Blackburn, Preston, Manchester

8 June 2016 – Wednesday

Went to bed at midnight and fell fast asleep. Woke up to go to the bathroom. When I glanced at the clock I thought it said 8:55 which made me wonder why the guys left me sleep so late? I glanced at it again and realized it was 3:55 saying, “I don’t remember the street lamp outside the house being that bright when I went to bed.”  WELLL, when I opened the curtain I remembered that YES the sun comes up that early here!  ROFL I ended up being unable to fall back asleep. I started reading Facebook and e-mail, etc. I lay in bed until I heard Mark up and about  around 7:30am. HA

Had breakfast then the three musketeers caught the bus to nearby Preston to pick up a rental car. Drove about an hour south to Manchester where we had a casual lunch in Trafford Center which is a huge, very unique mall. The food court is designed to simulate being on a cruise ship under the open sky.

As I was still pretty tired we walked just a bit of the mall then headed back toward “home” via a country route. Mark used to live in the area and took us to see some of the moors in the area.

The wind turbines are a very stark contrast to the very old stacked stone walls and sheep grazing on the moors.

I had to look up the technical definition of a moor… even though I was looking right at them… moor meaning, definition, what is a moor: an open area of hills covered with rough grass, especially in Britain.  The rain had just stopped so the fields were even more verdant where we walked across the sheep pasture land with sheep poop mine fields every foot of the way. LOL  Public Footpaths are a British Institution. They are best described as… In England and Wales, other than in the 12 Inner London Boroughs and the City of London, public rights of way are paths on which the public have a legally protected right to pass and re-pass. The law in England and Wales differs from that in Scotland in that rights of way only exist where they are so designated (or are able to be designated if not already) whereas in Scotland any route that meets certain conditions is defined as a right of way, and in addition there is a general presumption of access to the countryside. —— When I lived in Britain for the 1981-82 school year there was a Public Footpath next the school and my house. That was my first time to England and didn’t know what it meant. How GREAT is it that there are thousands  of miles  of footpaths  with  which to traverse beautiful England. 


Okay, so here’s the dumbest thing I’ve done on the trip so far. Remember, it was only Day 2…  I asked Mark to take a pic of me and then Khoa and me when we were on the moors. I had my prescription sunglasses hanging round my neck and decided to put them in my pocket instead, for the pic. We finished the drive home… about 10 miles… and I realized as soon as we walked in the house that I didn’t have the sunglasses. Checked the car, checked my bag, the house, cargo pockets… no luck. I pointed out that I know I put them in my pocket for the pic. Soooo, we drove back to the spot looked and looked at the very spot where we had posed and around the area. Oh well… they were several hundred dollar sunglasses but that’s life when you do dumb things. Had dinner at home, went to get up from the table and thought, what the heck is in my BACK pocket that is poking me in the bum?!?!? YOU GUESSED IT! I had been in and out that car three or four times and sat through dinner and NO, they were not broken and only slightly bent!  DUHHHHH!