US2UK - The Day in Pictures - Feb. 27 & 28, 2012

The Big Day in Pictures!


Thankfully, we all landed safe and sound.  Rosco seems to have shrugged off the flight and its affects but River is showing signs of jet lag.  Last night, sleepless at 2:00 a.m., I got up.  Now, one of us getting up in the middle of the night is nothing new to The Noses, but at home, River wouldn't even bother to open her eyes.  So you can imagine my surprise last night when she bounded up after me into the sitting area, grabbed a toy and tossed it in the air.  


Her excitement didn't last long and we were all back in bed ten minutes later.


Unfortunately, the area we are in seems to be quite dog unfriendly.  The lovely Barkston Garden Park that sits across the street (and the main reason I selected this apartment) is a private park:  You must have a key to gain access.  Just like the park a quarter of a mile in the opposite direction.  Also, there are very few trees along the sidewalks so you can imagine we are having some issues in the dog-relieving area.


However, a delightful one-mile walk (one way) gains us access to Kensington Gardens Park which, unbelievably, is entirely off leash.  They have some fenced areas that say, "Dogs must be leashed in this area," but that is all!  Wide open fields and happy dogs everywhere.  Our new dog heaven (and good for the humans too as the walk sure did us good last night.) 


So back to adjusting to jet lag - it takes me three days every single time and I'm sure this time will be no different.


-K


P.S.  Also in the pictures is a shot of our baggage.  Alan did an amazing (or amazingly crazy) job of classifying what was in every bag.  No kidding, we have a spreadsheet on it--no one at Sage is even surprised, I'm sure.  Complete with color coded rope.  But it all came in handy when we landed at Heathrow:  All the pink colored bags came with us, the rest went into the on-site long term bag storage (fantastic find.)

US2UK - The Day Itself - Feb. 27, 2012

Today I am living the definition of surreal; I just can’t believe this is all really happening. 

I woke early this morning and figured I might as well start getting adjusted to the time change so I got up at 6:00 and took the dogs out for their morning constitutional.   I returned via the Club Floor of the Sheraton for some coffee and a bagel then joined Alan back in the room.  Around 8:00 I took The Noses out for a nice long walk.  We walked along JFK Boulevard to the Houston International Airport where they have at least a mile of nice, flat, grass on which to ramble.  I thought the noise of the airplanes and trucks would be a good experience for the dogs, so we took our time and got a nice work-out in.

Back to the room, Alan and I fit in an hour of yoga before hitting the showers and packing up.  We had to have the dogs to British Air World Cargo by 12:30 for our 4:30 flight.  I was thankful that the drop location was not the same as the [human] traveler’s check-in.  It was a separate building at the other side of the airport and, although busy in its own right, not nearly as frantic as an international airport terminal full of humans.  (Having spent many hours in airports in my previous life, I can safely say that humans are not at their best when flying.)

The dog check-in was lengthy:  While Alan assembled the crates, I filled out the final paperwork, had the health certificates checked, and paid the bill (over $2,700 for the two dogs!)  Once the crates were completed, they were taken, empty, to be x-ray’d.  Then the dogs were measured and had their pictures taken in front of the crates to prove that they are the correct size.  You know The Noses, they were not shy about having their picture taken—particularly Rosco who was thrilled to do anything that involved not getting into the crate.   After weighing the dogs we gave them a cheery “Crate!” command and they made us proud by jumping right in.  Well, Rosco made one attempt to lunge out the office door, but after that he jumped right in.

I didn’t even cry.

Alan dropped me at the British Airways check-in area with our ten (yes, 10!) giant suitcases and while he was unloading them from Snowball, I hailed a porter.  Sometimes it is just worth it to spend the extra money and this was definitely one of those times.  The porter and I went to check in while Alan returned Snowball to Hertz.    

The seemingly endless loading of bags at the check-in counter elicited a, “Just how many bags do you have?” question from the clerk.  “Eight to check in, two to carry on”, I replied to which he countered,  “You are only allowed to check six bags.”  I admitted to knowing the facts but told him we did the best we could and we will just have to pay for the extra ones.  $280 for our two additional bags—I was spending money like crazy and hadn’t even made it to Paris yet.

After the joys of U.S. security, we walked into the British Airways lounge where we were greeted with a, “Mr. and Mrs. Bryant, I am so sorry”, my heart stopped; was the flight cancelled?  Good lord!  The health certificates were only good until today! Panic! But the clerk continued, “This is the coach lounge, the first class lounge is just out the door and down to the left.”  I’m not even sure this last part registered with me I was still in such a panic, I just followed Alan out the door.

A few yards down the hallway we entered the first class lounge and were immediately greeted with, “You must be the Bryants, welcome.”  Good lord, I had forgotten just how wonderful good service is.  We dropped our bags and headed directly to the Veuve, hot soup, and shortbread cookies.

It is now 3:30 p.m. in Houston, in about 25 minutes we’ll be boarding the plane and changing into our First pajamas while the Veuve is poured again. 

Cheers!

-K

Musings – On Crate Training the Noses for the Flight

Nothing but Nose pictures here.

For those of you who know Rosco, you probably know he picked up a deep aversion to crates and airplanes during the six months that Alaska Airlines made me put him in cargo rather than under my seat.  (If you know this story, then you also know that I fought and won the right to have him under my seat for good . . . but alas, that was only for Alaska.)  Couple Rosco’s aversion with the fact that when River was a puppy, I put her in a crate and she howled and threw herself against the wall until it fell over, you can imagine my excitement over crate training them for the US2UK flight.

We bought the crates a little late, only ten days or so before our departure which didn’t help as I’m sure The Noses could sense my desperation.  But they were curious right from the start and even Rosco was quick to jump in for a cookie—as long as the door was not attached.    

The first night went very well, with both dogs sleeping in their door-less crates; River didn’t even try to bully Rosco out of one but stayed in her first choice all night.  The second night, however, I tried to get fancy and shut the doors.  River was unimpressed and went right to sleep.  Rosco, on the other hand, was deeply impressed and not in a good way.  He immediately began his panting routine (remember his cold weather panting?  It’s baaaaa-aaack!)  but I persevered and he eventually fell asleep.  For an hour.  Then the panting started again.  Then another hour of sleep.  Then more panting.  So around 3:00 a.m., I finally got up and let him out.  Undoubtedly one of Rosco's more frustrating times trying to train a human, but he persevered.  From that night on, he opted to sleep under our bed rather than get anywhere near the crate. 

With the travel day just around the corner, I was starting some panting of my own at the thought of Rosco not being able to last through the flight.  I decided to bring the crates out to the living room and put the dogs inside while Alan and I worked out.  This way Rosco’s panting wouldn’t keep me awake and maybe he would get over it.  True to form, he did start panting almost immediately but then, lo and behold!  He curled up and went to sleep.   River, always up for a good nap, went to sleep immediately. 

I decided to stop while ahead.  Our final two nights are at the Sheraton near the Houston International Airport, where Rosco is luxuriating on a heavenly dog bed and River, well, she basically sleeps wherever she wants.  But clearly she doesn’t want the heavenly dog bed otherwise she would not hesitate to whine at Rosco until he moved.

-K

Austin, TX, USA – Feb. 19-21, 2012

A couple more pictures

Texans will be the first to tell you that Austin is different than the rest of Texas.  So let me be the second; Austin is different than the rest of Texas.  It is a healthy lifestyle mecca for people who love themselves as much as they love the freedom promised (and fulfilled) in Texas. 

If you can imagine the active people of Colorado decked out in the freestyle clothes and hair preferred in Seattle but spending money like they do in Orange County (I have not seen so many Cayennes in one place since leaving Laguna) then you will have a good idea of the Austin folks.  Of course, all this comes with the friendly hospitality only found in Texas.    

So how did we come to spend three nights in Austin?  On the journey to get The Noses paperwork completed for the crossing, we needed the final documents to be stamped and signed by the USDA’s APHIS department certifying the dogs as being ok to export.  Don’t get me started on this incredibly ridiculous requirement particularly when it all needs to happen ten days before your flight and most states only have one local office.  (Oh no, I got started!) This means you have to visit your vet ten days before the flight, get the documents typed up, send them express to the APHIS office, they work on them for 24-48 hours before express mailing it back to you hopefully in time for your flight. As you can see, ten days goes very, very quickly.  (For more information on traveling with your pets overseas, please see my previous posting US2UK – Transporting The Noses.)  In any event, being only three hours from Austin and hunting for something to take our mind off the masses of luggage we are trying to pack, we opted to take the papers to the APHIS office ourselves.

With Salt & Pepper queued up for loading onto the freighter in Galveston, we really had no choice but to spend our three nights at the Four Seasons, Austin.  Although the building is old and the rooms are much closer to Manhattan size than Texas size, the property is gorgeous with lush grass leading down to Lady Bird Lake and the miles of walking/running/biking trails at hand.  To top it off, a friend of ours mentioned the off-leash area; just a quarter of a mile down the path and across one bridge starts what Rosco and River named Dog Heaven—miles of off-leash trails along the water. 

Upon arriving in town, two new to me (but not Alan) friends treated us to dinner at Eddie V’s where, despite the tempting steaks listed on the menu, we all enjoyed a variety of delicious seafood.  From baked salmon and sole to raw- and baked oysters and a delicious crab salad our table was a seafood sampler.  It was a lovely evening and such a pleasure to meet Jay and Oksana, who I have to thank for introducing my body to P90X.  All I can say is, “Superman Banana.”

Monday being a federal holiday we could not turn in our dog papers so we set about exercising our memories of how to spend money.  We were quite successful at Lululemon and St.Bernard Sports stopping just long enough to enjoy a delicious lunch at Lambert’s BBQ.   Although the menu boasted such lovely items as cold smoked trout, I opted for the house made charcuterie (featuring duck prosciutto) and cheese plate while Alan tucked into some BBQ brisket.  He just can’t get enough of this Texas BBQ.

We didn’t think we would be hungry again, but 7:00 found us out at The Clay Pit, for some tasty Indian food.   If you dine here, I’d recommend using their take-out option.  The restaurant is poorly lit (too bright) and noisy. 

Finally Tuesday arrived and we drove up to the APHIS office.  Summoning all my charm, I went to turn in the papers and beg for a 24-hour turn-around.  Did I mention this was a federal office?  I came out of the office in a charm deficit with no assurance that the papers would be ready any sooner than the 48-hours they promise.  Nothing more we could do with that so we stopped for a coffee and then set about finding some new athletic shoes for Alan.  After a nondescript lunch at Taco Cabana we let The Noses run free in the park for a bit before returning to the room for a quick nap and some long yoga. 

The time had come for our romantic dinner out; in over five months we had never once worn our “fancy clothes”.  We had each packed one really nice outfit but they had never made it out of the Thule compartment on the Pepper.  So we decked out as well as we could (both of us have lost more weight so the clothes were quite baggy—particularly mine so this outfit will need to be replaced in Paris, but really, what won’t?) and headed to the lobby bar for a martini before setting out for Congress.

Incidentally, for those of you following more of The Noses than The Bryants, in order to enjoy a cocktail in the lobby bar (where dogs are not allowed) we had the valet pull up Snowball, our white rental Escalade, and we stored the dogs in there, parked just outside the front door, while we imbibed.

Dinner at Congress is an experience.  The exterior promises an edgy contemporary environment that is not fulfilled by the off-white chairs and booths of the interior.  However, the seating is warm and comfortable with only a dozen or so tables.  The wine list is extensive but the restaurant lacks a sommelier.  Left to our own devices, we opted for a wonderful Margaux.  The food, however, was unbelievable.  French in size and sauce, American and Asian in ingredients with a presentation worthy of Michelangelo, it was a real treat.  Sadly, I was too full to try the egg cream dessert—the one item that drew me to the restaurant in the beginning.

But back to work!  Having not heard from the APHIS office by 9:00 on Wednesday morning, we thought we might have to spend another night in Austin.  As Wednesday dawned warm and getting warmer, the thought of lazing by the pool all day sounded quite nice.  So I only half-heartedly walked up to the APHIS office to check on the progress of our papers.  Turns out, the papers would be ready by noon so I returned to the room in time for our P90X workout and a quick shower before being pulled away from the peaceful Four Seasons.

We are now only days away from The Crossing.  All the papers are in, flights are booked, even Salt & Pepper are loaded on the freighter. 

Really?  Isn’t anyone going to stop us?

-K 

Musings – On Crossing the Pond

When we were preparing for this trip last summer, a friend of ours wrote on our Facebook page, “You are fortunate to have the time, money and courage to undertake such an adventure.”  Undoubtedly we are fortunate in the time and money category, but right now I am more thankful for the courage than anything else.

As exciting as it all is, there is a hint of terror as well.  Thinking about being so far from everything that is familiar sends a little stab of adrenalin right to my heart.  I am thankful that we warmed up with a few months in the U.S. first as we have adapted to being out of our comfort zone with experiences like always shopping in an unfamiliar grocery store (more frustrating than you might imagine), not knowing the perfect bakery for that monthly piece of double-chocolate cake and relying almost constantly on a GPS system.  Gone are the days when I would drive home from work, arriving in my driveway with little knowledge of having made the drive at all.

As wonderful as it has been to be staying in Clark’s condo for (double yikes!) two months, I miss the homey feel of Salt, she is small, but she is ours and after four months on the road, she is home.  Sadly, right now she and Pepper are sitting on the dock in Galveston awaiting their turn at loading onto the Chesapeake Highway 12 freighter.

In years past, we have traveled around various parts of Europe and it is all wonderful until about day 10 when you find yourself exhausted with trying to figure out a different language.  It will be interesting to see how we combat that as we (darn well better) make it more than ten days!

-K

US2UK – Transporting Salt & Pepper (Tow Vehicle & Travel Trailer)

Please note that the information provided here are the steps we took to bring our vehicle and trailer over for a visit.  If you are intending to remain in the U.K. or Europe, there will undoubtedly be more items on your checklist.  But to bring a vehicle over temporarily, it is quite simple.  Also, this posting does not cover the steps we took to get Salt’s systems to work in the U.K. and Europe – that will be coming soon (or soon after we get over there and figure it all out.)

When it comes down to it, there are very few items that need to be done in order to transport your vehicle and trailer to the UK.  (But then again, maybe I think this because Alan has done the lion’s share of the work.)  But timing is very important, so start the process early.

First, you should get comfortable with the Roll on/Roll off (RORO) type of transportation.  RORO requires that someone drive your vehicle and trailer onto the vessel where it is strapped down but not put in a cargo container.  Given our love for the Salt & Pepper, we were not thrilled about the prospect of having someone driving them on and off (and on and off – there will likely be at least one vessel change in the journey) but sometimes you simply have no choice.  Once you are comfortable with that part, set about hiring a freight forwarder.

For the freight forwarder, Alan received bids from five different firms, two of which came via uship.com, a freight forwarding bidding site.  A couple of items to look for:  Do they include Marine Insurance in your bid?  Do they provide agents on each end of the trip to guide you through customs and the export/import requirements?  Being new to this, we also wanted someone with whom it was easy to communicate—not only language-wise but also the method of communication (email, telephone, etc.)  We opted for a firm based in the U.K. (Hill Shipping), they were not the cheapest nor the most expensive, but we put a premium on having the firm located in the country where we would be passing through customs (figuring this would be the trickiest, and most difficult set of requirements to understand, we wanted to be able to rely on local knowledge.)

Once the selection was made the lists began anew:  News to us was that we could not pack anything inside of Salt (we had asked this to many of the forwarders before and the answers varied from “sure as long as it is strapped down” to “no.”  Hill’s answer was closer to “no.”)  Basically, both vehicles need to be able to be opened at will by a customs agent, which is understandable.  The risk of theft is, apparently, high on the open seas so the shipping companies make it a point of stating that they will not accept anything packed inside either vehicle.  (This left us with a ton of checked baggage, but that is yet another posting.)  And to top it off, marine insurance will not cover theft.  None the less, when the final packing came we did leave some items inside of Salt:  Dishes, pots, pans and linens; but all items that we would not be heartbroken to see stolen.

Also not allowed onto the vessel:  LP Tanks unless they have been purged and certified (costly to have performed at $50-$100/tank, so we opted to just buy new ones when we arrive in the U.K.) and no more than a quarter of a tank of gas in the tow vehicle.

We had to ship the Pepper’s title (actual title) over to the freight forwarder who will apparently return it to us on the other end (Salt’s title was not required as it is not considered a moving vehicle.)  Speaking of the other end, you must have secured international vehicle insurance for both vehicles prior to driving them away in the U.K.   We selected THUM Insurance as an agent for this, they are located in the U.S. and can provide the needed coverage and the “green card” required for driving overseas.

As I mentioned before, timing is the biggest concern.  These RORO vessels do not leave every day nor even every week.  From Galveston, they seemed to leave once a month.  Indeed, all the bids we received mentioned the same sailing date out of Galveston so clearly the forwarders are all using the same vessel.  The actual shipping date is likely to vary by a few days, but you still need to have your vehicles at the dock up to ten days prior to loading (the freight forwarder will give you the exact date.)  Couple these ten days with two more port stops, a two week crossing, a change of vessel in Europe and it quickly adds up to over six weeks before you will see your rig again.  That is hard to take.  So plan ahead!  Missing one boat means adding another four weeks to your itinerary.

After the weeks and weeks of preparation, the actual dropping of Salt & Pepper was anticlimactic (if you leave out the heartache and indigestion.)  We were given driving directions to the Port and had to be escorted onto the dock by the local agent.  He drove us to the parking area where we removed the license plates (easily stolen so it is highly recommended to remove them before loading) unplugged Salt from the Pepper (but left them hitched), took a few pictures, received two flimsy pieces of paper in exchange for our beloved rig and walked away. 

It will really be something when we see them arrive in Southampton!

-K

US2UK - The Time Has Come!

With apologies to our dear friends and relatives on the eastern seaboard, we are skipping out earlier than planned for Europe.  We aren't really sure what has provided the impetus to leave early, but now that we are working on it, something has become quite evident:  It is a good thing we didn't wait until May or June to attempt an arrival into London.  Hello?  Olympic year!

For those of you placing bets on when the Real Alan & Kit would show up in all this, you will be happy to hear they made multiple appearances while booking the logistics of getting from Houston to Heathrow and living without Salt & Pepper for close to six weeks.  


The Plan:  
February 13:  Drop off Salt & Pepper at the docks in Galveston, Texas, renting a Cadillac Escalade (hey, we needed something BIG) for our transportation.  
February 14:  Hopefully Kit is in line at the US Passport office in Houston getting a new passport issued.
February 17:  The Noses have their 10-day health certificates prepared in Ingleside.
February 18-25:  Who knows?  Free time - back to fishing?
February 26:  Everyone drives to Houston.
February 27:  The Noses are dropped at British Air World Cargo at noon; we check-in at 2:30; board the plane at 3:30; immediately change into our First pajamas; allow them to hand us champagne and settle into our little cocoons.  I don't think B.A. First will ever have looked so good.  (By the way, we used credit card points for the airline tickets -- we haven't gone completely off the deep end!)


We have arranged to stay in London for six nights (three to recover, three to Make A Plan) and selected the Presidential Apartments in Kensington.  Not only do they have fully furnished, gorgeous apartments, but they allow dogs and, get this, are located across the street from Barkston Park. 

Since Salt & Pepper will not arrive into South Hampton until March 24, we are planning on renting an RV and touring the UK and some of the islands while we wait. 


Now I am off to look, for the hundreth time, absolutely everywhere for my passport.


-K

US2UK - Transporting The Noses (Dogs)

Since we struggled and struggled for well over a year to learn everything that needed to be known (or so we hope) about transporting pets, trailers, cars and people from the U.S. to the U.K., I thought I would create a few posts that might be helpful to others thinking of doing the same.  


This one is for dogs (obviously) - there will be another one for Cars and Trailers, but, alas, nothing for people as you all know what there is to know about that.  However, I would advise not losing your passport three weeks before your flight and having your Certificate of Naturalization locked away in a safety deposit box in California when you are in Texas; but other than that, I don't think we have anything special to share.


Basics on Dogs - Preparation Steps:
1) In 2012 getting dogs into the U.K. from the U.S. became much easier, so forget all the horror stories you have heard about quarantine and learn the new stuff.


2) Bookmark the DEFRA website - Traveling with Pets, specifically the Pet Travel Scheme, read all the documentation, including the actual form (and notes) for the Third Country Veterinary form.


3) Bookmark the APHIS/USDA website - Importing/Exporting Animals and read everything relating to exporting dogs from the U.S.


4) Make sure you are flying on an approved carrier and on an approved route (we did British Air out of Houston.)


5) Find a nice, helpful Vet, preferably one with exporting knowledge.


Definitely read all you can from each website multiple times, sometimes the language is very difficult to follow, although they clearly did a better job in 2012 than 2003.


Basics on Dogs - The Required Steps:
For getting into the U.K. from the U.S., it has become quite simple (this is offered as an introduction -- be sure you understand and follow the guidelines from the websites above):


1) Get your dog micro-chipped - must be with an international chip as some chips used the U.S. are not readable by the European devices.


2)  After micro-chipping, get it vaccinated for rabies - very important!  This must happen after the micro-chipping.  


3)  Get a signed letter from your Vet stating the date of the micro-chipping, the date of the vaccination and all pertinent vaccination information required by the Third Country Veterinary Form. Make sure the letter states the dogs' micro-chip number.


4) Ten (10) days before departure, get a Third Country Veterinary Form and an International Health Certificate filled out by a Vet--it doesn't have to be the same vet who performed the micro-chipping and rabies vaccination.  The Vet will need originals of the letter mentioned above and the certificate of rabies vaccination.


5)  Five (5) or fewer days before departure get your dog treated for Tapeworm.  Must be administered by the vet--be sure the treatment includes the active ingredient listed in the Third Country Veterinary Form.


6) Get your documents certified by APHIS/USDA:  The Third Country Veterinary form, the International Health Certificate form, the letter from your vet stating the date of the micro-chipping, and a signed rabies vaccination certificate must be mailed to the local ASPHIS/USDA office for a certification stamp.  The vet who prepared the forms should send this out for you overnight with tracking, including the fees and a return overnight label.


As I mentioned, we are flying on British Air.  They have you drop your dogs at BA World Cargo four hours before your flight.  The dogs do fly on the same plane as you, but are handled by the World Cargo staff.  More information about traveling with pets on British Air can be found here on their website.


Hopefully our preparation will pay off and all four of us will be landing in Heathrow (and be able to leave) on February 28!


-K


UPDATE:  Getting the Pet Passports completed in London turned out to be a great idea.  They were required when we boarded the ferry to France and, now in other countries, many campgrounds require them as well.