EEEKKKKKK!!! in shiny things

OMG. Tomorrow I leave for England!!! I had firm intentions of making lots and lots of entries here before the Big Trip… hahahahahaha!!! I’ll just have to do a travelog when I get back, like I did the last two times. That was so much fun, and I’ve enjoyed reading it over again too. It might actually get me writing more regularly, which would be a nice side effect.

So tonight I drive down to Asheville and spend the night with my dad, then Kim and I take off for Charlotte first thing in the morning. We don’t actually fly out till 3:45 tomorrow afternoon but since things do tend to happen to us, I want to be there VERY VERY EARLY. We’re flying United so maybe if we’re very early we’ll be less likely to be dragged off the plane screaming. We have a quick change in Newark, and then off to London we go!

We’re staying the first week in Cornwall, near Bodmin, and when I first looked at the map and plotted the route, somehow I came to the conclusion that it’s a little over two hours from Heathrow to our lodgings. So we’d initially planned to land at 7 am, hop in our rental car, and zip right on over there. Fortunately Kim works with a woman who is from Cornwall, and who let her know that in Reality Land, where neither of us lives, it’s more like FIVE hours. (Still no idea where I got two. I looked it up a couple of times on Google Maps. A parallel world??) I was already a teeny bit concerned about flying all night then hopping in a car and driving a couple of hours on the opposite side of the road than usual, although I did plan to just get a motel if I was really exhausted. I’ve driven in England but it’s been a few years and I don’t want to die on the first day. Five hours is a great big NOPE, so we got a reasonable room via Priceline right at Heathrow, where we can leave our luggage when we arrive Saturday morning, and then we’re going to spend the day in London. Or at least as much of it as we can before we collapse, which may not be a whole lot. But I am very excited, because I loooove London, and hated to completely miss it on this trip.

Then we head off to Cornwall bright and early Sunday morning, well-rested. A much better plan. The second week we’ll be right outside Bath.

SO if there’s anyone around the area, let me know if you’d like to try meeting up!

And now I really must get back to work. I have basically done NOTHING other than last minute trip stuff- noting contact info, printing stuff out, realizing I have no idea how calling to and from my iphone will work since I’ve never been able to take my own phone before, and trying to figure that out… luckily this is a VERY slow time at work.