My Redneck European Adventure
- Thread starter Dave N
- Start date
When we got back over to Wales we drove up along the coastline enjoying the views. Stopped in a small village for lunch and had a conversation with the waitress who was from Liverpool. Hearing what she said made my wife change her mind about visiting there. THANK GOD! Don't think I wanted to fight the traffic just to see where the Beatles came from. I'm NOT a fan. Plus, Richard said it wasn't a good place to go. We drove a bit more and stayed off the bigger roads to see a bit more of the scenery and smaller towns. The Michelin road map that was suggested really came in handy! Stopped for the night just north of Wolverhampton. The hotel had a meal package with a restaurant next door so we went there for dinner and breakfast. The place was called Beefeaters I believe, and we just couldn't stay away from a steak any longer. Richard had said the beef over there was NOTHING compared to the U.S. and look for something that was well aged. This looked like a chain type of outfit, and we went with steaks against our better judgement. Richard was right! I ordered a Porterhouse and my wife had a Ribeye. The cuts are different than ours to begin with. My steak looked more like a bone-in Ribeye, no "T" to the bone at all! We ordered medium rare. They showed up maybe medium well and very chewy. We sent them back with the instructions to leave them "bloody". Apologies were all over the place from management, and the new steaks took quite a while to show up. Myself, I can cook our steaks on the charcoal grill and be done to our liking in 8 minutes. The new ones were thicker and cut open to reveal an acceptable doneness. Mine, still pretty chewy, my wife's steak wasn't TOO bad. We chatted with our waitress and told her the difference between theirs and ours. Breakfast was pretty good though!
All that steak talk got me going. Pulled out a couple nice ones for the grill tonight to have with some sweet corn left in the garden. Had to run for some mushrooms for on top. Felt GOOD to get into my truck with the steering wheel on the PROPER side!
So, the rental car. We got a Ford Fiesta with a 5 speed. Not a problem, I can drive a stick, and I'm a Ford guy. NO practice to get used to things before getting right out on the ring road around Heathrow Airport. Wasn't too bad. I tended to hang too far to the left but driving was OK. For a while. We found our way to Stonehenge the first morning and took a break there.
Feeling pretty tired from the flight, we headed for our hotel. Not an easy place to find! Exeter has a lot of one way streets and all kinds of turns going who knows where. In our attempt to find the hotel we went round and round and in that time I managed to find a few curbs with the left side of the car. One curb was hit pretty hard. How hard? Sitting at Richard's house he noticed I had bent a rim. Uh-oh! Rental car! An attempt was made to fix it with a hammer and block of wood. It was having none of that. This was when I decided to go for it. It was already screwed up. I proceeded whacking the rim and got it pretty close to being not so noticeable. Bent it back so much that the aluminum (aluminium) started to crack. Richard hit it with some touch-up paint he had about the same color, and it had to be looked for to notice anything. Success! Off we went without any more trouble.
I kept quiet about this so far because I hadn't returned the car yet and who knows what could pop up in the wrong place. Here's the part Richard doesn't know about. Friday we returned the car to Avis. We pulled in line with all the other returns and waited. The guy showed up and was looking around. Hmm, he looked real close at the damaged spot and kept going. The paint must have worked! Didn't look like a fresh hit. BUT, he got to the rear tire and circled a bulge in the sidewall. What? They said it was caused by hitting a curb. Hmm, if the front tire was OK after bending a rim, how does a REAR tire get messed up? I kept my mouth shut and played stupid. They ended up charging me 151 Pounds for it. Bummer, but better than buying a wheel!
So, the rental car. We got a Ford Fiesta with a 5 speed. Not a problem, I can drive a stick, and I'm a Ford guy. NO practice to get used to things before getting right out on the ring road around Heathrow Airport. Wasn't too bad. I tended to hang too far to the left but driving was OK. For a while. We found our way to Stonehenge the first morning and took a break there.
Feeling pretty tired from the flight, we headed for our hotel. Not an easy place to find! Exeter has a lot of one way streets and all kinds of turns going who knows where. In our attempt to find the hotel we went round and round and in that time I managed to find a few curbs with the left side of the car. One curb was hit pretty hard. How hard? Sitting at Richard's house he noticed I had bent a rim. Uh-oh! Rental car! An attempt was made to fix it with a hammer and block of wood. It was having none of that. This was when I decided to go for it. It was already screwed up. I proceeded whacking the rim and got it pretty close to being not so noticeable. Bent it back so much that the aluminum (aluminium) started to crack. Richard hit it with some touch-up paint he had about the same color, and it had to be looked for to notice anything. Success! Off we went without any more trouble.
I kept quiet about this so far because I hadn't returned the car yet and who knows what could pop up in the wrong place. Here's the part Richard doesn't know about. Friday we returned the car to Avis. We pulled in line with all the other returns and waited. The guy showed up and was looking around. Hmm, he looked real close at the damaged spot and kept going. The paint must have worked! Didn't look like a fresh hit. BUT, he got to the rear tire and circled a bulge in the sidewall. What? They said it was caused by hitting a curb. Hmm, if the front tire was OK after bending a rim, how does a REAR tire get messed up? I kept my mouth shut and played stupid. They ended up charging me 151 Pounds for it. Bummer, but better than buying a wheel!
devon deer
Well-known member
You must be joking, bunch of thieves they are, £151 for a tire, i bet a garage would have charged half that.
Never mind, at least the trip went well.
Cheers
Richard
So we left the hotel and continued on, feeling a bit more rested after being on the road for a while. We got into Wolverhampton and happened to see a Harley Davidson dealership. Hmm, we hadn't bought a single thing so far. Let's go look for t-shirts! I actually don't have a bike, but I've picked up a few Harley shirts on our various travels. They sure have some nice designs for the local shops, and it's a nice way to show the places that we have been. We found the ones we wanted and carried on down the road with our souvenirs.
It wasn't long and we saw a sign for Warwick Castle. My wife wanted to see what it was, so we turned off. There are road signs all over for various castles and historic sites so we didn't know quite what we were in for. Turns out it was a pretty big attraction. A bit more amusement park than we liked, but pretty interesting with all the items on display. There was a falconry demonstration, jousting, archery and more.
I wonder how big this critter really was!
It wasn't long and we saw a sign for Warwick Castle. My wife wanted to see what it was, so we turned off. There are road signs all over for various castles and historic sites so we didn't know quite what we were in for. Turns out it was a pretty big attraction. A bit more amusement park than we liked, but pretty interesting with all the items on display. There was a falconry demonstration, jousting, archery and more.
I wonder how big this critter really was!
The falconry/bird of prey show was interesting. They started out with Bald Eagles flying over the crowd and went on to an owl and some sort of Vulture. They had an Andean Condor with a wingspan of about 10 feet, but we had tickets to the Dungeon Show and had to leave before it came out. The show was more like a spook house, and we wouldn't have missed anything by not going. We didn't know anything about it ahead of time so we got tickets for it. Oh well. The final show of the day was the Trebuchet. This thing is about 60 feet tall and they shoot a fireball with it! Quite impressive to see one in action.
I'll get my video of the fireball shoot posted when I figure out how to do it!
I'll get my video of the fireball shoot posted when I figure out how to do it!
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James Riley
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I think the antlers got to 12 feet wide or more. They lived contemporaneously with people. We killed them all.
From wiki: Most members of the genus were extremely large animals that favoured meadows or open woodlands, with most species averaging slightly below 2 metres at the withers.
Got back out on the road and headed for our last stop outside of London. We had a room booked in Wembley close to the stadium. It took a while to find it and I named Wembley "Little Bangladesh". As usual, the joint had no air conditioning even though it was in the city where it gets warm. Our TV didn't work. My wife wasn't happy. Something about a "cheap bastard" was overheard! At least we had breakfast set for the morning. There was a promise of fixing the TV the next day or they would move us for the next nights stay.
We hopped onto the tube right downstairs for our trip into London. We got off next to the River Thames near the London Eye. We thought about riding it but the line was pretty long.
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Walking down the street we came to Westminster Abbey. Beautiful place, but like lots of places, no pictures allowed inside! Tombs inside contained kings and queens along with famous people from the past.
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We hopped onto the tube right downstairs for our trip into London. We got off next to the River Thames near the London Eye. We thought about riding it but the line was pretty long.
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Walking down the street we came to Westminster Abbey. Beautiful place, but like lots of places, no pictures allowed inside! Tombs inside contained kings and queens along with famous people from the past.
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We kept walking and soon got to the good part. The queen's house, Buckingham Palace.
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We got there just in time for the changing of the guard. A band marched down the street and entered the gates. The guards march from another direction and went in as well. Then some women on horseback came down the street. All the groups were led my mounted police officers keeping traffic away.
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Tourists were everywhere!
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Tourists were everywhere!
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Not your ordinary everyday cop! Even the cops guarding other buildings carried H-Ks.
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Yes, they DO exist! Some were red, some were black.
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We toured the inside State Rooms of the Palace as well as the Gardens. Had to make the wife happy you know! Getting pretty tired, we stopped for dinner close to the tube and then took one last picture from the bridge over the river as it started to rain.
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Yes, they DO exist! Some were red, some were black.
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We toured the inside State Rooms of the Palace as well as the Gardens. Had to make the wife happy you know! Getting pretty tired, we stopped for dinner close to the tube and then took one last picture from the bridge over the river as it started to rain.
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I'm kind of a car guy and like looking at what I can find. I spotted a couple Aston Martins, several Rolls Royce's, plus 4 supercars. At least 2 were Lamborghini's and the others were by me too fast to tell what they were. One Lambo in London was being followed by another and got on it pretty good after taking a corner. Nice sound! Then there were the American cars we saw. I only spotted 1 F150, but saw 2 Mustangs, one being left hand steer. We came up along an older Chevy pickup with Oklahoma plates and a Dodge club cab 4X4 left hand drive. BMW and Mercedes seemed to rule the market over there. Quite a few Audis as well. Felt kind of puny in our Fiesta!
Almost forgot. My Roe deer skull. It was all clean and ready to go. Had it packed nice and safe, and had 2 copies of my paperwork filled out ahead of time. We got into Chicago and started going through Customs. The gal asked us if we had bought anything during our trip. We said yes, two Harley t-shirts. Must have struck her funny, she started laughing and giggling at that. Then I told her about my skull. New one to her. She sent us on. We picked up our checked bags and went to the scanner station. I told the guy there what I had and he waved his hand and said get out of here! Never even asked to look at it or to open our bags. Out the door we went and headed for home.
I'll work on my video and get it posted as soon as I can. That about covers our adventure. I have more pictures but figure you get the idea by now. We had a great time, I managed to get my Roe buck, and we saw lots of things we never thought we would. Made a new friend, and hope to somehow do something to pay Richard back for all that he did for me. They plan on coming over next year for a road trip, maybe I can take some time off work and meet up for a bit?
Randy, thanks for putting up with this thread that was NOT anywhere near "on your own". Hopefully I was able to show my take on what things were like in England and taking a road trip there with a little hunting thrown in for good measure. When Richard offered this and I was chosen I wanted to share as much as I could of my experience for others to enjoy. I hope I did so.
I'll work on my video and get it posted as soon as I can. That about covers our adventure. I have more pictures but figure you get the idea by now. We had a great time, I managed to get my Roe buck, and we saw lots of things we never thought we would. Made a new friend, and hope to somehow do something to pay Richard back for all that he did for me. They plan on coming over next year for a road trip, maybe I can take some time off work and meet up for a bit?
Randy, thanks for putting up with this thread that was NOT anywhere near "on your own". Hopefully I was able to show my take on what things were like in England and taking a road trip there with a little hunting thrown in for good measure. When Richard offered this and I was chosen I wanted to share as much as I could of my experience for others to enjoy. I hope I did so.
Sounds like you had quite a variety of experiences on your trip. My son is quite the car nut as well and had a great time in London photographing all the high end cars. You have some great pictures and it sounds like overall your trip was a big success. Glad to here that your Roebuck made it through customs without any issues. Glad to see your "Redneck Vacation" went well.
devon deer
Well-known member
Dave, you don't owe me a dime (dime, i'm spending too much time on this American site!) it was my pleasure, i'm so pleased you got a buck, and had a good trip overall.
You would not believe the amount of deer i am seeing at the moment, Red/Fallow/Roe.
As you say, this wasn't strictly an 'on your own adventure on public land' it was never meant to be, just an opportunity to raise funds for a worthy cause, and give access to an overseas visitor to hunt in a country where no public lands exist.
Cheers
Richard
Bummer, looks like I need to work on my pictures. They WERE up.
Richard, Lori and I thought maybe we could time it right when you two did your road trip over here and catch up with you for a bit. I'm thinking a nice AMERICAN steak dinner would be good!
Richard, Lori and I thought maybe we could time it right when you two did your road trip over here and catch up with you for a bit. I'm thinking a nice AMERICAN steak dinner would be good!
Got back out on the road and headed for our last stop outside of London. We had a room booked in Wembley close to the stadium. It took a while to find it and I named Wembley "Little Bangladesh". As usual, the joint had no air conditioning even though it was in the city where it gets warm. Our TV didn't work. My wife wasn't happy. Something about a "cheap bastard" was overheard! At least we had breakfast set for the morning. There was a promise of fixing the TV the next day or they would move us for the next nights stay.
We hoped onto the tube right downstairs for our trip into London. We got off next to the River Thames near the London Eye. We thought about riding it but the line was pretty long.
Walking down the street we came to Westminster Abbey. Beautiful place, but like lots of places, no pictures allowed inside! Tombs inside contained kings and queens along with famous people from the past.
Let's see if that worked.
