I am Pauline George, aged 63, retired supply teacher from Birmingham, England, United Kingdom. I am on the trip of a lifetime. Alan, aged 56, a Signalman on Network Rail and I are travelling from San Francisco to New York by train and coach. I have had many adventures in far off places, including going to (old) Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Beirut, Morocco and totally on my own to Vienna; as well as the usual haunts like Paris, Majorca, Spain and Ibiza. Now I am older I have decided I enjoy trips a little less fraught with danger. Going with a gang of over 30 (mainly retired) British people is very comforting. No one is going to cause a lot of trouble, they are not going to get drunk and make a noise, they are not going to fall out or shout. On the whole they are polite and friendly and all expect to make new friends along the way.
We have been looking forward to this trip for months. For us it is a trip of a lifetime. We chose to travel Great Rail Journeys because we had been with them before. This is our fourth trip with Great Rail Journeys; Lake Garda, Bruges, India and now America. Great Rail Journeys are not the only company that do this type of tour, but we do like GRJ, you get a tour manager from England back to England and they take the strain while you enjoy the trip. It means we are cosseted and protected every step of the way. Any problems and the TM deals with it. Any complaints about rooms and the TM deals with it. He, we have only had men thus far, takes the strain worrying about timings, bookings and all types of problems along the way. Which leaves us to enjoy the scenery and the holiday/adventure. We met our TM at Heathrow, along with a second welcomer to help book people onto the tour. The flight was fine. However, Nick's first problem came early, when one of the passengers was refused entry into America. We all had to wait outside San Francisco Airport whist Nick dealt with the problem. It seems one of our number had the same name as an American wanted felon. It took an hour before someone realised he wasn't the person that was wanted. We all waited patiently, concerned about Alan and his wife stuck in border control.
We knew the whole trip would be hard going, west to east America in 21 days is a hell of a long way to go. We intended to go the opposite way to the original settlers (Great Rail also do the east to west 'coast to coast' trip) because we get the longest flight from london heathrow over with; the hop from New York is considerably shorter. I hate long boring flights home; its not as bad going as you have the holiday excitement buoying you up. The home flight always feels twice as long anyway.
Even before we booked the trip I had wanted to visit cousin Eddy in San Francisco, since he first went there 40 years ago from Birmingham. Eddy has a tiling and marble business out there and operates from his home in Mountain View, San Jose. (see his website Sheldon Tiling and Marble) Before we left I arranged to meet up. And at last I got to see where he lives.
We are almost half way time-wise through our holiday and we are both shattered. We seem to be in continual hurry mode. Up early every day (barely getting time for breakfast) to get on a coach to either travel forward by train to the next hotel or to take a sightseeing trip and then return for a second night at a hotel is arduous. Still we are not expecting to return to America so we are seeing as much of this vast country as we can whilst we are here. Follow us through all the states on our trip of a life-time.
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