Well, the idea of traveling around the world first became an idea during my first trip to Kandersteg in 1988. After saving $7166 at Steak and Ale from Jan 6th 1989 through Sept 1st 1989 I had enough money in the bank to head out for the adventure I planned. I added some more money over the two following semesters at TCJC to make it a nice round $10,000. So the choices were: do the trip I had planned, bag that and buy a new car, or invest it at 10% until I retire and have a nest egg of $1.2 million. But I was set - the trip was on - from Dallas to NYC, then to England/Scotland/Wales, over to Switzerland, around Europe, up to Russia, to Beijing via the Transiberian Express, down to Thailand, around Australia for six months, then back home via Hawaii a year later.
My parents threw me a surprise going away party in the back yard of their house, with a heap of scout, school, and Steak and Ale friends showing up: Tara and Krissy, Lisa, Janet, Christine, Stephanie, Peter, Khris, Tracy, Rob, Tim, Mark, Rob, John, Deanna, Patrick, my family, and a few others.
At Steak and Ale
On Friday May 18th I closed out my last Steak and Ale shift. I paid someone to bissel my station (the first time ever) and headed over to Bennigan's for a few (too many) drinks to celebrate. Dave Lovelace and Janet met me there first, where I had a shot of 151 and a strawberry daiquiri I immediately handed my car keys over to Peter who was working there that evening, and celebrated the evening away with Lori Rosenthal, Laura Winters, Jake Atchley & Cindy, Keith Armstrong, Jeff Caplinger, Todd Brown, Leticia, Juan Perez, and a few others. The following day was Christine's graduation followed by dinner at Ruths Chris. The last time I left for Switzerland it was on a lower note - my parents had just heard that I had failed out of TCJC after having failed out of Texas A&M the previous semester. At least this time was a better departure!
New York City
Janet and Steph at Cartier
To fly to the UK I had booked a flight via New York City where I met Stephanie and Janet. My flight was to Kennedy and arrived early in the evening, so I then took the shuttle over to LaGuardia. Janet's flight was late getting in to Kennedy because of a problem with the airplane door, so she had me paged and I was told to just meet her at LaGuardia. It worked out - I saw Janet at the AA ticket counter at LGA and we chatted until we met Stephanie and her dad Les at 9:30pm - they took us back to Les' house on Long Island where we then watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit before falling asleep, with Janet and I in the living room and Steph on a couch in the kitchen.
Janet, me, and Steph in Rockefeller Plaza
We slept in late in the next morning - then Les took us into Manhattan where he had to work. Janet, Stephanie, and I spent the afternoon window shopping on 5th avenue and visited Trump Tower. We changed clothes at one of The Limited stores (Les is a regional manager for them) and then headed to dinner at La Bonne Soupe, which Les had recommended. I had the Mahi Mahi and we all had a 1/2 carafe of rose before we headed over to the Majestic Theater to see Phantom of the Opera. Les picked us up after the show and took us to the Hard Rock Cafe for Brownie Bottom Pie before he shuttled us home - nothing like having our own chauffeur! It was a quick trip to NYC - I headed out the next morning to London on Pan Am at 9am. It was a 747 that was mostly empty, so I had 3 seats by the window by myself.
England
Berwick Castle
The flight landed at Heathrow in the evening, so I then headed to cousin Giles' house via subways and trains, getting there four hours later, just after midnight. Giles had consumed a few beers so a friend drove him to meet me. We chatted for a few hours I passed out exhausted from jet lag that night (he was unable to attend cousin Guy's wedding in Denver a bit earlier so we had not seen each other in a while), and Giles took me to High Wycombe station so I could go back to Kings Cross for an 11am train to Berwick, arriving at 2:45.
I was planning on walking to my grandfather's house. However, he picked me up at the station, just guessing train I'd be on and nailed it the first time. While in Berwick I spent some time with Ga/Isabel, stopped by to see Catherine and Phillip, saw Uncle Billy at the workshop, headed to Spittal, had dinner at Tillmouth, and generally plumped up before my Outward Bound experience.
Outward Bound
The Outward Bound Crew
Ga drove me to Newcastle since there was no train from Berwick that would have enabled me to catch the 8:15am to Aberdovy, via Birmingham, Shrewsbury, and Machynlleth where I was to attend an Outward Bound course that my parents had bought me for my birthday. The week course was just fantastic. There were vans at the train station to pick us up and drop us at the center. I was in room E in the building at the top of the hill, with roommates Barry, Paul, and Dermitt. There were twelve people in our age group of 18-24, though most were 20/21. The team I became closest to were Dermot, Paul, Barry, Vicky, and Rachel. We kicked off the first night with icebreaker games like anagrams, filling a bucket while piggy-back, crawling through a net tube, passing an orange with the chin, etc. The course included lots of group and individual activities like hiking, canoeing, rafting, rock climbing and absailing on the crags north of Aberdovy, a night out camping, ropes course, etc. The course was concluded with the "final scheme" which was a re-enactment of the meeting between Arthur and Llewellen at the peak of Cadair Idris. It was a really good two-day exercise and we all had a blast.
Southern England
Bill, Linda, Alan, and Moyra
Following Outward Bound I headed to Sheffield to see Steve, who was supposed to be studying for finals but was willing to let me distract him. He met me at the station on his bike at ~3pm and walked back with me. After shopping, watching Pretty Woman, and getting ready, we headed out to a Spanish restaurant called Cosmopolitan where I had the flame fillet and a bottle of '86 Beaujolais. I was woken by Steve at 10am with a glass of orange juice - who would have thought that you could get this kind of service while backpacking? Jan was in Australia for her brother's wedding so we called her to get a recipe for asparagus sauce that we wanted to have for lunch *any excuse to call her!). I chatted with her a bit on the phone - I would see her later in Kandersteg. We talked and read about all things KISC that afternoon and then Steve made a curry for dinner that night.
Dermot in London
I departed Steve's to head to Tavistock to see Ian while Steve headed to school to complete his finals. I did a run/walk around Dartmoor in lieu of cruising the area in the jag - unfortunately since Ian had not driven it for a few weeks the battery was dead and there was no starting it. I had a great dinner with Ian and Grandpa Dodds, and they lavished me with a 100 pound note and 50 pound note "to get me going". Ian dropped me at the train station in Exeter so I could head to Moyra and Bill's place. Linda picked me up at the station and took me to the school where Moyra/Bill worked and I met Cathy who also worked at the school. Cathy was a lot of fun and would be in Switzerland later in the summer so we would be able to catch up then. Linda took me to Bath for a day to do all the standard tourist attractions, then we all went out to the pub for dinner, including Alan who was at home for the weekend.
The next day Linda was incredibly gracious and drove me two hours to Worthington (near Brighton) to Dermot's house, arriving at about noon. I "did" Worthington for the day and we grabbed take-out Thai from Bridge on the River Kwai for dinner. Bizarrely, after dinner the phone rang and it was Bill Holden - asking for me! He chatted for a few minutes, then asked me if I knew where my camera was. Argh - it was with Linda, 2 hours away. I can't believe I had forgotten it! It was incredible that he even found the number - he had just pressed redial - since I had called Dermot that morning it worked! If anyone had made any other calls from the home that day I'd be without a camera and lens for the next year. So, Dermot was a hero and drove me four hours round trip that night to pick up the camera - leaving at 9pm, getting to town at 11pm looking for a "blue door" - which we eventually found after speaking with random strangers. We arrived home crazy late. The next day was our theater day in London (seeing Aspects of Love, which we had arranged while at Outward Bound, grabbing a little bit of Americana for lunch (me, Taco Bell; Dermot, Burger King). We saw the 3pm Aspects, then met Dermot's roommate and his girlfriend for dinner at Wong Keis, the largest Chinese restaurant in the city. We headed back to Dermot's house for a movie (Top Gun) and sleep as we had to be up at 6am for the flight to Switzerland from Gatwick.
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