21st March 2026
The coach pulled away from Bath Bus Station just before 4.00am. Nicola and Colin had dropped me and my various luggage pieces. This time I was taking one of my guitars with me.
I had bought a hard case for it, hopefully substantial enough to protect it.
It’s a two and a half hour journey, I think I must have had a bit of a nap because when I woke up the dawn had broken.
Once I got to Heathrow I had to transport three items, each were heavy, but luckily my leather hold-all fitted on the top of my roller case, meaning I had one hand free to carry the guitar case.
Inside terminal three I located the zone that dealt with Priority customers. This saves the hassle of printing out the luggage tag and boarding pass. A very pleasant lady advised me the best way to deal with my guitar. In case there was no locker space in the cabin, it would be more protected if it was containerised in the hold, rather than loaded at the gate.
Once all that was done, I got through the security and headed for the Curator restaurant for breakfast.
Since the last time I was there the staff had changed, today there were Indian waitresses rather than the Eastern European ones.
The food tasted the same, which was the main thing.
I took the long walk to the gate, whatever journey I have taken the aircraft is alway the furthest away.
Loading was a bit chaotic, the public address system was badly distorted and the announcements were incomprehensible, leading to a stampede, of which i joined, I needed overhead locker space for my bag.
It was a full flight, but I had plenty of locker space, so I settled down for the long haul.
I put on my sound cancelling headphones only to discover the battery was dead, I put in the spare, and that was dead as well.
I had a bit of a doze and watched a couple of films, not the best selection this time.
The arrival at Charlotte International was a bit of a bump, made worse by the blinds being closed.
Getting through the customs was very quick, but the walk to baggage reclaim took a while.
Eventually my luggage did arrive at the carrousel, and then another long walk to recheck luggage. By the time I got through security again, and another long walk to the gate, I’m sure I could see Grand Rapids in the distance.
I had a short wait, but the gate area was woefully inadequate in terms of seating for the size of the aircraft, I sat on the floor, the old hippy I am.
I made sure as soon as my group were called I was at the front, it was a smaller plane so the overheads were smaller, I fortunately found a space an stuffed my bag inside.
The pilot announced “ We will be leaving ahead of schedule “ lying git, we moved off the pad but waited for ages to move again.
All this time I was trying to agree a time that Kelli should leave home and pick me up.
Having made an arbitrary decision, I continued to sit a wait for the bloody thing to move again.
It is about this time I just want the journey to end, it’s a long day, I’m tired, I was a shower, and I’m hungry, so any delay is really annoying.
It was a wonderful reunion, because Winnie was in the truck waiting for me. She went crazy I was given a welcome home licking, well many times.
I was so happy that she remembered me.
Once we got home, tiredness really hit me, I missed most of what was on the tv, woke up just in time to go to bed.
Another Lifetime to go 