FALLING IN LOVE

Once upon a time there was a man who due to circumstances decided a change of life was needed so decided to live on a narrow boat and blog about his travels. So as the blog became popular he decided on the last blog of Oct. 2009 to put a few lines in asking for overseas readers to contact him. Already up to then he`d had a few e mails from across the globe just one off`s and wondered how many more people might be reading but not commenting.

On opening his inbox on the 9th Nov 2009 his heart missed a beat upon seeing one that had all the markings of the Inland Revenue seeking money. It began -Dear Sir........ Now being a laid back Water Gypsy the first instinct was to read no more and throw it to the Lions in the delete box, no news is good news so the saying goes. But then again if he just read it first and then fed it to the Lions, well how would they know? and life could drift on. So bravely he stood on deck facing un-known dangers with a force 9 gale blowing and lightening bouncing off the gunnel's.......
sorry about that, thought i was writing a best seller. So he scrolled down and below, heavily edited - it went on and on, is what he read.

From: jalmdale@roadrunner.com
To: lesbiggs1948@msn.com
Subject: U.S. follower
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 19:16:26 -0800

Dear Sir,

Per your request within your blog I am following your NB experiences as well as those of NB Living in Sanity (Sheila and Bruce), NB No Problems (Sue and Vic ), NB Poppy (Julie and Mark), and the NB Quidditch.............................................................................

I just discovered narrow boats and canals mid October while watching Burt Wolf’s Travels & Traditions on PBS. He was on the Canal Du Midi in France. It roused my...................................
..................................................................................................................................................................
.........as my one weakness!

To your good health,
Jaqueline Almdale
Cloudhouse
Pullman WA USA

Ok the storyteller has got us this far now i`ll take over.

That folks was the first of 300+ e mails and phone calls that have bounced across the pond in the last 14 months and despite what you read above i love those e mails to be of book length.
Politeness....no hang on the politeness has always been there, Formality, is the word, was still the order of the day in the comment of Nov 11th below with`Hello Sir` but formality was to end on the 18th with all communications being` Hello Les`. Nowadays it`s..........well different.


Dragonfly said...
Hello Sir,
It's nice to read you are back on the move again. The pics....
.........................................................................................................
.......them first!! :)
Safe Journey to you.
Jaqueline
USA



Casually mentioning in one of my e mails my wish to re-visit Las vegas i received an e mail on the 12th Jan 2010 inviting me to visit, 9 weeks! before getting an invite must be losing the charm eh lads, Jaqueline and stay a while at her home. Well l played it cool and said plans were not made yet and could well be into 2011 before the Vegas trip took off so thanks but no thanks. What was i thinking i hear the blokes shouting, listen i`m thinking this crazy woman wants me to make a 2 plane, 1200 miles trip from Vegas for a visit. I know it`s a big country but is this what they call in the area so pop in.

So as the months went by the bond between us grew to such an extent that after much talk of flight options i decided that my bucket list needed another tick and Vegas was planned for around October.

Now it so happens that my loved one works for Washington State University and in October she would be on University business in Seattle. The suggestion was made that i visit Seattle and she would collect me from my hotel and we would drive the 6hr journey back to her home in Pullman when she would take some leave (vacation). Only 55mins on the plane so why drive for 6 hrs, my mind is whirring, meet at my hotel. The flashbacks are becoming clearer it was the hotel part, oh my god she is a crazy, Hitchcock and the Bates hotel, no it`ll be ok just have to be up early and out of the shower before she arrives.

On a sunny Sunday morning Jaqueline drove into the hotel car park and i knew then my 3 hrs late into the night Internet session had paid off........she was definitely not one of the photos on the FBI most wanted list. As she walked across to me all my nervousness and thoughts of will she be the hostess from hell were melted by the lovely smile that beamed across to me and after the customary hug the conversation flowed like we had known each other for years. The six hour drive seemed just a couple of hours with many stops to through some beautiful country. Driving to Jaq is the preferred way to travel, why be above the beauty when you can drive through it.


I suppose it only fair i share that smile with you all.

Ok so you can put away the sick bags or the tear soaked hankies depending on how you took all this on board because for you the story is over. As for Jaq and myself i think that `Dear sir` letter was our starting grid and the car park meeting was when the chequered flag was lowered. As for the result i see the the podium with two people standing on the No. 1 spot.

Check out Jaqueline`s blog HERE. where you can read the full `dear sir` letter plus all the other posts.

February will see me back in her arms for a much longer visit and all being well Jaqueline will be on board NB Valerie for a visit later in the year during which time she is hoping to bump into some fellow bloggers.