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| The beautiful view of the blue ridge mountains while sitting in the living room looking out my father-in-laws front picture window. You can’t see the runway but the windsock is there. |
We arrived back from our unexpected trip to Virginia on Wednesday morning and we slept all day and all night. Much more rested today. We had only been in Croydon 3 days when we received the call that Chuck’s father had a massive stroke. All day, Friday, August 16th after hearing the news, we began working on travel to Virginia. We started with the travel insurance company as we are required to notify them first.
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| We will miss the mountainous view, the visits of the deer, hummingbirds, cardinals and doves on a daily basis. |
They gave us the travel company information, OnCall. We talked to them about flights and they were trying to get us on a flight that spent 8 hours in Toronto, making our travel time around 18 hours. It took them over 2 hours to locate that one. We found some less expensive and more direct flights (8 hours) online in a matter of minutes but the agency wasn’t very helpful. Also, the insurance company was telling us we didn’t have to pay anything up front that they would take care of it which turned out to be untrue. After a full frustrating day we decided to go to bed and try again early the next morning. We found out the next morning, Charlie passed away peacefully around 7 pm Eastern. Here in the UK it was after midnight so we missed the notification since we had already retired for the evening. It was a disheartening email to wake up too. Charlie treated me like one of his daughters and I’ll always have fond memories of our time together.
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| Charlies J3 Cub sitting in his hangar. His plane was his second love next to his wife Josephine. His last flight was at the age of 96. I will forever cherish our fond memories of him in the sky! |
So, now we really had to get to work and get to Virginia. We spent most of the day talking to the travel company because the insurance company was closed on Saturday. That evening, we finally just booked the direct flight with a cost of $4,000 USD. Unbelievable but only about $50 difference in the all day layover in Canada the travel company had for us. We only booked one way because thats what they would have booked. After sleeping on it and within the 24 hour window for changes, I looked at the cost of a round trip, because, yes we were coming back. That brought the flight down to $3,500. We saved the insurance company money, had a direct flight and a round trip as well! Well, the insurance company doesn’t see it that way so we are submitting all the paperwork and pray for the best. We are sending the paperwork in today. We’ll see what transpires. Very frustrating at this point.
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| Had a nice dinner with family near the Peaks of Otter in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This was our view during dinner. |
While in Virginia, we drove to Richmond for the day and dropped off one large full suitcase of clothes into our rented storage. What a relief to be down to 3 suitcases. I also gave up one of my small roller carry on bags and moved it all to my backpack. While at the storage unit, I decided to change my camera out and get my trusty Canon SLR. I couldn’t be happier! Let’s hope the storage didn’t do any damage although since its temperature controlled, I doubt it would. I cant wait to get out and take more photos and get back into my more creative shooting vs. just point and shoot.
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| Charlies plane in the hangar |
I finished our budget’s final numbers for Jersey island. We did well and only went over a little. I blame that on the doctors appts and prescriptions. I’m sure we are going to have that everywhere we go. I don’t even want to think of what our London numbers will be. I will try to separate the unexpected trip to see how we fare. It is what it is and these things will happen. We are prepared for them so it’s always good to have a backup plan.
The weather is in the 70’s here all weekend and a few days next week so we will get out. Rain is coming but very fortunate we are not in Florida while Hurricane Dorian is on its mission to destroy. Our prayers go out to those in the path and pray for their safety and well being. Our hope is that the damage is minimal and lives are spared.
Last but not least, we wish to thank Bonnie, Cindy and Brenda, as well as friends, relatives and other help of any kind, including many prayers, extended to Charlie and Josephine. Everyone they touched fell in love with them. The Reynolds family could not have done this without you! Our love and heartfelt THANK YOU go out to you all!
May God bless you all!
Chuck & Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 