The SOUTH day 6

---

---

The sixth and final day of our epic road trip had finally arrived. We had a very nice breakfast courtesy of our friendly B&B hosts and headed back out to the commons for a walkie. It was much less intimidating in the day light and we even found an old fort to explore. We also met a very friendly local man who was telling Martin the whole history of the area. I was amusing myself with his very large, very playful Yellow Labrador. Her name was Megan. She kept bringing me her ball and I'd throw it as far as I could out onto the commons and she'd run as fast as she could after it. What made this game so remarkable was that Wicket and Ziggy were also trying to play. They'd run as fast as their tiny legs could carry them, but they just couldn't keep up with her. Sometimes I'd cheat for them and throw it right to them when she was off in another direction, but even when Wicket or Ziggy would get to the ball first she would just run up and take it off them instantly. Bless them though. They never got tired of playing and seemed to be enjoying themselves regardless.

The fort was interesting, but not so impressive once you've seen some of the castles and Stonehenge in the area, but not too shabby for a tiny little town in Gloucestershire. After the walk we piled back into the car to head toward home. We just had one more stop to make before getting back. Stratford-upon-Avon was only about an hour away. I had to see Shakespeare's house before we left the south, so we did the detour.

Stratford was very pretty, and the most impressive thing was how consistent it was. There wasn't just the odd old building or two mixed in with all the modern ones, like in London, but whole streets and areas looked like they must have 300 years ago. Shakespeare's house was cute, but they wanted an inordinate amount of money to go in so we just snapped a picture and moved on. It was interesting to see all the modern shop signs on these old, beautiful buildings. I've never seen such an attractive Gap or Subway. Speaking of Subway we were hungry again and our wallets were still hurting form our expensive meal last night so we went for another meatball extravaganza. Delicious.

Finally, we were heading home. This had been one of the best vacations I'd ever had and made me excited for having a family and taking lots of road trips. I had a scary image of National Lampoon's Vacation in my mind, but decided even that wouldn't be so bad. The dogs slept the entire way home. Ziggy on his shelf and Wicket on the back seat. Everyone seemed exhausted but happy.


To view the full set of photos from this day of our trip see our site on Flickr
Click here

---