The Billings Family: The Lake District (Day 1)

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Keswick, Day 1

This morning we quickly ate breakfast at the B&B, packed up our bags and headed out the door for Keswick, England. I think if we knew the adventure that laid ahead of us we would not have been so eager to leave town. After leaving Edinburgh, we started driving down the country roads. These roads have curbs that make the narrowness of the roads even more define. I am used to wide shoulders on our roads that are forgiving for drivers who can’t stay within the lines. It seems like we were passing other cars with only inches to spare. Along the side of the road are drainage grates, which sit on the road. About an hour into the drive we hit a broken grate that was half sticking up in the air. It made a loud bump but we just kept driving. Three minutes later Tim felt the rattle of a flat tire. We pulled over on the shoulder that was designated for parking. The back passenger tire was flat. Tim started taking the tire off while I walked 15 yards back down the road to ask these Scotsmen (who were cutting down limbs along the road) where the nearest garage was. They had very thick accents; so I think I got about 50% of the directions. As I came back Tim realized one of the lug nuts was a different shape. While we were trying to solve the puzzle of how to take off the nut the two guys drove up to ask if we needed help. They showed us the lug wrench stored in the glove compartment that fit the nut. They gladly finished the job for us. We got headed down the road and stopped at the first auto repair shop we could find. They did not have the tires that would fit on our car so they directed us to the nearest BP station. On our way, we veered off onto another road and turned into the right lane. Fifty yards ahead we saw and other car heading straight towards us. We started to do the Home Alone scream with our mouths wide open, chins dropped to the floor, and hands plastered to our cheeks, before we realized we were in the wrong and could easily correct the problem by turning into the left or “right” lane. I know the guy mumbled something about a “crazy yank” under his breath. We pulled up to see cars jam packed at the filling station and sitting out in the middle of the road to turn in. The auto repair guy had to direct the cars for Tim to pull in the garage. After an hour and about $260 American dollars later we were on our way to Keswick. If we ever asked for an adventure we sure got one…one that is too expensive for my taste, not to mention my wallet. It looks like we will end up paying our $900 deductable as the frame was bent and paint got scratched off just in front of the back tire.

The drive on the interstate was much better. We stopped to fill up an 1/8 of a tank with diesel and spend about $32 American dollars. Wow, I thought we had it bad. I will never complain about gas again. However, the car calculated 38 miles to the gallon. We got to our next B&B around two. The Innkeeper was not there but she left us the key. Oh yeah, I need to mention that our bathroom smell like the innkeeper is growing mushrooms behind the walls. I know this house would not pass a mold inspection. We put our bags up and made a drive to grocery store. We thought we could save money by buying peanut butter and jelly at the grocery store but ended up with highway robbery. We bought PB&J, bread, Pringles, cracker, and cheese for about $20 dollars. I’m pretty sure that cost about $8 in the US…so much for saving money. We went back to our room to eat and watch tv from only three channels. We became so bored from the Tele that we decided to walk to a park we saw earlier. We walked through the park and the village, then we stumbled on a lake with rolling hills beside it covered with sheep. We kept walking down more paths that lead us back towards the village. As we were window-shopping we realized that Keswick is the Manitou Springs, CO of England. There were so many outdoor and camping shops and pricey restaurants. We figured out that we are in the middle of a tourist trap. We managed to find a decent coffee shop where we ordered panini sandwiches. They had lot of games there so we pulled out scrabble and filled the entire board with no remaining letters. We moseyed on over to a pub that was showing the Italy vs. France Euro Cup 2008 game. It wasn’t much of a match but Italy won. After the game we headed back for a good nights rest.