To Rome and Back: A Lester's Tale

A conversation at the pub one day with Chatty the Grey set Kevinwise and I out on our quest to visit Hadrian's wall early yesterday morning. In addition, a former Roman fort in Mordor Corbridge was hosting a Roman reinactment that sounded like great fun. (I'm not going to lie - the main reason I wanted to go was so I could take pictures of the reinacters and tag them as Doyle on Facebook.)The journey started out wonderfully, with a bright blue sky and no clouds or rain in site. However, Kevinwise, myself and our trusty pony car Bill were no more than 30 minutes from home when Bill decided he did not want to go any further, shut off power and caused us to coast to the side of the road. It wound up being an Electronic Acceleration Control issue, so we had to bring Bill back to the stable and set out once again in a loaner pony car. 2 hours after we originally set out, we managed to make it further from Ulverston than I had ever been, thanks to the new car. However, our trip was then twarted by the wicked, tricksy and false GPS Gollum, who instead of sending us through Moria on the M6, sent us up the misty mountains of Kirkstone pass where Kevinwise tried to kill me with his crazy driving on the narrow, narrow roads. (Next time I am definitely taking a Zanax). One more scary pass later, and 2.5 hours from the time we set out, and we finally arrived in Mordor Hadrian's Wall country. By this point, we had missed elevenses, lunch and afternoon tea, so I hoped that the drive would bw worth it. We found Corbridge with no problems and checked out the reinactment. It actually was really neat. There were a ton of reinacters showing the battle fighting styles of the Roman soldiers. I (maybe not Kevin) definitly think it was worth the drive.

The fort itself was pretty interesting. It went through 8 different forms before the Romans finally abandonned it in favor of the forts closer to the precious Hadrian's Wall. It now was time to see Hadrian's Wall. All along the road, I had seen signs, so I assumed it would be easy to find. We set out following a sign that said "Hadrian's Wall 2 miles". 5 miles later, and no wall. We did however come across another Roman fort, which we decided to stop since we did just purchase an English Heritage membership. This site was even more impressive and extensive than the Corbridge site. It once sat right along the elusive Hadrian's Wall, in what is presently a sheep pasture. However, no wall was in site.

Finally,a piece of the precious! A bit of a let down after all the effort, since I know there are giant stretches of the wall. However, it was now dinner time, and having already missed the majority of the days meals, I did not want to miss supper along with dinner, so Kevinwise and I gave up the quest for Hadrian's Wall and set off home, ignoring Gollum when he once again tried to send us over the misty mountains. We'll set out again in search of the elusive wall, but this time, we'll bring snacks.

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