*Due to slow Internet speeds in the Lake District and Whitby, this post has been delayed.*
We left our B&B in Leamington Spa this morning and headed out to drive around Jephson Gardens where my great grandfather worked prior to emigrating to the US. Our sat nav (GPS) didn't understand where I was trying to go, so after driving around in a big circle, I decided to head north to Cubbington and St. Mary's church. John and Naomi Clarke, my 2nd great grandparents, are buried in this churchyard along with two of their children. I visited here 3 years ago, but feel compelled to return to say hi. St. Mary's is a small village church perched high on a hill. After arriving, I walked right to John and Naomi's grave and had to do a small amount of searching for their children. Marianne got a quick lesson on how to use my camera, but perhaps I should have taught her when I wasn't having to stare at the sun...my eyes, my eyes!
After Cubbington, we returned to Coventry with the hope of at least seeing the ruined cathedral that was bombed during WWII. Unfortunately, Coventry is a city and a little difficult to navigate, plus we were running a bit behind, so after seeing the spire of the new cathedral, we left and continued north to Leicester (pronounced as Lester, by the way). Leicester has become famous recently as a group of archeologists set out on a mission to find the old Grey Frier's building and the grave of King Richard III. They successfully found both under a car park (parking lot) in 2012. After parking in a garage, we trekked into the city centre where a Richard III visitor center has been built along with a small interpretive museum. This was an excellent stop! In fact, it made me want to be a an archeologist. At the very end of the tour through the museum,we were able to see the very hole in which they found the former king's body, which was hastily buried after his defeat in battle. He has since been reinterred into the cathedral across the street, which was unfortunately closed due to midday Eucharist. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, along with chocolate caramel shortbread, and then kept going north. This was one of our long driving days as we needed to get to the Lake District. We turned on ClassicFM (a great radio channel, by the way) and off we went for a three hour drive on the M (interstate).
Marianne has a friend in Little Rock who is originally from England. She hooked us up with one of her long-time friend (Tom) who lives in the Lake District. Tom comes to America every spring to do storm chasing and was more than happy to be our guide for a day and a half in his native area. We met him at a lay by (turnout/rest area) right off the main highway leading to the Lake District. We arrived as the sun was setting and he took us on a short hike up to Scout Scar which looks into the Lake District from the south. The view was amazing and is apparently on the flight path of planes bound to and from Boston; we saw many pass overhead. After taking in this site, Tom took us to a local pub for dinner and then got us settled into our B&B on the banks of Ullswater. Tomorrow we spend the whole day exploring with Tom and his family and I get a day off from driving!
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