses is the dirty laundry!  Then Robert's.  He passes us.  We take a $70 van into the City.  It is the first night on the job for our driver, a woman, a friendly New Yorker; she tells us, not to worry, she used to be a tractor trailer driver.  She doesn't turn down the CB and we hear loud NY voices, "brusque" and getting angry at the end, "Pick him up he's waiting."  Thomas's eyes light up at the New York skyline as if he remembers.  We have the same rooms at the Barbizon.

 Wednesday 29 July.  We have a marathon day at the Met, splitting up, Cathy and Mara take a taxi, the boys and I walk (Lexington to Park to Madison to 5th, then 63rd to 82nd).  There is a Rodin rooftop display.  There are so many rules in New York!  From highway restrictions to the roof.  Don't stand on the benches!  No children on the shoulders!  No eating!  We wish we could have more time for the museum, particularly the American wing.  But we do see Vermeers, Rembrandts.

 I walk back with Thomas through the Park and see a rat cross the path!  It's crowded.  I have another hot dog with mustard (money and hot dogs interchange in the hands).  It is very hot and humid at the end of the Park near the Plaza.  With Thomas in the John Lewis push chair (now transformed into a stroller) I walk down 5th Avenue to St. Patrick's and then to Brooks Brothers.  I think he might nap during the walk, but he seems to be fascinated by the sidewalk scene.  At the entrance to Brooks Brothers I accidentally tip Thomas over in his stroller! 

 Wednesday evening.  Upon Tara and Pasqual's recommendation (and as their guests) we see "Blue Man Group Tubes."  Lot of noise: drums, spitting paint balls, squeezing stuff out of suit.  No talking.  Short on content, what there is is good, about reading into art, etc.  Gross.  Sort of stuff we tell kids not to do.  Loud.

The Departure Lounge, Heathrow

Virgin Atlantic