Back in the USA

We're back!  After a delightful month in Britain, we are learning again how to drive on the right side of the road.  Our current location is Knoxville, Tennessee, at the lovely lake home of Jane's sister Fran and husband Bill.  We have enjoyed a few days of much-needed rest here and are now ready to continue our camping odyssey.

Our UK route outlined in red

We were in the UK exactly one month.  Half our our time was on a coach tour of southern England, organized by Marriage Encounter friends David & Jean.  Twenty-two couples, including Dave's cousin Kathy and husband Greg from Wisconsin and several other long time friends, signed up for this "Waters of England" private excursion.  The trip was well balanced between group activities and opportunities to explore on our own.  Starting in London and ending in Cambridge, we visited so many cathedrals, castles, museums, stately homes, and beautiful gardens that our lasting mental images have tended to run together.

For the other half of the UK trip, we rented a mini-sized Fiat Punto and visited folks that we first met while living in Scotland in the mid-1980s.  We stayed two days with friends in each of six locations, three in England (Bury St. Edmunds, Southend on Sea, and Grantham) and three in Scotland (Perth, Letham, and Brechin).  Each reunion was very special in its own way.

We had hoped to catch a military hop back to the USA from RAF Mildenhall, but the flight schedules and available seats did not match up with our needs.  Therefore, we exercised plan B, using frequent flier miles to return from London Heathrow to Washington DC.  We stayed two nights at Curt and Cindy's ranch, where our travel trailer was stored during our absence, catching up on our sleep and laundry and beginning to plan our southern route back to California.

Our itinerary from here is rather complicated, with hopes to see relatives and friends in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.  We have hard dates to be in Chicago (Nov. 3-5) and Tucson (for Thanksgiving), but are flexible in between, adjusting our travel to match the availability of our hosts.  We'll see how it all unfolds...