Banbury - Welton

After a visit to Morrisons' to stock up on the food front we left Banbury for Cropedy. We bought some wonderful fish from Morrisons'; mussels, smoked haddock for breakfast and fresh tuna for dinner. About half an hour before our arrival in Cropedy, the heavens opened and it just poured. Steve Thomas and Nimrod were very welcoming, hot rum, hot coffee and fruit cake. We left Steve to carry on with his work while we enjoyed our mussels and a bottle of Muscadet. We entertained Steve to dinner that evening and enjoyed his bottle of red wine with the steaks. Thursday morning was very wet so we waited for the promised clearance and set off in a light drizzle for the Oxford summit. We had a splendid ride up the locks, the sun came out and we decided to press on to the bottom of the Napton flight. A clever bit of strategy, we had a group of folk singers behind us in two large hire boats. They soon realised that if two of them helped us down the locks we would all get there quicker, it was great. Today, Friday is our 38th wedding anniversary, we arranged to meet a few members of the Crick Round Table Café in the Admiral Nelson at Braunston for a pub lunch. The beer was excellent, the food fantastic and a great time was had by all. There was, Dave & Sue, Dave & Jenny, Dave & Selina and Gordon & Elaine. If you don't know a fellow's name, call him Dave; in Crick you have a good chance of being right! Tomorrow we plan to arrive back in Crick, having left there on 1st June. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.772 / Virus Database: 519 - Release Date: 01/10/04