Monday, July 6th:  Two out of three ain't bad…it sucks!

Don’t get too worked up, the next couple of posts might not bee too exciting.  The days have been pretty monotonous – get up, eat breakfast, get ready and get out and on our way.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s a schedule and it is probably what the boys need to keep them sane.

This was our last day at the Woodman’s Cottage.  We were running around trying to make sure that we had gotten everything together and were pretty sure that we had – and when we did, I put the keys up on the shelf and we left. 

At least we didn’t get locked out. 

We were heading to three places:  Gainsborough Old Hall, Thornton Abbey and Gatehouse and Wharram-Percy Deserted Medieval Village.

Gainsborough was a guildhouse from the 1500’s?  Maybe? I can barely read anything or get a chance to see any of the plaques to get information on the places.  It was still pretty cool.  

Neil also found the beer.

His training is finally paying off.  Good boy.

We also showed him what a codpiece is.

At some point during the driving we realized that “I” left the lunch box without doing a final sweep.  The lunchbox from Whole Foods – which means we probably paid $20 for a $5 fair trade-eco-friendly-locally produced lunchbox that you could get from the non-unionized exploitive Walmart for $3.95.  Fuck it.

I can’t say that I remember what we did for lunch now – I’m guessing that we stopped somewhere since we had no food and it was all my fault. 

Now that I saw the pic I remember.  So I am standing at this roadside stand getting some food for us - Neil a grilled cheese, which the guy couldn't grill on the grill to melt the cheese…

And this other old guy comes up next to me to get some coffee and tea.  I ask the cook to cut the grilled cheese in four pieces and the old guy next to me goes, "Can you cut the crusts off for me too please?"  I was laughing my ass off and told him he could go to the car and figure out who gets which piece and how many.  That was awesome though.

We continued the long drive to Thornton Abbey and Gatehouse.  The gatehouse was massive – it was very imposing and probably kept away those who needed to be kept away for a long time – of course, until that fat pig Henry VIII.

The inside was pretty neat – you could climb to the top and since we have started exploring castles and abbeys, we have Neil looking for secret passages – and he gets excited every time he finds a new one.  By new one, I mean any one.

We had some fun trying to take some pictures and then running away from Neil who was being a crank.






Check out my codpiece!                                          ^^^^^^

The rain was getting heavier and the air had a bit of a chill to it.  Typical English weather and to be honest, with all of our trips to the UK, this is the first time we have actually had crappy weather for a stretch of it.  We are in the Yorkshire moors, so this kind of weather should be expected.


We had a lengthy and argumentative discussion about our next stop, Wharram-Percy Medieval Village.  I was really looking forward to this - the most known one in all of Europe with some significant structures and outlines remaining.  Jess decided that since it was already 4 and would take an hour or so to drive there, plus a ¾ hike to the spot, that we couldn't do it in the shitty English weather with two kids under the age of four.  You can add this to the list of things we didn't do because Jess is no longer adventurous.  I get it it, but it still sucks.  These kids are cramping our style.

We continued on the drive to our farm which was in the middle of nowhere.  The one lane roads were getting a little crazy and the hedges were so high that you could barely see around them while you were driving.  Jess said, "Wow, we really are in the middle of nowhere, to which I replied, "We passed nowhere 20 fucking minutes ago.  Didn't you see the sign?"