Wrexham Heritage and Restocking in the Rain (5/27/25)

Bob and I are having a bit of a lazy day amid a little bit of traveling drama, more on the last bit later. The weather was clear this morning for my run but started raining before we headed out and promises to continue for most of the day. It’s not a bad or blowing rain just steady enough that you seem to get wet even with the rain gear.

As mentioned yesterday, we had to get over to see what we could of the football stadium, given that the season is over so no games nor stadium tours. While our interest in the Wrexham football began with its purchase by the American actors and subsequent documentary, the history of this club is much more impressive than that.

Per their website, Wrexham AFC was founded in 1864, making it Wales’ oldest football club and the third oldest in the world. It was founded by members of the Wrexham Cricket Club at a meeting at the Turf Hotel (a pub of the same name is now next to the stadium) to find a sport to fill the winter months and also in part by a local social club wanting to increase the enrichment opportunities for Wrexham’s young men.

The club has been promoted three times under the current ownership. We have watched the three seasons of “We are Wrexham” and are awaiting access to the fourth.

There is, of course, more to Wrexham than football, so we snapped a photo of St. Mary’s Cathedral on our walk back into the city center.

The Wrexham Museum will be significantly enhanced and a Football Museum for Wales is either being created or being moved here.

I have been needing new running shoes, a regular rain jacket, and a rain jacket for running. We had spotted a store yesterday which looked as if it might carry all three, and it did. We caught some good sales, and I am now completely rekitted.

Finally, for some really unwanted drama. When we started this leg of our travels, we parked our car in the bus lot in my hometown, which we have successfully done before. The only change this time is instead of paying ahead of time for the number of days needed, everything was to be done online.

You enter your license, which they have a photo of from when you entered, and pay for a maximum of 19 days. If you need longer than that, you add money as you go. Bob noted that our payments (2 so far — the initial and the next installment) have been pending but the expiration date has moved out. He was confused by this and upon further inspection noticed that he had entered our license plate with the incorrect last digit. So now we are waiting word as to whether or car has been towed and/or how best to resolve this issue. More to follow when we know more.