Day Six ~ Wednesday, May 1

A day off! We went to Carlisle today, right at the border of England and Scotland. So close, that apparently there’s a hike from the castle there to Hadrian’s Wall.
So after our early 6:40/6:50 a.m. wake-up (and getting to Carlisle) that’s how our day started. Touring that castle. We went from room to room for about an hour. We saw some dungeons and we saw the keep. It was all pretty cool. After the tour, we all went separate way, and got to go shopping. We went thrifting a little bit before it was time to re-meet with Hollis for lunch.
I found him sitting on a bench in the town center. We sat and talked for about an hour. We talked about a lot of things including drinking for high school and college students and what each of our personal experiences have been.
After waiting an hour and only seeing a couple people come pick up lunch, we went thrifting. We must’ve gone to a good 7 or 8 shops. Finally I got an orange “Outdoor Scene” fleece to be another layer for when we go to the Alps. Hollis bought a number of items: a roller thing to help massages, a tie and something for a shaving set. And maybe a couple other things too.
Then we went back to Penrith. There I was able to get to the library and get to internet and email.
The computers did not have SD card slots or a “my computer” server, so I couldn’t access my camera either way to email the videos. Maybe in Switzerland… But I did manage to get a message out saying, “hey!” and that was nice.
Leaving the library, things got interesting. The others had all gone to “the Pub” but I could see about a half-dozen of those and I had no idea which one they had gone to. So I decided my best bet was to go back to the bust stop. But I got a little twisted geographically. I got lost. At first I wasn’t too nervous, I figured I could just work different paths methodically until I found the stop. I grew more and more scared as the time grew closer and closer to 4:30 p.m. the time the last bus left for Glenridding.
But even growing increasingly scared and adrenaline filled, I managed to keep a cool head. I knew what the place I was aiming for looked like, and so I would go down a path, and if it didn’t lead to there, I traced my steps back to a spot where I knew where I was and what routs worked and didn’t work. Eventually I made it back, with about 20 minutes to spare, for as it turned out, the bus didn’t arrive until 4:38 p.m.
And that was my adventures today. Closing writing this while watching the ending to “Return of the Jedi.”

-Joseph Bruner