Manchester, United Kingdom to Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA
East West Home is Best, is carved into the fireplace mantle at My Home. True! But seeing a bit of a small portion of the world beyond, is also good.
"Real voyage of discovery consisted not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust
Will write this final blog entry for "Walking Wainwright's Coast to Coast - Round Trip - 2017 using the two thumbs rather than the keyboard. Seems fitting to complete the full journey this way. Also a bit jet-lagged and was wide awake before 5 a.m. Have been busy accomplishing tasks about the Home. Might as well be useful.
Easy walk from the Gardens Hotel to Manchester Piccadilly Train station, three blocks. Stopped at a Greggs and got an almond croissant 🥐. Ate that with orange juice while waiting for the train. Security didn't seem to be any more visible than usual at the station, but am sure there were "undercover " people in disguise. Plus the CCTV were EVERYWHERE.
15 minute walk between train and air terminal. The business of taking off backpack, hiking boots and SmartWool socks, putting on sandals and stuffing backpack into plane bag, with hike poles collapsed and cushioned with one hiking boot on top and another at the bottom was a 5 minute process done in the middle of the terminal.
No real issues checking in, and line wasn't long when I joined it. The additional "security" check, even before approaching the monitors to print boarding passes, were a few young, pretty, bubbly women with ponytails who asked each passenger a few "questions".
When it was my turn I was asked by the smiling lady who looked directly into my eyes, to tell her something about my daily life. What I like doing. Hobbies. Why was I in England.
I asked her, smiling, was she really interested or was she interrogating me? She smiled and said "security". I answered politely, and was able to proceed.
Going through the line with me was a group of about 7-8 young men who were on their way to Las Vegas for a bachelor stag party. Apparently this is a tradition and part of the process was the groom had to dress as a girl for the trip. Didn't learn those details until Chicago when I was the last one off the plane and walked with one of the pilots to Immigration. He was laughing about the group and has seen it before. The pilot was originally from Kenosha, Wisconsin
The guy who was the groom made a very cute girl. I took photos as did many others. All the flight crew had their pictures taken with him, included the crew in the cockpit. He wore his wig with two big ponytails all through the flight and right up to entering the crazy room for Immigration.
While waiting in Manchester struck up a conversation with a lady sitting next to me. Laurie was from Ireland and was traveling to Milwaukee to visit a sister. And, she has a brother who used to live in Green Bay but just recently moved to Stevens Point. Small world.
She told me there is a "joke" in England that goes something like this - English people invaded so many countries and now they wonder why they all followed them home to Britain.
My seat on the plane was in the very last row, center seat - practically the worst kind of seat Wedged between others.
Lady with the aisle seat was British and was on her way to - Milwaukee to visit a relative. Told her about the other lady also going there who was taking the bus.
Young man with the window seat was from Moscow and was going to Chicago for the Blue Grass music. He is a musician, harmonica and banjo. His passport and Visa books were almost completely filled with all his travels.
That was a very LONG 8 + hour flight. One thing to make the trip overnight when a real nap can be taken, but Wide Awake in the middle of the day is a long time to SIT, wedged. There were 3 full length movies that played, but none were interesting plus it was a very lively group of passengers. Between the bachelor stag party group standing up and playing the Uno card gave over their seats, and shouting UNO, other people kept wandering and standing up. The plane was not very large, one center aisle with 3 seats each side, so no real room to wander about and everyone kept bumping into each other. Noisy.
At one point I was standing up and stretching and when looking out the window realized there were icebergs floating below. Soon land came into view. Fantastic landscape of mountains, ice and snow. Asked the flight attendant if it was Iceland or Greenland. She didn't know and had never seen it before. She said "I will ask the guys". Phoned the pilots and learned we were passing directly over Iceland. Took about 25 photos. It was amazing. Could clearly see glaciers.
On arrival in Chicago the process was crazy going through Immigration because of the masses of people. Actually the lines flowed fairly fast, but I was on a tense and tight timeline for my connecting flight.
Approaching the area, finally, where there were probably 50 computer monitors or more, had to scan passport, and answer questions about entering the US. Sorry, but final question was answered untruthfully. The question was " have you been in any areas of livestock?" Lois suddenly had amnesia about any sheep or cow pastures she might have traversed for 4 weeks. Answer - NO. Quickly grabbed official document to take to the Immigration officers. Another maze of line standing.
Ran to catch tram to main terminal. Ran to go through security again. Dash to read finally monitor to locate gate. Dash to gate. Arrive. The flight was delayed. Breathe. Turned out the flight was delayed over and over again for the next 2.5 hours. Plenty of time to make use of an American restroom, not a Toilet anymore
The reason the flight was delayed turned out to be that the crew and been in Flint, Michigan when the attack happened in the airport, and all flights then was halted.
Exhaustion set in. But, messaging was once again available so much use of that was made to keep in touch with the homefront.
HOME!!!! Greeted by the faithful Lily the Pug and Mr Mikhail the Maine Coon.
Hindsight. Even a few days distance from the actual trek makes it seem very exotic. All the troubles with bad weather, heat, wind, rain, coldness, the death, not very interesting foods, are almost forgotten. All the goodness and beauty of the landscape, the high peaks and views that stretched off for what seemed like forever, the lovely weather, great people encountered everywhere, and the overall sense of accomplishment are all basically what I had hoped for, and they will never be forgotten.
England and the Coast to Coast 2017 was good.
Now to deal with the knee.
"The life you have lead doesn't need to be the only life you have." Anna Quindlen
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