Chapter Nine

Day Four, Pont Transbordeur and Pensacola Beach

Ray and Dona were walking back into Rochefort, to where they had earlier left the car at the Musée National de la Marine de Rochefort. Ray was carrying a black Reebok backpack, he always did on holiday anyway but maybe he was holding on to it slightly tighter than usual.

They had been for a long walk along the river Charente to the transporter bridge, Pont Transbordeur De Martrou, they had been before but last time it had been raining heavily they had abandoned their walk and had gone in the car. Then they also discovered that a cable or cable anchor had given way and the bridge was closed for maintenance.

Ray was fascinated by the Transporter Bridges of the world, coming from Teesside, who could blame him.  When the Rochefort Transporter had its anniversary they used one of Ray's photos of the Tees Transporter in their exhibition and he had wondered if it was still on display and it was.

The museum with the exhibition and photos was on the opposite bank, so they had to take a ride on the transporter this time. On Monday's, the transporter doesn't open until 14:00, luckily they didn't arrive until half past. It cost about 6.5 Euro each, for a return crossing and entrance to the exhibition, well worth it.

Many people may never have seen a Transporter Bridge and are wondering what a Transporter Bridge is. Well imagine a tall tower on each side of a river, then connect the top of them with a rail tack, then suspend from that track, by cables a section of roadway, just above the river, a section big enough for about six to nine cars, then have a motor to move this section of roadway from one tower to the other. You now have a Transporter bridge, there were only ever a maximum of twenty two of these ever built, now there are only ten remaining and only seven still in operation as transporters.

They were now on their way back and passing the Napoleonic dry-docks, just before they arrived back at the Musée National de la Marine, the full walk was about four miles. Back at the museum, they did not go in, it was late in the day and beside not wanting to pay to get in, they also had other plans. They were not sure they wanted to bump into the man in the suit again anyway.

Back in the room, they were ready to go, it had been a tough decision, all the places they had been long distance from Europe, had diferent reasons why the shouldn't take a trip there. Most where to do with authorities and immigration.

Tonight they were going to check distance but the choice had not been that easy.

They had discounted Indonesian, as the didn't fancy prison there if anything went wrong.   The Caribbean sounded good but went out, because they didn't want to stand out too much, although if it had been Friday, they could have gone to the Gros Islet jump up and not been noticed, even if they had appeared in the middle of it all.  At the moment they wanted to take things one step at a time and try not to mess up.

That left the USA, they were going to try a trip to Pensacola in Florida, although they could try a trip anywhere, they wanted it to be somewhere they knew.  Although they could checkout a place by looking on Google earth street view, they would maybe try that at a later stage.   They had been to a bank and purchased a few dollars just in case they needed any, they had also purchased a few pounds.

They had picked out the place, there was only one problem remaining.   Sunset in Florida was about seven, here in France that would be one in the morning, so they figured going about midnight would be good.  So they had other plans to help pass the time until then, somewhere quiet with reasonable food and good beer.

The mezzanine level, of The Quayside a J D Wetherspoons bar, by the river Tyne in Newcastle, was a good position for watching life go by as they ate.  Ray had a hand pulled beer a Tyne Bank, Castle Gold from a local brewery and Dona had a half lager with a shot of lime. They could have just gone out in France to pass the time to there big trip but this was much more exciting. They had paid cash for the meal and beers, as Ray didn't want to leave a record of them being there.

The black Reebok bag was under the table and contained one more addition, Dona had though it a good idea to carry the phone battery charger with them and Ray had agreed, it was a very good idea indeed.

Soon it was time for the big trip, back in France they were all ready, this was just going to be a quick trip to see if it worked, in and out straight away.

The phone was set, they held the artifact and pulled and nothing happened, they puled again and still nothing.
"maybe it will not work long distance then" mused Ray
"check the address and phone number" said Dona,
"it all looks right to me" said Ray checking again, "I have another one close by lets give that a go"

Ray opened the other contact he had and they tried again.

The beach of Pensacola Beach was a white as they remembered and they where in time to see a glorious sunset over the pier. They where on the beach outside the Hamton Inn and luckily the beach was deserted, they walked along the beach to the original position they had planned for their trip. They soon found the answer to why it hadn't worked, the hotel was no longer there, replaced by a new large high rise hotel, very sad.

They walked back, and looked for the bar they had used last time, it was still there but it had changed, it was now, Crabs - We Got 'Em, Ray did not like the sound of that and they took the trip back to France.

So it had worked, they could take a long distance trip but they had discovered a serious flaw in their thinking. Things change, it had been twelve years since there last trip to Florida and when they check on the internet there had been a lot of change. Unbeknown to Ray and Dona, on the 16 September 2004, Hurricane Ivan had devastated the Pensacola Beach area and the hotel they were looking for, had been destroyed

They could not take for granted, that places they had visited would be how they remembered them to be. They now realized what they had done was very dangerous, in the very short time they had been using the artifact, they had managed to become very blasé about the whole thing.

If they were going to continue to use the artifact and keep it a secret, they were going to have to put a lot more thought into the planning. They did think they had been thorough but now they knew different. It was not like the thing had come with an instruction manual. They would have to learn but it would be best not to learn by their mistakes. They still had to check whether they could trip to a location they had not been to but some serious thought and research was going to have to be done, before they took a another trip anywhere.

It was very late by now, so they would sleep on it and review it all again tomorrow.