On July 14th, I was on a Jane Austen tour, on my way to Steventon, when we made our first stop for a coffee break.
We were given a half-hour and when I made my way back to the bus 5 minutes ahead of time, the bus was nowhere to be found. A worker Michael at the Days Inn nearby seeing my panic used his cell phone to contact the bus co.. They told him to put me in a cab and meet them at the next scheduled stop. While we waited, Michael told me that just a few weeks earlier an elderly woman was left behind at that same rest stop and in her confusion and panic tried to cross the highway
and was struck and killed by three cars. My God! What do you tell this
woman's family? That you couldn't wait five minutes. When, I
caught up to the group at Steventon our British Guide never apologized and for the remainder of the tour tried to shift the blame by telling tour members at each rest stop "to make sure they're on time"
Many of the tour members admitted to me that they had indeed
left early, which I already knew. I am always extremely punctual.
What, I want to know, " is this a policy with tour companies in
England? ' I have traveled extensively and have never witnessed such behavior anywhere. In the future, I suggest that the names of all passengers be read aloud, since some people obviously don't
know how to count, I think this would be a more appropriate
solution to insure this doesn't happen again to another individual.
My heart goes out to that poor woman's family. That could have been my story.
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