Wrong-Way Wren

By Temple Ligon

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In the summer of 2011, I decided on a trip around the world, Jules Verne style. I was reading Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days and I learned Phileas Fogg did not leave Paris by balloon as we saw in the movie version. He left on the train like everybody else.

Somehow that one correction made for a big difference. If I didn’t have to take the balloon, I could follow Fogg’s footsteps all the way around the world, at least with a few turns the wrong way.

One wrong-way turn was the origin of the trip. When the idea came up, Fogg was playing cards with his buddies in the Reform Club on Pall Mall in 1872, the year the railroad tracks were reportedly in place between Bombay (now Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata), not long after the golden spike marked the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in the U. S. Fogg argued that since the train could cross India and it could cross the United States, and that since the Suez Canal was finally open for business, a run around the world in 80 days was not only possible but was worth Fogg’s wager of about a million dollars in today’s money (20,000 pounds then).

My trip’s wrong-way origin was the bar at the Capital City Club, where we were not playing cards but where we were fueling up for the trip at 6:00 p.m. on March 14, 2012, planning to return in exactly 80 days on June 2, 6:00 p.m.

Another turn to a different way was the profile of Passepartout. Fogg needed a valet for the trip, someone who could not only carry the bags but help out in every

imaginable way. Fogg picked Passepartout, in the book a Frenchman and in the movie a Mexican, played by Cantiflas. I invited Passepartout #1 to take the ocean voyage from New York to Southampton. She accepted, but in another two months she had to withdraw for work reasons. Passepartout #2 asked if she could change her route from the North Atlantic to northern Italy. Passepartout #3 thought it was a great idea and agreed to cross the North Atlantic. Of course, knowing she was to share the Queen’s Grill Penthouse Suite, the result of a few free upgrades with its butler service and over-sized outdoor private deck, helped to urge her onboard.

About the only thing Passepartout #3 had in common with Passepartout was the name.

Passepartout #4 wanted to see India and Passepartout #5 was just as anxious to see the Far East, but neither could follow through to make the shorter legs of the journey – too many challenges to the daily routine, apparently. Still, chances of showing up are typically better for the short hauls – one week, say – than for the longer routes and more missed work days.

One idea surfacing from the ‘round-the-world tour memories is to somewhat repeat the trip but this time go in the opposite direction. There’s something natural about going west (young man) across the United States. Instead of gaining a day crossing the International Date Line, we’ll lose a day. This time it’s Yokohama, Shanghai, and Hong Kong instead of the last trip’s sequence of Saigon, Hanoi, and Beijing.

So instead of following Phileas Fogg’s footsteps heading into the morning suns, the wrong-way route would be rewarded with chasing sunsets.

Going the wrong way was rewarded in 1938 when 31-year-old Wrong-Way Corrigan claimed he couldn’t read his compass. He managed to leave Brooklyn in his single-engine jalopy for Long Beach and ended up 28 hours later in Dublin, Ireland. The crowds went crazy, and New York’s parade praising Wrong-Way Corrigan was bigger than what happened after right-way Lindberg’s solo flight to France.

Albeit the wrong way, a Verne-inspired run around the world in a direction opposite to Fogg’s, hitting all the great destinations missed the last try, could justify the time and the expense.

Now that we have established admiration for the little guy who can’t (or won’t) read the compass or the clock, and now that we have established the strains on schedule and finance, somehow we can probably pull it all together in another year or two. Maybe the Wren Tour we covered last week could be connected with either departure or return, this time at the Reform Club on Pall Mall. Don’t forget, a good friend made the connection through his Washington, D. C. club and set us up at the Reform Club. Well this time, let’s go the wrong way but let’s begin and finish the right way at the Reform Club. Bet it can be done in 80 days. Play fair: No flying. Fogg couldn’t fly in 1872 and neither will we.

Any takers?

 

 

 

 

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