The Old New Thing

"From Reading, you can get to the Welsh border in 90 minutes."

This is really bad information. The reason it is bad is because to start from Reading you have to *be* in Reading.

"The reason it is bad is because to start from Reading you have to *be* in Reading."

Reading's not so bad, if the only reason you're there is in order to leave...

Nitpickers corner warning.

1)

I'm going to take extreme umbridge at a cycle ride up a hillside in Redmond being compared to what is pressumably the Cotsolds.  Technically they are hills, and labelled as such on maps,  but as anyone who has seen, walked or cycled the cotswolds will tell you they are distinctly more hilly then any hill in the Bellevue/Redmond area.  Tush.

2) Reading to Wales 90mins.  It really does depend on so many things because of the high density of traffic,  the numberous alternative road routes and where-abouts in Wales you want to go.  Reading-Wales on the M4 on a bank-holiday weekend in 90mins.  I seriously doubt it.  I've done that run at approximately that time when leaving in the evening at 11pm,  virutally no traffic and the possibility of travelling at the speed limit (not recommended).

Now the bag-lady story,  that is a hoot!

Here's a wikipedia link to the mountains nearest the M4. Note the glaciation on the northern corries. There is a track through the centre of the range that the romans built as part of their attempts "to suppress the insurgency". 2000 years on it still hasn't been tarmaced over and is an excellent MTB ride. If you head out from Reading onto "The Ridgeway" you have a pre-roman dirt track to take you all the way to wales. Now, where in the PNW do you have anything historic to compare with that?

This mountain/hill thing reminds me of the delicious film "The Englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain". Little known, but a small gem if you like period films or the really fine (and a bit ironic) English humor. And, of course, as its title implies, it treats about hills, mountains and their differences. In Wales.

That stuff about the memories is an interesting take on how the brain works.

The thing here, is that just because we live in a quaint little country, does not mean we don't do satellite navigation. I mean you can get TomTom (to) Go with your groceries in Sainsburys.

That's Kroger to you!

>just because we live in a quaint little country,

>does not mean we don't do satellite navigation.

From the stories that make the news you certainly do have problems doing satnav if you drive through a ford without a snorkel, drive past the "bridge out" signs and off a bridge that's out, take a bus under a bridge that's marked to be lower than the top of your bus, or pick the treacherous low-speed goat path over a paved road. Just saying, since you brought it up.

> Now, where in the PNW do you have anything historic to compare with that?

Ohhh, just about any place you are standing.  Dig into just about any hill, or pick through silt at any river, and you'l turn up Clovis points that are 10,000 to 15,000 years old.

But Steve, what does that have to do with anything?  Or did you just need to let us know that the UK has an awful lot of history?

@Narr

Ah yes, but that's because the satellites are US DoD! (perhaps)

:))

I love that part of the country, but it certainly isn't mountains. Talking of the Ridgeway reminds me of the deeply atmospheric (500 year old) Wayland's Smithy, just by White Horse Hill. A place that lingers in the back of the mind forever.

btw, I'd have thought that the Severn bridge would be a fairly indicator that you were crossing into Wales?

<pedant>

Chaz, The Severn Bridge is entirely in England. The nearby Wye Bridge crosses the border, which goes up the river Wye at that point.

But these days you'll only cross either of these if you turn off onto the M48. The M4 goes across the Second Severn Crossing, and this does indeed go across the border, as it's further south than the point where the Wye flows into the Severn.

</pedant>