The Wooden Escalator

No-Man’s-Lands Journal Day 10 (Travel Diary Day 276)

Betsy, our beloved chariot, will be put up for sale in the coming days. Handing over the keys will be emotional. Yes, she was slower than a broken lorry and refused to start on a couple of occasions, but those are simply quirky character traits that define the uniqueness of who she is.

Granted, her windscreen squirty thing never worked, forcing me to manually wash the windscreen every time we stopped. And her breaks seized-up in the South of France, creating so much heat that it burned off the finger prints of the person stupid enough to touch the wheel trims – that would be me, of course. But she never failed to get us from A to B. Sometimes she even took us to C because Rachel would get the directions wrong.

One would think that discovering the treasures of France and parts of Spain would have been the highlight of our seven month adventure. Yet, for Rachel and me, our time with Betsy was the most enjoyable. With music playing, a flask of coffee and some unhealthy snackage at the ready, we enjoyed just about every road trip, often more so than the destination. We had 8,000+ happy miles together.

Countless times we sat in Betsy, waiting for sunset, or sought refuge from the rain. And she never once complained about navigating the streets before sunrise, in search of photo-worthy destinations.

When we adopted Gertrude Garmin, the family was complete.

Betsy held her nerve when all around her were losing theirs. In Paris we saw 3 accidents in an hour during rush hour. With the aid of Gerty, Betsy came out unscathed.

So to Besty: I’m sorry for accusing you of having a drink problem when you seemed to guzzle petrol like I’ve never seen before. It wasn’t your fault. You were made that way.

I’m sorry for taking you on roads you didn’t belong, where 4x4s were built to roam.

Forgive us for letting Byron, the 45kg Bernese mountain dog, leave a swimming pool-sized collection of saliva on your backseat.

But most of all, we ask for forgiveness for abandoning you for 5 weeks in Northern France. The Parisians would never have accepted you, especially with the large GB sticker on your backside.

We have a week or so left with you dear Besty, and Gerty, for that matter. Hopefully we can manage one last adventure before our paths separate.

Today’s Photo – The Wooden Escalator

I was told that the pedestrian tunnel, a place I’d photographed before, was closed for refurbishment. This ancient pedestrian way under the River Tyne was due a remodeling. I was saddened by the news because I’d lost all of the original RAW files that I’d taken previously and was left with just the HDRs.

As my processing style has changed drastically in the past year, I really wanted to re-visit this place but thought I’d lost my chance forever. Driving past it one day, I decided to pull in and check it out anyway. I had my camera ready, of course. To my delight, there it was in all of its dirty, ancient glory.

This is the longest wooden escalator in the world. It’s not much of a claim. It’s also home to the odd dodgy character or two. On this ocassion there were a few suspicious teenagers that shot off in the opposite direction when they saw the camera.

Before the Joys of Post-Processing