Friends and Fondling in London

A typical true to form/always happens thing on trips like these is Gene makes a friend or three during our adventures. We were on the subway heading over towards the Westminster Abby/Big Ben area when Gene made a friend on the subway. A little girl named Megan was sitting across from us on the subway. Megan couldn't have been more than 7 years old and was sitting there with her parents. Somehow, through the course of the train ride, Gene got her laughing without saying one word, kidded around with her and she actually shared her snack (green grapes) with Gene. She refused any of the beef jerkey Gene keeps in his backpack for emergency purposes. On the London Eye (Gene couldn't help but think of the Bond flick GoldenEye because of the name similarity.) Going through the security checkpoint to get onto the giant ferris wheel, the security lady checked Gene's backpack. Noticing the cavernous interior of the packpack with lone London Tower shot glass in the bottom, she kindly gave Gene the "You got to be S#!++ING me!" look he gets quite frequently over here. As Gene explained the reasons for someone to be carrying a virtually empty backpack around London, she stated a very common security question "Do you have any chocolate?" Gene fielded this question with a resounding no but offered her some of his beef jerky. She declined and once again inquired why Gene had no chocolate with him. Gene simply stated he didn't have chocolate, but if she liked, she could pat him down as payment for passage onto the ferris wheel. No more questions were asked and we were hurried past. The London Eye takes approximately 30 minutes or so to make a complete revolution. During that time you are stuck in a glass cage with 10-15 other people. Gene noticed in the next cage there was a young boy who remined him of Angela's brother Greg when Greg was in Jr. High. It wasn't long at all before Gene and the boy was snapping a photo of each other and giving a "thumb up" for a photo well taken before walking away from the glass. Good times, great prices. You just can't take Gene anywhere without him potentially making a friend or two, or a security guard blush.