Saturday, August 28th

Greetings everyone!

Kyle and I have been in Sheffield for exactly one week today, and I think we've made pretty good use of our time.  Since our last post, we've had two trips into the downtown-equivalent of Sheffield to wander around, find some items we can't find in town near us, and to buy a large map of Europe.  To get into town, we take a bus that comes right near the house, and it's about a 15 minute ride in.  It's not super cheap (about £8 round trip total), so we'll be limiting our bus rides into town to once a week at most. 

Since our last post, we've also had some very enjoyable outings with friends.  On Thursday, our family friend Sue came to pick us up and take us to a few places, including a delightful coffee shop that is close to The Glen, which was Grandma's care facility.  It was nice to pass by The Glen; Kyle and I will be making a visit there soon to see our friends who work there.  Anyways, we had a great time with Sue and it was helpful to get a bit more oriented to Sheffield.  Yesterday, we went out with our neighbor, and long-time family friend, Peter to look for a second-hand bike for me to use.  Peter's family has lent us a bike for Kyle to use, so we just need one for me.  Our search of the four major bike shops around town was fruitless; the only shop that had any second-hand bikes only had two, and the cheapest was £150.  We've not discovered a resource like Craigslist for Sheffield, but we're hoping we can learn about more options for less expensive items as we get to know more people in town.  Anyways, our outings with friends has been a nice time wandering around town, as well as valuable time with people we enjoy!

Today we finally started some work on the house.  Given that that is the reason we're in Sheffield, we figured it was about time.  We removed a lot of unusable old tupperware and storage containers from both of the big kitchen pantries, pulled some empty glass jars from some of the pantry shelves (Grandma made home-made marmalade every year, so she would keep any empty glass jars, and the collection grew quite large!), and got rid of all of the out-dated food in the house.  There were lots of canned goods, dried fruit, baking goods, and lots of tea that had definitely passed its prime (expiration dates ranged from 1990 to 2009).  So, we are sending these items to the big pantry in the sky!

When we're not planning our next plan of attack for another area of the house, we've been putting a lot of thought into travel plans.  We're tentatively planning several weeks of travel through Western Europe soon, so we're gathering all the information we need for that.  We purchased a huge map of Europe (since the map I used when traveling in 2005 is safely packed in the depths of our garage in Portland; doh!) and checked out a few travel books from the library.  While we're putting most of our effort into Western European plans, I also want to do some traveling in Ireland and Scotland, so we're keeping an eye out for information on those destinations as well. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, this is the time that we are hoping to exploit our connections with all of you.  If you have any pearls of wisdom regarding travel destinations, must-see items, transport, or anything, let us know.  And, since we are hoping to set the world record for cheapest travelers ever (Uncle Scott, you've met your match in Kyle Heacock), please let us know if you know of anyone in this part of the world who would be willing to host this goofy couple!

OK, going to close out with a few pictures for your enjoyment.  Peace out friends!

Us on the bus to town.  Kyle is just so excited.

Kyle enjoying a beer in town, while trying to figure out how to get the camera away from me.

Breakfast & Beers from 10am?  Yes please.

Me in town with the ferris wheel beyond.  How odd that Sheffield has a ferris wheel...

Mr. Heacock with the ferris wheel in the background. 

Look what we found!

Me on a walk into town.  Had to get this picture quickly since I didn't want to be that jackass taking a picture of herself in front of many observers.