We had a very leisurely start to the day as we only had a short drive to our first destination which opened at 10am. So we started some of the procedures with the Van that need to happen before we return it to the depot - dumping of grey water, dumping of waste, refilling drinking water etc - as we won't be using them again before we return it. We headed off to the Yorkshire Air Museum which was a Wartime Bomber base at Elvington and home to the 77th squadron. Michael led the way as we viewed predominantly Military planes which had been completely restored and most of which were now non-flying. There was a smattering of civilian and recreational aircraft amongst them along with the once flying (but no longer) Wright Flyer and the George Cayley Glider!
The one aircraft that Michael was most interested in though was the DH Mosquito as there are none in Australia and only recently did one fly in New Zealand. He reckons that even though it was nice to see it, he would have preferred it to by in the air flying. Most of these were planes were housed in a couple of massive hangers with a smattering out in the elements.
There were other displays of operational equipment - tractors, ambulances, fire engines, helicopters etc. There was also a Nissen Hut set up with displays depicting raids performed by Bomber Command including the Dam Buster Raids. A ready room displaying log books, licenses and official letters to the family of missing members.
We had a quick cuppa in the restaurant which was in fact a Mess Hall decorated with large scale model planes varying in age hanging from the roof.
We finished our visit to the Museum with a visit to the Gift Shop where Michael finally managed to buy himself a couple of birthday presents. Shopping complete, we headed back to the van in preparation for a longer drive than the last few days. We had a quick lunch at a roadside stop and refueled the gas in the van - yet another thing ticked off the check list for returning it! Lunch today was extremely naughty and not very nice but filled the spot. While we had stopped Michael had a massive panic whilst in the toilets. After washing his hands, he shook them before drying them, heard a 'ting' and realised that he had shaken off his wedding ring without knowing it!! Fortunately there was no one else in the toilets so he was able to search for it without people getting in the way and he was able to find it. He has lost weight from everywhere including his fingers it appear, may have to look at getting it re-sized so it won't get lost. Back on the road, and we continued on to our destination of Leamington Spa!
Dafydd and Marian are dear family friends of ours and have been kind enough to let us stay for a couple of nights. I have not seen them for about 40 years so it was wonderful to catch up with them after all this time. Dafydd and my father knew each other through work and became close friends, as did the families. We had a lot of catching up to do which obviously brought up stories of times when dad was alive and the memories we all had of him. Dafydd even had the original tape recording of Christmas carols the families had made when I was about 10 years old which he played much to Marian's and my embarrassment. In some ways this was a very emotional evening but it was lovely to share the memories.
Dinner was a delicious Chicken casserole and vegetables, followed by berries, a caramel roulade with icecream for dessert.
Today is Halloween so there were a few knocks at the front door by the local kids looking for treats, which fortunately we were able to add to with some of our shopping we had done along the way. Dafydd and Marian have a lovely home and after 10 days of living in the van it was luxury to have a bedroom to sleep in as well as another bedroom to spread our stuff out in so we could sort it all out.
We had a gorgeous evening with our very welcoming hosts in their lovely home.
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