Another beautiful day. After a full English breakfast at the 16th century Holdstrong Farmhouse where we had spent the night, and a chat with the other guests (a mother and her 12-year-old-ish son who were on their last day of a 3-day cycling ride from Ilfracombe in North Devon down to Plymouth), it was on to do some gravestone hunting in the Torridge district of Devon.

My mother-in-law's family hailed from Devon, so we set out to see some churches, or rather churchyards. The first was the church of St. Peter in Peters Marland. Gord almost immediately spotted a marker with the name Balkwill on it and we discovered many Balkwills nearby, perhaps eight or more. They would have been related to Gord's 2nd great grandfather Silas Balkwill, who moved to Canada in the 1830s. We were hoping to find Benoni Balkwill who died in 1757, but the markings on the headstones prior to the 19th century were often too faded to read. The church was not open.

We then drove to Langtree to the 13th century All Saints' Church. No Balkwills were to be found here, and I'm not really sure what the connection was to this place, but the church was open and we were able to go inside where we heard the organist practicing. I don't even think he knew we were there--our own private concert.

We then continued on to Pyworthy. St. Swithun's Church was conveniently located opposite a pub, the Molesworthy Arms. We had planned to eat lunch in Kilkhampton, but fortuitously decided to stop here instead (since we never made it to Kilkhampton). No Balkwills (or Taylors) in the churchyard, although the bartender told us there were many Balkwills alive and well in Holsworthy, a nearby market town. We went inside the church, which was under some renovation.

Our next plan was to go to Kilkhampton in North Cornwall to see one more churchyard, but, as many of you on Facebook already know, we got a punctured tyre (flat tire) en route, the result of some metal sticking out from a grate just at the point where we had to move over to give room to some oncoming traffic. It was on what appeared to be a very deserted, narrow road, but fortunately we had some spotty cell phone service and could call (several times) to Enterprise and to AA (no, not Alcoholics Anonymous). Over the next three hours while we waited, several people stopped their cars to offer help, a woman out walking with her dog Lucy chatted with us for a long while, and a couple came out of their driveway down the road a bit to see if we were okay and even asked us in for tea, which we had to decline.

The AA guy came and we ended up in Holsworthy getting a new tire. I will find out on Monday whether or not Enterprise will reimburse us the 144 pounds. It was either get it fixed now or spend the day tomorrow in Plymouth, 50 miles away, getting it fixed by one of Enterprise's three tire vendors. No thank you. I have other plans for tomorrow.

Three and a half hours after breaking down, we were safe in our hotel in Port Isaac. At dinner in the hotel bar, we noticed some artwork by a West Country artist named Ray Balkwill. Apparently Balkwill is a much more common surname in this neck of the woods.

Favorite sign of the day: 

[Gord figured out the meaning. The road was under construction and the little metal reflector pieces along the center line are apparently called cats eyes and they had been removed while the road was being repaired.]