So it's been awhile.... nearly 10 months without writing, and it seems like just yesterday I was signing off for a short vacation from it all. Life has continued on since then, with lots of adventures and fun things happening.  Don't worry though, I have no intention of trying to catch up on everything that has happened, unless it is somehow pertinent to something going on now. Except for photo's that is.
    There is a need for some background information before going forward however. I took my old trailer, Esmerelda, west to Nebraska last July and August. After spending more than a month camped out near the town of Chadron, enjoying visits from some of my family and my girlfriend Rima, I drove her back to my sisters place in Imperial and signed over the title to her and her husband for a dollar. ( Funny, but I don't actually remember receiving that buck).
   From there I continued on to Denver for a couple of weeks and then hightailed it back to Rima's place in Floyd Virginia after that. I had actually purchased a new (used) trailer back in late June, so it was waiting for me to get back with all of the stuff out of the old one. I started unpacking boxes a little bit at a time and getting stuff put where I thought it would eventually end up living. Along the way I also installed magazine racks and other storage unit thingy's to not only help separate things out, but to also help keep everything from shifting around while traveling.
    So the new trailer, already named Jessica, is 6 feet longer than the older one, taller on the inside and, I am sure, heavier to boot. The truck did an okay job bringing it back from N. Carolina where I bought it, but you could tell it was going to be more work for it. The question is would the truck be enough?
    Time passed and the days got shorter and colder in Virginia. I had decided to stay north longer this year as a kind of experiment to see how it would be. For the most part it was okay, but there were quite a few days where I just didn't want to be outside. It was either raining/snowing or too windy and cold. I stuck it out through the holidays and went to the week long contra dance in Morgantown W. Virginia with Rima like we usually do.
    One final week afterwards to finish up stuff that was still hanging out there, but it finally came time to take off and head south. I  left Rima's place early Monday morning with the new trailer in tow. It was hard to say goodbye to her, but it will only be a couple of weeks before she flies down to Florida and meets up with me.
    I headed south down through the Carolina's yesterday and ended up pulling into a rest area in Georgia for the night. The first night in the trailer and it wasn't maybe as exciting as it should of been. For one thing..... it was still cold. Down below freezing as it turned out. But I had plenty of bedding with me, so I slept okay considering. Still it was nice to get dressed this morning and jump into what was soon, a nice warm truck.
    Pretty easy driving over all. The trailer actually pulls really well. I installed two anti-sway bars on it, one to each side of the trailer tongue. So it followed the truck like a little duck behind it's mother. It also has a set of load levelers that help balance out the total load and helps keep the front of the truck from pointing up to much. That being said; it is definitely heavier and it takes more power to keep it at a steady 65 mph on the flatter parts of the highway. As a result it also takes a lot more gas. Hard to tell what it will average out to as the change in elevation will take some time for the engine to readjust. But I would guess that 8-9 mpg is going to be about it. Thankfully gas is cheap at the moment, but I may have to rethink things again in a few months.
    But right now the trailer is set up in Kelly Park, a county park near the town of Apopka, Florida. It took a little longer to set up everything since this is the first time I have had to do that. It was a pleasant surprise however to find that most everything works, as some of the items I just had to take on faith when I bought it. It looks like the water system works so far, including the water heater, toilet and shower. I can hardly wait to try the shower out as it was one of the big reasons for getting a larger trailer. I also checked out the stove, gas heater and the air conditioner. They also seem to work just fine.
    There are a couple of lights that don't work, but I think that is just a matter of bulbs and I'll check them out tomorrow. The micro-wave doesn't work either, but I had been told about that, and I am hoping it is nothing more than a burnt out fuse. I'll check that out in the net day or two also.
   In the meantime I'm headed over to do some grocery shopping since there is nothing in the fridge at the moment. I'll try and post as much as possible over the next few days, but I won't guarantee a post everyday.
   In the meantime; here are a few photo's from last summer when Rima and I went to England. There will be lot's of them so enjoy.

 Contra Dance Week in Ely England - April 7 to 16 - Part I

   Our first day in England. We had left Roanoke at 4:20 a.m. on the 6th of April and arrived at London's Heathrow airport around 9:00 a.m. the next morning. It didn't seem like that long of a flight, but that may of just been the excitement of going somewhere.
    We found our luggage and checked through customs without too much of a problem. We found the entrance to the London Underground and after changing some money, booked passage into Kings Crossing Station where we changed trains for Ely.
    We got to the station with just enough time to buy new tickets and make our way to the departure gate of the train, so there was only a few moments to notice the hustle and bustle of downtown London and to notice the sign for track 9 3/4 to Hogwarts. (We didn't try to make our way through the brick wall however).
   A little less than an hour of high speed travel on their wonderful train system brought us to Ely where we disembarked. We wandered up the hill from there depending on directions that our host, Gwyn, had sent so we could find his mothers house. Only a few minor wrong turns brought us to this little park where we decided to stop for a few moments and look at the sights. Little did we know we were looking at many of the buildings that we would come to know during the next week.There are a lot of photo's to post, but these should get us started with more to follow in the next few days.

Note: It has now been several months since I took these pictures and certain place names and faces have now become blurred along with my recollection of some of the history. I will therefor apologize now for any mistakes that I may make along the way. Feel free to correct anything that may be wrong.

 A small park where we stopped to look around. In this shot we are looking towards the Ely Cathedral. Little did we realize we were right where we would be spending much of the next week. 

It was neat to see that they still had telephone booths scattered about the town.

What I thought was just a neat looking building turned out to be one of the school buildings where the band and a few others would be housed for the week.

More buildings that I just mistook for neat old English houses turned out to be school dormitories that some of the dancers would be staying in.

A closer view.

The inside view of the main gate into the interior of the school grounds. This portico once protected the inside of some of the church grounds. Now it is the main passageway down to the local river and other portions of the town. The rooms above, which were once part of the court and jail, complete with it's own ghost, are now used to house the school library and some of the school administrators.

A look at the building where Rima and I and several others were housed. It was the oldest building in the school at more than 1200 years old, or was that just 800?.... No matter, it was damn old. It was built as part of the monastery that was located here.

We originally picked this room to be ours, but then found out that it also functioned as a fire escape route, as well as the path for the live in house manager, who was still on site, even though all of the students were off for their spring holiday, to go to his room. I did however like all of the old post and beam construction that had been exposed.

We finally ended up in another room and this was the view out of our window there. This was the private chapel of 'someone', I don't remember who.

Beautiful stonework everywhere you looked.

Walking down the main street that split most of the buildings belonging to the school. On the right is the wall/side of the building Rima and I stayed in. On the left are other school buildings. Here we see Rima and Gwyn headed over to check out where the dance is going to be held.

And here it is. Through the doors there is the main dance floor which also doubles as a basketball court and stage for plays and such. In the glassed in Atria, Gwyn set up the after dance snacks, while to the right, out of the picture was a whole nother room dedicated to music.

brk*