As you can probably deduce from the post heading I have successfully infiltrated USAnia. And as you can probably deduce from the date of this post I am here well ahead of the WHPSC in Battle Mountain. Putting two and two together: road trip. This year the intention is to follow the Great River Road, which tracks the Mighty Mississippi, and a swift glance at the Mappe will shew that the middle of Texas is bloody miles away from the aforementioned river. However, BRITISH Airways' direct flight to New Orleans is scheduled to arrive at eleven o'clock at night. This is sub-optimal. Houston is nearer, but there are good climate-related reasons why my chum Danny Guthrie chooses to absent himself from Houston every summer. Not that this bit of TX is much better. So...
My usual method of getting to LHR, viz. bus to 'stow Central, Queen Vic line, change at Finsbury Park and twiddle my thumbs for a million stops on the Piccallili Line out to Thiefrow was banjaxed this year by Transport for London closing the latter for three days this week as part of their scheme to introduce the long-overdue new rolling stock. But soft! The Weaver Line - part of the Overground of London's famous London, also goes from 'stow Central to Liverpool Street, where one can get that Elizabeth Line, that they have now, to Heathrow instead. And with low cunning I timed things to get on the Lizzy Line after 9 am so could use my Old Git Oyster Card. Not all Heathrow trains go to T5 but you can bail out at T2/3 and hop the Heathrow Express the rest of the way. Which is nice.
Uneventful check-in, security, little clockwork train and sitting around at Gate C64 until The Man permits me to board the Shiny Metal Birb, another of those double-decker A380 contraptions. World Traveller Plus cabin half-empty, but I CBA to move one row forward because there's quite enough legroom as it is. Went to sleep somewhere west of Ireland and woke up crossing the Canada/US border above Sault St Marie.
Did the MPC app thing as recommended by my grate frend Arnold Ligtvoet last year only to discover that the lane, MPC users for the use of, was closed so had to queue with the uninitiated and other riff-raff. Relative painless compared with SFO in 2022 thobut. Bus to the Rental Car Center, pick up shiny motorcar, hereinafter referred to as The Pikey Old Beemer or POB for short, plug in Emily the TwatNav, exit the car park and got told in no uncertain terms that route calculation was not on the agenda. Subsequent faffage indicates that she's lost interest in reading the expensive North America map on the SD card that plugs into her tummy, so I had to persuade my phone to shake hands with the POB's internal electronic wizardry and direct me here. Doing this for the rest of the trip is not an option because data roaming costs an assortment of marketable limbs so the first item on tomorrow's agenda is to pop down to the Walmart a mile or so away and buy a replacement TwatNav chiz.
