It was only a short drive from IronBridge to the 16th century Elizabethan manor house http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/wilderhope-manorwhere we would stay for the night. What a gorgeous setting. We got a recomendatiion for the evening meal...Royal Oaks Pub, Isle of Wight Got into an enjoyable conversation with a couple sitting near us. After we described our month long travel, they strongly suggested we add Isle of Wight to our itinerary. We had decided to make reservations only for when we arrived and would depart from Manchester, so we had flexibility. We had also decided we didn't want to rush and would not try to travel Wales, Scotland or down to Port Isaac...filming village for the Doc Martin series Ruth and I really enjoy. early in the morning, before breakfast, I roamed the manor estate. Talked with the farm ... read more

The flight from DC to Manchester was uneventful, although fyi...there were plenty of empty seats, so I able to lay down and get a good sleep. Not sure if this is typical, but may be another reason to not fly into London. Another fyi...make sure you use a credit card for the car rental that covers the DLW. I found out my card did not, but thought I could just change to another card at the airport. I discovered this by reading small print that the car rental company required a letter from your credit card company, which they will sent via email. Anyway only way out of the glitch was to pay cancelation fee, and make a new reservation. Of course the price was not as good as the reservation I made months earlier, but ... read more

Just planning... read more

Today we head for Portland. I got up early to go for a walk down by the river. Interestingly, the river was calm with no wind, not at all like yesterday. Many of the locals get their morning exercise by paddle boarding. Back at the B&B, we continued our conversation from the night before, with another couple about windsurfing and kite boarding. We really enjoy B&Bs because of the people you meet. They had become amateur meteorologists, and assured us that 30 minutes down the road, Rooster Rock would have great windsurfing conditions. Unfortunately, we took too much time hiking, etc and missed seeing them windsurfing at Rooster Rock. It's only an hour away by interstate, but there are any number of waterfalls and overlooks to visit. Benson Bridge at Multnomah Falls is a very popular ... read more

Shortly after leaving Bend we stopped at Smith Rock State Park. The write ups made it sound like a popular place for rock climbing. It's apparently a pretty new park with a yurt as a visitors center...interesting story, just ask me about it. Anyway, gorgeous rock fromation and hiking trails...worth the stop. To the north of the park is a development for millionaire horse ranchers. They have donated $5M for the park's development. Further up OR 97 was Crooked River Gorge and railroad bridge. Then Crooked River National Grasslands recreation area. We're headed for Mt. Hood Timberland restaurant for lunch. We plan to stop there for lunch in the historic lodge. The closer we got the colder and cloudier it got. By the time we reached the lodge we could hardly see the snow plows working ... read more