Hail Britannia!

Departure - T-minus 73 hours - until we head for Spokane. We don't fly out until 1:15 p.m. but by 8 a.m. Saturday we will leave home. Anything forgotten, well, it will be too late. Not a list maker, I'm making them like mad. I'm so certain we'll forget something important and land in a foreign land without some vital piece of apparel or information, that I'm writing down every thought that enters my head. It's making me crazy. Some who know me would challenge that statement on the grounds I'm already crazy.

So, yesterday I stressed all day over whether or not we should buy a rail pass. It would cost us about $778. It would allow us unlimited train travel over 8 consecutive days. We would begin with our trip from Edinburgh to Burton-upon-Trent on the 20th, which means our last day of unlimited travel would be the 27th. We'll be heading to London for two days on the 27th, so all London underground and bus-hopping would not be included. Nor would the train to Gatwick. When I check for fares for the ride from Scotland to England, the only thing available is going to cost us almost $270. With a pass, it will still cost us $125. I'm so confused. While we're in England, we plan to take day trips from the resort at which we're staying to Warwick Castle, Oxford, Nottingham, Stonehenge, and who knows where else. Can we get to these places easily via train or bus? What will it cost each day without a pass? I have no clue. I can't seem to find that information either. Some people who have been to the UK tell me that it's cheap to just buy a ticket each day, no pass needed. Some say a pass will be very economical. I'm thinking a pass would be great if we were heading out from a different town each day, making our way around England, but we're going to be returning to our resort each night, and there isn't a train station nearby. I think we're going to have to walk or take cabs to the nearest public transport, and I'm not really sure how far away that is. Anyway, back to my dilemma. After much (and I'm talking hours and hours) research and testing different scenarios, I finally decided to buy tickets from Edinburgh to Birmingham, which I found for only 30 GBP each. From Birmingham it's less than 30 miles to our resort. We can take another train to Lichfield, which is only 5 miles or so from the resort, or a bus, or rent a car. We just have to decide what to do. So, that's our dilemma. Do we rent a car? Will that allow us to visit all the places we want to visit more easily than taking public transport? But then we have to deal with traffic, parking, the price of gas, and driving on the wrong side of the road with a manual transmission on the wrong side of the driver. And which will be most cost effective? We're not rich. I don't want to spend the majority of our vacation funds on transportation. I was hoping to eat once in a while. So.... any thoughts, any insights, any help.... greatly appreciated. Just make it fast... T-minus 72.5 hours.