A Series of Unfortunate Events

Wednesday 6/10/09
Today was a series of unfortunate events. The morning started with a high stress car ride in which we got lost driving down narrow single lane roads which apparently support 2 way traffic. We then found a lovely spot to pull over and have the breakfast we had packed from the night before. Breakfast was scones and juice. The spot we picked had an absolutely gorgeous view of mountains and a pond, but when we got out of the car we were swarmed by so many bugs that it could have been described as one of the plagues of Egypt. I hopped back into the car immediately, of course about 100 bugs made it in with me. I motioned frantically for Morgan to get back in the car, but he was busy taking pictures and swatting at the sea of bugs that had engulfed him. So I proceeded to try and swat as many bugs as I could inside the car, because opening a window would have only let more in. Finally he got back in the car, bringing hundreds more bugs with him, and we sped away opening all the windows in hopes that the bugs would be swept away in the vortex of wind. It worked for the most part, and we cleared the air in the car. We stopped at another nice overlook further down the road, and were smart enough to keep the windows shut while we ate our breakfast. I took a bite of the scone, which was really very good, but a bit dry, so I took a big swig of the black current/apple juice that we had purchased. BLECK! It was all I could do not to spit it from my mouth! As it turns out Morgan and I had purchased a liter bottle of black current/apple juice concentrate… we apparently should have been diluting it at a 5:1 ratio with water. It simply never occurred to us that they would sell liquid concentrate in a liter bottle… honestly who needs 5 liters of juice?
Next item of business in the day was getting mildly lost again, but that was easily fixed and we were on our way to see the tallest waterfall in the UK, even boasting to be 40 ft taller then Niagara Falls. The waterfall was stunning, and the weather cooperated for us to see it. It had been foggy all morning and was just starting to clear by this point. After seeing the waterfall we decided to buy some water and attempt to dilute our juice so that we could drink it. I didn’t trust the steadiness of my hands to poor from a 1 liter bottle into a tall 2.5 liter bottle without spilling, so Morgan being the gentleman, did it for me… then he handed me the bottle… I attempted to take a sip, instead the bottle slipped, seeing it as if in slow motion I grabbed the bottle to catch it, and because of the force with which I squeezed it I ended up catching the bottle, but I also wore about a quarter of the contents. Soaking wet, and sticky I realized that part of what had gotten soaked was my watch. Perfect.
Next we drove south trying to find Reglan Castle which was suppose to be our next stop. Along the way it started raining, so much so that, as the evening news later reported it there was “freak flooding” in several counties. There was also a significant hail storm that we drove through which not only coated the road in ice, but also made the grass look like it had been snowing in June…. Nothing we New Yorkers can’t handle. Once we got to Reglan Castle the rain once again intensified. We were almost literally the only tourists in the place. We tromped around in rain coats, and actually had quite a lot of fun, splashing in puddles like kids.
Next we had planned to visit an Abby but given the number of ‘unexpected detours’ that we had taken that day the Abby was closed before we even left the castle. So we attempted to find our way to our new hotel for the night. We got quite lost, went in the wrong direction for almost 20 minutes to cover one mile in rush our traffic, and finally found our hotel. The hotel is blessedly nicer than anticipated, they don’t have bunk beds, they actually have hot showers, and they have internet access, what more could a girl ask for? So now it’s off to bed, wondering what excitement is in store for tomorrow. Despite all the strange and frustrating things that have managed to happen, I still am having fun, and I’m glad I’m here enjoying all this with my husband.

Morgan has been able to post pictures up to his Picasa, since we're using his computer we haven't been able to post pictures to my Picasa.