I Will Drive 500 Miles…Bingham
Another day, another 100 or so miles. This time it was back to where we used to live, Bingham. 2 stops for the day, one that could only be done today as we wanted to ensure that Girly Girl got to spend some time with one of her best friends, Leah Baskey, since today was the only day we would all be in this side of the country we met for lunch and then retired back to theirs for a cuppa and to continue relating. Very relaxed and nice to catch up with the current Pastors of Catalyst Church Dave and Lizzi who have been running, for the last 6 years or so, what was known as Wellspring when it was our patch. They are doing amazing taking the church and it’s people and connections to places we never dreamed of. Keep going guys you’re doing an excellent job.
Our second stop of the day for dinner was a mere 0.1 mile away from the other, sad to say we did take the car round, I didn’t actually travel far enough or fast enough for the car to warn me I hadn’t buckled up. It did by the time I was parking and Valerie was on her way out to greet us thinking we had forgotten where she and Chandra lived, as if. When we planned our holiday both the Primrose Valley and especially this 2nd week of being based at Skylark house in Old Bolingbroke, it was with the intention of visiting folks down this part of the country, which after only 1 day of doing so has proved to be absolutely the best decision. It does mean some amount of miles are on the clock and lots of time driving to and from, but the rewards far outway the expense of time, mileage or fuel. Getting time with folks has not been easy planning/co-ordinating diaries as well as planned rest days like today the 9th as we chill at Skylark House, we have so appreciated the lack of driving today and the lack of expectancy and going somewhere, well Yve and I have, the kids as many other parents will relate to are still on the what can we do, I’m boreded. We can’t see everyone we would like to either due to time or schedules so we’ll just have to do it again.
For yesterday though we enjoyed some relaxed catching up with the Baskeys, over lunch allowing 2 teenagers to connect face to face again after 4 years, facetime and WhatsApp goes only so far. Then we wiled away the evening with some lovely home cooked Sri Lankan style cuisine with some Northern hospitality thrown into the mix, to round off a very satisfying day with the Chandrakumars. Busy day but a lovely day nonetheless, wee spot of Diesel on the way home to Old Bolingbroke and we rest.
Tomorrow sees a visit South to Northampton to catch up with my brother and his wife so that will be almost 200 miles round trip on that one and about 4 hours in the car, Wednesday we head to Matlock Derbyshire to see Cousin and family, Thursday sees us in Cotgrave and Lincoln, Friday is another rest day and will include some shopping and pre heading home planning, Saturday we’ll be back in Upper Saxondale for the afternoon and then restful evening back to Skylark House to pack before heading North home on Sunday. So as I was working out the various locations and the mileage between and back and forth etc, I reckon we will be pushing 1500 miles on this trip which is way more than the 500 miles title of this series suggests and more even than the song from which it was inspired originates as that says it will be 500 more, well for us it seems were are literally going the extra mile on this trip, 500 or more to be precise. I may even take a poll for what people reckon we will cover by the time we arrive back home in Paisley. Any suggestions or guesses as to total mileage?