Manchester in Full Swing

Probably the busiest single few days in our trip as always is a visit to my birth city. This is partly because 2 of my long term friends, my favourite grammar school teacher and my school friend Chris with whom I hitch hiked to Rome when 18 years old. The busyness is enhanced by Julia being up here and because my sister decided a couple of years ago to move back to the area - the call of her childhood! Or maybe it was because she was offered a job here!

Anyway, the really good news is that after much searching online, I finally found a campsite near Warrington which is considerably closer to all the aforementioned, and this will make it much easier to negotiate all the meet ups.

Today, my friend Chris drove over to the campsite and we did our now traditional walk to a nearby pub - the Black Swan for lunch and then discovered a rather longer country footpath walk back. The pub wasn’t quite as good as the Bells of Peover where we had been going from our previous campsites but great to hang out and catch up. Photo of L and extra of Chris in front on the country walk. It was great to get together with Chris again but sad to hear of his difficulties with mental illness and a particularly traumatic time in March and April. We are hoping he will make the trip to see us in Fort Worth in October/November as I think it will help him to get away and have a break with people he knows. His brother has urged him to make the trip and it would be great to have him with us, and especially given he will be able to participate at Galileo, our church which is especially welcoming of LGBTQ folks.