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| The last light at 30,000ft of a very long 31 hour day as we descended towards Albuquerque |
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| Fred & Maggies house set in about 5 acres of land |
We’d booked a taxi for 12.00 Saturday lunchtime, for a 13.00 coach to Heathrow, at 12.10 he hadn’t turned up, but we had been given his phone number! He thought he’d been waiting for us to confirm, though this was not what the text Brian had received stated, and no, he wasn’t coming! Uber then, 15 minutes away, 35 minutes to get to Digbeth coach station, arrive 10 minutes before departure, hmmm, that will be a problem, but no choice, so fingers crossed. Approaching the coach station, the traffic slowed to a stop, the Gay Pride parade was taking place, it was chaos. We sat in traffic, not moving before deciding to get out and walk. It was gone 13.00 as we rushed into the station, to the desk, to ask what our options were now? “Not to worry, the bus is also late, just wait over there!”
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| Out walking with John, Fred and Dan in Cedar Grove. Fred's house is just visible through the trees between John and Fred |
Just after 14.00 we finally set off, but that’s why we were going down the day before for our 09.30 Sunday flight! A huge sigh of relief, obviously.
Out to dinner then, a last curry? Why not. Very tasty, till half way through I realised that I’d lost the back half of a tooth, no sign of it, so I must have swallowed it! Will the filling stay in? Will my tongue be rubbed raw? Not what you want before going away for three months!
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| Fred has a few of these Norwegian rats round his property so sets a trap in order to release them several miles away. This one was looking pretty scared over what was going to happen to him... |
Up bright and early, 05.00 for an 09.30 flight. American Airlines, can thoroughly recommend them, flight left on time, average food, but great staff. My big worry, until my tooth fell out, was will the luggage arrive with us? To this end, I’d got 1/3 my clothes in my hand luggage, 1/3 in my bag and 1/3 In Brian’s bag, just in case. It arrived in Phoenix, where we had to collect it and try to squeeze in the bottle of whisky we’d brought duty free, for Fred. Hopefully a nice bottle of Welsh whisky from the Penderyn distillery we visited in April with mum. Then re check it to send it to Albuquerque. The immigration man was lovely, we were warmly welcomed into the USA in no time at all. Three hours to kill, but better than being stressed, oh no, spoke too soon, plane trouble, make that just over four hours to kill!
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| But he soon found out he was going to be OK and scurried off into the undergrowth a couple of miles away. He was followed an hour or so later by a squirrel who triggered the trap to be freed near the same spot. His exit from the cage was somewhat faster |
A short flight another time zone change and there was Fred waiting for us, how lovely, and look, there’s our luggage. Hurrah.
Outside to meet Maggie for the first time and the 45 minute drive to their house. A lovely bowl of soup, a glass of wine, and bed after being up for 24 hours!
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| I was quite pleased with this humming bird photo taken last night while sitting outside their house while drinking a beer |
We both slept and woke about 07.00 amazing. Up for coffee and breakfast before meeting a couple of Fred’s mates for a walk, the guys went in one direction, Maggie and I in another. Really lovely to have time to chat and get to know her. Back to the house by 09.30 and Fred is on the phone to his dentist, can they fit me in? They’ll call back. They can, hurrah. We were thinking crown, or extraction? And how much will this cost? Maggie drew the short straw, to take me to the dentist while Brian and Fred went out to lunch with John and Dan, the morning walking party, for John’s birthday. The dentist was a lot more optimistic, I’ll take out the filling and replace it with a white one and replace the cusp that has vanished, so 2 hours and $400 later I’m out the door, feeling numb, but so much better. Just to finish off the story, I rang the travel insurance this morning, expecting them to laugh as dental work isn’t covered except for £250 to relieve extreme pain, but guess what? In theory £250 will be paid to our bank account in a couple of days! I was absolutely speechless!
Today neither of us walked, we were both awake in the night a bit, I was on hold for 30 minutes (thank goodness for Skype calling) and Brian is feeling the altitude, we are at 7000 feet/2100m after all! Errands later though, so We went to Albuquerque with Fred to collect a radio he bought from Craig’s list, we’ve got a US SIM card, and Dan collected his packages from the post office.
We spent a long time this morning with Fred and Maggie planning all the places we have to see around here. It’s lovely to be here, F&M are lovely, their cats, Agatha and Zeph are lovely, their house and neighbours are lovely and we are going to have a great time.
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| Here's Fred and Maggie in their house |
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