Oh, the places we'll go...

At times it feels like a lovely dream.

On our way!

We were moving to a new home and had to purchase appliances.  The store had a special offer that if we spent over a certain amount, we would receive 2 free return tickets of our choice, flying in to Gatwick, Manchester or Glasgow.  The only stipulation was that the summer was blacked out and since my husband is a teacher and wouldn't be able to take the time off, who would want to travel with me?  The question was barely spoken and Alison had already said YES!
This was September 2007.
Our flight was non-stop Vancouver to Gatwick, about 9 and a half hours.  I had the window seat and didn't get up once on the entire flight. (I have since heard that that's really really bad!)
We landed, found the loo immediately, and then our car rental company.  After some advice from the young man behind the counter, we went to our car.  A little Ford Fiesta, very cute.  It felt SO strange sitting on the right side of the car!
We were barely out of the car rental lot and right onto the M23, the freeway that circles Greater London, tagging behind the big trucks ahead of us in the slow lane, which is the far LEFT lane!  Everybody else is whizzing past at crazy speeds and I'm just hoping I won't crash and kill us both!  Fortunately, Alison was great at navigating and map-reading so between the two of us, we managed to continue to the M40, which heads west towards Oxford, traffic thinned out a bit, so we could relax a little.

to be continued...