The Lord is paving the way!

Wow, all I can say is that things are happening as if the Red Sea is parting to clear a path for me.

Yesterday I woke up to an email from the Hertford Theater in Hertford, UK that a ticket to the screening of "His Last Vow" on Oct. 5 with Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington had become available.  Now, I have to think that I was well down that waiting list because that event sold out almost instantly, and I didn't put my name on the waiting list for a couple of days.  So, I had written them an email about my story and that I was doing the Prince's Trust ride in the morning of Oct. 5, and that I had a bicycle with me... I just think I must have gotten bumped up the list out of pity.  Whatever works!  I called them, paid for the ticket, and I am in.

Then comes the mad scramble of how am I supposed to get from Windsor Castle to Hertford?  I had been emailing with a cab company in the Windsor area and was quoted a price of £75 - but that's pretty pricey, yet the only option I have to get there by 1:00.  And a generous person has stepped up with the funds to take the cab.  Seriously!  Now, this means getting a little earlier start on the ride so that I can be certain to complete it in a timely fashion.  

Unless Freeman/Abbington take pity on a lone touring cyclist and invite me to their home for the night in Hertfordshire, I think I will just take the evening/night train back up to Scotland from Hertford and arrive in Edinburgh first thing in the morning.  Good thing is that it's night and I can sleep on the train.  Perhaps my body can start adjusting to the time change faster.  I'll be plenty knackered, that's for sure.  

Apartment is getting emptier

I have to work on the apartment in some way every day.  Today I got rid of  my every day dishes called "Golden Rooster" and made by Certified International.  Loved them, but not going to store them (plus they were ridiculously heavy).  I think I loved the coffee mugs the best because I got a lot of coffee in each mug!  I also got rid of all my silverware.  So I'm sort of down to plastic stuff or my camping sporks.  Oh well, I'll just make do.  

I got rid the sofa two days ago and in the process smashed one of my little toes on my right foot against a low brick retaining wall outside... think I'll be losing that nail!  Still not sure if I broke the toe or not.  It doesn't hurt to walk on it... usually... but if it tweaks at all, then I'll for sure give up a yelp of pain!

I really, really need to get to the thrift store with clothes and other stuff.  My neighbor said she would take me.  Even so, I haul out what I can when I can in the two rear panniers on the bike.

Four weeks from today I will be down in London trying to get some rest before the big Palace to Palace ride.

I still need to raise support for it, so anyone who is interested in giving, here is the link to do so. Everyone who goes has to raise £120 for the Prince's Trust. 

So, I still have some niggling things to take care of - like getting all my receipts logged in for my taxes for 2014, seeing my tax guy, and also visiting the WGA to change my address to my sister's address so that my yearly residual checks can go to her house and she can deposit them for me.  I'm low, low person on the totem pole at the WGA, so I can't even change my address online.  I need to stop by in person.  Sort of a pain, but thankfully they are only 2 miles away.  

Oh, and I have 250 hand decorated cookies to make in the next 10 days or so... as I'm making all the cookies for the rest of the year for my one client.  It will help me to leave Los Angeles not quite so broke.

I do not miss these things that I am giving away.  That's all they are - things.  I am stripping my life pretty much bare.  Some day I will rebuild from the bottom (or maybe not!), but for now owning things is not important.  Having things and being sentimental about them has never been important to me anyhow.  Things are perishable.  Even cases of old writings hit the trash bin.  No way was I going to pay to ship that stuff into storage with one of my sisters.   Out it went, no regrets.

Sometimes I'm sort of wired with the "no regrets" personna.  One of the most memorable times of it was when I was just getting into Girl Scouts after having gone through Brownies, and there was a girl scout meeting at the local scoutmaster's house, and I didn't go.  They called me up wondering where I was, and I said that i would rather play with my brother and his friends and that I wasn't interested in scouting.  I never regretted that.  It wasn't that I was particularly tomboyish but that there weren't a lot of girls my age in the neighborhood.  My brother and his friends were constantly off in the woods building forts and having adventures, and that was far more interesting than earning some silly badges in Girl Scouts.  

Relationships have come and gone in my life too, and sometimes it's like flipping a light switch off.  When it's done, it's just done.  No tears, no weeping.  Just done.  Well, except for the one guy.  I think if he were to ever walk back into my life, I might find myself  falling in love with him all over again, but it would be just as unrequited from him as it ever was.  Thankfully, I doubt I will ever see or communicate with him again.  I'm sentimental a bit for him, but that's partly because I suspect he'll be the last one I ever fall in love with.  From this point on, I just really don't have the energy or time for that falling in love nonsense, and to be honest, I'm not very good at it anyhow.  For me, being single is the safest, most secure position in life that I can have.  Being single as a lifelong lifestyle is not for most people, but it sure is for me.  That is not to say that there isn't a part of my soul that has desired a more permanent relationship, but part of me has always known that I prefer to be alone.  I remember when I was sixteen that I told my mother that the perfect marriage for me would be to a Navy man who was gone on a submarine for nine months of the year.  She retorted, "That's not much of a marriage!"  But I knew even then that my private time and downtime were so precious that I did not ever want to sacrifice them to someone.  It never would have mattered to me if I were a "football widow."  I'd be pushing the guy out the door every chance I got.  Go fishing!  Go hang out with the guys!  Just go!  Okay, so, now I've gone a bit too far sentimental, and that's probably more than anyone wanted to know about me - but maybe it will also help you to understand why bicycling solo doesn't frighten me.  I prefer alone.

Oh sweet logistics

Oh sweet logistics, this may be a bit of crazy but I'm going to do it anyhow.

So I arrive in Edinburgh at night on Oct. 2.  Well, evening.  But still dark.

On Oct. 3 I have to get the bike put back together and make sure everything is working right.  If not I'll have to pay a visit to the local bike shop.  Plus I have to make sure I have the sports drinks and snacks for the ride on Oct. 5.

On Oct. 4 it's back to Edinburgh to catch the train to London, which will have to be a fairly early train so that I can get there while it's still daylight and can find my host - a host I don't have yet, but I will get some connections through the cycling world.

On Oct. 5 at 7:00 AM I have to be with the bike at The Mall - that's that wide, wide, wide entrance promenade road that leads to Buckingham Palace.  Well, actually to somewhere there by St. James Park which is where the ride starts.  Hopefully by 7:15 I'll be off on the ride with lots of others.  Woot!

I think I may need to give up on that afternoon thing at Hertford.  But God may yet open the doors.

After the ride there is the logistics of getting either to my Warm Showers host which will be another hour's ride away or returning to London via a ride with someone (probably the best plan), spending the night, then returning to Edinburgh on Oct. 6 via the train again.

I will be knackered for sure, but it will all be brilliant!  And then I will collapse, no doubt.  But I should be able to sleep on the trains some.  No, I don't want to sleep on the trains.  I want to look at everything and take tons of pictures!  And I want to talk to people!  Hopefully I will be coherent!  And if i arrive early enough in Edinburgh, I'll just ride the bike back to my host.  Have to look at all the routes for that too.

And then I'll collapse.

30 days until the U.K.!

Today someone was supposed to pick up my chest of drawers.  It was mostly empty anyhow, but I was scrambling to get that sock drawer emptied.  Of course, I was wondering why in the world I had so many socks in there that didn't have mates or had holes, so a trash bag came in quite handy.  One drawer was full of bicycle doodads, stuff I'm taking with me.  Need to really go through that and whittle it down for what is most expedient to the journey.  

The big news is that a generous sponsor came forward to help me with the Prince's Trust Palace to Palace ride on October 5.  Oh, I really wanted to do it but I may be leaving the USA with not much $$$ in my pocket.. or £££.  Now I have my entrance fee paid for and I will have the money for the train to and from Scotland.  I am going to be freaking knackered and I don't care one bit!!!  45 miles of London with British accents all around me via thousands of other cyclists... it's going to be massively Heaven.  Still need to raise £120... but all this is in God's hands, not mine!  So I know it will happen!

Now to start tweeting like a fiend to see if I can find anyone from the Hertford area who is doing the ride who can give me a lift to Hertford afterwards so that possibly I can be in line and get into the Sherlock panel discussion.  So, let's see what social networking can really do for me.  I chose the earliest start times available so that I could finish as quickly as possible. I know I can't afford a taxi from Windsor to Hertford.  And off we go...tweeting away.

Now to just keep whittling away at the stuff... none of it is staying, but I just have to figure out where it's all going.

Getting close

One month to go before I leave the USA for Scotland - I leave on October 1 and will arrive on October 2.  First stop Heathrow, then Edinburgh.

Sadly, I do not think I will be doing the Prince's Trust Palace to Palace charity ride.  This is an annual  bike ride from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle and is 45 miles (there is a longer route of 90 miles also), but I can't go unless I get a sponsor to pay my entry fee, pay the support fees, and pay for my train to and from Edinburgh to London.  That was to happen on October 5.  Yes I will still be miserably jet-lagged with the 8-hr time difference but I'd be flying on adrenalin just to be in the throngs of other British cyclists!  Oh well.  I'll catch up with the Breeze groups.   Also on that same day at 1:00 in Hertford was a screening and Q&A of Sherlock: His Last Vow with guest speakers Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington.  Honestly didn't know how I was going to get from Windsor to Hertford in time unless I took a super expensive taxi for me and the bike.  Yikes.  I had a ticket in my hand for the screening but let it slip through my fingers in indecision... and now I'm on the bloody waiting list to get in.  Probably waaaaaay down the list. So, I will probably pass on that opportunity as well, darn it.  I've seen that episode probably 40-50 times and would have had some ripping in-depth questions to ask.  Maybe there will be another screening and Q&A somewhere in Britain before S4 airs.  Please.  Please.

However, I did manage to fight my way through the fangirls earlier this month and procure a ticket for October 27 of 2015 for HAMLET at the Barbican.  That was a fight!  Finally it just got to the point where I said frantically, "I don't care how much it costs or what time or day, just get me a ticket!"  That was me talking to myself, and finally I got one.  And shortly afterwards all available tickets were sold out.  Then I felt like dancing around and singing, "I've got a golden ticket!"  Yeah, I'm keeping that with my passport.

In the meantime I still have a ton of stuff to get rid of, but I got rid of one of the big things - the upright baby grand piano.  Just gave it away and someone paid professional movers to pick it up.

I tried to call the airlines today to find out about the bike box issue and the cost, but got a busy signal.  Arrgh.  Might have my guys at I. Martin Cycles help me pack it up.  I think Ryan would help.  I need to see how everything needs to come apart so that I can put it all back together again, and I will probably film them doing it because I'm just such a virgin about such things.  Need to get a whole lot more savvy about working on my bike.  I did stop in the shop yesterday because I need to cut off part of the foam grips so that I can mount the headlight in a different place, and I also asked Ryan about the broken spoke problem.  The back wheel has had three broken spokes since I've had the bike, and my other bike never had a broken spoke.  I asked if it was a weight-bearing issue, and he said probably, as sometimes I've put 50+ lbs of dead weight back there when I go grocery shopping.  He suggested maybe getting a rim with more spokes, but I can't do anything about that now.  I just have to wait until I get to Scotland.  I still have more Ortlieb stuff to also get while I'm in the UK.  Yes, I will travel with my disgustingly huge Coleman sleeping bag, but I am setting out in the winter, and I hate mummy bags, and this one supposedly goes down to 20 degrees.  Will also have a wool blanket with me. I should be fine if I have to camp out anywhere, and I sort of hope I do get to experience a little winter camping.

So, I plan to leave Scotland in January and take the train to Wales and begin touring there.  After Wales I will head over to Ireland, tour nice and slowly, then head to France to see my friend in Paris.   Or I might head to Amsterdam first, then work my way down.  I plan to tour in Europe until sometime in August, then head back to Scotland, specifically to John O'Groats on the northern most coast and do the route from there to Lands End.  Should take 3 weeks, but I may take longer and just enjoy the slower pace so that I can just soak it all in.  Then it's back to Scotland for a few months... with a slight intermission in October for Hamlet.

We'll see how it all works out. I hope I develop some good stories to write while on the road.  I need something new to write.

Ortlieb panniers ordered!

I am leaving for Scotland on October 1 with the bike and some luggage.  Today I ordered my Ortlieb rear panniers and the handlebar pannier.  I don't have the Ortlieb front panniers yet or the rack pack but I will order them once I get to Scotland or if a big cookie order comes in I will order them then.

I am planning on riding the Prince's Trust Palace to Palace Ride on Oct. 5 in London which is a 45-mile ride from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle.  Should be loads of fun and I'll be with lots of other cyclists.  At the end of the ride everyone gets a medal, and that will be lovely.  I haven't officially signed up for it yet, but I'm waiting until after August 1.

There's a chance on Oct. 8 that I will be walking the red carpet at the Leicester Square world premier of the film, The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch, but I have to wait until my current houseguest, with whom I am staying in Scotland, makes arrangements.  He's a member of BFI, and he can get us in.  Just needs to be back home to do it.

So basically I will be leaving LAX on Oct. 1, arriving Glasgow Oct. 2, taking the train back to London on Oct. 4 and doing the ride on Oct. 5.  That ride starts at 7:00 a.m., which will be like 11:00 PM to me... oy! Jet lag!!!!  Then after the ride I will hang out in the London area somehow until the event on Oct 8, if that gets arranged.  So between Oct. 5 and Oct. 8 I will be riding my bike in London and visiting some of the SHERLOCK locations.  Woo hoo!  So excited to do that.  Will be going to Speedy's Cafe for sure at some point.  Then on Oct. 9 it's back to Scotland where I will hole up and write and ride for a few months.  Sometime in January I will be leaving Scotland and will tour Wales before setting off to either Ireland for touring or mainland Europe.

I can spend 180 days in any country, pretty much, on my passport, and I want to spend 180 days in Britain but need to break it up because I will be wanting to tour from north to south and meander through the land meeting as many people as I can, experiencing the culture and breathing the air.  I want to visit the places I have written of, also visit the CHITTY locations, well, the ones that I know.  Plus I want to be back for late summer 2015 to see Cumberbatch in HAMLET, if I can get a ticket.  I suspect they will all be sold out almost instantly when they go on sale early August of 2014.  All the fangirls will snatch them up.  If I miss it, I miss it.

The car, "the beast," is gone now.  God provided a simple and clean solution for it, and it bought the rear panniers for the bike.  Now to pretty much get rid of everything else I own.  A few things will be sent to my sister in Texas for storage, but I honestly don't expect to see them again because I don't have any plans to set up house again for a long time.

From October 1, I consider the rest of my life to be a grand adventure on the bicycle.

The Imitation Game - Official UK Teaser Trailer