No we did not, in fact, fall off the face of the earth...

I realize that it probably seems that way. After all, we were traveling to a civilized society so that you would not have particularly expected us to be incommunicado for three days. However, our laptop took this opportunity to die. It was working Tuesday morning when we signed on to check our flight status. But in the air somewhere between Miami and JFK, it took ill. Sitting on the floor in the Admiral's Club at JFK and talking to ASUS tech support, I was asked the question that no computer owner ever wants to hear, "How attached are you to all of the data stored on your harddrive?" Yet, even the ensuing attempt to wipe out the drive and to reinstall Windows failed. Oh Joy.
Luckily Robin and Faye took us to their computer whiz, Tim, who pronounced the harddrive as terminally ill so we put it out of its misery (being veterinarians and thus accustomed to ending unnecessary suffering) and moved on. The new drive is installed and aside from having nothing but Windows installed on the computer, we are up and running again. Once we get home again we will be able to report just how effective Norton Ghost Backup Recoveries really are. Until then....
ENGLAND
The posted images of Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral reveal shockingly deceptive, clear, blue skies. But in fact, the weather has, so far, not been nearly as bad as we might have feared. That is not to say that it isn't nippy and occasionally windy to boot, but it has been bearable. Of course, we are also enjoying plenty of great food, good wine and friendly banter with Robin and Faye.

Yesterday we traveled to Bath - a lovely town with ancient Roman ruins (of a bath, of course), a mini-replica of the Ponte Vecchio, and some adorable little streets and parks. We even passed the Westbury chalk horse on the hillside on the edge of the Salisbury Plains. It is not nearly as old or as large as the more stylized Uffington White Horse but is still pretty impressive. Tomorrow we may pass the Cerne Abbas Giant, another Celtic carving in the area, which looks to be (in photos) not so unlike the Spaceman on the Nazca lines. Very interesting how such geographically distant cultures came up with such similar ideas.
Today has been a leisurely day....mostly relaxing around the house in anticipation of two days of driving to Scotland...where the reports are of blizzards and heavy snow.