Manchester

Rain, did I mention it rains in England?

Did I mention there are three cycles to the day?
No rain....raining.....going to rain.

We last left off at Prudhoe and our wonderful host Sue Charlesworth.

What a wonderful bunch of people. In fact we have been treated so
good by everyone and we can never say thank you enough.

We visited the "Deep" a "sub" aquarium that gives you a eye to eye view of marine life and its beauty.

If you get the chance to go to a subaquarium, go and see this amazing world of beauty.

That night we camped at the Raywell Scout Acitivty Center.

I hate to admit this but I'm beginning to forget the many names of our lodgings are as we spending so little time in them.


They have all been good with the most important things being the showers and beds. You'd be surprised how much a hot shower and a bed can give you the energy we need to carry on, but still, the reality of this long tour is beginning to take it's toll.

Lack of sleep is a constant, and as a result everything becomes a blur. N We go too bed late, get up early,, throw down some breakfast (usually some cereal) load the bus, get on and then most of us go back to sleep while going from one gig to another.

Charles did send everyone an email tilted: "Can I talk you out of going"?
He talked about how hard trip like this is and he was right. It's one of those things that brings out the truth in "when the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Here a a few more photos for you to enjoy:

























































We passed up on touring the Leeds Armor (time is either your friend or not) and today, it was not our friend.

On this tour the old, "hurry up and wait" adage has it't truth, as we hurry up there is always the wait part usually due to traffic,
weather, or some other time-consuming obstacle placed in our path.

As a result we seem to always be a step or two behind the plan.

The Davyhulme Scout Hut was our next point of hibernation.

Bob Spoora was our host and we greatly appreciate him, his staff and all their help.

We just can't say enough about how wonderful everyone has been to us.

We're deeply appreciative of their kindness and consideration.

The Imperial War Museum was on our schedule today and if only more people would visit places like that, see the horror and trauma of war, maybe we could learn from history and stop repeating the cycle of madness.

It's a magnificent museum with many things to see, absorb, reflect on and gain an awareness of the insanity of war.

Our performance tonight was at a Maoonic Hall. This was especially meaningful to Mac, Tim and I as we are all three Masons. The crowd was great and for the second night we got to see, hear and enjoy the 3rd Davyhulme Scoutg and Guide Band of Manchester.

I've downloaded abut 700 photos from the last few days and picking just a few to upload is difficult.

Again I have ben blessed with a Scouter who has Internet access enabling to make my rather limited posts.

My host just went to bed (it's 2:55 AM) so I'm going to stop this feeble attempt of writng, try to upload some photos and hope for some sleep before we have to get up this morning, way too early.

Tomorrow we head to Gloucester and I'm really looking forward to it.

If I rememberw right, two young English scouts (Timothy and Simon) who stayed with my Judy and I, when we lived in Weatherford, Texas will be at our performance.

Their uncle David and other members of their family (including their parents) will also be there. It's been at least five years and I have a feeling they've grown.

Remember if you'd like to have the Kwahadi Dancers come your way, contact Charles Ritchie at Kwahadi.com.

Now off to bed - at least for a short while.

John Madden

PS: The internet connections we have been able to make are extremely slow, so a lot
of the photos I wanted to post never made it. Sleep thrumped photos.