Chapter 5: Old Roads and New Places

Thursday, July 18, 1985

Today’s trip had a bit of winding road by nature, and we added to it by occasionally taking smaller roads just to experience more of the English countryside.

We checked out after breakfast, then headed to Winchester. We’d all heard the song ‘Winchester Cathedral’, and that’s what had attracted me to visit it in my first life. That visit, in turn, was the inspiration for this one.

It was amazing simply as a piece of gothic architecture, but the story behind why it remained standing was fascinating and explained why there was a statue of a man in an old-time diving suit on the grounds. In the early 1900s, the cathedral was literally falling apart as the ground shifted. After several attempts to stabilize it, they inadvertently allowed river water to flood the foundation. The flooding made things even worse.

In desperation, they called in William Walker, perhaps the most experienced diver in Britain. Walker spent six years diving for many hours a day, nearly every day, clearing peat and placing concrete. By the time he’d finished, he’d placed 25,000 bags of concrete and over 900,000 bricks.

Thanks to his work, we could visit the cathedral today. Jane Austen, among other notable people, was buried here, as were plenty of average families.

Along the way, I pointed out the thing which had struck me the first time I visited. Some of the markers showed a husband and wife along with many children, almost all of whom had died in childhood. It had really made the point for me how much things had changed. In the later 1900s, for a parent to lose a child was a great tragedy. Several hundred years ago, it was commonplace.

We had lunch in Winchester, then hit the road for a much older religious destination: Stonehenge. They’d blocked access to the stones, but that was fine. We took plenty of pictures.

I’d missed Stonehenge before, so this was new, which we all appreciated.

After Stonehenge, we headed to nearby Avebury, which had a similar (but considerably smaller) stone ring. Avebury’s was in much poorer shape, but (partly because of that) there was no restriction against touching the stones.

By the time we’d finished there, it was late afternoon. We headed over to Bath, where we would spend the night.

We stayed at another modest hotel in Bath and had dinner at another Indian restaurant after checking in and putting our bags away.

“I would’ve freaked out on some of those roads!” Paige said, over dinner.

Angie waved her hand.

“Overly dramatic!” she said. “You’d have been fine.”

“Thanks,” Paige said. “I think I would’ve freaked out! That time when the truck...”

“Lorry,” Jas added with a grin.

“... lorry was barreling down at us on the one-lane road was ... well, I got nervous!” Paige said.

“We had plenty of room,” I said.

“I think it was measured in centimeters. Like, one,” Jas said.

“One is enough,” I said.

“Cool day, though,” Paige said. “So much history! And it just gets older! Roman baths tomorrow!”

“Roman baths are newer than druid circles,” Angie said.

“Close enough!” Paige said, waving her hand. “It’s all ancient compared to anything in Texas.”

“Actually,” I said, “There’s this site up north of Georgetown where some of the artifacts date back 20,000 years.”

“Seriously?” Jas said.

“Seriously,” I said.

“We should visit!” she said.

“I’m not sure if they do tours yet,” I said. “Maybe?”

Angie whapped me. Someone had to.

As planned, Jas joined Paige tonight and Angie joined me.

We pretty much just got ready for bed. It wasn’t all that late, but we were both tired.

I definitely was. Driving in England required a bit more focus than I needed in the US. I was a pretty attentive driver there, but here I had to fight off many years of ingrained habits. As long as anything was planned, it went fine. Snap decisions, though, were problematic. My default was to get in the wrong lane.

It wasn’t bad, and I was really enjoying it all (well, not so much the lorry on the country road), but it was work.

Once we’d gotten ready for bed (both of us in pajamas, this time), we turned out the lights and snuggled up.

“This is pretty amazing,” Angie said. “Not like that’s news, but ... it is.”

“It is,” I said.

“My thoughts keep going back to years ago,” she said. “When things were new and we didn’t know who each other really was. God, if you’d told me then we’d be traveling England with our very serious girlfriends, would’ve talked to Bob Geldof — not to mention Sting! — and all of that ... I’m not sure I could’ve believed it. Everything follows from the previous thing, though, and here we are. It all makes sense, it’s just ... you know. ‘All is for the best.’”

I chuckled, nodding.

“I get it. I really do. Many of the things I got wrong in the beginning had to do with how fast things would happen, and how much would happen. I suppose the irony here is that having the money to do things like this is probably the most predictable.”

“Yeah,” she said, chuckling a bit. “Even if I nearly bit your head off over it when I found out!”

“In retrospect, it’s pretty funny,” I said.

“It is!” she said, giggling a bit. “I think ... for me, the biggest thing is Paige and Jas knowing who we are. This trip is just ... more ... because of that.”

“Thanks, Laura!” I said.

Angie hugged me.

“We done good, big bro.”

“Definitely, little sis.”

She sighed.

“I’m still annoyed with Aunt Helen. I thought about it during the drive. Like ... how stupid that whole thing is! I think her being almost as upset about Jas having a career as she is about me and Paige makes it easier. It’s just, well, I got more grief because it is a bit bigger.”

I shrugged, and said, “We were never going to win her over. The good news is, she lost. The rest of the family doesn’t agree. I feel sorry for Tim...”

“Oh, God, yes!” she said.

“But, beyond that...”

“Yeah,” she said. “We’ll have more good family reunions. I just won’t go to her house again.”

“So,” I said. “What things do you and Paige still want to see?”

She shrugged.

“Beyond Bath and all? We could easily get over to Wales, and I think we should, just to do it. After that?”

She hesitated, then said, “Let’s put it off until tomorrow. There’s so much to see, I’m not sure what the priorities are. I kinda want to get over to the continent, but ... I’m starting to think, if we don’t, it won’t be a big deal.”

“Me, too,” I said. “Maybe this is just a UK trip.”

“Or, more than the UK, if we make it over to Ireland.”

“Well, sure,” I said, nodding.

She sighed and hugged me.

“I love you, big brother.”

“And I love you, little sis.”

“What a long, strange trip this is! And we’re still very early in the trip. Or, at least, I hope we are!”

“Me, too,” I said. “I want to see your cute kids. And my cute kids. And, hopefully, one day, their cute kids.”

“My cute kids might be your cute kids,” she said, giggling.

“True enough!”

“Let’s get some sleep. Bath-time tomorrow!”

“I think I have to say ‘Consider yourself whapped,’” I said, chuckling.

“Noted!”

Friday, July 19, 1985

The baths were indeed fascinating. There’s a reason so many people come to visit, and (in the current day, at least) it’s not the water, since bathing in it is forbidden. For good reason, too: it harbors toxic bacteria.

None of the above-ground structures predate the 19th century, but they’re still fascinating, and the museum holds far older artifacts from the Roman and Celtic periods.

The baths themselves only took us a few hours, but they were well worth the visit. We had lunch in Bath, then hit the road, winding our way around through the countryside, passing through Bristol, then crossing into Wales and eventually ending the day in Cardiff.

Our plan for tomorrow was a fairly aimless driving tour of Wales. There were many national parks and such in the vicinity, and it would be fun to see them.

Accordingly, we planned to stay at our hotel in Cardiff for two nights. We’d figure out longer-term plans after that.

Late in the evening, we called Houston, catching the parents in their afternoons. Everyone was doing great.

We called College Station, too. Cammie’s real estate license test was tomorrow. We all wished her the best of luck! There was no news on the ticket, but that was okay with her, so it was okay with us, too.

I tried to call Jess and Laura but didn’t get either of them. I left messages for both of them. We planned to send postcards again tomorrow, too.

Saturday, July 20, 1985

As planned, today was spent driving around from ‘Hey, this looks interesting!’ to ‘Let’s go see that!’ and thence to ‘Well, we’re already here, so there isn’t that far away.’

No schedule, no plan, no destination (except our hotel in Cardiff, as evening approached).

We made it out to the town of Fishguard (which we all found to be a truly amazing name). It had hosted a ferry to Ireland until quite recently. We wouldn’t have taken it, but Fishguard might be about as close as we’d get to Ireland. Might not, too, if Angie’s comment from a couple of days ago was prescient.

As we were heading back, we launched into a discussion of what to do next. The car was due in London on Monday. I could have extended it, but the consensus was to do something else. What that was, no one knew.

Much of the initial conversation centered around crossing the Channel, either to France or Belgium by ferry or somewhere else by air. Once we’d crossed, we’d travel by rail (and, sometimes, taxi).

Paige took the discussion in a different direction after about half an hour of kicking ideas around.

She said, “We’re already in the UK, right? There are trains here. Where could we go that we want to visit? I mean, assuming we don’t want to go to the continent, or at least not yet. I mean, really, what I’m hearing is that no one is desperate to go there, ‘cuz otherwise we’d have made a plan by now.”

“About the farthest would be...” Angie said, then paused.

All four of us said, simultaneously, “Scotland!”

“I’d love to visit Scotland, honestly,” Angie said. “It’s always just sounded cool. Not just the accents, but...”

Jas giggled and said, “Those, definitely! Me, too, really. I’ve never been there.”

“I’d love to,” I said. “Not only that, but Dad would be thrilled if we brought him anything with the Clan Johnstone tartan on it.”

“He’d flip!” Angie said, grinning. “I like that!”

“It’s not like I have a connection,” Paige said. “Seiler is German. I’d love to go there, but that can be another trip.”

“And, obviously, I don’t,” Jas said, “But, since I don’t want to go to France on this trip — as much as I’d love to otherwise, if relatives weren’t a factor — Scotland is pretty awesome. Not that Germany isn’t, but I mean, c’mon. Brigadoon, people!”

Everyone laughed at that.

“I know it’s not a real place,” Paige said, “But maybe we need a car, for a bit. Drive around and see places more like Brigadoon.”

“Yes!” Jas said. “That really does sound awesome!”

“Aside from pseudo-Brigadoon...” Angie said.

Paige apparently whapped her.

“Hey!” Angie said. “It’s appropriate.”

“So is whapping you!” Paige said.

Angie giggled.

“Fine! Fair enough! Anyway, besides that, where? Edinburgh? Glasgow?”

“Both,” Paige said.

I added, “I’m not sure how we could skip Loch Ness, if we go to Scotland.”

“Ooo! Scary!” Jas said, chuckling.

“And Loch Lomond, too,” I added.

“This is starting to sound like a plan,” Angie said. “Can your travel agent people figure out some of it? Like, train times and maybe a starting hotel or something?”

“I can give it a shot,” I said. “I think Edinburgh first. It makes the most sense.”

“You’ve looked at a map more recently than I have,” Angie said, shrugging. “If it makes sense to you, it makes sense to me.”

With that, we had a plan.

A minute later, Paige sang out, “O you take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye!”

There was nothing for us to do but finish the song. As best we could, which was — I think — more than a mite half-assed. Or, perhaps, half-arsed.