The Supermarket we used as a local supply depot.
The next morning, refresh and alert for the first time since two days prior, Subgirl and I waited out the time until
breakfast cleaning up and putting a few things away. We met our host promptly at 9 a.m. and later decided to keep
this time since it seemed to be agreeable to everyone and also would give that little bit extra of sleeping time
that's so useful to us habitual night owls. Upon being asked for breakfast preferences, I politely declined the
eggs, but would give anything else a try. Subgirl asked for the full spread. Breakfast began with a choice of a
variety of cereals (standard American fare with slightly changed names), then moved on to toast, orange juice, and
the main course of sausage, bacon (country ham to us), baked beans and as a centerpiece, a fried tomato and fried
mushrooms - which I at first mistook for fried potatoes and was barely saved by Subgirl from eating them. This is
meant not to disparage the cooking; it is only my personal tastes. Then I always finished this off with a second
piece of buttered toast and coffee. During this time, we got to know our host a little more and her helpful husband,
who loaned us a "proper map" to use while getting around. We asked where the nearest grocery store would be. Since
we had access to a small refrigerator, we thought we should get some supplies - drinks and snacks and utensils
mostly. We were told that Uttoxeter (which I finally learned to pronounce by the end of the week; for a while I just
referred to it as Otisville) was the closest village with a supermarket and gas station and that we had in fact passed
by it on the way in. We got to know the road from Alton to Uttoxeter pretty well during that week since every place
we visited was reached by leaving Alton on that road. The first thing we noticed, which we were too much out of it
the previous night to have worried about, was that the local roads there are narrow. If you take your average
residential street in the US and cut that width in half, that is about what you drive on in the villages there. And
the locals are so used to it, that it is not unusual to be driving 40 on those narrow, winding roads with just bare
inches on either side. Subgirl would never feel comfortable the whole week being on the left side of the car with a
wall or line of shrubbery just barely missing the car. Another issue with driving there is that there are no clear-cut
intersections - only lots of curves. Many times we would be following a road and according to our map, the road just
continues to go on straight, easy as can be. But, invariably that would not be the actual layout of the road. One
of our favorite sayings came to be "We should keep on straight on this road at the next junction ----- or as we call
it back in America, 'turning left'". The roundabouts presented another challenge. The very first one we came to on
that first trip to Uttoxeter was actually the entry-way to a big manufacturing plant. We merely turned around in the
parking lot and then continued down the road. I cannot count how many cars I cut off or how many drivers gave me
the international sign of "Hey, you have done something wrong here" before I finally figure out which lanes to use in
a roundabout. But, by the end of the week, we had actually accepted them as a fun - and efficient - way of travel.
And we also found a very helpful use of them: going round them purposely to let drivers who were in more of a hurry
to get in front of us.
We did make it to Uttoxeter and to Tesco, their local supermarket, without any further incident. This village is only
a few miles from Alton and was extremely easy to find the other times we would stop there. Right in front of the
supermarket, we found the Tesco gas, or petrol, station. Seeing this, brought to mind an issue I had noticed the
previous day, but hadn't the energy to question. After Subgirl had "filled" the tank, which she took as the pump
shutting off, I had noticed the gas indicator was still at half way when we started the car back up. It continued on
to deplete until it was less then a quarter of a tank. I made a mental note to ask one of our hosts at the next
possible opportunity about this. We parked the car, which was a minor accomplishment in that I was still getting
used to the backwards driving (thank goodness the gas and brake pedals were still in their accustomed place). We
went into the store, and for that first shopping experience, it was more of an exploration. We stopped immediately
at the entrance where the magazines were. We browsed through all the different ones available and selected among all
the national gossip magazines one of the more interesting looking ones to purchase. We continued around the store,
making mental notes of the fresh deli meats available (for a picnic later in the week), and Subgirl selected some
chewie bakery bread for munching on later in the day. Much of the supermarket was very familiar, with some American
brands or the UK equivalent. One thing we had learned already was that the chocolates were much richer, so I picked
up a big candy bar that had ingredients similar to a Chunky bar - I ended up nibbling on this the rest of the week.
Of note, was a DVD section, which seemed out of place in a grocery store, but later made sense with the discovery of
a lack of video stores in the village. Several times that week, I was almost tempted to get some DVD I saw here or
there, but then realized either the region or video format of that area would not work on my player back home. Aside
from the already-mentioned snacks and drinks, one item we got of interest was a box of cat food. We wanted to bring
the cats back something and thought they'd might like some British cat food. This cat food contained rabbit and duck,
which I know is very unsual for them. They ended up loving that and ate the box up really quick. Hope they can wait
the few years it will be before they get any more! It was while we were checking out that we experienced another un-
usual occurence. The cashier asked, "Would you like help with your packing?" I was so taken by surprise that, as
simple as the question was and as plainly as it was asked, I was not sure how to respond. Finally Subgirl responded
that she would be happy to bag the groceries stating that she usually does this to help out the cashiers at our
grocery store back home. Also, another note of interest is that EVERY TIME you use a check or credit card, the
cashiers will always verify your signature. The first time I had used the card, at the Welcome Break to get the
drinks, they stated the card wasn't signed. I had used the car here in America for a year without being signed.
Throughout the week, I noticed not one person neglected to verify the signature, which is not a complaint, just an
observation. We carried the groceries to the car, took a few quick pics, then headed back to put our findings safely
in the room. We decided we should then have a more extensive look around the actual village of Uttoxeter itself.
Driving straight into the village, we found out there was parking, but there were also meters. Being that we didn't
have any actual British money as of yet, we had to park back at the shopping center and then walk. This wasn't a big
issue as it was less than half a mile from the town centre. That lead to our first objective in the village, which
was to find an ATM. We had already determined from our hosts that there were no BOA branches or ATMs in England, so
beyond that, any ATM was as good as another. I don't remember what banks ATMs we used during that week, but we had no
problems transfering the funds. The first thing I wanted to accomplish cash-wise was paying for the room, since they
did not take VISA. So, with that taken care of, we walked around the few streets of Uttoxeter and took a dozen and
a half pictures or so. As you will see from this pic and the pics to come, small villages are very similar to the
bigger cities - those are just spread out more. We took in as much of Uttoxeter as we could, but that being Saturday,
all of the shops seemed to be already closed by 5. We enjoyed the walk around, however, and then in walking back, we
stopped off at the local church. There was an amusing combination or church / street sign. One sign on the church
was a green, oval sign with a standard message we saw at various other churches: "The Millennium is Christ's 2,000th
birthday. Worship Him here now." There was a normal street sign placed curiously at the entrace of the church
stating "Diverted traffic" with arrow pointing to the parking lot. We never did determine if this was intentional or
not, but we however, did obey and explored the church some. The door appeared to be partially open and after some
initial hesitation, we pushed more firmly and opened the door. We suppose they are just left open for anyone to
worship anytime, for we didn't find anyone inside. We walked around the chapel, Subgirl admiring the huge pipe organ
off to the left and I salivating over the nice grand piano on the opposite side. There were some nice statues,
decorations, paintings, etc, in this chapel that we didn't feel at liberty to take pictures of. We just took the
time to take a rest from our walking and read up on some of the history they had proudly displayed on the wall. We
didn't do much else this day, except to walk around the gardens and nearby hillside of The Warren. We discovered a
trail going down through the woods, which came out upon a meadow where a pony was grazing as a dog looked curiously
on at the strangers taking pictures of the meadow. Other than this brief excursion, we made it a quiet night by
cleaning up at the room and then watching some "tellie". This particular night was the first annual National IQ
Test, co-hosted by Anne Robinson. This was quite a surprise to see her in a very non-Weakest Link mode, chatting
and joking with the participants (home viewers participated on-line). Before going to bed, we went through some
brochures supplied to us in the room and picked out a few promising locations to visit. A day trip to London was
already ruled out the door before since we had to drive there and back already. The first brochure we pulled aside
was for Chatsworth Castle.