1 Day to go...

OK...last day at work was yesterday and I feel fairly confident that I'm not leaving a big mess for LTC Boatman, Erv, and Nizelky.

I have had the most wonderful news in regards to the trip. Russ Huard, a LtCol who used to work in my office, lives in Lakenheath, England and is going to come by Kirk Yetholm and act as tour guide for a couple of days! This negates the need to get a rental car and hopefully he'll let me practice driving. His cousin, Lisa, is visiting from the states and they are coming up Tue & Wed then heading on to the North of Scotland. They may meet up with us again in Edinburgh on our last day.

Except for making sure that we have transportation and lodging, the prior planning for this trip was really flexible. We have hired Andrea from Yetholm to pick us up at the airport, drive us to the Gypsy Palace where we will spend our first four days, and return us to the airport. I was stunned at what this was going to cost until I found out that gasoline (or petrol if you're from THAT side of the pond) is about $8 US a gallon. OUCH! That made her price seem Very Reasonable. Now that Russ is coming up, we'll save some money. Andrea had offered to chauffer us where we wanted to go for 75 pence (3/4ths of a pound) which is about $1.50 US. This would have really eaten into our travel budget. The American dollar is doing very poorly in the UK. Right now the exchange is almost 2 for 1.

Today will be spent getting any laundry done and making sure that things are settled in anticipation of me being gone for 9 days. The greenhouse plants will be well watered and Andy will be instructed to check on them daily. The food in the fridge is either planned to be eaten today and tomorrow or ready to be put in the freezer. Things are clean so I hopefully will return to a clean house.

I am rarin' to go!

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