Our waiter at supper last night was very upbeat. He also told us that Americans are much more positive and upbeat than the English. He obviously a wrong impression of me. He went on to say that the English are still not recovering psychologically or economically from Covid yet. So many businesses shut down over the last 2 years and there hasn’t been a recovery here, yet. He’s hopeful by the end of summer things improve.
Americans don’t realize how well we have recovered from the pandemic. The multiple rounds of economic aid did stimulate our economy. Sure, they probably added to inflation as well, but isn’t a little loss of buying power much better than complete loss of income. Both parties in the US are too close minded to listen to the other. Throwing insults is the new norm and compromise is seen as weakness. I have little hope left for the US. 2024 scares me.
The couple we stayed with last night seem like they’re getting close to getting out of the B&B business. He likes to interact with his guests and he has done the majority of the work on remodeling the farm house and landscaping. He’s not quite ready to get out. He’s emotionally tied to the place. His wife seems ready. At the very least, she showed zero interest in having strangers in her house. Maybe it was just smelly Americans. Maybe she was having a bad day, but I definitely got an icy feel from her, the 2 minutes we actually saw her.
Maybe she’s sad that her kids are grown and they are entertaining strangers in their million pound house. I saw their family photos hanging in the dining room where we had breakfast. She seemed to have smiles then. We didn’t see any of that from her.
Seeing the happy young family brought back thoughts of my own childhood. I had great parents, but I was a nerd. I was the youngest in my class and most prone to being picked on and bullied. It’s humiliating enough to get the shit kicked out of you as a kid, but I carried the extra thought of what it did to my parents. I still can’t get into genealogy for the simple fact that I know my ancestors worked their asses off to get where they were. What’s the end result of their struggles? Me. All that struggle and hardship for nothing.
This is a train of thought I don’t like going down. I’ve always felt like an outsider. When I get the cold shoulder like we did from our hostess, it just reinforces my insecurities. The only time I’ve kind of felt like I belong has been while we’re hiking. Even then, I find myself getting too relaxed and then try to throttle my personality back a bit so I’m not so annoying to the people around me. It rarely works.
Today’s walk was all about getting around Cheltenham. I had plenty of time to do the math in my head. We are spending roughly 12% of the Cotswold Way just avoiding Cheltenham. It wasn’t complicated math. The Cotswold is just shy of 100 miles. We will have walked 12.3 miles from our first sighting of the city to our last. I didn’t even have to use my toes for this one.
The first four miles today was just miles. Every down was paid for with a greater up. We kept passing the same set of high voltage power lines all day. We’d loop back on the trail to make sure we got every possible view of Cheltenham. I quit taking pictures. Does 10 degree difference in angle make that much of a difference in a picture?
The first highlight today was also the first disappointment. We came upon an Indian Restaurant directly on the trail. I love Indian food above all else. The flavors and intensity are unparalleled. The disappointment was that it was closed. To add insult to injury, we had a 600’ climb away from the restaurant.
We had a new goal. There’s a diner, appropriately named “The Cotswold Diner” just a few miles ahead. We’re not even sure if it’s open today. We know nothing about it. It’s just our first shot at sitting down and having a drink. Worst case scenario, if it’s closed, there’s another pub less than a quarter mile further.
No plan B was needed. They were open and it was a pretty cool setup. The diner is actually in a 30 year old bus. There’s maybe a half dozen tables inside. We were the only customers since it was past the lunch rush. We ordered hamburgers—the first we’ve had on the entire trip. The only catch was, we had to be done by 2:15 because they are required to have the bus gone by 2:30. It was 1:45. I can wolf down a 12 oz burger in under 15 minutes and still have 10 minutes to spare.
We got to talking with the owner. He’s been doing this 6 days a week for the last 8 years. He has a license for the spot on the side of the highway, but he can’t leave the bus there overnight. He drives the bus a mile and a half away to park it overnight then drives to his house about 10 miles away. He has 2 women who work for him so he doesn’t have to be there all the time. He cooks when he is there. He was off site at 2:29.
All we had left was our climb to the final view of Cheltenham. Yeah. This one was surprisingly interesting. We climbed to the top of a ridge that was home to another Iron Age hill-fort. The face of the ridge was a quarry in the 18th and 19th centuries and provided all of the stone for Cheltenham which was a planned spa city. In the early 20th century, the city bought all the land and made it public space. Today it’s a beautiful, heavily used, walking park above the city.
We met several dogs and their humans on the trail up here. We spent a fair amount of time talking to two older women out with their dogs. They were fascinated that we hiked and camped. They kept asking us questions which allowed me to keep petting their dogs…life is good when dogs are around.
No decisions had been made about where we were going to stay tonight. Bunny had seen National Star College has camping, but when we looked further into it, they only had glamping—we couldn’t use our own tents. At the very least, they have a cafe, so we’ll at least stop and check it out.
When we turned onto the road, Sassy saw that the cafe closes at 4. It was already a few minutes past. We could still check out the glamping options. When I went in and asked, I was told I had to make reservations online and that all the managers were gone today. I said thanks but it looks like we’ll miss out since we’re here now. Bear came in and gave me a wink. I kept my mouth shut and he took over.
It’s obvious to see his magic translates into European. We’re staying here tonight. Each couple has their own pod which has a refrigerator, beds, outlets, and lights. There’s picnic tables, showers, flushing toilets, and even a microwave. He couldn’t get them to reopen the cafe (given another 10 minutes, he would have gotten us raw materials to make our own meal), but we weren’t all that hungry because of our Cotswold Diner experience. We had the lunch we were planning on eating which went unused.
National Star College is a heartwarming place. This is a college for severely handicapped kids. It’s a state of the art facility and they are adding on. They gave us brochures telling what they do here when we checked in. There’s an expansion to the campus to allow for more onsite indecent student living. At present, they are adding 16 apartments that give the resident full independence. These apartments include ceiling lifts for movement throughout. It’s a lovely place ran by gentle, patient, kind-hearted people.
Not only does National Star College make me feel lucky for the life and abilities I have, it gives me hope to see the kindness that people are capable of performing for those in need. This is exactly what I needed to see today. As always, the trail provides.
EFG