The grand plan

I keep on eluding to a plan I have hatched out for this summer, something about a long walk. I thought it was about time I let you in on some of the details.

Hold on.......iPad has turned upside down on me again. Love the way it can change orientation just by turning the pad but sometimes it does this just because it wants to.

Ok, back in landscape view again.

Was that a mouse that I just saw whiz past me? Pretty sure it is Tony again. We keep on catching this mouse (actually finding him in the sink) and letting him go free, further and further away from our cabin but the clever rodent just keeps on finding his way home. He is so bloody cute so we named him Tony after my dad because of his big ears! Most likely there is a whole clan of tony's but I like to think there is only one.

So I am leaving work the end of this week and fly to the UK next Thursday. Hubby, Curt, doesn't have to leave work because he has been unemployed since November 09. Ivan, our son, isn't coming at all, because being fourteen, he would rather hang out at the malls with his friends (and to his credit - honor his commitment to his soccer team)

"no offense mum, but why would I want to walk across England with my mum and dad?"
"because my dear boy it is an adventure"

I feel sure he will regret this decision but better he learn by his own mistakes than force him to come, so we all have a miserable time. So he will be staying with friends for whom I am eternally grateful and with his cousins in California. Curt will return in five weeks but I have the whole summer to complete my goal (yes I have the most amazing, patient and understanding hubby in the world).

My goal is to walk from Lands End (furthest south west point in Britain) to John O'Groats (furthest north easterly point in Britain) - for short LEJOG - about 1200 miles as the crow flies. I want to walk the national trails, rather than roads but not sure if I can link them all together. Doubtful I will complete the entire route this summer so I may have to cheat between trails with public transport or return next year.

I am sure that the many reasons for this trip will enfold as I blog, but above all I am drawn to the simplicity of donning rucksack and just walking, because....I can. As I walk I will ponder the meaning of my life, or perhaps I won't think at all. I will observe the British way of life and their odd customs from an American "resident alien" perspective, absent from my mother country for the last 22 years. And I have this vision of arriving in John O'Groats a changed person (hopefully way nicer and much wiser) looking Forest Gumpish with a long grey beard.

I am trying to find a way to put a map of my route on this blog but don't hold your breath.



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Location:E Big Cottonwood Canyon Rd,Cottonwood,United States