The day didn't start off real well. Pete thought he was so organised too! He'd picked himself a 'Pommy' taxi driver from the group of taxis parked at Warwick University on Monday. All was arranged for us to be picked up at 9.00am and taken to Thrifty Car Rental, who had recently moved their office from the city of Coventry, out to the Coventry Airport. I will never know whether Peter actually told the guy it was Coventry or whether the taxi driver assumed it was Birmingham! But we went to Birmingham Airport and then he had to take us back to Coventry! When he finally got us to where we needed to be, he said "I don't know what to charge you now". We agreed on 40 pound! Good start to the day! What we did learn on the journey was that he owns his taxi, it is 8 years old, has done 600,000 miles and has two engines. He works it from 9.00am until 4 in the afternoon and he has a night driver who works from 6.30pm until 7.00am. Perhaps we should have talked more about where we really needed to be going!

No wonder the taxi driver hadn't considered it would be Coventry Airport. There was nothing much there. This airport is only used by light aircraft. I started to type this blog as I waited out the front of Thrifty with the suitcases. Next thing Peter came out and said "They need a copy of our bank statement before they will put 300 pound on the credit card". Fortunately the girl was only three steps behind him to say she was new and she had made a mistake! She only needs his drivers licence. All was eventually sorted and the young lass Hollie, spelt that way because she was born two days before Christmas, ended up wanting to come travelling with us. We told her we had a granddaughter Holly and she was envious that our Holly has a 'Y'.

Finally we were on the road in our upgraded black Jaguar car and it was nearly 11.00am. Hollie had showed us how to operate the Sat Nav and the postcode for Barbara Laughton's home in Merton, Devon was entered. I was impressed that Peter agreed that we would leave the highway and go into Stratford-upon-Avon. It is such a pretty town and of course full of tourists, as it is the birthplace of Shakespeare and this was where he did his schooling. I have researched and found that the quote 'To be or not to be' was from the play 'Hamlet'. That goes with the trip to Prague and our tour guide referring to a 'comfort stop' as Shakespeare. We purchased a ham sandwich for 5 quid each and it cost us 5 quid for a parking for a hour. It was a quick walk around and then definitely time to hit the road!

The Sat Nav said we wouldn't get to Barbara's until 4.10pm but once we got onto the motorway the time came back by half an hour. Pete said he was doing 80 mph and cars were still whizzing past him. Then our very courteous woman who was giving us directions, told us to leave the motorway when we were somewhere around Exeter. From what Nick, Barbara and Tracey Laughton have been able to work out, from the little information we have been able to give them, it seems we took the shortest route to get to Merton. And that meant we took the unnamed lanes of Devon. We saw some beautiful farming country and beautiful scenery, but boy did we travel some narrow roads. At one stage we decided to stay on a road that had a white line down the middle, but then she took us off it and we noted the time to reach our destination had increased. So Pete just kept driving where she told us to go. I rang Nick when we were 13 minutes from our destination and he had no idea where we were! When we were 3 minutes away, we had convinced ourselves we were going to turn up at a farm house. But when our lovely lady told us we had reached our destination, there were a few houses around and a service station on our right. Peter pulled over so we could decide where we would go next.

Then across the street a familiar face could be seen. Barbara had walked down the street to wait on the corner in case we came along. A little toot caught her attention! I need blog no more! She says "She has been waiting a long time for this visit"! Barbara had cooked a lovely roast pork and chicken dinner, with vegetables. We left the guys with the dishes and went to Petrockstowe to a ladies house warming evening. It was very nice. The lady Anne lost her husband not quite 12 months ago. She and her husband had been living on the family dairy farm, which just happens to be alongside the farm that John Batten first worked on at the age of 14. We are going to visit that area of Devon next week. Anne lost her husband some months ago and now her son and daughter-inlaw have moved into the doomsday renovated farm house, and Anne has purchased a lovely bungalow in the village of Petrockstowe. Many of the ladies present are in a group that raises funds to maintain the church and village hall. Last year they raised 7,000 pounds. They have a get together or function every month. So a little like CWA and all these little villages do need groups like this.

When we got home at 9.45pm there were no guys! We knew that they were going to go down the street to the pub. So we put on our coats and walked down and had a drink with them. It was close to 11.00pm when we came back up the street and yes, Pete had had his pub fix with Nick. A long day, but a great day and nice to be in Devon.