It’s hard to believe it’s the 21st September, the sun is shining and it’s going to be another hot day. It’s our travel day today, and we’ll be driving from page 120 in Cumbria, through the pages of our super atlas to Dorchester and Upwey on page 10. That’s a lot of pages to get through! Of course we’d rather be out walking in this beautiful countryside on a glorious day like today but it’s the last day of our road trip so we’ll be sat in the car negotiating the motorways and the weekday traffic for at least 330 miles. We’ve got a long way to go so best get a move on!
After a good nights sleep, helped no doubt by being out in the fresh air for most of the day, oh, and not forgetting the bottle of wine we’d consumed at the pub, we were up at 7am sorting ourselves out, packing and inspecting our injuries from our walk the previous day. Surprisingly I’d made it over the barbed wire fence with no more that a few holes in my trousers but poor Maice had sustained a very noticeable and sore large bruise to her left hand after getting it trapped in one of the very narrow gates we had to squeeze through. Just as well she’s not driving today!
Without my Churchill policy number I’d been unable to report the incident online so having contacted Hayley, my neighbour and asked her to pop in and retrieve said policy number for me, she did just that.👏👏👏 and finally managed to report it online. At least thats done now. All I have to do now is wait for them to contact me.
We made it down to breakfast for 8am and enjoyed another delicious breakfast, had a chat with Brenda and before we knew it the car was packed up and we were on our way, with me back in the drivers seat! The first obstacle was reversing out of the garage. Maice had to guide me out due to the fact that there is now a piece of Lino covering the back window and I’d be reliant on using my wing mirrors only. Happy to say the manoeuvre was executed perfectly. We said our goodbyes to our fantastic host Brenda who asked us to let her and Derek know that we’d arrived home safe and sound and headed off towards the M6. Despite the ‘incident’ on our arrival, we’ve had a great time and would certainly recommend staying here at Tranna Hill, where you’ll receive a very warm welcome and enjoy some amazing walks in the countryside.
Being in the navigators seat meant that Maice had to direct us home, not that it would be a difficult task, I mean, how difficult can it be….its the M6 and M5 and then cross country from J25 but she’s also in charge of all our service station stops and note taking. At the service stations we’ve got to make sure that we drive into a drive-through space so we don’t need to do any reversing manoeuvres……you know, just in case! At the first stop I rang Auto Glass to find out what was going on with replacing the windscreen. We decided that they should deal directly with Maice and believe it or not about thirty minutes later Maice had received the call and her windscreen was being replaced on Wednesday afternoon, by Christopher. What a great service. I have to say that all the ladies we’ve spoken to from Autoglass have been extremely helpful and provided excellent customer service. I’ll definitely be sending an email to the company to say how impressed I am.
As driving goes, it was a pleasant drive, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was hot, going up to a whopping 23 degrees. I’m sure the left side of my face and arm will become very tanned what with them being exposed to the sun on this very long journey. We mused about the weather and how we think we’ve both caught the sun over this past week, which has been glorious from day one. Maice had particularly caught it around her décolletage area and I’d caught it on my nose! What amazing weather we’re having for this time of year…..and as Maice put it…..‘its Mother Nature on menopause again’.
We stopped off at Gloucester Services where we decided to forgo the food we still had in our ‘larder’ and buy something hot, so ended up with chips and a toasted cheese sandwich. Like everyone in their caravans and camper homes we set up our folding chairs in the car parking space next to JJ and enjoyed a relaxing lunch, just the three of us, Maice, Marvin and me, soaking up this wonderful September sun. Ah, it was lovley!
Back in the car we observed how much our IT skills were continuing to improve. We now use our phone to capture notes of what we’ve done in the daytime so we don’t forget anything for the blog. Previously we’d used our ‘Autumn is coming’ notebook which is fine, but when you’re scribbling everything down ones handwriting tends to become a bit unreadable. So today, as the navigator it was Maices turn to take the notes. It’s rather amusing listening to her technique. With her ‘work’ voice on it goes a bit like this……..’M&A Facetime meeting for later. Full stop. New paragraph. Action for Angela. Update spreadsheet. Full stop. New paragraph’…..and so it goes on!
When we get home, we’ll need to add all the unforeseen expenses to the spreadsheet, unforeseen expenses like the speeding fine and the excess on the windscreen replacement plus the excess for undenting the dents to the derrière of the car. What an expensive holiday it’s turned out to be. I know our roadtrip is coming to an end today but we’re still on holiday until Maice goes back to work, which is Thursday, so who knows what we’ll do and what we’ll spend over the next few days.
Reflecting on our roadtrip, it’s been fantastic. We’ve visited some amazing places and seen some amazing things. We’ve stayed in some wonderful accommodation, in Crookabeck, Iona and Newbiggin on Lune. We’ve met some lovely folk along the way and most importantly we’ve met with our friends, the scottish contingent, Pearl, Dianne and Sandra and shared some wonderful times and made new memories. As for M&A, Maice and Angela, we’ve laughed all the way through our roadtrip……it’’s been awesome, amazing, fabulous darlings. We would definitely recommend doing a roadtrip in the UK and exploring this wonderful island. And if you have a ‘Marvin’ why not take them along too!
We arrived home at 5pm, took a selfie of us at the back of the car to send to Brenda and Derek, proving that his handiwork in taping up the window had held throughout the journey and that was it. We said our goodbyes and Maice headed off home where no doubt, a speeding fine would be waiting for her on the mat!
Can you believe this. Not only was there a speeding fine of £100 waiting on the mat, there was also a parking fine in the sum of £100 from Cartmel racecourse carpark of all places, telling us we hadn’t paid! Okay, calm down and count to three! Although we no longer have the ticket, we paid for it through our card so we have the evidence. Honestly, It doesn’t rain, it pours. Now, where’s that spreadsheet……
M&A xx
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