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Originally Posted by flashed
That place is too cool .
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Palf70Step
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bomp
Incredible.
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Its an amazing place.
And when you speak to various people including Dennis, you realise just hos much work and time he put into creating a petrol heads dream restaurant.
After much more looking around and just drinking in the atmosphere and decor, I made it back to the bar to order a drink and lunch from Kelly our amazingly tallented waitress.
She had been waitressing and bussing tables since age 15 and runs her own graphic design company. Using the waitress job as a way to make extra cash for herself.
She clearly is the best they have at Ethyls as she runs the bar and a bunch of tables.
Friendly, bloody intelligent, cute and sharp as a rapier she was onto my instantly, loving my accent but also playing me like a fish.
That to me is one of my favourite parts of travel and meeting people.....that special connection you make.
I will certainly remember her for more than one reason for a long time.
I ordered Catfish and sweet potato fries with caramel sauce with onion rings and a bottomless glass of Dr Pepper. Thats another thing I love about the US. Drinks getting refilled and refreshed as long as you need them to be refilled.
Dennis and Debbie had good meals too.
My last meal. Perfect.
Kelly.......... Perfect.
Playing me the way I love it.
Just how perfectly could I end two weeks spent with amazing friends and making new friends in the US ??
These two weeks will once again be forever printed in my mind.
A massive thank you to every person who touched my life.
Once we had eaten, chatted had our fill I asked Dennis if I could pay.
He called Kelly over to where were sitting to ask for the bill and she replied "No need to pay, its been taken care of already" Kent Eisenbath the owner at Ethyls had picked up the tab.
I kid you not !!
Even to the last moment, random kindness and generosity poured out to Dennis (remember, I am just the guest there)
When we were at Harry J's before and had an awesome meal splitting a mind blowingly large and good two inch Prime Rib and drinking a lot of beer with Dave they refused payment from him too. Dave Howell owner at Harry's J's And Dennis go a very long way back too.
He is clearly respected and loved wherever he goes.
An amazingly easy guy to get on with.
After lunch we headed the last 20 miles to St Louis Airport for them to drop me off as Dennis had work to go do for a customer and Debbie was going to see her grand daughter.
I was early by four hours. Check in took about 3 minutes.
Then a not so boring few hours of people watching, Starbucks coffee and Delta Airlines again being delayed.
Had I known this was just the start........
Headed for Detroit where I would change planes for Heathrow.
Raining when I left St Louis.
It was the first bad weather of my whole trip. Blessed or what??
With Delta's 45 minute delay in St Louis it meant that the Detroit change over was litterally as fast as I could get from one terminal gate to another. Walking straight onto my UK bound flight.
All the Delta staff at this point except for one guy were misserable and unfriendly in my opinion. Enough to warrant avoiding future flights with them if I can help it. Funny how the Virgin crew were the opposite on the way out.
Sad really.
Uneventful, sleepless flight got us to Heathrow the next morning.
Welcome home.......... to Blighty.
Get off plane. Fast lane Passport.
Bagage collection........ should be a breeze.
30 minutes later.
No suitcase........ WTF ??
Impressed.
In the mean time I think my case that was just over the 23kg mass allowance, zipper closed in layers of motor racing grade Ductape as the airline or handlers managed to break the zipper open and lose some of my gift stuff on the way into Detroit.
So I thought that maybe internal security had possibly rumbled my baggage or even worse, detained it.
Go to Delta Lost baggage.
Helpful guy clearly knows the drill.
Whips out form and pen.
Fill this in and bring back.
I give him my baggage tag and he is on the computer.
Yup, your baggage was left behind in Detroit as the flight had been delayed.
They would not waste time finding it.
Return form and pen.
Guy tells me my baggage will be delivered on Saturday or Sunday.
Which was confirmed on Saturday by text to say my baggage would be delivered between 21.00 and 23.00
In fact it was at 22.05 on Saturday the doorbell ended up ringing and my unopened Ductaped bag was unceremoniously plonked in front of me.
So I headed for the Purple parking bus stop to go get my car, only to be told the bus is full and I need to wait for the next available bus.
Car collected, onto a thankfully eady M25 to do the 85 miles home.
Got home and unpacked hand lugguage, showered and made cuppa Tetleys tea. Heavenly.
Friday Night I took a Piriton antihistamine that normally knocks me out to try get some sleep. Katy had also decided wisely to give me time to catch up on sleep.
Of course most pleased to have me home on Friday was my Garage Thug cat Harley who must have missed me according to my lodger and house/cat sitter.
I managed to sleep about 8 hours dead.
First time in three weeks.
Saturday was filled with running around getting food, milk etc as my Nomance with Katy continued and needed some food to impress her.
Later for the close of this story.