Kyla pointed out that today we have officially been in the UK longer than we were on our last trip. It’s harder to see this as a vacation and more like the beginning of a life.

On Saturday morning, we checked out of the AirBNB and headed to the Manchester Piccadilly train station. Had lunch there, then got all of our bags onto the train for Basingstoke. Fortunately, this train had much more room for luggage than the last one. It was a bit rowdy as there were large groups of people heading into Birmingham and then London for work Christmas parties. We sat with a very friendly, but loud, group that was pre-loading the alcohol before the party. However, one of the young ladies was from the Basingstoke area, so she was able to tell me a bit about the place.

The train ride lasted about 3.5 hours, mostly of utter boredom, especially for Lizzy as there was no wifi. We arrived in Basingstoke and took a taxi out to the hotel in Fleet (about 10 miles outside Basingstoke). It’s a Days Inn beside what they call a Motorway Services Center. It’s a big building that has a small grocery store, deli, KFC, McDonald’s, pizza place, etc. So, the food is largely unhealthy, but relatively cheap, and this way we know we won’t starve.

This afternoon we took a taxi into the Fleet high street, an area full of small shops (basically what “Main Street” America used to be, everything from groceries to hardware stores to pubs and even a mall). The mall, which they call a Shopping Center, was comfortingly familiar. Tomorrow we head out to look at homes. Fingers crossed!