LOVELY HOLIDAY EPILOUGE

Sarah and Dad arose bright and early on their final day to make connections to get to the airport to fly home.  The very handy District Line tube stop which they had used all week was CLOSED for the weekend for track repairs.  It was not the best timing for transportation issues. The first day the line was down it was SNOWING when Dad and Sarah left the flat.  (In Dad's all two years in England as a missionary it snowed maybe once or twice ... global warming?)  With the difficult weather and critical timing to get the airport an absolute plan needed to be worked out.

The plan started with catching a (double decker, of course) bus at the top of the street.  Bus 69 went  to the Jubilee Line tube station.  The tube traveled to London Bridge Southern Railway train station.  All went as planned until London Bridge, then things came falling down (my fair lady oh).  Sarah asked, some platform staff and was told that there would not be another train  to Gatwick Airport for an hour.  That wouldn't do so they helpfully made the suggestion to hop on a train going to East Croydon that would soon be pulling into platform 13 and then change trains for one going to Gatwick.  Dad in the mean time was asking another pair of platform staff the same question... 2nd witness... same answer.  As Dad and Sarah approached platform 13 a train had just pulled in.  West Croydon was noted on the readout as one of the stops.  On board that hopped.  WAIT!  West Croydon?  "Didn't we want East Croydon".  The train doors closed.  Too late!  A wonderfully helpful and observant young man seated on the train asked if he could be of assistance.  Telling him that the final destination was Gatwcik Airport he calmly explained the following. "Get off this train at Norwood Junction, the stop just before West Croydon.  There will soon be along a train going to EAST Croydon.  Take that train one stop to East Croydon.  Get off that train and take a train that will be going to Gatwick".

It all worked out in the end.  Having planned a journey with MINIMUM changes (1 bus, 1 tube, 1 train) due to the baggage Dad and Sarah were lugging, they ended up with 1 bus, 1 tube, and 3 trains.  Lunch was purchased, as planned, at the airport with the final pound sterling notes the two had in their wallets for the 10 hour flight home. The final anxious incident was in finding a water fountain.  For a country that has water pouring from the sky constantly the Brits seemed to have responded with making drinking water nearly impossible to find.  There is ONE drinking fountain in the entire international airport.  Sarah found that not even the personnel at the Information Booth know where it is.  Sarah valiantly preserved and filled her water bottle returning to the gate several minutes AFTER the boarding call.  (P.S. Norwegian Air has a fine airplane but they serve nothing.. zero.. zilch.. complimentary to the low class passengers, so Sarah's water run saved life and limb.)  Farewell dear England.

On the train (one of them)

On the plane winging back to Los Angeles (Dad is learning to look at the little camera lens on the smart phone when performing a selfie.)

That's all folks.  A full and memorable trip for daughter and DAD.