Least Relaxing Vacation Ever ~ 8/8/2018

I dreamed I was on a long holiday in the UK with my mother and sister. We'd traveled in the south of England, and up into Scotland, and we were traveling down through northern England on our way to Wales. We were in Nottingham, and we were supposed to go to Sheffield, then the Village of Dean, then Stoke-on-Trent, but somehow we were still in Nottingham, and I couldn't seem to get them to understand that we needed to leave.

The town itself was all red brick and dark slate, with golden tan bricks laid into the walls in decorative patterns. We were staying in a half timber cottage southwest of town. We were supposed to go into town to see the cathedral, then take a train west from the Common Street station, which was not too far from the cathedral. But when I told them, they said we'd just go see the cathedral tomorrow.

I tried to explain that we couldn't stay any longer. We were in an Air BnB, and the next guests had been waiting outside for us to leave all morning. I was all packed to go, but they hadn't packed, and couldn't seem to hear me when I said anything about leaving.

I finally left the cottage to go for a walk to calm down and figure things out. I confirmed over and over again that it was August 8, and that this was the day we caught the train to Wales. We had already been supposed to do Sheffield and Dean Stoke, but somehow we'd stayed in Nottingham too long and had completely missed our days to do that, so we'd have to go straight to Wales.

I was trying to make sure we'd make all of the rest of our stops when a group of cyclists came down the road and I needed to step up onto the verge. Then a battered white car came by close behind them. Then, as I gazed back toward the cottage, a huge black mushroom cloud of dirt and ash billowed up into the sky out of the field beyond it, followed only an instant later by a deafening BOOM. Another and another sprang up, and the entire world seemed to shake and thunder with the blasts. The cottage wasn't hit, but the high whine of aircraft droned overhead and the bombs were getting closer and closer to me, and I began to run south, trying to get out of the way and not get blown up. Then I woke up.