Saturday was a mostly a transition day. We had to check out of the hotel at 11am, but couldn’t be into the AirBNB until 1500 (that’s 3pm in American Time). So, we checked out, drug our 8 suitcases, 4 backpacks, and 2 kids out to the lobby, where we sat for an hour, probably annoying the desk clerk. Then we took said baggage to the travel center where we ate lunch and waited another couple of hours. Then walked it all back to the other side of the hotel to the taxi pickup. THEN brought it up a flight of stairs when we arrived in Basingstoke.

The AirBNB is nice, though a bit small. Great location, about 5 minutes walk from town center, a pub across the street, and WE’RE NOT STEPPING ALL OVER EACH OTHER. At least now we’re able to cook our own food, which is saving us about $50 a day over last week. So, we’re just leaking money now instead of hemorrhaging it.

We were anxious to get back into a routine with church. I’d been scoping out a few churches in the area. The ones nearest our house seem a bit too fundamentalist for me, but there are a couple of “mainlines” in town center that sounded good. The plan was to visit the United Reformed Church this week, the Methodist Church next week, and the Church of England the week after that. However, I don’t think we need to shop around any more. The United Reformed Church was one of the most genuinely friendly and welcoming churches I’ve ever stepped into. It’s a cousin to the United Church of Christ (both are descended from Congregationalist Churches) and we just seemed to fit. There were very few kids there, which I thought would be a problem for Lizzy and Molly, but they both loved it. Lizzy went on and on about the sermon (which I didn’t hear because I was in “Children’s Church” with Molly). I don’t think Lizzy’s ever even listened to one of MY sermons this carefully. After the service, we were invited for tea and mince pies in their reception area. A retired couple sat with us and talked about the church and the area. Turns out that he retired from Eli Lily (their UK headquarters is in Basingstoke) and he knew exactly where Greenfield is! 4,000 miles from home and we’re lead to someone who knew one of our former homes. As I said, we left and all promptly agreed that we’d found our church home.

Today we went to visit the girl’s school. As I mentioned in the last post, schools are very different here. Much smaller. Both gave it a “thumbs up”, though they are a little bummed about having to wear uniforms. They’re both missing Stockwell and their teachers there, but I think they’ll adjust quickly.

Finally, rather than a random fact or trivia, in closing today I will present you this picture I took of a dog on a pub stool. Her name’s Millie and she lives upstairs. Comes down to visit whenever she wants and begs to be put on a stool whenever someone opens a packet of chips.

Next time: Moving into our new home!