More Happy "Many Meetings"

Tuesday 7th October, 2014 at Weston-upon-Trent.
Rain again in the morning, but it brightened up later. It seems to be the pattern at the moment to start wet but become dry and bright in the afternoon.
We walked over to the new farm shop café on the other side of the canal for breakfast. It has a very nice patio overlooking the canal - and MM on the far side.

Unfortunately, we both considered it disappointing. It is set up in cafeteria style, so you queue at the counter to order your food and pay for it before picking up your cutlery, napkins etc. and finding a table. It must work well for a crowded lunch on a mid-summer weekend - but seemed out of place for a total of five guests for breakfast. M decided that she wanted an extra egg, so she had to get up and pay 35p at the till before they would bring it to her! The food was also disappointing, fried eggs swimming in oil and weedy bacon and sausages. Sad - but then, maybe we've been spoilt by the gourmet standards at Aston!
After breakfast, we fell into conversation with a pleasant couple, Dave and Cathy, who had a very smart compact motorhome parked in the café car park (and shared our opinion of the café!).

We admired their home on wheels and they kindly offered to show us around - but first they came to take a look around MM. They had never been inside a narrowboat and M had never been inside a motorhome, so it was a new experience for all three of us.
Their motorhome is fabulous, so comfortable and well designed. R, who has done a lot of travelling in motorhomes in the US, was very impressed indeed with how spacious it felt for a very small vehicle. We had a cup of tea with Dave and Cathy in the motorhome and chatted happily at length.

M said that she wants one - after all, there are still places in England that we can't get to in MM!
When we got back to MM, we found that R had received an email from Peter and Bridgett at Weston. We had got to know them in June on our way south when we moored outside their beautiful home and garden. We had contacted them and invited them for dinner on MM tonight and to our delight they had accepted. Hooray! So, a quick trip (or two) back to the farm shop to get a "few bits" to make a dinner for four and we were off.
Once more, we were blessed with a lovely afternoon's cruising, although definitely on the cool side. We had another wonderful encounter with a kingfisher who flew from branch to branch playing "tag" with us. At the first lock, we were greeted by a family of swans, who walked up to see what was going on.

The two locks between Great Haywood and Weston are very familiar to us now and around teatime we moored up outside Peter and Bridgett's house under the beech trees in the same spot as in June.

A tap on the window turned out to be Bridgett, confirming that they would be along later for dinner.
They duly arrived around 6:30 looking very smart and it was so nice to see them again. We had a really super evening and arranged to call by again on 29th (by car), when we will be on our way to Aston and the Lake District.
Today: 3 miles, 2 locks and 2.2 hours.
Trip: 306 miles,208 locks and 235.7 hours.