06-26 Oakwood Amusement Park All to Ourselves

It seems we were very fortunate to have great weather for our unique aqueduct adventure yesterday because this morning we have RAIN once again.

Oakwood Amusement Park is out in the middle of nowhere in southwest Wales. How many times do I get to say "out in the middle of nowhere" during our trip? Another lightly attended park is expected because of the chance of rain in the forecast. Well it's raining so I don't expect many people to be here today.

We are arriving a few minutes after opening and we are the SECOND car in the parking lot. We should be able to get all our rides done in half a day with this kind of "crowd".

Here comes our ride to the back of the park where the rides are.

We are cold and wet and it is windy but we're ready to ride! Right? Right.

We head back to the newest coaster in the park - Speed No Limits - and we ride it 4 times in a row with barely enough riders to fill the 8 passenger train. There is the first drop in the background.

Great first drop and plenty of negative G's ("airtime out of your seat") on the hills. Easy coaster to re-ride and it was very smooth.

We met The Bounce ride operator and he asked us where we were from. He said, "We don't get many Americans here." He was from Oklahoma and his father was worked at the Tesoro Refinery so he got a job here 3 years ago.

MEGAPHOBIA - great name for a coaster! This was a wild and crazy wooden coaster that we rode a few times.

They even had an alpine slide made with stainless steel. We had previously ridden one of these in Vernon, British Columbia about 20 years ago. Back then it started to rain and they closed the ride because the ride gets extremely unstable and wobbly when the trough gets wet. It was raining today and even though they didn't close the ride it WAS still unstable and wobbly. So, we slowed down because tipping over on an alpine slide is no fun - personal experience!

The Spooky 3D Haunted House: It's a ride with four people to a car with 3-D glasses on. All the items in this haunted house type ride worked. Things popped up, popped down, they light up, and yes there was a truck coming at you with loud lights and a loud horn. I don't get why a train or big truck is always in these haunted houses.

We had lunch then rode a Brer Rabbit dark ride on our way out of the park at 1:30pm. There were now 50 cars in the parking lot. THAT'S a slow day in an amusement park.

Our drive to London was going to take 3 1/2 hours. We drove due east toward London, past Heathrow and smack into the middle of London. We went past Harrods, double decker red buses, black taxi cabs, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye. Our week in London had begun wonderfully.

Here is our London Flat for the week.

Another place with a view of the water!

06-25 Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

We're done with our Beatles exploration in Liverpool and we're heading for a canal aqueduct in Wales today, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

BUT FIRST...On our way out of town we went looking for a statue of Peter Pan in a park...and found it...near here.

But the area was closed and the security guy wouldn't let us in to "just take a picture of the Peter Pan statue". We were disappointed and plotted whether to wait 20 minutes or move on. A few moments later the guard said HE could take the picture for us. Brilliant!

Back on the road again and with the aqueduct programmed into the GPS in 90 minutes we found our mark.

We found lunch in the little town and then boarded our canal boat for the trip over the aqueduct.

The trip was along a narrow canal with views similar to those we encountered on OUR canal boat trip.

After 30 minutes we reached the actual aqueduct. Wide enough for only one direction at a time.

The canal was built by Thomas Telford in 1805 and at 126' above the River Dee and 1007' long it is the highest and longest aqueduct in Britain.

We crossed over slowly with spectacular views across the valley floor and back to the bridge that we were at only an hour ago.

When we reached the other side our boat turned around and then pulled over to let everyone out. We were bused the few miles back to the town and Karen and I shopped around the town for awhile.

We recovered our car and headed for the beginning of the aqueduct so we could walk over it and take better pictures.

It was a fun little adventure to find, see, ride on, and walk across this most unusual aqueduct.

We drove off and headed for the night's stay about 3 hours away passing the Atlantic Ocean on our right.

And just to confirm that we aren't in England anymore we saw this in a town in Wales. The name means "the little card shop by the bridge over the river Dee in Llangollen"

06-24 Beatlemania Day

We're still in Liverpool, the home of the Beatles and today we'll be exploring the homes of some of the Beatles and the city they lived in.

Karen and I grew up listening to Beatles music and most of you reading this can probably sing Hey Jude word for word (well, at least the "nah nah" parts) when you hear it on the radio. So, just like if we were in Mark Twain's hometown or Laura Ingalls Wilder's towns we thought we'd dig into the backgrounds of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, The Beatles.

Across from our hotel we met up with a tour bus going to John Lennon's house. We needed to be on this tour in order to be able to go inside both John's boyhood home and Paul McCartney's.

Here's a short version of how the Beatles came to know each other. John and Paul lived within a mile of each other but went to different high schools. They were introduced to each other in 1957 at a church get-together and Paul joined John's band. Paul had a small living room and John would come over and they would compose songs upstairs and practice in the basement.

Paul used to live 3 miles further out of town and he went to school with George Harrison at the Liverpool Institute during that time. Paul suggested that George join the band even though he was only 14 at the time. John, though reluctant, agreed to let him in.

Ringo Starr, also lived in Liverpool during this time but was a sickly boy and after being in a sanitarium for 2 years never went back to school. Eventually the 3 original Beatles along with their then-current drummer, Pete Best, went to Hamburg to do gigs. Ringo was in another band (Rory and the Hurricanes) at the time also playing in Hamburg and The Beatle's manager at the time felt that Ringo was a better drummer. So in 1962 he started playing full time for them and the rest is history.

Unfortunately there were no photos allowed inside either home. John's Aunt Mimi's home where he lived for about 13 years (its a duplex and they lived on the left side).

John's wife, Yoko Ono, is responsible for buying the house and having it restored to the way it was when John lived there. She wanted everyone to come see it.

Back into the van we went and drove the 1 mile to Paul's house. This was a government housing duplex that the McCartney's rented.

They had a small living room and John would come over and they would compose songs upstairs and practice in the basement.

Out back was a roof drain pipe that Paul would recall he would climb up to get back into the house after being locked out.

After a week on the canal boat it was laundry time again. I dropped Karen off in downtown Liverpool and I revisited the laundromat that was closing yesterday.

Since pictures and stories of the laundry make a rather boring blog we'll find out what Karen did while in town.

She went back to the Cavern Club and took pictures in the daylight and got to hear a guy singing Beatles songs downstairs.

Outside the Club was a Wall of Fame of all the bands that had played in the Cavern.

A bronze of John Lennon with the Wall of Fame behind him.

It wasn't until 1982 that the city of Liverpool started to embrass and promote Beatlemania. Since then a lot of jobs have been created catering to those who want to learn about the birth of the Beatles.

Karen and I continued to search the city for Beatle locations that came from some of the songs they wrote. On Penny Lane we found this awesome gate.

"In Penny Lane there is a barber..."

Strawberry Fields was actually a Salvation Army Children's Home that was almost in John's backyard.

"Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name..."

Across the street from the church and cemetery is a church building where John and Paul met with a plaque on the wall commemorating the meeting.

The home where Paul grew up in Speke and where he was friends with George.

The "home" of Ringo when he was growing up. There are about 3 streets in this neighborhood that are all boarded up like this.

By the time our day had came to an end we had a pretty good feel for how the boys grew up and met and where they lived. Four lads formed a band and became one of the biggest influences of music in the 1960's.