Once in Ashford, the Americans were met by their host families and shuttled to their new "homes". I was delighted to receive an email from both David and Joshua. David wrote to put my mind at ease that he "hadn't been arrested going through customs" (????) and that he was alive and well and watching "telly" with Ian (fellow American scout) in the "sitting room". Joshua wrote to let me know that he was settling in and had already passed out his Host gifts. Hope the Wrights liked their goodies.
Alison also let me know that Joshua was well and playing a game of chess with her son, James. It was nice to know that playing UK video games wasn't the first order of business.
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| On the plane from Houston to London |
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| Arriving at Heathrow Airport |
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| Downtown - Ashford, Kent, England |
Here are the comments from the US Scout Leaders:
Randy
Summarizing the last 30 hours or so... I suppose (hope) the boys have by now all digitally contacted all the families back home. The trip from Logan-to-SLC-Houston-to-London-to-Ashford went amazingly smooth. Long, but smooth. Our plane was late getting into Houston and we didn't have much plane changing time, but we made our international connection for the 9+ hour flight.
Not many of the scouts, or the leaders got much sleep on the across-the-ponder - too many available movies, videogames, etc. - although for one brief period Tom and Jason had a snoring duel. We breezed right through customs at London's Heathrow Airport where David Beeching and Mark & Alex Silvester greeted us and ushered us to the next leg of our journey...the three hour drive to Ashford. We stopped part way there for a bit of a picnic lunch prepared earlier by David and then continued on to the UK Scouts' base of operations near the village of Woodchurch (just outside of Ashford) where we awaited our host families and had a hamburger and hot dog dinner and played some football (both kinds). I think we may have had some British converts, or at least interested parties, to the American version with that, as David puts it,"that daft, odd-shaped ball".
Shortly after that, we all dispersed to our host families for the weekend and thus endth the update. We plan as a group to get together on Monday morning and take the high-speed rail into London for that leg of our adventure.
Jason
Ashford is absolutely beautiful. It is just the most lovely countryside with picturesque villages. Green rolling hills dotted with castles and more.
Tom
It is simply beautiful here. Paul took me out to Mary & Peter Sillibourne's farm tonight for tea and a visit. I love driving out there it is so pretty, so green, and so peaceful. I will say though scouts if you found the roads today a little narrow you should have been with Paul and I tonight in the Romney Marsh area. Wonderful first day!
So pleased at the wonderful way the boys all acted during this exhausting and exciting journey. Every mom would be proud! Have a great weekend boys! See you all Monday morning at the Ashford rail station.
