Saturday June 27th and Sunday June 28th
Our journey began in a way that would seem quite usual for the Twenty First Century: Everyone coming from every direction.
Out of nine of us, only three of us (Allen Rice, Deedee Rice, and Gavin Hart) left together at 10:25 a.m. from the Oklahoma City airport. We were joined in the Houston airport by Jerry Beasley who ran up and was at the end of the line to board the flight to New Jersey. So four of the nine of us were finally together.
The Bad News: While Deedee was running to catch the New Jersey flight, she re-injured her leg. The day before, she went to the emergency room and had her leg scanned to see if it was a blood clot (General Rule: It is not a good idea to carry around a blood clot if you are about to go on a flight lasting seven hours.) The medical professionals determined she did not have a blood clot, but they never told what she DID have, other than excruciating pain. So running to get a Coke fix (yes and I do mean CocaCola), was not the best idea in physical therapy Deedee ever had.
Still, we landed in New Jersey without incident, and thanks to Deedee’s bum leg, we got to zoom along in one of those trams across the long expanse of airport hallways. WHEE! On another note, Allen decided NOT to slice open the top of his head on a sharp piece of jagged metal like he did here in March. I am not sure why he declined this time – the last time was so much fun. WHEE!
The New Jersey flight to Bristol was perhaps the most turbulent we have ever seen. Jerry said it was like a ride at Six Flags. At the craziest, most gut-jerking moment, Allen cackled in glee, raised his right arm like a bronco buster and souted out : “YeeHaw, Ride’em Cowboy!” To a lady named Kim from Wales who was sitting on the same row, this seemed an unusual gesture.
Once in Bristol, we met with three other members of the group (Brian Booker, Shannon Richardson, and Nikki Clark) who had arrived by train from London after touring Edinburgh, Scotland. At that moment, Jordan Deah Rice strolled up and joined the group, having arrived at the Bristol station on a separate train by way of London, Romania, the Ukraine, Russia, and Moldovia (where she had narrowly avoided tragedy when she was apprehended by some corrupt and libidinous Moldovial policemen -- don’t ask).
Finally eight of the crew were together with the ninth, Dustin Loehrs, scheduled to arrive in two more days, on Tuesday afternoon. The Exhausted Eight explored the towering, mystical ruins of Tintern Abbey, and 12th-Century Welsh monastery (pictured upper right), and then toured the grand edifice of Caerphilly Castle, a broad-shouldered monument of grayish brown stones which looks like Tolkien dwarves carved millennia ago within a triple circle of moats and lakes.
We checked into the Etap Hotel in Cardiff City Centre and walked to a nearby Welsh pub called “The Cottage’ where we sampled the simple fare such as Welsh Crawl (a lamb stew) Welsh rarebit (which, sadly, was soggy and bland) and some excellent meat dishes. We topped it all off by sharing a granny caramel apple pie smothered in custard.
Better than sharing our delicacies was when we shared our hearts. Each of us answered three spiritual questions which required courage and transparency: 1) What, if any, was your religious upbringing,
2) What has God been teaching you in the last few years, and 3) what inspired you to come on this Welsh journey? There were tears, and sweetness, and bonding.
Then we returned to the Etap, exhausted, but at Peace. What a rich, deep way for strangers to begin a journey together. This level of openness and depth is very unusual for the Twenty First Century!
Allen
Our journey began in a way that would seem quite usual for the Twenty First Century: Everyone coming from every direction.
Out of nine of us, only three of us (Allen Rice, Deedee Rice, and Gavin Hart) left together at 10:25 a.m. from the Oklahoma City airport. We were joined in the Houston airport by Jerry Beasley who ran up and was at the end of the line to board the flight to New Jersey. So four of the nine of us were finally together.
The Bad News: While Deedee was running to catch the New Jersey flight, she re-injured her leg. The day before, she went to the emergency room and had her leg scanned to see if it was a blood clot (General Rule: It is not a good idea to carry around a blood clot if you are about to go on a flight lasting seven hours.) The medical professionals determined she did not have a blood clot, but they never told what she DID have, other than excruciating pain. So running to get a Coke fix (yes and I do mean CocaCola), was not the best idea in physical therapy Deedee ever had.
Still, we landed in New Jersey without incident, and thanks to Deedee’s bum leg, we got to zoom along in one of those trams across the long expanse of airport hallways. WHEE! On another note, Allen decided NOT to slice open the top of his head on a sharp piece of jagged metal like he did here in March. I am not sure why he declined this time – the last time was so much fun. WHEE!
The New Jersey flight to Bristol was perhaps the most turbulent we have ever seen. Jerry said it was like a ride at Six Flags. At the craziest, most gut-jerking moment, Allen cackled in glee, raised his right arm like a bronco buster and souted out : “YeeHaw, Ride’em Cowboy!” To a lady named Kim from Wales who was sitting on the same row, this seemed an unusual gesture.
Once in Bristol, we met with three other members of the group (Brian Booker, Shannon Richardson, and Nikki Clark) who had arrived by train from London after touring Edinburgh, Scotland. At that moment, Jordan Deah Rice strolled up and joined the group, having arrived at the Bristol station on a separate train by way of London, Romania, the Ukraine, Russia, and Moldovia (where she had narrowly avoided tragedy when she was apprehended by some corrupt and libidinous Moldovial policemen -- don’t ask).
Finally eight of the crew were together with the ninth, Dustin Loehrs, scheduled to arrive in two more days, on Tuesday afternoon. The Exhausted Eight explored the towering, mystical ruins of Tintern Abbey, and 12th-Century Welsh monastery (pictured upper right), and then toured the grand edifice of Caerphilly Castle, a broad-shouldered monument of grayish brown stones which looks like Tolkien dwarves carved millennia ago within a triple circle of moats and lakes.
We checked into the Etap Hotel in Cardiff City Centre and walked to a nearby Welsh pub called “The Cottage’ where we sampled the simple fare such as Welsh Crawl (a lamb stew) Welsh rarebit (which, sadly, was soggy and bland) and some excellent meat dishes. We topped it all off by sharing a granny caramel apple pie smothered in custard.
Better than sharing our delicacies was when we shared our hearts. Each of us answered three spiritual questions which required courage and transparency: 1) What, if any, was your religious upbringing,
2) What has God been teaching you in the last few years, and 3) what inspired you to come on this Welsh journey? There were tears, and sweetness, and bonding.
Then we returned to the Etap, exhausted, but at Peace. What a rich, deep way for strangers to begin a journey together. This level of openness and depth is very unusual for the Twenty First Century!
Allen
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