Not just an ordinary pen pal

You might have wondered, (if you were paying close attention!) what on earth Becky was up to that required our stressful visit to a US post office and her to be 'absent' for a day.

For the last few years Becky has had a pen pal called Andy who is on death row in prison in Raiford Florida - a 2 - 3 hour drive from us here in Kissimmee.

The shenanigans were all about being able to get Becky permission to visit Andy whilst she is here.  This included needing a 'police check' in the UK and completing all the 'administration' here to make it happen. 

Last Thursday after a phone call she finally got the go ahead - she was on the list!  She set out on an adventure in her tiny car on Friday afternoon.  After staying the night in a nearby Days Inn (with a friendly cockroach in her room!) she spent most of Saturday with Andy.  He's been in prison a long time and has yet to exhaust the appeal process.  He hasn't had a visitor for 6 years - and a visit can be for up to 8 hours.  Fortunately, talking is not a hardship for Becky!  Andy is passionate about Black Sabbath, so that was a good starting point.  They filled the day quite happily.

As Becky said, she probably looks the more criminal of the two of them!!

The journey back to join us was pretty hairy with the thunderstorms and an intermittent warning light on the dashboard... but she lived to tell the extraordinary tale.

Keeping up a relationship with someone on death row is not something that everyone could do, or want to do,for all sorts of reasons.  Andy has some other pen pals who are definitely a bit weird and he has previously married one of them.  Be assured, that's not on Becky's 'to do' list!