Happy Autumnal Equinox

Happy first day of Autumn to everyone in the northern hemisphere.  We missed being at Stonehenge during the equinox by around a week.  Not sure this is good or bad as people tend to congregate there during the equinoxes and solstices.  Instead we will be celebrating the start of the season with all the fans in Wrexham.

Happy First Day of Fall Everyone!

Travelling The Isle Of Great Britain

Our one and only international trip this year - after cancelling our Camino trip - is a twenty-four day trip to Great Britain.  It will be a trip filled with friends, history, and English literature.

This is our first major international trip that will not involve being on a tour.  (Iceland wasn't on a tour either but it was an easier trip to plan as everything was out of one city - Reikiavik)  Our travel agent arranged flights, lodging, and train passes for us.  We will arrange local day tours (guided or self-guided, walking, bike, or bus) in some of the places we will be visiting.  We opted out of renting a car as the arguments about driving on the wrong side of the road and directions would likely have ended our marriage.  Here is the itinerary the Wife has put together for us:

• We fly into London and are picked up by NH and JH, friends we met on our Amazon Cruise back in 2016 and who visited us in 2023 for the Sandhill Crane migration.  They will take us to Stonehenge and Bath.
• We take the train to Brighton.  We will be meeting another friend we met on the Camino in 2023 here.
• Next we go to Canterbury because the Wife taught literature.
• Onward to the White Cliffs of Dover.
• We train to Rochester, spend the night then taxi to Cooling.  Here we will be spending the night in Saint James' Church.  The 13th century church is no longer active but you can visit it and spend the night there - this is known as Church Camping or 'Champing', by the way.
• We taxi back to Rochester and train to Wrexham where we will see a Wrexham home game (Check out "Welcome to Wrexham").  This is our only stop in Wales.
• Train to Stratford-upon-Avon.
• Train to Oxford.
• Train to Berwick-upon-Tweed.  Here our friends NH and JH will join us on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.  We have to time this right as the island can only be driven to during low tide.
• We leave England and head into Scotland.  Our first stop is Edinburgh.
• We train to Glasgow.
• We return by train to London for a couple days before we fly home.

I'll be taking pictures and will post about the trip after we return home.

Weekly Ephemera #113

• This week it felt good to slide into the comfort of a familiar routine.  The events of this summer had shattered my routine and the world feels like it is finally returning to 'normal'.
• I walked three times this week.  This is like the first time I've done three long hikes in a week since March.  Each walk was longer than the last.  It felt really good pushing the distance up though I may have over done it as my legs are still stiff and achy as I post this.  I walked 27.9 miles (44.9 km) this week with the last walk being over eleven miles.  Since our return from the Wife's Camino in June 2023 I have only walked double digit miles four times.  This is so unlike me.  I expect not to walk this coming week as we are leaving the country (more about this later this week).
• On Friday tickets for the Wrexham soccer game we were hoping to attend went on sale.  The Wife got up at 3:45AM to try to buy tickets.  She had joined the Wrexham Fan Club to get early access to ticket sales.  She finds out that her membership only entitles her to one ticket per game so, over the next two hours, she buys a membership for me, links the two accounts (this consisted of trying to call the office in Wales and eventually required an email to the ticket office who responded incredibly fast), and purchased two tickets for the game.  During those two hours the Wife was watching the number of available tickets shrink.  It was very nerve wracking for the Wife ... I slept through the whole thing.  Thanks to the Wife - It's going to be fun!
• I got my COVID and Flu vaccinations this weekend.  I know, the COVID shot was like closing the barn door after the horse got out but I got it anyway.  Both of my arms are sore though the COVID arm is more sore than the flu arm.
• We finally caught up on all the episodes of "Alone" and "Alone: Australia".  The Wife switched to college football and I returned to "One Piece".  I'd watched up to around episode three hundred back in February.  I've reached episode four hundred.  Only seven hundred-ish episodes to go.  It's a fun show and is nice background noise.
• While surfing the socials I came across a link to a short story by Andy Weir (the author of "The Martian").  It is very interesting, thought provoking, and worth the read.  It's only a couple pages long and you can check it out here.  You can also watch a reading with animation on YouTube.

Weekly Ephemera #112

It's September ... SEPTEMBER!  Where has this summer ... this year ... gone?  Anyway, Happy Labor Day - the traditional end of summer - to everyone in the United States.

• This week was mostly dominated by COVID.  I tested positive for the third time on Monday.  The Wife tested positive for the first time on Tuesday (she had symptoms before that but tested negative).  I tested negative on Wednesday.  The Wife is still testing negative as of today but the positive line is starting to look dim so she should be negative soon.
• After I tested negative I went out and did some errands I'd been putting off.  One of them was registering my newish car.  Everything went smoothly at the DMV though it was an expensive proposition.
• I waited until Friday before I went walking again.  I took a leisurely walk around east Omaha.  My original plan was to keep it short as I didn't know how recovering from COVID would do to my stamina.  As I meandered through residential streets I hadn't walked in a while, the great weather we were experiencing encouraged me to keep pushing a little farther.  I didn't over do it though and ended up walking 7.3 miles (11.75 km).  This coming week, the last before we go on our next international trip, I hope to walk three times.
• Our next trip is a twenty-four day trip to Great Britain.  This will be the first major international trip where we are not on a tour.  We worked with our travel agent to plan our itinerary, book our lodging, and arrange transportation.  We will be visiting friends we met on the Amazon (they visited us last year) before we travel around the island via train.  I'm not ready yet and I only have a week and a half to get my act together.
• This week I returned to watching "One Piece".  I'd paused my watching last January - February somewhere around episode three hundred.  I'm thinking about starting another series before we leave on our travels.  Not sure that will happen.