Road Trippin’ with Tyndale and Cathy Gohlke: Stop #8
Welcome to Tyndale Fiction’s Road Trip Scavenger Hunt! We’re so happy you are here. To participate, collect the keywords through all 13 stops in order, so you can enter to win our grand prize giveaway
Some details:
The adventure begins on Wednesday, August 1. You’ll have two weeks to make your way through all the stops (giveaways will close on Tuesday, August 14).
While you do not have to start at Stop #1, keep in mind that the grand prize giveaway phrase will begin with the word you collect at that first stop.
To complete your submission for the grand prize giveaway, be sure to collect the keyword within each author’s blog post, submitting the final, completed phrase in the form hosted on this page.
Also, be sure to enter the giveaways these authors are hosting on their blogs!
Enjoy the journey—we hope you’ll discover new books along the way as you hear from Tyndale Fiction authors about road trips, the settings of their novels, and more!
Happy road tripping!
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Please join me in welcoming my friend Cathy Gohlke and the Crazy4Fiction Scavenger Hunt to my blog today. Cathy is a bestselling, three-time Christy Award and two-time Carol and INSPY Award-winning author who writes novels steeped with inspirational lessons, speaking of world and life events through the lens of history. She’s written stories set during the Civil War, the turn of the twentieth century, and the sinking of the Titanic, but her latest novels have been set during WWII and usually feature beloved works of literature or iconic historic figures. Her newest, Until We Find Home, takes place in England’s storied Lake District (home of Beatrix Potter—she and beloved author C. S. Lewis both make appearances in the book). Travel with Cathy there today!
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My latest WWII release, Until We Find Home, takes place in England’s breathtaking and storied Lake District, near Windermere. I saw Windermere as a safe haven—safer than many places in England while under German attack—for French and Jewish child refugees and for British evacuees, and as the site of the hastily built village of Calgarth, where flying boats were manufactured for England’s WWII military use.
Research for this book led me, along with traveling friend and author Carrie Turansky, through a Lake District adventure. Here is what I learned:
The Lake District in April is strewn with Wordworth’s swaying daffodils, lifting their golden trumpets to the sky, and newborn lambs tottering beneath their mothers over greening fells. May finds the woodlands carpeted in sapphire—bluebells so blue you know the fairies mean to steal your heart, lilacs so fragrant you’re sure you’ve entered heaven, and month-old lambs frolicking down hillsides, butting their weary mothers’ sides in search of lunch.
Skies of spring radiate drama—blues and grays in every hue, clouds filled with stories, and the fells and meadows green as emeralds. Rain falls most days, though rarely all day, so carry an umbrella and raincoat when you go—or your mac (mackintosh), as the Brits say.
By June, roses bloom in profusion, draping arbors and spilling through gardens, tumbling over stone walls and garden gates. Strawberries—lush, plump and juicy—are everywhere. Drenched in cream, they tantalize the tongue. Mornings and evenings can be chilly enough to warrant a cardigan and welcome a steaming pot of Earl Grey or even a fireside nap. Don’t forget those lovely British scones at teatime, dripping in butter and jam or Devonshire cream.
Plan your days—they’ll whisk away. The train takes you to Windermere Station, where you can walk or find a taxi to a reserved B and B.
Local bus tours offer trips through the land of Wordsworth—Hawkshead Grammar School, where William carved his name in his desk (a tradition of the day); Esthwaite Water, five miles in perimeter, which he walked each morning before school; St. Oswald’s churchyard in Grassmere, where the Wordsworths are buried; Dove Cottage, where William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, and later his wife and children lived. The gift shop by Dove Cottage will satisfy all your Wordsworth wants.
Visit Grassmere’s original gingerbread shop near St. Oswald’s church for a scrumptious taste from the past. Once you’re hooked, find a similar recipe on my website.
And then there’s Beatrix Potter (Heelis)! Bus tours abound. When she was a young girl, Beatrix spent summers in the Lake District with her brother, Bertram, and their parents. See Wray Castle, where Beatrix and her family spent her sixteenth birthday. The view from the stone wall is my favorite—and the one I keep on my Facebook profile.
Though a gallery boasts some of Potter’s original artwork and shops sell copies on gift items galore, my favorite Beatrix Potter site was Hill Top Farm, the first home she owned in the region. Each room is filled with things Beatrix loved and included in her books as characters—like the dolls, Lucinda and Jane, their dollhouse, and figurines that inspired her. Seeing her writing desk inside and her homey, abundant gardens outside, and in the vicinity the breed of sheep she loved and raised as an older woman, thrilled my heart. I felt I’d stepped back in time.
There are lakes to inspire and fill your soul, and magnificent peaks to hike if you’ve a mind. You’ll need sturdy boots, a mac, a walking stick, a flask of tea, and a trusty guidebook. You’ll find giant stone ruins from ancient folk and imagine their worship or science. Low stone walls—built by hand, with thousands of flat stones—hedge fields and gardens and crisscross the fells. But don’t worry, people expect you to cross their land on public walkways—just treat it kindly. Leave town for the countryside, where there is no light pollution, and witness thousands of millions of stars in the night sky.
Cross Lake Windermere by ferry and watch the breathtaking Lake District rise and encircle you from its center. Then write and tell me that you’ve been there, how you’ve been changed, and that life will never be the same. I’ll understand.
Next, join me in person June 2020 for a unique trip through Israel to Oberammergau’s Passion Play, on the Saving Amelie Tour—inspired by another of my books.
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Here’s the Stop #8 Important Information:
You can purchase Cathy’s book, Until We Find Home, here
Clue to write down: places
Link to Stop #9, the next stop in the scavenger hunt, on Cathy’s Site!
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Be sure to visit Stop #7 on Diann’s site and read all about my road trippin’ adventure!
Bonus Giveaway: To enter to win this beautiful London coffee mug and $25 Starbucks gift card from me, sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter and leave a comment on this post letting me know that you have done so! My August newsletter will feature details on how you can participate in my annual teacup and coffee mug exchange.
For a bonus entry, leave another comment with where you would like to visit in Great Britain!
