Let me tell you, picking up and moving to a new country is tough but figuring out what to pack and bring with you is the real challenge. I’m proud of the fact that Tassa and I moved here with absolute minimalism in mind. Before we left, we got rid of things in waves and then ultimately had to go through what we kept and decide what was essential and coming to England with us and what was going to sit in boxes until we return. In addition to my computer, an iPad, and few books that I stuffed in my backpack, I brought one small suitcase packed with clothes, shoes, and some winter stuff. The bare minimum for two years. However, I also packed one larger suitcase with my hiking tent, sleeping bags, camp chairs, and tarp, all of which I consider life essentials. I figured if I brought them, I’d use them. The weather here has been so nice, warm and sunny, not at all like everyone said it would be, so we decided to venture out and do one of our most cherished activities here in England – camping.
I made camping reservations at Ashurst (New Forest) Campground in New Forest National Park. Ashurst (New Forest) is a small little village with a pub and a train station, and that’s about it. The campground is a five-minute walk from the station. As with everything, we are learning every time we venture out of our flat. On the train to Ashurst we learned that you better be up and at the door to get off the train when it stops, or it will take off again with you still on it. This happened to us. We were talking to this nice guy and then our stop came up. We grabbed our bags and said good-bye and went to the door, pressed the button, and the door didn’t open. Then the train started to move. We were both like, what the hell? So, we had to ride down to the next stop and then get on the next train back to Ashurst. We only lost a half hour, but it was annoying. Lesson learned.
Oh yeah, and remember the uncommonly nice weather England was having? Well, it stopped and got normal again as soon as we got off the train. It was rainy and cold as we walked to the campground, found a site, and put up our tent. It was rainy and cold all night. Neither of us slept very well. In the morning, we headed up to town and nothing was open till 10am. In the New Forest area there are lots of little towns or villages every few miles and a nice bus system that takes you all over the national park. However, the bus didn’t come for an hour. We needed to figure something out or go back to the tent. I called a taxi and for 18 pounds it would take us a few miles to Lyndhurst, where we could have some breakfast and figure out the busses. I asked the guy on the phone specifically if I could use a card and stated that I didn’t have cash. Wouldn’t you know, as soon as we drove off (after waiting about 30 minutes for the cab to arrive) the driver turned around and said he could only take cash. I told him I didn’t have cash and that I made that clear when I called. He said we could go to an ATM in town when we got there. Then the ATM was out of service. Tassa had to let this guy put his bank account info into her phone and transfer the money to him directly. I told her afterwards that I am usually very accommodating and will do anything within reason, but in the future in a situation like this I am going to get Southern Illinois hoosier on someone and tell them too bad and oh well. I made sure to specify that I didn’t have cash, so it seemed like his problem, but it ended up being ours. So, this is how the whole trip started. It got better though.
Lyndhurst was awesome after we paid off the cab driver and our nerves settled. Remember we didn’t sleep well and there is a constant subtle anxiety trying to maneuver around a foreign country. We found an amazing little café, shout out to The Greenwood Tree Café. The coffee was great, and the food was amazing! We had vegan eggs on avocado toast and a side of pancakes. We were also told about cream tea and thought, logically, that it was tea with cream in it. Nope, it’s a clotted cream served with a scone. We passed because we were really full but cream tea would come into our lives a little later. The people working there were also very nice.
New Forest National Park is a section of Southwest England, stretching from a little south of Salisbury to Southampton to Barton-on-sea. We wanted to come to this area because there is the National Motor Museum in the village of Beaulieu. Tassa’s father sent a couple copies of his book about his Mr. Chevy gasser and hauler restoration with us, and she figured that would be a good place to find someone who might like to have them. If you want to visit New Forest, you can go around all the towns and sites via bus. People also backpack and camp all over the forest, which isn’t really like a forest type forest that you would imagine a forest to look like. It was a strange English forest with smaller odd-looking trees and open fields with horses, cows, and sheep roaming around freely. We learned that since medieval times commoners (regular people) had the right to let their animals roam freely. The animals are branded or have a mark shaved on them so people can identify their animals but for the life of me I have no idea how they keep track of where the animals wonder off to. Anyway, there are three loops and busses leave each stop on the hour. You can buy a pass and hop on and hop off all day or you can get a two day pass as well. The busses were the double decker open top busses and they had an audio that told you about everything you were seeing. It was not warm on top of that bus, let me tell you, but it was an enjoyable way to get around and see the sites.
We took the bus down to Beaulieu and checked out the Motor Museum. It was packed with vintage cars and motorcycles. It was worth the trip. Lots of makes and models from Britain, Europe, and America. By the way, Ford has a big presence here. That is the only American car company I have seen people driving and for some reason I find that interesting. Tassa found a gentleman that worked at the museum and asked him if he would be interested in the book. Well, first she asked him if he liked cars, which was pretty funny given that he was working at a car museum. He said he was certainly interested in it and that the museum had a library, but it was closed that day. Tassa asked him if he would like a copy for himself and if he could give the other copy to the museum and he was very happy to do both. Mission accomplished. Now there is a copy of Larry’s book and a presence of Mr. Chevy in Beaulieu, UK.
After the museum, we rode the bus around and checked out almost the entire New Forest. We took a loop down to Barton-On-Sea to check out the ocean. It was breathtaking! We had lunch there in a café and finished it off with some cream tea. I swear it was one of the most amazing things I’ve had yet in England. The scones were crispy and crumbly like biscuits and were served with clotted cream and jelly. The clotted cream is a thick kind of bland cream, thick, thick cream and it’s a weird deliciously subtly blandness, with little bits of pineapple in it. It was so good. You put some cream on your scone and then a little jelly for flavor and all of it together is heavenly!
After lunch we rode the bus around back to Ashurst (New Forest). It took a few hours, and we sort of back tracked but it was a nice relaxing afternoon. When we got back to the campground, we hurried up to put our stuff away and get to the pub. England was playing Switzerland in the quarterfinals of the Euro football tournament. I had been watching the game on my phone as we went in and out of service on the bus route back to camp, the game was tied and had gone into extra time when we got to the pub. The game ended up going to a penalty kick shootout, which is one of the most exciting situations in all of sports. The stakes were high and the crowd in the pub was tense. England made all five of their shots and won the match. The crowd erupted. It was so cool.
We also found ourselves in an interesting situation while watching the game. The guy standing in front of us had an Economist magazine in his hand and on the cover was an old person’s walker with the presidential seal and the caption, “This is no way to run a country.” We thought it was funny. During intervals of less hype from the game a conversation sort of came up, initiated by our American accents. Another guy standing by us said we had mild accents and asked if we were Canadian. We said no we were Americans but that we should go with Canadian because being from America was embarrassing as hell. Then we acknowledged the magazine the other guy was holding. We all laughed because the debate between Trump and Biden had just taken place and honestly, it is freaking embarrassing. What was interesting was that the guy with the magazine really wanted to talk to us about it. You could tell he had a lot of questions but thankfully the game resumed, and England won and that overtook the conversation. I didn’t want to have a conversation about those two boobs, Biden and Trump, and the sad state of American politics. After the game we grabbed a table in the beer garden out back and had a couple pints and some food. Tassa called home and talked to the family, who were all together celebrating Sophie’s birthday.
The next day, Sunday, we got up and took the train down to Bournemouth on the coast. Tassa and I love the ocean and we wanted to go down and get some fresh seafood, so I planned a little trip within the trip. We had all day to mess around because our train from Ashurst back to London didn’t leave until 5 pm. Bournemouth was alright. The beach was touristy but very nice, however, it was cold! Tassa had on her British swimsuit, which consisted of pants, shirt, sweatshirt, coat, and a head scarf to keep her ears warm. I could not believe people were getting into the water. We didn’t get any seafood and instead walked to the Bournemouth Premier League football stadium. It wasn’t the best idea because it was a long walk and not much to do there. I think we would have been better off just skipping Bournemouth and heading home earlier but the ocean was nice.
We made it back to London and were starving and still craving seafood. We ate at a seafood boil restaurant we have seen on social media, The Angry Crab Shack. We have wanted to check this place out since before we came to London, but it was packed and expensive and probably should have been saved for a better time but all’s well that ends well. We had our fill of spicy shrimp and crab and headed back to the tube and made the trek from the city center to Tottenham. All in all, it was a good trip but not very comfortable camping. We love camping and it is a cost-effective way to see more places, but it was difficult with the weather and the fact that we were extremely limited to what we could bring. In the future, we agreed that we would rent a car and take our tent and do the camping thing with a vehicle so that we could bring food and stuff to make the experience a little better. Live and learn, but I am proud of us for diving in and going with the flow.
MeatSpace Adventures 
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