Friday, July 15, 2011

Four Ladies Walking and the Redmonds

So we get to Calais and end up at a really fun campground. The best part was, it was so close to England we were surrounded by people who spoke English! We wanted to tell you about a foursome we met and also a couple from Wales.

These four American ladies (from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and San Francisco) were sitting next to us outside a quaint little restaurant on the campground (seriously, some of the bars and restaurants at these campgrounds are awesome) and asked us about our trip. Turns out these four are all retired or semi-retired, at least two in their 70's, and they are WALKING from Canterbury, England to Rome, Italy!! they expect it to take four months walking twenty kilometers per day. One of them climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro at age 70. the walk is an ancient route called The Via Francigena. We did some research and here is the Wiki on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Francigena

Turns out Martin Sheen and his son, Emilio Estevez just finished a yet unreleased movie about it called The Way, here is a link to an article and YouTube trailer:

http://www.caminodesantiago.me/the-way-a-movie-with-martin-sheen-and-emilio-estevez/

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=LJJ5X7mhVig

Well, we talked to them for a long time and they also have a blog which I will include in just a moment so you can follow along if you want, we will be. We kicked ourselves for not getting a picture of them but we intend to keep in touch and request them to send us a picture to post. Their blog is:

http://wandaroach.blogspot.com/


THEN as we were speaking to The Four Ladies ( we call them that now) there was a couple one table over listening to both of our stories (our 4 week trek through Europe and their 4 month walk to Rome) and were curious to hear more. So we all started talking to the Redmonds, a Scottish man and a Welsh woman currently living in Wales. Mr. Redmond is retired British Air Force (we talked about Ellen's late brother Jim Gleason who was based at Lakenheath Air Force Base in England when he passed away, Mr. Redmond had some time at RAF Mildenhall next door). Mr. Redmond has friends in Cleveland and has always wanted to visit America but has not had the chance. He wants to visit The United States Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We let him know we grew up in Dayton. He gave us his email address and we sent a link to our blog, so, Mr. Redmond, if you are following you two are welcome to stay with us in Columbus, Ohio if you visit! We sit right between Dayton (one hour drive) and Cleveland (two hour drive).

What a fun group of people and a great stay at a great campground (Rest Bien Assise?) prepping for our ferry trip to Dover, England and a few days in London!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 2

Location:Calais, France

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