Letter 1 We left Colchester this morning, and took the local roads instead of the dual carriageway to get to a campground in a town called Cherry Hinton (!) just southeast of Cambridge. Managed that trip very well. Ron has had no trouble staying on the "wrong" side of the road and going around the many round-abouts leftward. His big problem on our last trip was expecting the car to end at his elbow, like it does in the US. This car does indeed end at his elbow, and therefore we’re doing well on the roads. We’ve been to several stores and then we went to find a "Park and Ride" to get into Cambridge. The first one we tried had hanging barriers that were too low for us. The man in charge of that facility helped us turn around in a very small space, and gave us directions to get to a lot that our RV could use. As we drove out, a man who obviously had observed the incident, appeared on the sidewalk. He asked where we were going, or something, and then said he’d take us there. We weren’t at all sure where he was taking us since we couldn’t exactly remember what either man had said. Our Good Samaritan, however, led us directly to a "Park and Ride" lot that was very convenient and in a place that allowed us to get back to the campground easily. He signaled as he drove to make sure Ron knew what his directional intentions were, slowed down to make sure we could follow, and actually drove into the car park to make sure we got there. Is that wonderful or what. The British are wonderfully friendly and extremely easy to talk to.

More about Cambridge in our next letter, after we’ve seen more. But busy, crowded, with heavy traffic and undergraduates (despite summer vacation) describes it well. Also very great place for name dropping or otherwise referring to people who advanced human knowledge substantially: John Harvard, Samuel Pepys, Charles Darwin, Newton , Cromwell (not in the same class as the others) the people who deciphered DNA, and many others heavyweights who are associated with this University and place.

We are having a wonderful trip so far. There is something to be said for the ability to talk to everyone without any stress caused by having to use a very different language. And I stand by that statement even though there are certainly big differences in language! We are trying to get used to saying "different to" rather than "different than". The weather has been cloudy more often than sunny and also rainy and cool. Ron has been sleeping in a zipped up sleeping bag. Yesterday morning in the Colchester campground, he swears that there was a bit of frost on the grass in the early morning. On July 26!