What's in a name?

Here, in the land of the Engs, there are places and roads with very strange names. I thought to capture some of them when we chose to avoid lunch at a nice looking place called The Eat-In because it was in the village of "Sicklesmear". Other places nearby: Great Finborough, Buxhatt, Poystreet Green, Drinkstone, Thurston Planche, Newhall Covert, Pakenham, Ixworth, Badwell Ash, Grimstone End, Wyverstone, Gipping, Stowupland, Wetherden, Hadleigh, Monks Eleigh, Shimpling, Ringshall Stocks, Wattisham.... you get the idea: they have many words we have never heard of!

Then there are places you have heard of: York - the old one, Washington - the original one, Jersey - not New, Birmingham, Newton, Newark ....

A day off

Throughout our world adventures, we find it helpful to take a day off. That was today. We went to see a great manor house, but it was closed. So we ate lunch, bought groceries, and came home. Today's plunder is English Sausages, hickory smoked bacon, maple smoked bacon, Gruyere cheese, Yorktown --- cheese, Italian olives, Spanish Rioja wine, cabbage, apple and raspberry pie. Ice cream to come. Rough life!

We bought the meat at a family butcher (since 1860) in the town of Long ________.  We just had the sausage with dinner. It was £7.70/kg which is - roughly -$5/lb.  In all my travels this is the best quality pork I have ever encountered. The butcher said they raised their own pigs. Wow!  I can't wait to try the bacon in the morning. 

Let's build a wall

Emperor Hadrian, 121 AD: "Hey, Cassius, lets build a wall."
Cassius: "OK, boss, you want a nice garden here in Rome?"
Hadrian: "No, I want you to walk 1,000 miles north with the entire 10th Legion, build a fleet of ships and cross [the English Channel], march 400 miles further north to the end of the known world, engage the armies of the Picts - the only armies we have never beaten - and while you are fighting them I want part of your army to build a wall 20' high, 25' wide, from the east coast of Britain to the west coast. Build a fort every mile along the wall and two watch towers between each fort."
Cassius: {{why me?}} "On my way, boss"

So, that's not exactly what was said, but is exactly what was done 1,900 years ago. Hadrian's Wall.  The Brits have knocked down parts of it for materials to build houses, have built highways upon parts of it, but it was so huge there are lots of it left.

I've uploaded two short videos of it - addressed to the kids at Hasty and Canton Elementary Schools but perhaps interesting to anyone. Just download the videos from these links. The links are:

https://db.tt/v7KJ0qb3

and

https://db.tt/I9FmifTa

Spiritual Matters

Ian and Hazel were/are my atheist friends. I have spoken with them about Jesus, but they were raised catholic in Belfast so that seems to predispose them to a visceral aversion to connecting with God.  They have made an affirmative decision to reject God. But they are my friends. We are called upon to be in the world but not of the world.  Until today the passage about being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord - for believers - was just a verse I had studied. I've had people I love die - mom and Daddy, my Rollins grandparents.  Normal things. But I awoke at 5a this morning in the McMurtry house feeling what I can only describe somewhat oxymoronically as a tangible absence of Ian. Not absent like my Dad is absent but somehow a void had substance. It was - for me - a unique experience.  Donna felt it too: she felt strange - like something was wrong when she awoke at 4a.  Hazel said she awoke at 5a and could not go back to sleep - but did not say why. 

Northumbria it is

My friend Ian McMurtry of Belfast died almost two years ago. He and I were great friends and sailing buddies. I met Ian in the fall of 1984 when he came to my home - which was  my 42' sailboat docked at Key Biscayne - along with a mutual friend to go sailing. I visited him the next February in Chicago at his new home and he sailed again with me in the Caribbean out of St Thomas before I was married in November 1986 in Chicago. His wife joined him at the wedding. Then Ian and I chartered 50s around the Caribbean a couple of times. He became ill a decade ago as did my sailing buddy Mike Cummins. So in 2005 a sick Ian and a sick Mike and I headed out on Mike's decrepit Coronado 45 from Ft Lauderdale  headed to Warderick Wells in the Exumas. The autopilot broke coming out of Ft Lauderdale, we could never get the diesel above idle, the waterline broke at Norman Spit and dumped our fresh water overboard, the headsail blew out at the Yellow Banks, Ian's berth - the V berth - had a hatch that leaked so badly we called it "the aquarium".  But we had 90 years' sailing experience among the 3 of us so we made it there and back.  I published the story: "There And Back With Mike and The Mac". 

I spoke with Ian twice in 2011 - both times he was in the hospital but said he was getting better. He died at the end of October 2011 but I did not find out until I called him Christmas 2011 and his wife - Hazel - told me.

While in England I wanted to go see Hazel even though she lives 300 miles north of Woolpit so off we went with a detour through the moors as written about yesterday. Hazel lives in a beautiful home and it was great to see her!  We talked about Ian and also about her plans.  She says she won't come to America again, but we may see her when Rollin and I come through northern England the 4th week of March.

revilluG

That's Gulliver - backwards - because not only are we like Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians (see picture of our neighbor's front door) but they drive on the wrong side of the road (see picture of the rare creature Donnus Seriosus).  We are off today to the moors at York then on to visit my friend Hazel McMurtry in Heddon-on-the-Wall near Newcastle-on-Tyne. The "Wall" is the astounding 90 mile long, 20 feet high, 25 feet thick Roman wall built 2,000 years ago to cross Britain at its narrowest point to keep the Picts (Scots) out of Roman lands. Much of this huge, ancient wall is intact and we will see it tomorrow. Today we are riding north on the M1 which is equal to I-575. We are zipping along in the left (slow) lane at 70 mph. The roads are rougher than ours - or perhaps it's the suspension in this Mercedes? 

The British fields along the way - as elsewhere in Britain - have given up their crops and have been meticulously manicured as if to be a golf course.  Makes for beautiful scenery of 50-100 acre plots differently prepared as if a giant quilt - topped with giant modern windmills.

So we headed to the moors in a national park northeast of York. York was established as a major city by the Vikings who came here a couple of centuries after the Romans had finally departed. The moors were beautiful as was the coastal city of Whitby where Whitby Yachts are made. From there we worked our way north to complete our day's 300 miles arriving at Heddon on the Wall to visit with my friend Hazel McMurtry - widow of my friend Ian.

OK, kids at Hasty and Canton. Here's a math problem for you. Each class gets one winner. Winner gets his or her name on a sign put in front of something important here and a photo of it emailed back.  Diesel fuel is £1.40 per liter. There are 3.8 liters in a US gallon. £1 = $1.70.  How much does diesel fuel cost here - in dollars per gallon. Bonus question:  we are getting 46 mpg but a British gallon is 5 quarts. How many mpg are we getting in US gallons and what's our fuel cost per mile?

[Cntl][Alt][Del]

After parts of three days working on it, the Skype between 28 10 year olds at Woolpit Primary here in the UK and Hasty Elementary and Canton Elementary at home... failed. It seems WP has only 2 IP addresses for its WiFi and the 25 computers overload the system so we could not stay connected to the outside world so we could not Skype. Busy day tomorrow. Time for a nap!