England Continued . . . Preston and Civies

MaryAnne informed me that it is my turn to take over for the next portion of the trip. We woke up early the last morning that we were in London and caught the train to the airport, where we picked up the rental cars. Since I drove during most of my mission in Australia, I was dubbed driver for the trip. MaryAnne's dad also drove a car (a minivan) and I was assigned to the mid-size. Lucky for us, they upgraded us to a VW Passat, which was a hatchback. Without it, we would have been carrying bags on our laps for the whole trip. The first day in the cars was mostly spent driving because we had to get from Heathrow up to Preston. The funny thing about driving in England is that the speed limits are often not posted. There are random signs that look like no smoking signs or x's on top of a blue field. So, instead of speed limit signs, here are what you see on the side of the road:

Easy enough, eh? WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY MEAN? Apparently the X one means no stopping on the side of the road, and the smoking one means that national speed limits apply. What is the national speed limit, and does it differ by type of road? The only advice that I got from the rental car place was that freeways (motorways) are 70 MPH. Great. I asked 4 different Brits what the speed limits were on other roads, because I kept seeing this sign, which scared me.

In the rental car contract was a $70 additional "convenience" fee for each speeding ticket that you pick up. During the whole trip I had nightmares of turning in the rental car and being informed that I'd racked up hundreds of dollars of speeding tickets, accompanied with their "convenience" fees. Back to my random sample of British citizens. All four of them gave me different answers. 40 MPH, 50 MPH, 60 MPH, and 'it depends,' but with no explanation. Comforting, to be sure. If only someone (preferably Enterprise) had handed me this slip of paper:

Dang it. I spent most of the trip driving much to slow, but no speeding tickets! I guess we all had more time to enjoy the countryside. Also, on the way to Preston we stopped at a rest stop and had KFC. I was nostalgic for the Zinger Burger that I devoured on a regular basis in Melbourne. England's Zinger was nasty. The KFC ice cream was also a colossal disappointment. This was the first and last Zinger of the trip. As we pulled out of the rest stop and got on the freeway, the minivan's trunk flew open and bags scattered across the freeway. Luckily, they stayed in one lane, and I was directly behind them and just at the end of the on-ramp. I put on the hazard lights and the bags suffered minimal injury. From that point on, we double checked the trunk in both cars before we took off.

Okay, so we made it to Preston and we were able to see the old stomping grounds of the early Mormon missionaries. We were able to go to the River Ribble, where the first baptisms took place. Two converts apparently raced across the bridge to see who could be the first Mormon baptized in England. MaryAnne and Isaac tried to recreate the race. There was a nice park next to the river and the church had a plaque commemorating the early missionary work which was done in Preston and the surrounding area. We went through the Preston museum and our guide told us that Preston comes from "Priest Town" and that the area has had a lot of religious activity during its entire history. Our guide also loved to say "if you like" and "basically" ad nauseum. The food memory of the day were the jacket potatoes near the museum and the giant pillar in the town square.

We were going to visit more places around Preston but we needed to get to the Preston temple for a session and check into the patron housing there. We quickly checked in and walked to the nearest restaurant for dinner. The special was two meals, two drinks, and two desserts for 10 pounds (15 bucks). That was a steal for England. Well, you get what you pay for. Two nasty meals in one day for us. The temple was beautiful and MaryAnne and I had a chance to ponder on medical schools during the temple session.

When we woke the next morning, I couldn't find my keys to the rental car. The keys were HUGE and I couldn't believe that I couldn't find them. I figured that I must have left them in the temple. I ran up there (in a BYU t-shirt and jeans) and told the person at the desk that I thought I left my car key in my locker, but that I could remember my locker number (so he could go look). He looked at my recommend and told me to go in myself. If you want to be ridiculously uncomfortable, walk through the temple in a t-shirt and jeans. I went into the dressing room and looked in the locker. . . no key! I asked one of the workers in the dressing room (they were hovering around me as I was obviously drawing a lot of attention in my clothes) if they put car keys anywhere else. He told me to go upstairs to the office. So now I'm on the 2nd floor outside the celestial room in a t-shirt and jeans. A man comes running out of the sealing office exclaiming, "YOU'RE IN YOUR CIVIES!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP HERE?" Before I could explain myself, he thrust me into the elevator and pushed the button for the first floor. There was no mollifying him with the fact that I was following instructions. He left me on a chair near the dressing rooms for about 15 minutes while he sorted everything out. I was so stressed about the keys that I sat there with my head in my hands (again, in my t-shirt and jeans). I'm sure I was a conversation piece for who passed by. After my time in purgatory was up, I was informed that they couldn't locate the key anywhere. I ran back to the patron housing, just beside myself, and told everyone that I was still keyless. I then started going through my room with a fine toothed comb. Then MaryAnne called out to me and I discovered that the key was in her purse. Laura had used the key just before we went to dinner and I had put it in MaryAnne's purse during our walk to the underwhelming restaurant. I'm sure this story has its place in future church talks. Lesson learned? Don't wear your civies anywhere near the temple, because once you go in, it is good night for you.