UP UP AND AWAY
Well, to give you the bottom line of this dissertation, we arrived at our first destination in Dyserth Rhys in Wales in one piece despite frayed nerves.  Good heavens, whoever thought to put the driver on the left hand side of the car and the car on the left hand side of the street?  Otherwise, I am sure the Brits are very bright and very well adjusted.

 

Before I get started with our experiences of the past two days, Ken is anxious to hear how his friend from his Sunday School class is doing after his heart surgery on Thursday.  If anyone from the "class" reads this, please give us an update on Bob's condition and tell him that Ken is thinking of him and remembering him in his prayers.

 

Now to bring you up to date on what, at our age, is an ongoing adventure in living.  Our shuttle picked us up at 9AM for our 1PM flight to Dallas where we were to connect to a Dallas-Heathrow flight leaving at 720P.  There was a malfunction in one of the toilet doors aboard the plane and we were delayed getting off the ground.  We were concerned with the delay because we had a 1 hour 20 minute connection for our Heathrow flight. This connection also involved a change of terminals that would require us to "pick 'em up and sit 'em down".  En route, the pilot was able to make up some of the time but once on the ground, we encountered a further delay because there was a plane already at our gate.  That delay did us in and we missed our flight, though we were rescheduled on the next flight out at 905P.  Somewhat disgruntled, we smiled accepted our good fortune and settled down for a long nights ride!!

 

I am sorry to report that the airplane seats have not expanded concurrently with my weight gain through the years and thus, comfort is not necessarily a word suitable to describe airline travel.  However, I will not bore you with my observations about the many ways one can incur aches and pains on a long overseas flight.  Our flight into Heathrow was on time and our clearance through passport control went smoothly.  In no time, paperwork was completed for our rental car and we were off to our first destination, Birmingham – a 119 mile trip with a 2 hour estimated driving time. 

 

Ken adapted pretty well to driving from the left side of the car, while shifting gears with his left hand but his versatility with the roundabouts left room for improvement.  However, it all went fairly until we missed our turn off as we approached Birmingham. and the GPS could not find our Holiday Inn Express.  We arrived in downtown Birmingham at approximately 5PM.  We checked in to our hotel finally at 9PM.  Do you have any idea how many times you can miscount the exits on a roundabout?  -- Don't bother to find out we have thoroughly road tested the ways.  Further, Ken acquiesced in acknowledging that no Christian phrases adequately express manure when one is in a state of utter frustration. I, of course, already knew that!!

 

Once at our hotel, we checked in and collapsed for a long nights sleep.  Today, our GPS brought us to our destination and our ongoing adjustment to the ways of the English is proceeding.  We will keep you posted. </div>

 Ken and Pat Burns from the road and/or the sea
just as happy as can be