Welcome back!

Welcome back to Cowbright, or welcome for the first time if you weren't with me in Indonesia a couple of years back. Let me say right up front - I'm not really a blogger and I promise not all entries will be this wordy. I simply used this site as somewhat of a "trip diary" when we spent 10 months on the island of Java in 2011-12. It was a good way to document our experiences there and at the same time share them with family and friends.

So rather than start a new "diary," I'm going to tack our Cotswolds experiences to the end of my previous blog (in fact, I may even scroll back through it to remind myself of some of the things we saw and did there!)

Perhaps you’re wondering - why the Cotswolds? Well, many years ago while visiting England with my sister's church choir, we traveled from London to Bath, stopping over to enjoy a meal of fish 'n chips in a small pub somewhere in the Cotswolds. I have no idea which village; I just remember that I fell in love with this area and never stopped hoping to come back.

In May 2014 we sold our home in Houston. It was the first time in almost 46 years of marriage that we didn't have to "be somewhere." With our kids long grown and no pets, job or house to maintain, we decided to enjoy some extended travel while we still had our health - one of those now or never type things. Ronnie "counted the costs" by figuring out exactly what it cost to live per day in our Houston home. We set that as our budget for living elsewhere and decided on our first destination.

So after packing our household and putting everything into storage (except clothes and personal items) we rented a furnished apartment on the 18th floor of Brooks Tower in downtown Denver, about 15 minutes from our Denver kids.  We thought it might be fun to see what downtown city living would be like. Our 8 weeks in Colorado flew by and we loved getting to spend time with our grandson Henry (and his parents) and of course enjoyed the cooler climate. But like every other place, downtown living has its pros and cons.

With school about to start, we were ready for our next adventure. Ronnie (being the gentleman that he is) let me "choose first." Naturally, I chose the Cotswolds so here we are - about to find out what life is like in a quaint little village in south central England. On August 15, we met our driver at London's Heathrow Airport and after what initially appeared to be a logistically impossible feat, all of our luggage plus Ronnie’s bicycle was finally wrestled into his small SUV. He drove us a couple of hours to Stow on the Wold, or Stow (as the locals call it) where we had rented the only apartment in the Cotswolds with availability during our chosen time frame. We're in one of 5 small apartments in the Old School House. The very first thing I noticed when I climbed out of my very cramped spot in the back seat was....nothing. Absolute quiet. No bird singing or dog barking or cars whizzing by. No sirens or city traffic. Nothing. Just an extraordinary silence.

Old School House

Like most Americans, we're accustomed to having a car at our disposable 24/7. Living without a car is going to be...well, different. Less than 5 minutes after depositing our luggage, we were walking to the store where we purchased as many groceries as our jet lagged selves could carry, then headed back to our new "home away from home". A real contrast from buying a cart load of groceries in Walmart, (5 minutes from home) driving into the porte cache and unloading them only a few steps into the pantry. Like I said, every place has its pros and cons!

There are lots of adjustments to everyday life inside the apartment as well - no dishwasher, no clothes dryer, no shower or supportive mattress - but I remind myself this is "normal" for here. And my job is to adjust to the "new normal."