So here I am again – in a place I’ve never been, intending
to walk to another place I’ve never been, by a route I’ve never followed. Add
to that a world-wide audience expecting me to write something interesting and entertaining.
Oh, the pressure. Fortunately, today’s walk was filled with interesting and
entertaining experiences. Whether I can translate any of it in a way that
will satisfy the expectations of my readers is quite another thing. But here
goes.
In all my previous blogs, I've concentrated on the
people I met on the trail – because, for me, the people make these walks
special. Nonetheless, I vowed not to write about the people this time, because
my inability to convey my excitement from meeting other walkers is a major
deficiency. But, WOW! Did I meet some interesting people today!! I’m going to
keep my vow, and not write about them, but I’m going to add their pictures
to the end of this posting. That’s the least I can do for so many who made
today so special for me.
Instead, I’m going to write about a few interesting things
that occurred on the trail. The first is the Money Tree. Actually it’s now a
log, but it was once a tree. It’s said that money doesn’t grow on trees, but folks
here have hammered in thousands – maybe millions – of coins into this tree, so
money might as well have grown on it. Admittedly, it was worth a lot more before
the Brexit vote, but it still holds enough currency to retire the national debts
of both the UK and the US. I thought about taking the tree with me, but I’m
having Sherpa Van transfer my bag each day, and they won’t ship money.
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| Money Tree |
What motivates people to hammer money into a tree? Perhaps low
interest rates paid by banks makes trees more desirable. Perhaps trees are more
solid than banks. Wood you place your money in a tree? I’ve always been a lukewarm
environmentalist, but now I’m a tree-hugger.
At one location on the footpath, the way was blocked by
cattle. I wasn’t sure what to do, because there was absolutely no way around.
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| Cattle Obstruction |
I decided to approach the problem the same way the three
smartest people in the world would. Without question, the smartest person in
the world is Marie Pucel, the number one commenter to my blog. She would turn
around and run – which didn’t seem like a bad idea – but then she would blame
poor Andrew for having gotten her into that situation. That would be OK with me,
but unfortunately, Andrew wasn’t with me, so I couldn’t use Marie’s solution.
Donald Trump would threaten to build another hotel with a
super-sized steakhouse if the cattle wouldn’t let him pass That might get rid
of the cattle long-term, but I thought the threat may anger them short-term. The
last thing I wanted was angry cattle, so I rejected Donald’s solution.
Hillary Clinton would promise the cattle that she would
disarm all the cowboys and provide free education and health care for all of
the cattle’s descendants. But this is England, and there aren’t any cowboys to
be disarmed. Furthermore, these were steer (I think the English term is
bullocks), so there aren’t going to be any descendants. Even if Hillary were
to sweeten the deal by allowing the steer to inter-marry, her solution would be
unworkable.
Finally, I decided to slowly extend my hand and let one of the
steer sniff it. While speaking in a gentle voice I quietly and slowly passed
him. He stayed calm, apparently comforting the other cattle, so
they didn’t stampede or kick or do any other nasty things that cattle frequently do. I may not be very smart
(after all, a smart person would not have done what I did), but I know a thing or two that
Donald and Hillary don’t. And that’s all I’m going to say about politics.
But just for good measure, I said a word of thanks as I
passed Bolton Priory.
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| Bolton Priory |
Here’s a gallery of the folks that made today special:
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| Ned, Sue and Brian |
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| Liz and Claire |
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| Phil, Mary, Koti, and Richard |
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| Steve and Jacqui |
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| John, Jet and Jenny |
