The First Week...

There is no doubt that the first week was packed full. There was a lot of driving, history, scenery and roundabouts!

After getting settled in our hotel room we went to Avis and collected out vans. They were both 6 speed, manual diesels. Reet had a Ford CMax and I had a Citroen Picasso. They were fun and interesting. They were very mini, mini vans. While the McLartys and Bryan Burks were with us it was going to be a very tight squeeze to get us all in the three vans (Jim Shelton also had a Citroen van).

The activities for the week were:

. eight Mike walk through the Cotswolds. Walked thru fields of barley and rape seed. Finished with a steak and kidney pie for lunch. Started and ended the walk at Burton-on-Water. Stopped in the village of Bibury on the way back.
. visit and tour of The Kilns, home of C S Lewis.
. exploring Oxford
. murder mystery night run by Reet's friend, Dan Reynemi.
. sent to church at Corby. Ian Grant worked there for a little while. Had a pub lunch after church.
. stopped in at Lutterworth and visited the church where John Wycliffe preached. Participated in their contemporary service. After, the priest took us up thru the Bell tower and out onto the roof of the tower.
. a visit to J R R Tolkein grave - Beren!
. the henge at Avebury, the barrow at Castle Combe, Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral
. First business visit - Clinipace.
. Packed our backpacks for Scotland. We could only take one backpack each because of the limited space in the vans.

The photos....

Photos of our adventures can be viewed here: COBA UK 2015 Photos

The Flight Over...

Up, Up and Away with Delta

As often it the case, flight delays made the departure exciting to say the least. We rode to the airport in Little Rock with Bryan and Laura Burks. Arrived in plenty of time and checked in quickly. We met the McLartys and some of the students at the departure lounge. All was calm and cool,

Then the plane we were about to board, had a flat tire! Fortunately they had a spare and a mechanic on duty. We discovered that it takes 2 hours to change a plane tire. During that 2 hours, storms hit the Atlanta area and closed the airport there. That backed up traffic quite a lot. We were to meet the students in Atlanta. They were flying in from various locations. Some were not to make it in time!

We did get to Atlanta in plenty of time, but of course with everything backed up, our departure was delayed quite a bit. That allowed one of our party to actually get there and onto the flight, just in time.

We arrived at Heathrow a little late, but ok. All our luggage, well almost all of it arrived. The student who caught the flight just in time was missing her luggage. It took an hour in the queue to report and track her luggage. They found it - still in Atlanta and said it would arrive tomorrow (it did arrive ok).

We hopped on the bus and traveled to the Travelodge at Pear Tree in Oxford. This was to be home for 6 nights. We spent some time at the service center near the Travelodge. It had a Starbucks, KFC and Waitrose.