40 Years - and being fellow travellers

We're having a few quiet days after a wonderful weekend celebrating our Ruby Wedding. It does feel like a journey, in the company of many fellow travellers who have accompanied us along the way. We're so grateful for many family and friends who have done so. I'm also mindful of the fact that in the Bible, the number 40 has a special significance: 40 years in the desert before the people of Israel reached their promised land; 40 days in the wilderness before Jesus began his public ministry. I have a sense of looking forward as well as back as we pass this milestone.

Yesterday, as a late birthday present for me, Les and I went on a steam train excursion on the Settle-Carlisle line. It began in Lancaster, so we had to travel by train there first. Excluding the two hours or so we had in Carlisle, we spent altogether 14 hours on trains! We are not particularly experienced travellers, and I feel we still have to learn some protocols about travelling with strangers. We found ourselves opposite a very pleasant couple for 12 hours altogether! Fortunately, we were reasonably compatible,  being of about the same age, and for him it was also a birthday present from his wife. I find it difficult to know how to engage in such situations. I'm aware that in a sense we are all captives to each other, thrown together randomly, so one does not wish to intrude. However, you can hardly not converse when you have so long together. So, how much do you share of your own life, without boring the other? And what is it appropriate to ask of the others, without being intrusive? Looking back, I could probably have risked more engagement.

Anyway, it was a fantastic day and the weather was good for the most part. The views were amazing. We marvelled at the enterprise, skill, ingenuity and labour of our Victorian ancestors in building that line and developing rail travel. Also, at the skill of yesterday's drivers controlling that great beast which hauled our train literally up hill and down dale, without the benefit of today's electronic comforts and safety devices.

We felt a bit like royalty at times, as all along the route, people had gathered to wave, or looked out of their bedroom windows, obviously ready for these weekly excursions.

The journey included the town of Appleby where we spent our honeymoon 40 years ago!