Off to Reading

I left Croughton Friday afternoon and went to Reading.  Ms. Britt took me on a beautiful adventure through the country.  Reading is a large town about an hour from London.  I met Tracy Porter (she lived just down the road from me on Bunch Road, when we were in elementary school) and her boyfriend for dinner.  We had been in contact through Facebook - I love reconnecting with old friends on Facebook!  Tracy has been living in Reading for about 17 years and loves it.  When Stephen asked me how long she had been here, before I actually found, I told him, "long enough to sound like an English person - no Arkansas accent left!"

Going South



I am standing at the Education Center, at RAF Croughton, the main gate it to the right.  The view is awesome!





This is a house that is near Croughton, actually it is a farm that I guess you can visit, there is a sign on the gate the says "A Day Out at the Farm"

 



More of the countryside close to Croughton.

  Thursday I went to RAF Croughton.  This is a beautiful base out in the country.  The temporary lodging at RAF Croughton is outstanding!  I had a nice big room with a living room and my own kitchenette!  Oh how I wish I could have that at Lakenheath!  When I read the directions that had been written by a former VA Rep he said that you go through 29 roundabouts.  Oh my goodness, he was not kidding!  For me this was more like 50 roundabouts because I had to go through several of them more than once.  Let's just say I got to hear Ms. Britt say re-calculating more than once on this trip!  Just outside the fence across the road from my office there were sheep grazing.  The countryside is just so beautiful with sheep, horses and cows.  The fields are so green, you would never know that it is winter!

Now that's close!

I pass this house when I am going to work in the mornings at Mildenhall.  It is like the house was there and they started building the road had to make a jut in the road to go around the house!  There are several houses like this around here.  I go to Mildenhall every Monday and Tuesday to work, for the last two weeks I have been able to get there with no GPS or map.  But, I still can't get home without going around the world.  I know it should be simple, but when I get on those roundabouts, I can't figure out which way to go.  Ms. Britt says enter roundabout, take 3rd exit, and I am lost.....The only exit I can figure out without any concern is the first exit.  Let's put it this way, anytime I go through a roundabout and take the exit, I hold my breath just waiting for her to say re-calculating!

Another interesting thing about this house, it has a thatched roof.  This type roof is made from dry vegetation, such as straw or reeds.  Many of the older homes have this type roof. 

Just another reason to hate driving here

Just look how close the houses are to the road!  Not all of them are this close, but a lot are!  Plus the road is narrow and people drive so fast!  There is another one that I pass on the way to Mildenhall that I will post later!  (Isn't that door pretty?)

The Old Priest's House - Fornham St. Martin

This old church and cemetery are adjacent to the Woolpack Pub.  The information I found said this building was built in the 17th century!  There are tombstones that are so old, you could not read the inscription on them.  The oldest one that I could still read, the person died in 1779 and he was only 21 year old.  That is a long time ago!  It is was very interesting that there were a lot of young people buried there, young I mean 20's and 30's, that died in the early 1900's.  Thank God for the modern medicine of today!

Going to the market at Bury St. Edmund's

I left my room about noon Saturday to go to the market at Bury St. Edmund's.  I had been there once on the newcomers tour, it seemed like a nice quiet little village.  Saturday's are evidently a different story!  They have a market that everyone has told me is wonderful.  I wanted to go check it out myself.  I heard the fruit is great!  I found my way to the village, and it was packed!  I drove around this very small village, will very narrow streets for an hour looking for some place to park.  I finally decided that next time I go to the market I need to be there really early while there are still parking places!

When that didn't work out, I decided to find some place for lunch.  I stopped at a neat little pub called Woolpack.  It is located in Fornham St. Martin.  I have to try the Steak and Ale Pies everywhere I go.  That is a flaky puff pastry on top!  I have to try the fish and chips sometime!  Doesn't this look good?

Driving by GPS

I am not sure if I have mentioned that I am not fond of driving over here!  First of all it is driving by GPS!  A wonderful British lady, that I call Ms. Brit, tells me exactly where to go!  That sounds easy enough, WRONG!  The roads here are VERY dark! 

Last night when I was leaving the base, I turned the wrong way out of the gate.  Let me first justify that by saying you can't exit from the entrance gate.  So, I wasn't exactly sure where I was when I left the base.  Ms. Brit kept saying turn right, I could not see a road to turn on, and of course there was someone right on my tail.  Did I mention they drive really fast over here?  Anyway, every time I didn't turn right, Ms. Brit said recalculating.  After I missed four right turns, I entered a round about, which I don't like either.  She said take the fourth exit, of course I turn too early.  So, she very patiently said recalculating.  Her next command was turn right, there wasn't anyone behind me so I was not going to miss this turn.  Mind you it was only 5:30 p.m. but it was pitch dark and I turned right, on what turned out to be a one lane dirt road the went between two farms.  As soon as I turned on the road, there were what seemed like millions of eyes staring at me.  Of course it was not actually a million, but there were at least 100 rabbits that were staring me in the eye, and immediately scattered!  Ms. Brit said go 1.7 miles, so I drove on.  About a quarter of a mile down this road, a herd of at least six deer ran across the road.  Let me tell you they have some really big animals here!  The rabbits were huge and so were the deer!  I am still on the one lane dirt road with nothing in sight, there was no place to turn around, so I sure hoped Ms. Brit knew what she was talking about.  Finally I came to the intersection and she said turn left and an immediate right, so I did.  At her instruction I drove another mile, which lead to a really nice paved road.  The only problem was there was a gate between the dirt road and the paved road!  So there was no turning left for me!  Fortunately, there was a little area that I was able to turn around and head back down the dirt road to where I started.  I followed Ms. Brit's directions which lead me right back where I had come from, past the gate at the base.  That is when I realized the I had turned the wrong way!

No wonder I don't really go any place after work!  I was doing some praying that I didn't break down, have a flat or get stuck in the middle of no where!  I sure am glad that Ms. Brit knew how to finally get me home! On the bright side, I did have a service member tell me yesterday that we are gaining four minutes per day of daylight!  Hopefully by the time I am ready to come home, it will be daylight past 5:30!