Only Five Months Left

Well.......two weeks have gone by quickly here. 
The first weekfeatured the Clampetts in London,
Cambridge, York, Edinburgh,The Lake District,
and Chester. Last Sunday, Kim (daughter),
Jason (son-in-law), and Michelle loaded
up on Delta flight 65 and headed back to Atlanta.
Week two had the remaining cast featured
in The Peak District, Conwy, Holyhead,
Caernarfon, Snodonia,and Manchester. I took them
to the airport today to catch US Airways flight 735 only
to discover that the flight had been cancelled.  After a
lot of footwork and phone calls, they are now scheduled to
fly out tomorrow to London and then back to Raleigh Durham.
US Airways has put them up at the Manchester
Airport Radisson since they have a 5:00 AM flight
to catch.I saw them to their rooms and then quickly
dashed home to get my chores done before returning to work
tomorrow.  I will be returning this evening to watch a
little of the European football final between Spain
and Germany.  This should be a good game.
It has been a nice touch of home. I have now passed the
seventh month mark here and have only five more months
to run around the UK before repatriating to the US. 
I will sit down this week and plan out the rest of my stay.
 There are not that many weekends
left and there is a lot of country yet to be seen.
I hope this finds all well on your end.
DWR

English Summer

It is the beginning of English summer.  The days have
been brutally hot so far.  At one point, I believe we
may have reached 70 degrees.  Unlike last year, we
have had lots of sun.  I am not supposed to mention
this because I may jinx the entire country, but I
believe I brought some SE USA weather with me just to
give them a change.  At least the sunny part, I did
not think bringing 90 to 100 degree days would work
out too well here.

The days are getting longer.  I believe we are now
down to 3 days per week.  The sun goes down for a few
minutes every 72 hours or so when no one is looking.
When I arrived here, I got up in the dark, left work
in the dark, and went to bed in the dark.  Now it is
the exact opposite and I am loving it.

Next week, the Clampetts come to England.  I have six
members of my family coming over for a week long tour
of the country.  The tour they selected is a great
one, and I am sure they will enjoy themselves.  I will
be tagging along to feed them dis-information and
point them in the wrong direction whenever possible.
Fortunately, you could put this group in an empty room
with a stick and they would entertain themselves, so
it should be an enjoyable visit. 

Three of them will hang around for an additional week.
I do not know where we will go that second week, but
I have narrowed it down to a couple of dozen of my
favorites.  For those of you suffering from higher gas
prices, I will hopefully cheer you up some by telling
you that it runs about $2.36 per liter here.  I will
be burning a lot of it that second week.

I hope this finds all well on your end.

DWR


     

Glen Nevis to Ben Nevis

The first time I saw the man was on the approach trail
from Glen Nevis to Ben Nevis.  While the highest peak
in the UK is a walk-up, it is a long, tiring, rocky,
and physically demanding walk-up.  The day I was going
up I met people of all ages and shapes, but this man
stood out among the rest.

When I had been on the trail about 15 minutes, he
sprinted past me going down hill calling out a name I
couldn't quite make out.  The next time I saw him, he
was sprinting back up the hill with a little lap-dog
of some kind close on his heels.  He was keeping up a
steady encouragement for the dog.  Just as he and dog
reached a stile blocking the trail a little ways ahead
of me, the man slowed to a walk near a young couple
with three young children.  When I caught up, I could
hear his apologies to the family for making them wait
while he ran back to get his dog.  It turns out the
dog gets lost pretty regularly when out walking.

Over the next four hours, I pass them several times as
we play leap frog up the mountain.  Like everyone
else, we are taking breaks to eat, rest, or just enjoy
the view as it is revealed below us.  The last time I
see them before the peak is just below the first snow
field about a half mile below the summit.  The man is
taking the day pack from the young woman, who is
protesting...just not very hard.  He is telling the
family some of the history of the region and the
mountain.

I make my summit (at the same time 200 others are dong
the same thing) and call Michelle in Atlanta to share
the experience.  As we are talking, the man and the
young family walk past.  I do not see them again until
half way down the mountain.  He is still carrying the
day pack, and he is still carrying it when they reach
the car park in Glen Nevis an hour and a half later.

The man was at least in his mid seventies.  I never
saw him break a sweat or get out of breath or lose his
footing, which everyone else on the mountain was
doing, including me.  He was dressed in corduroy
pants, a printed long sleeve cotten shirt, a wool
sweater vest, a driving cap, and work boots.  He also
walked with the help of a cane.

I hope this finds all well on your end.

DWR