Pains, Planes & Automobiles
Leaving on a JetPlane
7 hours from Ruddington to the Heathrow Premier Inn, best part of 40 hours from home to a Denver airport hotel. Fair to say I am feeling a little jaded.
Because of my extended stay in the States this time around, I felt disinclined to pay car parking fees, which means that I need another way to get to Heathrow.
Train seemed a lot of hassle, what with schlepping a large case across London and all. Coach seemed more acceptable, as at least that goes direct to Heathrow. I used to travel by National Express all the time as a student, but memory of the joys of coach travel had dimmed over the years. Not a terrible way to travel, but 5 hours from Nottingham to Heathrow seems a bit much - especially as at my age this meant that there was no avoiding using the onboard toilet. I had definitely wiped out the memory of that!
To be fair, the National Express Customer service is excellent. I was delighted to receive an email whilst whiling away time in a traffic jam on the M25:
Dear Tony,
We are sorry to inform you that the National Express Coach Service 230 you are currently travelling on has a predicted delay to its schedule.
Nice of them to let me know. I would barely have guessed from the lack of motion or the disgruntled chuntering of fellow passengers. Perhaps none of them had thought to check their email?
On the plus side, the Terminal 5 Premier Inn is quite handy and easily accessible via the local bus service - albeit driven with the same wild abandon as the National Express coach.
All of this of course to remove any stress of travel which might result from trying to get to Heathrow by 10:30, travelling on the day of the flight. I may have to have a word with myself about where the stress of travelling actually lies…
…and naturally I was at the airport an hour before I could check my bag.
I don’t mind this though. It gives me the opportunity to just sit contemplating the world and people watching. Or in this case robot watching. This little fella was like an overgrown Roomba, although it didn’t seem as though he was doing much cleaning. He did seem to keep rolling up to people and stopping, causing them some confusion (though staff who seemed to have some secret wave for dismissing him).
I was just mulling over how much fun you could have remote controlling this little chap and buzzing people. But then it occurred to me that it could actually house some decent weaponry and morph into Robocop should an incident arise. Also a very good way to surveil people and eavesdrop on their conversations of course…
Yes. This is actually how I occupy my time whilst waiting for travel connections. I could read a book, but I can do that anytime!
Anyway, onwards to Denver and a fairly uneventful flight. That is until the last hour or so which was pretty bumpy. It’s always quite telling when all of the adults are silent and the only sounds are creaking machinery and whimpering children. Later in the hotel, the weather forecast gave a clue as to the reason for this. Apparently there have been some quite severe storms in the US over the last weekend will be continuing into next week. I found the phrase “east of the Rockies” particularly comforting as I will be heading in the other direction, but I will be looking over my shoulder for tornadoes!
And no murals! I completely failed to catch any glimpse of the famous Denver airport murals. Maybe the illuminati are trying to hide from me??! Hopefully I will catch them on the way back…