Days 5 & 6: Into the Wild

We definitely didn't escape the cold when we left Utah! Sunday morning, we got up early and were on the road before the sun came up. Our goal was to get into Wyoming where we'd picked out a spot that we could go to church along our route. We were welcomed into a ward that probably doesn't get many visitors and enjoyed the meeting there. Then, we made lunch in the parking lot and Daddy-o took a work call while Peanut and I went for a little walk to explore the cold, icy/snowy landscape nearby.

And then we kept on driving. Nothing fun planned, just trying to get us as far along as we could. We'd talked it over in UT and with the extra night there, and goals to be in NC for Thanksgiving, we decided to drop our plans to visit any national parks that we could get to reasonably on a shorter trip and just drive to the eastern half of the country. So, another long drive day. 

Our first day of cooking in the van went well. We all get to help, although sometimes it feels like too many cooks in the [very] small kitchen. But if we can divide it up so some people are prepping at the table, we can get a meal together pretty quickly.

I'm loving our table. It isn't quite as sturdy as I'd like, but I love how it can fold up smaller and still stay attached.

When we stopped for the night, we found a free campsite at Oliver Reservoir in Nebraska, and woke up to a nice view of the lake. And then, after a quick breakfast, we were off again.

We had another long day of driving, but made it to Omaha NE and the Winter Quarters visitors center for our church, which highlights the groups of pioneers who stopped here on their move to UT.

We got to see the exhibits about the town they set up here during their stay, and I learned about some ancestors who died there, the Turleys.

We went to find the grave marker in the cemetery next door next to the temple.

We had a few minutes to walk around and then. . .

We had to drop Daddy-o at the airport. He had been juggling phone calls from work for the past few days because the solar grid he'd set up at our remote lot wasn't working for some reason and they had to come up with workarounds using a generator at night and praying for sun every day to get them through until Daddy-o could get the parts to redo the whole system.

 We always knew that he might have to fly back if some emergency popped up at work, but we really didn't think that it would happen in the first week that we were gone, but he needed to get back so when the shops opened Tuesday morning, he could be there and see if he could rebuild a solar battery system in one day. Good thing he learned so much working on our van!

And so, Peanut and I were on our own for a few nights. We drove across the border into Iowa where we stayed at a campground in Waubonsie State Park. First night that we paid to sleep, but it was only $12--it barely counts. And I felt a little better staying somewhere with bathrooms and a few other people around. We're still so new at this, we're learning what feels doable and safe.

 

Roadtripping the UK, Day 1

When I visited Scotland in 1999, I saw the North Sea at a distance, but didn't get a chance to touch it, and I have a thing about touching bodies of water, so that was on my list of things to do this time.

So, Tuesday morning, Daddy-o and I picked up the rental car we would be traveling in for the next 3 days, went back to get the kids and all of our stuff from the apartment, and then we drove by the beach on our way out of town.

It took us a few minutes to find a place we could actually get down to the water,

but there was a lovely stretch of sand.

We walked for a few minutes, touched the North Sea (it wasn't as cold as I'd expected,)

And then it was time to get on the road.

The kids thought it was hilarious that I wasn't driving, even though they kept expecting it when they'd glance at me in the left seat. Daddy-o did really well--he'd driven when he was in Ireland in the fall, so we figured it made more sense to stick with him as our driver.

Lots of gorgeous green hills, stone walls, and sheep! It was a beautiful drive across the width of Scotland.

We made a short stop in Moffat, because we had a weird sound happening from the car and were worried about the brakes.

We walked around the town, looked at the church, and tried to kill time while we let the brakes cool down so we could figure out if we needed to take the car somewhere.

Bug had been missing his afternoon couch naps, but found a slightly less comfortable option while we were there. 

I tracked down a jackdaw--these were everywhere in the UK, but are a new bird for me, so fun to see.

And then, when we went back to the car to try it, everything sounded fine. We aren't sure if something had gotten stuck in the wheel well and then knocked out when we nudged the curb while parking, or the brakes really were struggling. But either way, we were fine from there on out, thank goodness!

And so, we made it to our main destination--a little village called Kirkcudbright (which is not pronounced how you would expect it to be at all--/kərˈkʉbri/

And to my ancestral castle!

My 13th great grandfather (the kids' 14th great grandfather), Thomas MacLellan built this castle in the 1580s. We had stopped in a genealogy office in Edinburgh and asked a few questions about the MacLellan/McClellan line, and there does seem to be a little confusion about a couple of the people in this line, but until I do more research into it, I'm just going with what I can find on Family Search, which says that we are descended from the original owners of this castle and the Provost of Kirkudbright. We don't follow the line of first sons, so it quickly wasn't the family home for my ancestors, and was sold off in the 1700s to a completely different clan, but still kind of cool to see.

It's currently fenced off, waiting for some repairs, so we could actually go into these ruins, but just had to look at it from the outside.

They had a couple games set up and these stocks.

And we stopped in the visitors' center which is one of the only places I've seen things to buy with the MacLellan tartan and name on them. It wasn't a really big clan, but in this area, it's known.

In the visitors' center, we were told about the church next door, where Thomas MacLellan is buried, so we were able to go in and see the monument for him.

It's not a big church compared to the cathedrals we've seen, but it has a stained glass window,

and a small alter, and then a few rows of pews on each side of an aisle. There were a few people there setting up fake flowers for a wedding that was happening later in the week--it felt very much like a small, old village.

It's a coastal town with this river that runs out to the ocean.

I'm glad we got to come here and see all of this. (This is the church).

Then, we drove along the coastal route, stumbled across this abbey,

where Mary of Scots once stayed. The caretaker really wanted us to come in for a tour, but we had other stops to make and were getting hungry, so luckily a couple other people came and took him up on the offer and we didn't feel so bad slipping away. He did send us off with a large rolled up copy of the Magna Carta, though, which Bug tried to keep nice for the rest of the trip until we finally gave up on bringing home.

Then, a quick stop at this lovely beach town, I think it was Kippford,

It was really low tide and we didn't have good shoes for walking in the mud all the way out.

It was cute, and very small. We felt like we were driving through farm land to get out here on very narrow roads.

And then we made it to Southerness, where we got some cheap seafood and ice cream.

After we ate, we walked out to the lighthouse.

Another low tide, very wide beach.

And then, we finished the drive to Cumbria where we were staying for the night.

I don't think I took any pictures of our actual Airbnb, but this was one of the best ones--well stocked, our only dryer so we were able to do a little laundry even though we were only there one night, and the beds were decent. 

And because of the late sunset, even though it was almost 9, we were able to drive out to see the last place I wanted to make it to for the day:

A section of Hadrian's Wall, a wall built by the Romans in 122 AD that stretched 75 miles from coast to coast as a defensive barrier.

They built these watch tower turrets every 1/3 mile.

(We didn't see the sign until farther down that asked us to not walk on the wall, and we stopped once we saw that. Guess we probably should have known it wasn't a good idea considering it's almost 2000 years old.)

It was an absolutely gorgeous evening and we walked about a mile of it.

Lots of sheep in the field nearby.

It was a perfect night for a walk--I wish we had longer!

But the sun was going down and the drive out there had involved some very narrow roads with huge hedges on both sides, so not a lot of room to pull over for oncoming vehicles, and not easy to see, even before it got dark.

Daddy-o ran back to get our car while the rest of us went a little farther.

This is another trail I'd love to come walk sometimes--I think the long trails in the UK are less intimidating because there isn't the same elevation gain that we'd have in CA.

So beautiful. We passed a fort (which was closed because it was almost 10 p.m. at this point.)

The kids wanted to make it to the mile castle just above the river, but we didn't quite get that far before we needed to come back.

What a great day of history!