Barry and Kim entertained us like royalty - and (separately) we arranged a family get together at a nearby bowling alley
On route to visit friends we stopped off at Oxford and managed a rush through town and a tour of the University Library(one of the oldest in Europe - started in the 1300's, and with the current version from 1598), etc. (Some of you may recognize the scenes from the various Harry Potter movies)
Our next big road trip away from "home" started with a trip to the Cotswolds to visit two pairs of friends. The first was John and his wife Leslie. John is the main character in one of my favorite stories of Maryanne's: Way back when, when she realized that her workaholic tendencies were really her own fault, she went into her boss's office to drop the bad news that she was quitting to do something less responsible and more fun. Instead of begging her not to leave the poor company in a lurch, he just laughed at her because he had just had the same conversation with his boss. Thus, Maryanne and her boss, John, went off to see the world in their own divergent ways.
We only had one day with John - even less with Leslie, since she was working that day, but we managed to fill it pretty well.
Meeting up with John and Leslie after many years - included more interesting sightseeing of ancient England
First, we drove up to see the Uffington White Horse. It is a giant figure, 110 meters long, made from trenches dug into the hillside and filled with chalk. Its origins are unknown, but it has been dated at between 2,500 and 3,500 years old.
We then went to see the Avebury Standing Stones. This series of lesser-known henges is also from roughly the same time period as the Uffington White Horse and also with unknown origins.
We timed our return to the house to coincide with Leslie's arrival. That's when the real fun started with stories being swapped well into the night. Poor Leslie. That was a long day for her.
Our next stop was a short trip up a series of very steep roads to see Pauline and Pieter. Pauline was the one who originally trained Maryanne at the above job where she worked for John.
Pauline and Pieter have also circumnavigated on a sailboat that they have since sold, so we had a lot to talk about. Now they live in a house in the country, which they have just finished gutting and then completely renovating into a picture-perfect space with all kinds of cool, well thought-out details. (Pieter is an engineer). One of my favorite parts was the full machine shop he has in the shed next to the house. Pauline also kindly replaced Maryanne's recently bear-attacked sailing jacket with one from their supplies!
The guest room they assigned us took up the whole upstairs in our wing of the house and was so dark and quiet at night that it was like being anchored in some secluded little bay. We slept so well. In the morning, Maryanne looked out the window and said, "Oh, you've got to see this!"
I assumed, because of the location, that she use be looking at a deer or something. When I sat up, I saw that the whole scene was covered in a fresh blanket of snow, with more big, fluffy flakes on the way. The temperatures were right below freezing, so it would all be gone a few hours later, but it was nice to wake up in a winter wonderland.
After a lovely pub evening, we awoke to snow in the Cotswolds
From the Cotswolds, we drove to the south end of the London metropolitan area to meet Suzanne, Dan and their three children. Suzanne is one of Maryanne's sister's (Sarah's) friends, who we first met at Sarah and Lee's wedding. Since then, Maryanne has kept up a correspondence with the two girls, mostly, exchanging letters and postcards from afar. The girls are almost grown up now. They and the rest of the family are all amazing, being the type of people who are good at everything they do.
On one of our days, Suzanne took us to the fancy private school where the kids learn and she also works as a science teacher. It was nothing like any school I had ever attended, which were constantly trying to stretch meager budgets as far as they can in facilities that were slightly outdated. This place was sprawling and gleaming and ornate and so well-equipped. Most of the land in the village seemed to be part of the campus. Moving on to university from there would be less of a culture shock than an address change.
Despite being super-busy, they were all kind enough to set aside some time for us for hikes and games and stories over dinner. It was really nice to see them all and we can't wait to see how the chapters of the kid's lives unfold.
And beautiful (but muddy) country walks and time with the Matthews Family
Maryanne took a side trip to see her Auntie Pauline (more family tree research)
Then it was back to Bourne for our last chunk of time there. Maryanne dove into the last cupboards and closets of her program to de-clutter and organize her dad Peter's house. I think the poor guy will enjoy having a break after we leave, at least for a little while.
Remember Barry at the start of this blog? Well he is a freight train driver who spends most of his time as the union rep. At one point, he was due for an evaluation, similar to a Line Check at an airline, and he offered me the chance to come along. I have never been in the cab of a train engine on the go, so I jumped at the chance.
I must admit that riding in the jumpseat of a locomotive is not as exciting as being in the cockpit of an airliner, but there is still plenty to see and do. I can definitely see the appeal of the job. It reminded me very much of the fun part of driving when you are out on the open road with no traffic to worry about, just empty rails ahead, and the ride was smooth. Of course, there was traffic to deal with, but it's a freight train, so none of it was close enough to see. Barry spent most of his time slowly adjusting his speed so that the cab would cross the next signal light right as it turned green, at which he was very deft. It looked like a fun and interesting job, but to be fair, it was a nice, easy day and nothing went wrong. I'm not sure how I would feel after my fourth fourteen-hour day in a row doing it in bad weather. I'll stick with retirement.
The thing I found most curious about the cab was that, even though it is the engine of the train, none of the gauges in front of Barry had anything to do with the giant motor thrumming away behind us. Mostly, there were a lot of gauges related to the pneumatic system, plus a big speedometer. The message to drivers seems to be that they really need to worry about stopping, followed by maintaining the right speed.
When I mentioned this to the examiner, he humored me by pulling up the engine subpage on one of the computer displays so I could see things like engine rpm and the horsepower being delivered to the wheels. That made the changes to the engine rumble make more sense to me, although Barry and the examiner seemed to think the information was superfluous. That's not all. The only way to tell how much fuel is left is to stop the train, get out, and go look at the gauge on the tank. Well, that is just nuts...
Kyle got a flying visit to London via a freight train - Many thanks to Barry!
Maryanne's brother Paul and his wife Ali also cordoned off a long weekend for us to spend as much of our remaining time with them as possible. Weekends are the best, because Paul makes a pretty good roast.
Fun in the Bourne area with the family
Then it was time to do several sweeps of Dad's house to make sure all of our stuff was in one big pile on the guest room bed. Then I looked at our tiny little suitcases and had that same sense of panic I have after provisioning for a long passage when I don't think the boat will float with all of that stuff aboard.
Okay, keep calm. Go through it methodically. Take each item, carefully squeeze out all of the air, and then fill every available space until you are left with a solid suitcase with the density of a lead brick. Then repeat until the room is empty and the bags are so full that you can see the fabric vibrating from the strain. I can't believe we did it. We'll have to hire a forklift to get them into the car.
It was now time for us to say our goodbyes to Bourne and return Sarah's car to her "farm" in deepest Lincolnshire. That was the plan anyway. Then Paul's car had a breakdown, so Sarah offered it to him until his could be fixed. By then, we had already rented a car so we would have a ride to the airport. Instead of Maryanne and I each driving a car to Sarah's and then leaving in the rental, we just stopped off for an evening on the way north. They treated us to a lovely meal in a fabulous old hotel where we got our own private dining room. It all worked out very nicely!
Sarah spoilt Maryanne at the Spa for some solid sister-time, while Kyle caught up with computer stuff, and then we all dined together in the evening (which we totally failed to get pictures of)
Maryanne and I were going north from Sarah's because it was our wedding anniversary (again?) I wanted to do something special and romantic. Maryanne agreed, and suggested York would be just the place.
She wasn't wrong. York is just beautiful and it was nice to have more time to spend than during our last flying visit a couple of months earlier with Sarah and Lee. We walked the entirety of the city's walls, visited York Minster, and found lots of lovely, hole-in-the-wall pubs. In between that and our accommodation overlooking the Foss River, we wandered for miles and miles taking it all in. It was a perfect last stop before leaving England for who knows how long.
Kyle and I spend some quality time in York for an Anniversary Treat, we had time to spend in various museums, the minster (cathedral) and multiple fun bars - and yes, more trains
Except that it wasn't. Our flight was out of London Heathrow, which is kinda far from York, so we decided to break up the journey with one last stop at Annie and Mike's for the night.
Poor Annie. Her three children are all adults now and are out of the house, and Mike is so responsible with his diet that she is left with no outlet for her need to produce mountains and mountains of food. Then we showed up, and despite having eaten the day before and claiming that we weren't really that hungry, Annie ignored us completely and started dishing out enough snacks to make the subsequent pub meal completely unnecessary. We went anyway, of course. It was a lovely location and Annie and Mike are always great to spend time with, which was really the point, after all. Maryanne and I both ordered small salads, having failed to coordinate in advance. They came out gourmet-style, as tiny portions in the middle of giant plates. The salad was delicious, but I had really been hoping for something smaller. I thought I was doing pretty well after declining dessert, but of course, as soon as we got back to the house, Annie started bringing out one delicacy after another that she had squirreled away for us. Well, maybe just one, but that will have to be it...
One last visit to see Annie (And Mike)
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