I'm Judy, am twenty-six and I've been divorced for two years. My dad, Glenn, is forty-eight and my mother died three years ago of lung cancer. He and my mom only had me and my ex- husband and I fortunately never had any children. So, Dad and I are all each of us has left in the world. Just so you understand there never has been anything out of the ordinary between him and I and I'm talking about what I am sure you are thinking about ...sex. He's my Dad and I'm his daughter ... period done.
The phone rang that morning and it was him all, bright and cheery.
"Hey sugar, I have a super surprise for both of us that I want to run past you. I just heard about it a half hour ago and I've just now finished stuttering." He said that as one sentence and with one breath and he was now gasping just a bit.
"What is it now tiger? You found two twenty-one year old gorgeous gals to run off with except you can't figure out what to do with them. Is that it?" I asked.
"No smarty pants. I always knew your mother and I never walloped your butt often enough when you were growing up to teach you respect for your elders." He said jokingly.
"Are you sitting down or can't you find a chair large enough to hold your butt?" He asked.
The size of my butt has always been a sore spot with me and he will point it out when he's trying to get a rise out of me.
"I'm sitting big shot. What's your surprise?"
"Well, I am not sure if you remember me telling you I bought a fifty dollar lottery ticket the Knights of Columbus was selling six months or so ago for a trip around Europe and you telling me I was a fool. Something about 'a fool and his money were easily parted' was your comment. Well, guess who won it smart mouth? Yours truly."
"You're kidding. What is the trip for?" I asked.
"Well, the whole thing is three weeks and the flight leaves Newark to London's Heathrow. The hotel is booked for four nights there and then a tour package leaves London and tours southern England for four days seeing all that area has to offer. I then have a choice of them providing a rental car or getting on a train to travel the Chunnel under the English Channel and ending up in Paris. If I opt for the car rather than the train I can spend a week in western France touring that part of the country and then the Chateau's along the Loire valley before going up for the last week in Paris. If I opt for the train under the Chunnel I will end up in Paris and spend the rest of the trip there but taking a lot of day trips to many of the sights within a day's ride from Paris. All expenses will be paid and if I chose the rental car, which I am leaning towards, they provide a thousand Euro's' to cover expenses for that section of the trip. There's only one problem."
By the time he had finished describing the trip I was the one who was breathless. "What the hell can the problem be? It sounds marvelous."
"Weeeellll, the prize is for two and I can't seem to find one of those twenty one year old beauties you keep talking about for me. Sooooo, would you like to join me?"
"Would I? Are you nuts? I'd love to. It is a part of the world I've always dreamed of touring and here it is ... paid for and on a silver platter. Look no further, you have a traveling companion tiger. When do we leave?"
"There are pretty flexible about it. The flight out of Newark is the only one that is kind of tight but if I give them a week or so advance notice it won't be a problem. If you really want to accompany me why don't we schedule it for three weeks from today? If you can make that I'll call them tomorrow and tell them to get going with the tickets."
"I'll either be able to make it with this job or I'll have a new job in six weeks." I sputtered.
Dad had a terrific advantage as far as getting the time off. He owned the company!
My boss was happy for me and wished me well and promised the job would be there and waiting for my return. I only had a weeks vacation left so I was going to be off a couple without pay but that was a small price to pay for a vacation of a lifetime.
Dad had given me some great advice as far as clothes to bring. I was thinking of packing two or three suitcases and he was only going to take one along with a small carry on bag. His one had two sections, one of which had a couple of hangers and the other side was for everything else. He told me to pack one nice black evening dress with a matching shawl along with a jacket that could be used for a number of formal outings. He had a nice pair of slacks with a coordinated blazer, a couple of wash and wear white shirts, and a few ties in the hanger side of the case and his jeans, toilet items and casual shirts and slacks were packed tightly on the other side. His small carry one bag held two small plastic bags. When we started out, one held his clean underwear and the other was empty. As the trip went on he would use up the underwear and transfer the dirty underwear to the other plastic bag. Damn it worked great. I did the same thing and we were set with two suitcases and two carry-on bags. I also had one large purse that held a ton of necessary things like a camera, books to read while traveling etc. Dad had done a lot of traveling on the job and he knew whereof he spoke.
One other thing dad was able to arrange, he got a daylight flight from Newark to London rather than the red eye special. We'll get into London around eight in the evening but it is damn sure better than trying to sleep on an overseas flight.
The flight over was very nice. It was on Continental Airlines and they treated us very well. We had window seats, that is there were three seats between the aisle and the window and fortunately it was only the two of us in that row so we had a little room in which to stretch out. Clearing customs at Heathrow is almost a joke. When you get your luggage from the carousel you have a choice of two lines. One is for those with something to declare and the other is for those who have nothing to declare. We picked the latter and simply walked out of the terminal to the taxi stand ...real tight security!!.
The hotel was terrific. It was located right on the edge of Hyde Park and a short taxi ride to many of the world famous sights of downtown London. Directly across the street was the famous "Speakers Corner" where anyone who wants can get a soapbox, climb up and speak to the world about their favorite subject and those listening try to heckle them down. We listened to a few of them while there and it was a riot. I actually thought some of them were going to come to blows.
The only problem with the daylight flight from the States is you arrive in London too late to do any sightseeing and you use your first nights hotel stay without having seen anything that day. No matter, it is a very comfortable way to travel. We had a nice dinner in the hotel dining room with maybe one or two too many drinks. So who's counting ... we're on vacation. There was one minor problem with the room. It only had one queen- size bed. We went down to the front desk trying to change it to one with two beds but they were booked solid and couldn't do it for a couple of nights. Hell, we'll be out of there by then. No problem, we'll just lay at the edge of our own side of it.
That first night did prove a little dangerous for a couple of times during the night I rolled over and stayed in that position and Dad did the same and we found ourselves almost nose to nose until one of us awakened and moved back to the edge. No problem as we kept in mind this was all free!
