Over the next few weeks, The American Chronicles will be featuring our adventures in England and Wales, exploring the homeland of some of our ancestors. It’s not the camping experience that we normally write about, but the places we visited would be great for a European camping trip, and there are many such places to enjoy the forests and countryside. We hope you enjoy this series.
The heritage of many Americans comes from other countries. Chris and I are as distinctly American as can be. I had two “grandfathers” on the Mayflower—one each from my dad’s and mother’s side. Another “grandfather” served under George Washington. Others pioneered the wild west of the very early 1800s and were part of the first governing body of Paris Township in the new state of Ohio carved out of the Connecticut Western Reserve. Chris’ ancestors settled parts of Maryland and Ohio. But there is another set of ancestors from across the pond with a very colorful history. Recently, we had the opportunity to explore some of that with a special trip to England for our son’s wedding. It was our British invasion.
We left out of Dulles Airport in the evening with our son Christian and his bride-to-be Claire. Just a word about international travel at airports…people are so ignorant. They will stop and look at their phones right in the middle of where everyone is trying to get to their gate and catch a plane. They have no spatial awareness. They will park their luggage and make a stand in a busy pathway. They will walk right into you and not even say “excuse me.” And self-awareness, forget it. People will be standing in a busy area and cough and sneeze without even thinking about covering their mouths. I had asked a person on the plane if I could set my hat on top of his luggage in the overhead. He, of course, said “yes.” Then another guy came up and stuffed his bag overtop and smashed my hat. A good Stetson. When I confronted him, he just said, “sorry.”
After seven-plus long hours, we landed at London’s Heathrow airport and made the long trip to the baggage claim. Claire, who is from England, arranged for an Uber to take us to our hotel in Paddington. We were remarking how cold it felt, but we didn’t know the half of it. Our room was up two sets of stairs, around the corner, down some steps and into a hallway where the door to the fire escape was wide open and men were working. Our room was freezing. You have to put the room key card in a slot to turn on the power, and there was no heat. Compounding the issue, were the workers right outside of our window pounding away at something. Chris was so exhausted she got under the covers in her coat and fell asleep. I was absolutely freezing. After two hours, I had had enough and stomped to the front desk.
With great constraint, I politely asked for another room, which they promptly gave us. The new room was also cold, but the heat did work to an extent and there were no workers outside our window. In the early afternoon, we met Christian and Claire for some “wake up” coffee. Later, we bundled up and walked to the Victoria Pub for dinner, adding Christian’s high school football teammate Nick. We were amused by drivers driving through, not around, the roundabout outside the window. Keeping with the English tradition, I had fish and chips. Chris had steak. It was a great evening. While the day concluded on a high note, it was mostly a miserable cold welcome to the “motherland.” Notwithstanding, we remained cheerful and hopeful of what tomorrow would bring. And yes, it brought a lot…stay tuned for next week’s adventure!
