First Day in the UK

So the adventure begins.  After Having my good friend Erik drop me off at JFK I then proceeded to sit around for a few hours, bang out a small paper, take a nap, and have a beer at the bar nearest my gate.  There I met an orthopedic surgeon who i can best describe as a well traveled, dirty old man...  With his stories of abroad (or two) and his younger days, I was kept well entertained for an hour while we finished our beers.  The flight itself was actually quite pleasant.  In an entire Boeing 777 only 79 seats had been filled.  This meant lots more leg room for my tall self.  Upon landing I went through customs and the chap there couldn't decide whether or not to give me a visa due to my amount of traveling in and out of the country.  Eventually he decided I was fine.  I met up with Rob who was just about as tired as I was and we took off across the English country side.  Stopping at two paddling centers within a ten mile span of each other... yes I just said two.  It still boggles my mind how prevalent paddling is as a sport over here.  Its not uncommon to be driving down the tight twisty roads of small towns in the country side and see a number of racing boats on car tops as you drive by.  Finally Rob and I stopped for lunch after my stomach began to grumble quite loudly.  Then with beget in hand we took off again.  We eventually made it back to his dads house which will be home while in the UK.  Its a gorgeous cottage that is situated right in a small town outside of Oxford.  The cottage itself was built a long time ago which can been seen by the 3 foot thick walls and the wonky floors.   Rob and I began getting things together for today and then took a much needed nap.  For dinner we went down the road to an old English pub that specialized in pies of all sorts.  I had a beef, red wine, mushroom, and horse radish pie along with a local ale named Hooky. Back at the cottage, we cracked open a bottle of whiskey and Robs home made raspberry rum in the garden and proceeded to play what I can best describe as a full contact game of Rummy except with some rules added and taken away.  Either way its a game that you have to be one your toes the whole time and with a bit of ale, rum, and good whiskey floating in your mind that became increasingly harder to do so as the night went on which made things that much more entertaining.  And now we come to present time where it is 0500 here and I am waking up with the birds outside my window.  Today we pack up more gear I get to see my new boat for the summer, and then we hop on a ferry from Dover to Calais, France, and begin our road trip across Europe to Austria.  From there its then straight days of whitewater kayaking in the Alps!!!!  Not that I'm excited or anything.  Its been five years since I've been to the Alps and i can't wait to get back to the mountains!