Flying away

Jack the kid

Also Jack

It seemed like a good idea.
We want to see our grandson in England in person and the best way to get there is to fly over the pond.
He's four and growing up fast without us and even though Skype is a marvelous thing, virtual hugs aren't quite the same as the real ones.
So we bit the financial bullet and bought airline tickets last night.
Now we're wholly committed even though some of the plan is kind sketchy.
Originally we were going to trade our timeshare week for a week in coastal England.
I figure if I started early enough, we could snag something decent in a part of the United Kingdom that we hadn't already seen.
I threw in our hat. I picked out three places I liked,  registered with the Interval International people, paid the exchange fee and waited.
It's been more than two months now and nothing has come up for exchange.
Because I'm not really very patient and I like to plan ahead, I have begun to feel a little uneasy.
I didn't dare buy our airline tickets because I wasn't sure what week might come through but the prices for the time we want to fly are rising fast and a lot.
Finally, last night, I just jumped off the ledge.
I bought the tickets and I've booked a rental car and I'm starting to mentally pack up. (No matter that I don't know for sure where we'll hang our hats or park our rental car.)
When I called this morning to expand the exchange area and maybe increase the likelihood that we'll still effect an exchange, the lady said, "You know, you might want to have a Plan B in mind. English exchanges are really very rare."
Perhaps I should have been told that in the beginning.