With great sadness and a lot of trepidation, I bring my trip to a close, Gentle Reader. Our University President just restricted all travel (domestic and international) and put classes online. I had a week left in the UK, and then a weekend in Ireland. Ireland closed everything, so I canceled that, and when I saw the announcement from the president of our uni, I knew it was time to go. So the heroes in our Travel Office (truly, heroes, on hold for at least an hour, twice, trying to get this going for me) got me a ticket home tomorrow. Today, I’m going to Bath (Bath Spa on the train board) to research at the Fashion Museum there, where I will see some 19thc wedding dresses for the last chapter of my book.
I’m sad. Of course I’m sad. I had a week of research left, and while I could have stayed and just left on the 20th, things were escalating so much I didn’t know what next week would even look like. Best to get home now before things got worse. Luckily, I feel like I got enough research to benefit my book, and now I just have an extra week to recover and write. Chances are, my trip to Ohio in April may be off as well.
The weird thing is that I’m traveling first class on the way to Bath. I have a fancy seat at a table and there was a trolley with free tea and biscuits. It was the cheapest train ticket at this time because of it being peak travel. I’m riding with hoi polloi on the way back to London.
More soon, Reader, as I travel and research. I will try to update as much as possible.
The Postmodern Bluestocking 