Borough Market with Fiona

A couple of days ago, Morgans cousin Fiona moved to London, to go to school just down the road here in Islington. She's staying with us while looking for a flat in the neighborhood. This weekend we all went down to Borough Market. A huge, crowded open air market of butchers, bakers, and cheesemongers.

Fairoaks Airport

Had a lovely day out last weekend with a Steve and his partner Dawn. Steve is a pilot with the same club Mo and I belong to in CA, but lives here now. He took us around the Fairoaks Airport, let us check out one of his Pipers, and explained all the differences between flying in the US and UK. Really nice day that ended with a BBQ at the pub nearby.

A little racist walk

I had my nationality cursed 4 times by one drunk on the street one night.

Now bear with me, you'll have to do all of the accents yourself.

I'm walking Albert and a guy comes staggering up. Albert is in mid stream so I can't just walk away. He says in what I think is some vaguely european accent, "May I kiss your dog?"

me - "Excuse me?"

drunk - "May I kiss your dog. First I should say, I have had much alcohol. May I kiss your dog."

me - "Um, no, he's not really that friendly to strangers. So, I don't think it's a good idea."

drunk - "No, you don't understand. I want to kiss your dog. My only son has a dog, and I love him so much that that dog is my grandson. Do you understand??"

me - "I get it. But, I don't think its a good idea."

drunk - "I must kiss your dog." (getting agitated now) "Do you know, I will kill the man for the dog. If you beat that dog, I will kill the man that beats that dog."
drunk - "You are not English are you? I am Mongolian. Where are you from? Australia?"
drunk - "Funking Australians. Think you can come in here..."

me - "I'm not Australian."

drunk - "Fucking South Africans."
drunk - "No, not South African. You're French. Fucking French come in here and plant flowers and call the place France. Fuck France."

me - "Not French either. I'm Canadian."

drunk - "Fucking French Canadian. Fuck you."
drunk - "Still I must kiss your dog."


IT WAS AWESOME. I HAD MY AUSTRALIAN, SOUTH AFRICAN, FRENCH AND CANADIAN HERITAGE CURSED IN ONE MINUTE.

Last bit of touristing

Last bit of touristing before starting work Monday. 

Walking across the Tower Bridge and London Bridge. 

A little paella near the Southwark Cathedral, a place of worship since 606AD.

And hung at one of the great open air markets they have here where they
 sell everything under the sun.  Mmm, that's great cow foot. 

 - jgt

Hampton Court Palace

Went to Hampton Court Palace last weekend. Amazing stuff. It's all about Henry VIII. We were there, again, for three hours and still only saw half the grounds. There are gardens that go for days that we only caught a glimpse of. Including what is claimed to be the oldest grape vine, planted in the mid 1700's and still growing strong.

View of the front on the palace.

The royal wine cellar, the great hall, King Henry and the great vine.

British Museum

All the museums downtown are free. Pretty sweet deal. We took a little trip down and in 3 hours didn't see 1/2 of all there was to see. We'll have to take our first visitors from abroad to go see the 2nd 1/2. We did get to see among the antiquities, the Rosetta Stone.

Quiz night 2

They don't decide ties by just asking one more question at quiz night. They see who can eat an entire pizza while arm wrestling. These guys aren't messing around.

Quiz Night!

Quiz night at the Lord Clyde pub across the street from our apt is fantastic. Great pub. But the quiz is WAY harder than the ones we've back home. We came in dead last.

We did another quiz night at Hops And Glory. Was surprised to see the selection of California IPAs there. We came in 8th out of 10. Got some work to do.

Lets hear some chatter out there. Name all these actors and tell me what they have in common.

We are such tourists

Decided to take in some more sights today and see the Camden Town Market and Regency Park. And while we're there, stop by the offices of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Albert on his first tube ride. He no like the two story escalator that takes you down.

Went to The Stables in Camden Town Market.  A ridiculous open market thats been there for a hundred years and takes up blocks and blocks.  Looks just like Jemaa El Fna.  

Then, of course, we stopped by 221b Baker Street to see what Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were up to.  Nerds.

Touristing

The week consisted of job interviews and trying to nail down our flat. We think we've got it all worked out now. Probably move in Monday morning and start a new job a week after that.

With all that settled, we decided to be tourists today. Here we are at the White Tower. William The Conqueror's thousand year old fortress within The Tower of London.

St. James Parks and Recreation

Took a little trip down to the city center and went Buckingham Palace and St James Park. Turns out they were filming 'Parks and Recreation' right where we were standing. Kinda cool. That's all the film crew behind us.

Dog friendly

The pubs all let you just bring your crazy dog right in. So this is Albert in his first pub.

Thames tide

"Hello, Honey? Yeah, the tide came up again and we're stuck in the pub again. Yeah. We're stuck in here for at least a couple hours. Be home soon as I can. Cheers." Nuther round please.

Way ahead of the potato chip flavor curve

Pretty close to getting a flat

This is her looking out the front of what we think will be our new London apartment. Put in an offer and it was accepted.

We made it!!!

Here's Mo meeting Albert after his loooong plane ride in a crate.

The funny thing was after this was that we had 300 lbs of baggage, a large dog kennel, a dog and two people and they sent a Prius to pick us up.

We're on our way!

After what seems like weeks worth of packing and repacking, one vet visit after another, we are finally on our way.

Sitting at an airport bar with a drink before we board for London.

View from atop Mount Chocorua

This one reason we came right to Ossippee

And......scene.

Santa Clara CA to Ossippee NH
3946.2 miles.

Central Park

After a lovely stay at the Walmart Inn, went back into my and walked around Central Park. Watched this fella swoop down and eviscerate a squirrel. Walked up and down Madison avenue and Park Avenue and Got ourselves an NY bagel that was just meh, and a couple giant slices of pizza that were pretty good. Drove to New England where we stayed on the side of route 95 in the parking lot of a truck stop. Rich on free.

Good morning!!

Baby Hulk and a Jersey Walmart

Got up early in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley VA, drove to the capital and reenacted some scenes from Forrest Gump. After we toured the mall for a bit, headed up to NYC for dinner in Little Italy. Had some penne, chianti, cannoli, tiramisu, and espresso all with thick Italian accents and this mural looking over our shoulder. Mille Grazie.

Our dinner wrapped up around 11 and we still had not figured out a place to stay. So we did what any homeless couple with a crazy dog would do. Slept in a New Jersey Walmart parking lot. I sure know how to show a girl a good time in the big apple.

Little Italy

Lincoln memorial

Ok history buffs, where are we?

Lets play where in the world are Jon and Mo...

Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan!

Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man!

And when their statues are placed on high

Under the dome of the Union sky,

The American soldier's Temple of Fame,

There, with the glorious general's name,

Be it said, in letters both bold and bright:

"Here is the steed that saved the day. By carrying Sheridan into the fight,

From Winchester--twenty miles away!"

Give you a hint, we're not in Winchester. Craig, you should get this. 

 - jgt

To God Be The Glory

We were making good time through TN with the intention of making it to Cherokee or Jefferson National Forests for free "dispersed camping". There was an accident on the road up ahead that we could see was backing up traffic for miles and miles. Mo pulled off (with much chiding from me) an awesome 180 on the highway, driving down the on ramp to escape the mess. Fortunately, they had room at the inn, and we found a spot at the Christian RV park. We are camped right next to the RV parks church amphitheater ready for Sunday's bluegrass sermon.

Jack Daniel's old number 7

Took the scenic rout from Nashville to VA today by way of Lynchburg TN. Took the Jack Daniel's distillery tour. Pretty pisser.

Graceland and other racists

Two stories from today...

We went to see Graceland today. Fantastic. But, because we had Albert we couldn't go on any tours. So we walked around a bit. Mo took Albert for walk near the gate out front. There was an awesome Elvis impersonator there who got a little miffed at Mo. This guy probably trekked a thousand mile pilgrimage to the Elvis shrine only to watch Albert piss on it. BAD DOG! NO! No peeing on Graceland.

The second story...

I said as we crossed from New Mexico into Texas that I was interested to see if i was going to hear some overt racism. Took a couple days but I got it. At a rest stop this kindly old couple in there 80s were stopped next to us. They had Virginia plates so I asked "What should we do up there in VA?" They said "Go up to DC and find out what the hell our tax dollars are working towards. We used to live up there but there are too many foreigners." I fibbed, "That's interesting. We're both foreigners From Canada. We should Fit right in." "Oh, not those kinda foreigners. You know the kind I mean."

Not so much this morning.

Wikid weather. Glad we got a hotel last night. Camping would have been awful in this.

Sun setting over the mighty Miss last night

Beautiful weather this last night...

Mayday, mayday!!!

Can't see it real well, but this was a
Crop duster that went down in a field.

Oklahoma KOA...

We almost didn't sleep last night, 100 degrees and 99% humidity and sleeping in the back of a pick up truck. Rough. But we're back on the road and happy for AC. Next stop, Memphis.

This is the requisite Long Horn at the Oklahoma campsite.

Texas don't mess around

Shackled inmate and a corrections officer stop for a soda.

Just when I say we've got no good pics for the day....

...this little fella comes walking round the corner. Apparently out for a pack of cigarettes.

New Mexico

Despite traveling about 600 miles today, across some of the most beautiful landscape, we don't have many pictures to show for it. This will have to do

We're camping on the border of New Mexico and Texas for the night. 98 degrees at 9:00 pm.