Is having to drive all day, from Aberfeldy to Chester, stuck for several miles at a time behind slow-moving equipment on a two-lane road (one lane going in each direction) a suitable birthday present? Well, that's what Lauren got, and the prize was that we arrived safely in Chester after leaving beautiful Aberfeldy this morning. It was a reluctant leaving, for sure. There can't be many places as beautiful as Aberfeldy in particular and Scotland in general!
We started the day with a nice breakfast of boiled eggs, ham, cheese, salami, strawberries and bananas with some great shortbread, and salad greens. It was yummy!!! And then we played our customary 5 rounds of ping-pong. Unfortunately, I won three out of five, and that wasn't nice of me, was it? But we had a good time, anyway. Each day we got better playing at Aberfeldy, and the last two days were pretty normal games for us - with the exception that I won the best three out of five today. That wasn't normal. Usually, I max at two games, if any at all.
This evening, we had supper at the Dene Hotel where we're staying. We paid $US 40 (20pounds sterling) for the meal you see in the picture - worth $15 max in the U.S. (The dollar is trading about 50 cents to a pound.) We eat so healthy - and inexpensively, too, that it's always hard for us to spend good travel or movie or fun money on this type of food, especially when it's nothing special, such as this meal.
We're paying 10 pounds for Internet tonight, too. The hotel has "free" Internet through its own server, but their router doesn't broadcast to our room, and the signal from the lobby is spotty, as well. So we bit the bullet and we're using a T-Mobile hot spot signal - at a fee, of course. It's slow and seems to cut in and out, but it's slowly but surely working. (I tried to load pictures to Flickr this evening, and out of 45 pictures over a period of about 2 hours, 15 loaded successfully.) We enjoy being able to get on line, and sometimes just being able to check our bank accounts, charge cards, e-mail from home, and so forth, is enough to help us relax us.
All in all, it was a pretty successful birthday for Lauren, though it would have been nice to spend the whole day in one place.
We saw some beautiful scenery today; unfortunately, my camera wasn't set to let in sufficient light to compensate for the overcast skies, but I got some pictures, anyway, that will remind us of the many, many shades of green we saw. We didn't know so many shades could exist in one view. Wow! As we neared the lake district, the hills got such a smooth look to them. It was as though they had been laid down by a master cake decorator. Scotland, Wales, and England are beautiful states in this country. I'm sure Ireland is just as lovely, and maybe one day we'll get there, too. There is much about this trip that we'll never forget - the canal boat, the beauty of Aberfeldy, and I'm sure Devon has its own charm and special interests that we will remember, too.
Lauren has learned to drive these roads like a pro! We're in good hands when he is behind the wheel.
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