Back to Wales

     Yes, I made my third trip over to Wales yesterday (Tuesday), and so far, each time I have traveled there, the weather has been absolutely beautiful.  However, this time, I could not keep my eyes open on the train trip.  I was so tired that I almost missed one of my train stops to transfer to another train.  Holy shit, that would have been disasterous!!!  I must take three different trains up to Chester, England, then have one of the staff members from the residential place pick me up at the station.  The drive from the train station to the facility is about one hour.

     When standing on the platforms waiting for my next train to arrive, I commonly see other trains whiz by on their "express" schedules and the energy from those trains makes my heart pump faster and faster.  I love to watch them speed by!!!  I can see them coming (and the loud speaker informs us that they are coming) and I listen to the rumble getting louder and louder.  By the time they reach the station platforms, it is so loud that you cannot even hear the person stading next to you.  As soon as the first coach passes, the wind whips up into a frenzy and the windows of the coaches flicker like watching an old-time black & white movie.  I try to pick out a word or two on the side of the coaches, which I now have become very good at doing.  I can easily recognize the various train companies since my travels have covered the entire southern UK (except for over by Bristol & Bath).  I have traveled on First Great Western, Virgin, CrossCountry, London Midlands, Southwest Rail Service, Northern Rail Service, and others.  Those are the main ones anyways.

     The horns on the trains do not sound like the ones back in Pennsylvania.  Those are loud whistles; where over here, they are lower tones instead of horns.  Don't get me wrong, these horns are extremely loud, but they just sound very different.  When I first walked under the train tressel near my work, I heard this long-sounding tone and wondered what it was.  Then a train passed overhead, and I figured it was the train horn.  I was right.  Now I am so familiar with this sound that I sometimes even miss hearing it in a distance.  I have noticed that the sheep, cows and horses along the train tracks do not miss these train horns!!!

   While I was up in Wales yesterday, this young man and I went for a short walk so I could talk to him alone.  He took me over to the farm next to their facility and I got to run around with the sheep and lambs.  hat was so much fun.  The little lams were playing, while the mama sheep were watching and protecting their babies.  I know I certianly can not out-run a sheep, so we stayed close to the fence.  For those of you who remember my goat experience in Uganda, I learned my lesson then not to mess with the little ones too much or the larger ones will "kick your butt."  Literally!!!!  I got to walk along this nature trail in Wales through the tress and along a river.  I wanted to stay there but I had to do my job and get back.  This young man is doing so well and I just enjoy visiting him every six weeks (statutory time limit).  This is one of my easier and more positive cases.

     When we were driving back to the train station to Chester, we saw this HUGE plane coming in for a landing near to Chester.  The man who was driving said that this plane shuttles airplane wings which are manufactured in/near Chester to other parts of Europe and across the Atlantic.  He informed me that the place in Chester builds the wings for the large airbuses, where they have to place them on barges and move them that way since they are too large to transport by air.

     I got back on the train and settled in for the ride home.  Once again, I could not keep my eyes open and I fell asleep.  Falling asleep on a train is very similar to falling asleep on an airplane.  It's not very comfortable and you are stiff as a board when you try to get up and move.  I finally reached Reading at 8:00pm.  Once again, a 12-hour workday, which wasn't too bad.  As a matter of fact, it was pretty nice.  I now have 5 days of overtime I MUST take off, so I think I will take it in mid-June.  Maybe I will finally visit Bristol and Bath then -- or maybe not.  Maybe I will just relax at home and take short trips to places around Reading.  At least I can get some sleep then.  Which is what I need to do now folks.  It's almost 10:00pm and I still have two days of work to go.  I hope someday you will be able to go to Wales.  It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL country!!!