Other People's Barton Springs Swim Reports
I am elsewhere
Many times over the past few weeks I’ve thought: I should post something on Substack. The problem is that while I’m traveling, I’m either disappointed (23% of the time) or thoroughly enjoying myself (77%) and both seem like intolerable subjects for a public diary. Today I’m prompted by this article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/14/us/texas-heat-austin-barton-springs.html
Oh, I miss it. I better not have to fight for a parking spot at 5:15AM when I get back in August.
When I last wrote, we were in Kent. We spent two nights in Warwick, chosen for its proximity to Stratford-Upon-Avon (we saw a production of As You Like It with a mostly over 70-years-old cast; it was excellent). We stopped in Leicester and saw Richard III’s former burial site; we stayed in a parking lot across from the former parking lot where his body was found. We stayed very briefly in Lancashire before heading to Roa Island, in Cumbria, which I have never heard of but loved unreasonably.
There’s a 12-seater ferry that goes (weather permitting) between Roa and Piel Island, its pub and its ruined castle. It’s my policy to take a ferry whenever I can.
We also saw Morecambe.
And Blackpool.
The briefness of our stay in Lancashire was because of an inaccurate Airbnb listing and an obnoxious owner. I called him obnoxious on Twitter (with no identifying details) and for some reason he WhatsApped me a screenshot of the tweet. I am not sure why. I don’t actually like complaining about people on social media but like any other occasionally obnoxious person I enjoy prevailing in difficult circumstances.
Now me and mine are in Glasgow. I do love Glasgow.
As you find ferries irresistible, might I recommend coastal Maine?
that's incredibly creepy that the airbnb owner was stalking your twitter! once I complained about the stuffy people at a school event I attended and was caught out. I tried to explain I didn't mean them personally, just in general--but the damage was done!