We have reached the Midlands…and more or less of the halfway point of this virtual adventure. This mileage was brought to you by some bike commuting and walks around Ohiopyle, PA during a brief road trip last week.

Leicester

Murder, mystery, mayhem. The War of the Roses. The death and disappearance of a King…until 2012 when his remains were found under a car park. Not even Shakepeare could come up with such an ending, me thinks! I speaketh of King Richard the III, of course.

Leiscester is also the hometown of of my friend, Helen, and the 2015 –16 Premier Club Champions, Leiscester City Football Club in the English Football League, which had her cheering all the way from Chicago. At 5000-1 odds this gives me hope that my home state team, the Detroit Lions of the National Football League, will also make it to a championship someday. Maybe we need to find a King buried in a car park first. I’m sure there’s someone buried in a car park somewhere in Detroit!

Nottingham

“IN MERRY ENGLAND in the time of old, when good King Henry the Second ruled the land, there lived within the green glades of Sherwood Forest, near Nottingham Town, a famous outlaw whose name was Robin Hood.”
― Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire

I was to visit this town and it’s merry outlaws…well just one outlaw. My friend Anne, who I’m pretty sure left some bar tabs open in Chicago prior to moving back across the pond. But pandemics happen. Had I been able to visit I definitely would have taken the Eziekial Bone Robin Hood Tour, because why not? When in England as they say. I most definitely would have visited Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Pub, the oldest inn in England and set into the rocky base under Nottingham Castle. The pub got it’s name because it was a stopping off point for the crusaders to tie one on before heading towards Jerusalam in the 12th century.