Tony and Machelle's Big Adventure

The Tony and Machelle Big Adventure has begun. Many of you expressed such interest in the blog I kept last time I thought I'd do it again this trip, too. And it's also a great way to help us remember all the things we will be doing. On trips like these, we see so much in such a short period of time, it all runs together.

I made the mistake of letting Tony plan the first day. He had the bright idea of spending the 12 hours related to flying to London, then spend 8 hours driving to Edinburgh. Needless to say, it is an idea he has lamented.  I just hope it doesn't put us too far behind the eight ball in exhaustion that we don't recover.

I didn't sleep a wink on the plane for some odd reason. And for some other odd reason Tony can't follow the directions the GPS is telling him out loud (yes it's in American English!!) for me to get to sleep while he drives. I've had about an hour of sleep in the last 38. The one time I finally got to sleep, he missed an exit and got us about 30 minutes behind. I've refused to sleep since for fear of having to spend he entire night in the car.

To keep myself occupied, I've been reading the motorway road signs. I've found that they are more a conversation than instructions. They are very distracting and difficult to read the full sentences while trying to stay focused on driving 70 mph. However, they are entertaining. Here are a few of my favorites:

- Free recovery, await rescue -  if your car breaks down alongside the road. Jennifer would probably become quite familiar with this option here. Hopefully it wouldn't require a helicopter rescue every time!

- No phone whilst driving - oh so proper.

- Tiredness can kill, take a break - Oh how I'd love to honor this one!!! I might just break Tony's neck for creating this exhaustion!!

- For Eccleshall leave at J14 - Wouldn't it just be easier to have the town name and the junction number?!

Nonetheless, my tired mind and body make me more than a little critical and grumpy while reading some of them. Tony says it's just being polite. Maybe tomorrow once I've had some rest I'll see them in a different light.

Tony has done well strapping back on his English chauffeur hat. We haven't had any other challenges than his usual annoying driving skills. I'm convinced he uses the little reflectors imbedded in the road between the lanes as curb finders. He's always needed to be on one of those tracks where the car has a single rail underneath to keep it on track. He's a sight see-er driver for sure, weaving back and forth.

We traveled up into the Lakes area of England today. Around dusk the sky was gorgeous with its sun rays peeping through a mostly cloud covered horizon. The grass was so green and the fields full of sheep made the scene look photo shopped. There are a lot of the new, modern, LARGE wind mills in this area. There are just one or two at a time dotting the landscape that they don't look out of place or an eye sore. We've also seen a lot of Holstein cows this trip. Their sharp black and white bodies against the vivid green grass is beautiful. At one point we saw a bridge over the motorway with what we thought were people walking across. It turned out to be cows. We've never seen Anyang like that before but both got a good chuckle out of it.

The further we drove, a mountain range came in to view. I told Tony that it must just be in our blood to gravitate to mountains. They are beautiful and a warm reminder of home. It's somewhat reminiscent of the Shenandoah Valley. We have mountains on both sides of us and beautiful green fields in between. The farms and old, rock homes are simply breathtaking.

Tomorrow starts the real vacation part of our journey. It was hard to pass all the beautiful sites today without a single picture. But I'm sure I'll see just as many tomorrow and all the days to come. Now to get some rest. Oh yeah, and to put my feet up. I've lost my ankles along the way and cankles have replaced them. UGH!!