Travel to St.Bees

Days 1 & 2 of the trip were spent traveling from Minneapolis to Northern England for the start of the trip. We took off from Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, had a 2 hour layover in Atlanta where, once we loaded the plane, we had an additional hour or more delay for a mechanical delay.  Once the plane was air-ready, we took off for the overnight flight to Manchester, UK.  After several bad movies, we curled up or stretched out for sleep but several crying babies in the plane made sleep nearly impossible. We cat-napped our way to Manchester. Once in England, we took 2 trains to St. Bees and stayed at a lovely B&B near the beach on the Irish Sea.  We walked around St. Bees and toured an ancient church where we listened to the pipe organ that was ancient and had 2000 pipes. We had Toad in a Hole dinner which is Yorkshire pudding with mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, local sausage and brown sauce (h&p) along with a local ale that was not memorable.  We went back to the B&B and fell promptly to sleep. Up at 6, we had a substantial breakfast (Kay tried Scottish kippers -eew) and hit the trail at 9.

Torrential rains overnight meant wet and mucky trails with washed out bridges, mud slides and high water everywhere. We met several groups and individuals along the way, some friendly, some not so friendly, and had dinner in Ennerdale with the friendly ones. We've agreed to meet in the morning to tackle day 2 of the walk. More later when we have Internet service (if) and will post picture when we figure out how to do that. Make up your own picture for the giant slugs we've seen on the path and 3 very wet Trekkers. No blisters so far and we'll let you know if we are unable to move tomorrow. 15 miles of 192 done.