After the last blog I took a nap and was woke by Leigh coming in to see how I was doing. We talked for a short bit and then Leigh went off to get some food and I followed shortly thereafter. They had just closed down the cafe to start making dinner, so after a 20 minute wait we sat down for “Shepherdess Pie” which is like Shepherd’s Pie but vegetarian with lentils instead of meat. It was served with stewed shredded spinach and cabbage and pineapple upside-down cake with custard on it for dessert (they put a light liquid-y custard on some of their cake-y desserts). Mmmm. I am getting more and more accustomed to eating whatever is put in front of me.
That evening we sat around in the big tent doing different types of things. Miark taught me how to pass juggling balls (I can do 5 semi-consistantly and 6 sometimes). He also showed me some random three-ball juggling tricks. Later I played a few games of “Speed” which is a mixture of American “Speed” (in that you play fast on two piles of cards and have to play all of your cards to win) and “Set” (in that the cards have different combinations and colors of symbols). Then Ali (one of the women there) invited me and Miark to play Rummikub with her and another guy named John. It was fun, although it was hard because it was a travel set so the tiles were really small and because we were playing by the sole light of two candles it was hard to tell what colors the tiles were, much less actually win. John has a piece of string so we played “Cat’s Cradle” and he showed me a few string tricks I had never seen before. After the third game of Rummikub I went to bed because it was 2am, although due to my afternoon nap I wasn’t really all that tired. I slept better than I had the last couple nights because it wasn’t as freezing cold as it had been, and because Leigh’s friend, who had occupied the sleeping bag next to me, was out all night, so I got twice as much space. I didn’t get to eat breakfast because the rain clouds were rolling in and so I spent the morning packing and preparing to leave.
At about 1pm we finally left down the road to Bristol to go to a traditional English Sunday pub lunch.
We ate buffet style carved beef, different cooked vegetables, boiled and seasoned potatoes, gravy, and of course, Yorkshire pudding. Then we relaxed and digested in the pub for a bit. Since Miark was making fun of my accent anyway, I took the opportunity to try to teach him and the others to say “banana” the West Coast American way. It was not entirely successful. and now we’re on the road again back to Stockton. We’ve got an extra passenger “Tall Paul” (you can guess why he’s called that) who is traveling back with us (Miark lives with him) while his wife takes their 8 month-old child to visit some relatives. Everything’s pretty quiet now, Roger is driving, Tall Paul and Miark are sitting silentlu, and Leigh is sitting next to me reading “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” and listening to music on her mp3 player with headphones (although it’s loud enough that I can hear the music anyway). And of course, BBC Radio 4 is running in the background.
Hope Helps 
You may be going to talk more about this later, but I'm curious what you thought about what you saw on your drive to and from Bristol. I know Thursday it was probably mostly in the dark. And Sunday it may have been raining. But you traveled about 240 miles (per mapquest)–was it all mostly rolling hills? Green from all the rain? Were you mostly on a highway or did you go through some small towns? Did you see any castles off in the distance? Could you see Wales in the distance when you were in the Bristol area? Was the accent different in the Bristol area than up in Stockton?Also, were you working at the convention? Did Roger have a Unicycle.com table set up? Or did you all just go to participate and enjoy?
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So, wait, you can send email while traveling in the car?
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Hehehe…Your mom reads your posts and comes up with a myriad of interesting, insightful questions that proves she was paying attention.Nathan reads your posts and asks… "So, wait, you can send email while traveling in the car?" Lol. Of course, I have to admit, Nathan… that's the same thing I was wondering. XDLove ya, Hope, keep 'em coming!
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Uh, I wasn't going to talk about it later, so I can answer a few questions. It was mostly green rolling hills, although we passed our share of civilization as well. We were completely on major roadways, so no small roads or towns. I did get a chance to see Wales, we could look over and see it from the convention grounds in Bristol. The accent in Bristol is different than Stockton, although the accents vary by village, much less city. You can go to a Tesco and hear different accents in every aisle, it is SO diverse. We did not work, Roger laughed when he saw that. He doesn't like to sell in person, he just tells everyone to get online and buy it. So no tables and no working, although I DID sell a hoodie to someone (verbally) while I was there. And I knew the price off the top of my head! pats on backNathan: I write the blogs in the notebook that Erin gave me first, then I post them and change the post date and time to when I originally wrote them. so I'm cheating a little, but this way you don't have the confusing "I wrote this the day before yesterday" thing. It feels more personal.Erin: Lol 😉
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So…..do you still dislike camping? I also wondered how you were blogging inside a tent and in the car but now the mystery is solved–a notebook computer. You are just there to promote the website? Whadda do–just hand out the website address?
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Yes, I still dislike camping.No, the business wasn't technically there, we all came to juggle and socialize. We did however wear our unicycle.com gear almost constantly. It's a pretty easy website to remember and a ton of the people there had heard of it already, so it's just as much a reminder as it is new promotional material. It works out.
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squeesHope's using my notebook! 🙂
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