Not Flying Over Part 1 - Wisconsin

We began our journey at London City - not the most conventional starting point for a transatlantic flight but the origin of BA's flight 001, the number previously used for Concorde flights. With just 32 all Business Class seats the A318 stops at Shannon on the way out for refuelling (direct on the return), where you all disembark and walk through the airport to clear US immigration and customs. Back in the air after only 50 minutes you then arrive at JFK essentially as a domestic flight. Out of the airport very quickly in a taxi to La Guardia in time to catch a flight to Madison Wisconsin 6 hours earlier than the one we had booked (didn't dare book the earlier connection with only an hour and 40 minutes between including the change of airport!). So a really good start to the trip.

Having arrived and duly ticked the Wisconsin box, what did we make of it. Well for starters Madison doesn't seem very representative of the state in general. The state capital and second largest city has government and university as its two largest employers. It feels like a relatively cosmopolitan and young city (lots of students do that for a place) which is in marked contrast to our observation of an overwhelmingly series of monocultural farming communities, being one of the great prairie states. 

 And of course, birthplace and long-time home of Frank Lloyd Wright, the doyen of American architects, whose family home of Taliesin about 35 miles from Madison is a must-see. Madison has some history too -the State Capitol (a mini-version of the Capitol in Washington DC) would be worth a visit.

Fact - Wisconsin is a place to be if you want to be out of contact - 35% battery use by 'No mobile signal' during one day. 

Travelling to Prairie du Chien, a historic trading post on the Mississippi found us following the Wisconsin river through extensive farmland and hunting country - the magazine rack at a coffee stop being evidence of the major interests of the area.

Prairie du Chien (where we met members of the Rotary Club on their charity golf day) had significant French interest in its early days but is now a rather sprawling strip along the river banks whose historic heart has been rather drowned by a surfeit of modern low-rise monstrosities. 
 




Villa Louis, formerly home to the Dousman family, a rich trading and railroad entrepreneurial dynasty, is definitely worth a visit though.

The Quest for the full 50

After a while away, I decided to start the blog up again, in honour of our first Convention visit for 3 years.  And so without further ado - the quest for the full 50
   

It all started a few years ago, probably after taking one of these "How many have you been to" things on Facebook and we realised quite how many of the US states we had already been to and how (relatively) few we had left to visit to complete all 50.

We were helped by having already visited Alaska on a cruise in the early 00s and the opportunity arose to capture the other outlier, Hawaii en route to the 2014 Rotary International Convention in Sydney (actually that enabled us to go round the world using only day flights - see earlier blog posts). At the point we had 16 to go and we had intended to pick off the New England states later that year but a broken ankle put paid to that.  However we did pick up Maine on a cruise in 2015.

We then also realised there was a theme to the vast majority of states we hadn't yet visited - most are what is known in the US as 'flyover' states, the vast swathes of middle America that are bypassed by most. And then we started to plot routes to capture them and found the incredible distances that would be required to be covered if we did them all by road. And then how difficult it us to visit them by air - the 'hub and spoke' system means it's impossible to fly commercially from state to adjacent state directly and ludicrously expensive via the nearest hub. So we will be doing some by train, but that's in the future.

This year we've made a start on some of the flyover states as a precursor to joining 40,000 others at the Rotary International  Convention in Atlanta. 

Week 52 End of the Year!

Rotary Engagements since July 1                              339

Not a whole lot to talk about from a Rotary perspective this week – having been confined to our home apart from a few forays out into the outside world.

Having said that, I managed to get a number of things done that needed to get done before the end of the Rotary year.  Disappointment on Wednesday when what I expected to be a routine hospital appointment and replacement of the back slab by a full cast turned into the news that the repair to the inside of the ankle has failed and has to be redone, so it’s back into theatre tomorrow for round 2 and then the six weeks non weight-bearing period starts again.  At least the outside appears to be OK?

So that was one of my outings, another to the Golf Club on Thursday to sort out arrangements for our Rotary club’s handover this coming Wednesday which unfortunately I’ll have to miss – hoping to be out of hospital by then but unlikely to be up to an evening outing.

 

But the big foray of the week was to our District Handover.  Thanks to daughter Jo and son-in-law Alex we were able to make our way over to Oxford and enjoy the evening.  Great entertainment from the Cotswold Voices and some decent speeches from me & our incoming DG Tim Cowling (he says modestly!).

And so, as they say at the end of every HannaBarbera cartoon, for this Rotary year "That's All Folks!)

Week 50/51 Back in the Thick of it and then …… STOP

Rotary Engagements since July 1                              337

And off we went into another helter-skelter week after our return.  Monday at Windsor & Eton to hear incoming President Geoff and his team set out their stall for the coming year in my role as the Assistant Governor for 2014-2015.

Similarly on Tuesday lunchtime with the folks at Ruislip-Northwood, the one club in the District I could comfortably walk to if I wasn’t lazy.  Followed later that day with dinner with the nice people from the Paul Strickland Scanner Centre at their Golf Day evening.  Terrific work being done just round the corner from me with state of the art imaging – awe-inspiring.

And on Wednesday nice to be back with my own club and be treated to Joan acting as our speaker talking about the life and loves (mostly the latter) of Louis XV.

Thursday and another couple of Club Assembly visits – this time to Gerrards Cross & Chalfont St Peter where our club’s close darts rivals treated ,me to their usual level of banter mixed in with a splendid set of plans for the coming year.  Incoming President John took charge in his inimitable way – good to see current President Jeremy back at the club after his stroke.  And in the evening to Slough where incoming President Mary & her team set out their plans.

Friday managed my first full 18 holes since returning from four weeks away from the course – saw enough good stuff to be encouraged about the summer.  And on in the afternoon to meet DGE Tim & Linda at the Oxford Hotel to finish off the details of the arrangements for our Handover dinner on Saturday 28^th.

 

And then to Saturday – which turned out to be the day that changed the summer (for us at least).  Every couple of years the community of Ickenham run the Ickenham Festival – historically in the grounds of Swakeleys House but this year in the grounds of Vyners School, permission to use the previous venue being withdrawn a week before the event.  So many congratulations to the organisers for managing to make the change so quickly and efficiently.  Mind you, as we got ready for the off the heavens opened and we felt it was not going to be a good day.  We, in this context being our own Rotary Club, whose stall provided the culmination of ticket sales for our “Meal for Two” draw, which took place that afternoon and , as a piece of fun we ran a welly-throwing competition.  Competition was fierce, with one particular competitor having a penchant for throwing long distances, not always accurately, but which culminated with a welly being thrown into a tree.  As chief retriever I (of course) set out to retrieve the welly, which culminated in my falling awkwardly with my right ankle under me and hearing it break in the process.  It didn’t look too good – bone pointing one way and foot the other but I managed to straighten that out and sat out the wait for the ambulance, which took an hour and 40 minutes.  Must say this was NOT down to inefficiency of the ambulance service but pure priority – there were others whose need was greater, like the heart attack victim.  

 

The poor ambulance guys had come all the way from St Georges in Tooting (about 50 mins journey) but fortunately took me closer, to Hillingdon Hospital where I was treated with speed and (as far as I can tell so far) great skill.  Less than 2 hours after arrival at around 6:30 p.m. I was in a ward and at 9:00 on Sunday was reviewed by an orthopaedic surgeon who told me about the op I needed and proposed to do it that morning, which he duly did.   

By mid-afternoon I was back to (a different) ward and on my way to recovery, apart from needing not to put any weight on my ankle for the next 6 weeks!  Discharged on Monday back to home, which was a great result – nasty places to be, hospitals. 

Apart from a bit of an infection towards the end of the week that made my temperature shoot up and down like a yo-yo I now seem to be “onwards & upwards).  More notes next week.