This Easter I travelled up the Norfolk
& Suffolk coasts approximately 3 hours from London/Reading where
I currently reside. Upon our return trip of Norfolk I wanted to see
RAF Lakenheath Base upon which I was born to see my old stompin'
grounds.
Let me interrupt the story to tell you
this. Every one I meet in England asks me where I'm from when they
hear my accent. It really throws them when I tell them I was born in
England but have an American accent (which is diluted now to and
confused most often with a Canadian accent). Upon finding out I'm
American their next question is, “Do you have a gun?”
Like all Americans are suppose to own
one. Oh don't cha knOw we Americans like 'er guns, whatever.
However, the American soldiers on RAF Lakenheath, well.... they DO
own guns.
Now my birth certificate reads I was
born in Mildenhall which is probably the closest town to the Air
Force base or that's what the military told my folks anyway.
Back to the story...My English friend
decided it would be nice for us to go an hour and half out of our
way to show me the Base on which I was born. Very nice of him. I
thought we'll head that way, stop near the base, I'll jump out and
quickly take a selfie of me standing in front of the big sign reading
Lakenheath RAF. Proof that I was once again there after many years.
We begin our trip to Mildenhall from Norfolk and 30 minutes into the
drive I ask why on Earth are we going to Mildenhall- it's 15 miles
away from Lakenheath? My mate does a face palm, “I thought you wanted to
see where you were born?” he asks.
“I do”, I reply. “But I wasn't
born in Mildenhall- I was born in Lakenheath!”
My mate just shakes his head and
resets the GPS. It was decided then that this was NOT the best way
ever but also decided that I have rockin' navigational skills. So
we've switched routes to Lakenheath which we decided was named that
because it was surrounded by lakes and heaths. *shrugs* We
come upon the base well before you see any signs for it- because a
base like this is massive and I tell the driver to slow down so I can see. We
pass one sign for Lakenheath and then another and then another. I
begin to wonder if he's going to pull over and stop so I can take my
photo. Once we come upon the second entrance gate, I ask him to pull
over-it's clear he was going to drive right past. He slows down but
refuses to pull over for fear of being shot. Really? So we just drove
an hour and a half out-of-the-way for this and my picture
taking has now been demoted to a quick snap as I'm stretched over the
driver and hanging out of the right side of the car window. Because
this drive -by “shooting” looks less suspicious than actually
pulling over into the side of the road, hopping out and taking an
actual non-blurry photo? Sometimes I really wonder about the English.
Well A for effort mate. Thanks for taking the four hour scenic route
home.
