26th July, Day off, and the dream team re-unite! – 11 miles

I spent the morning in Girard doing the usual sorting stuff of a laundry and blog updating and of course my big breakfast.  As this was the day after the football match I needed to give Christian time to get back down to where I was so this gave me the chance to have a much needed day off.  There was a cyclists only accomodation in a church 11 miles away so I headed for that after my productive morning.

I was there by about 2pm so had plenty of time to relax and for once, not spent the afternoon pedalling away.  The church was run by John and his wife Darla and they were both very nice.  I sat in the house with them for a bit and chatted over a cold drink, again I had to turn down the beer, but this didnt stop Darla from having a cheeky early afternoon drink!  They were moving house in a few days so it was a bit hectic.  Since they were putting me up for free I tried to repay the kindness and helped them move some boxes into the van for them and clear some rooms.  A few other people were there helping too.

One of them was a guy called Thad who was 85.  It turned out that the last time he was in England was in 1945, aged 19.  He arrived by boat into a city called Bristol; had I ever heard of it he asked? He was thrilled when I told him out thats where I was from! He said he remebered it raining lots but when the sun came out it was beautiful, it was also the first place he had a meat pie! It was my first time meeting an old war veteran who had been through D-Day and was still alive to tell the tale so I was very humbled and honoured to meet him.

John had said the fridge was full so to help myself to anything I wanted for dinner.  It was just as I was by the fridge that Christian entered.  This was a bit of a suprise as we had arranged to meet the next day but he got jealous of my cushty accomodation for the night so decided he didnt want to miss out.  It was great to re-unite and catch up on what we had both been up to the past few days. 

We cooked a big meal of beans, salad, garlic bread and sweetcorn and went to bed on the floor of the church hall that had AC which was a luxury!