Friday, July 13, 2007
Friday the 13th - Unlucky for road travellers.
Good evening.... and the good part is that the day is over.
To sum up.... we got acustomed during the day to hearing each half hour that this seemed to be the worst day for traffic jams and delays through out the country that the compiler of traffic reports could remember.
It is fortunate. though, that we got round the M25 before troubles started there.
We were at Oxford Services in no time and I hadn't needed the bedpan!
BUT - by the time we reached the Birmingham area it was teeming with rain and the traffic reports left us wondering which route to choose.
It probably made little difference for both the M5 North and the M42 North were totally clogged up.
Naturally we felt fed and kept wondering if the road not travelled by us might have been better.
Eventually we reached the M6 - but that was no blessing. Traffic had slowed to a halt or crawl on both carriageways. The only advantage of this was that it lessened the amount of blinding spray.
And actually when we speeded up a bit we felt we had had enough of poor visibility and decided to go across country on little roads.
We were heading for Nantwich to find food.
But actually stopped in a village called Woore - the pub proclaimed that they were doing 2 meals for the price of one.
This was just as well for the prices were well above our normal lunchtime eating. But it was very good and a welcome break from the incessant rain.
The staff were friendly and we chatted for a long while to a young lad working as a waiter who was looking forward to getting away from the rain and going to Egypt this weekend.
Then we were back on the road again through little villages with wonderful names like Loggerheads, Mucklestone, No Man's Heath etc.
We seemed to be making some progress at last - until I saw the sign warning us of delays ahead caused by road works. It took half an hour to crawl through those 3 or 4 miles onto the Chester By Pass.
And still it rained.
I was getting a bit uncomfortable by this time - but soon we would be in Bangor.
And then about half a mile before we reached Abergwyngregyn the radio announced that there were delays on the A55 at this village just about 4 miles from Bangor.
And so we crawled slowly along - but in a certain amount of sunshine. For as if my magic we came through the Conwy tunnel and the light changed and the world looked brighter.
We pulled up in Orme Road almost 8 hours after we had left home - and I rushed straight in to the loo!
Katya had on one of her best dresses and was keen to show off some of her latest interests.
I played with her as she had a bath and then we ate a meal that Ashley had got ready for us.
Nice to be pampered.
I have read an Angelina Ballerina story and I am now ready for bed. I am so tired - partly the journey but also because I was up for a couple of hours in the night with bad pains from the treatment.
Tomorrow is another day. We hope that fields are not too soggy for car boot sales in the morning.
To sum up.... we got acustomed during the day to hearing each half hour that this seemed to be the worst day for traffic jams and delays through out the country that the compiler of traffic reports could remember.
It is fortunate. though, that we got round the M25 before troubles started there.
We were at Oxford Services in no time and I hadn't needed the bedpan!
BUT - by the time we reached the Birmingham area it was teeming with rain and the traffic reports left us wondering which route to choose.
It probably made little difference for both the M5 North and the M42 North were totally clogged up.
Naturally we felt fed and kept wondering if the road not travelled by us might have been better.
Eventually we reached the M6 - but that was no blessing. Traffic had slowed to a halt or crawl on both carriageways. The only advantage of this was that it lessened the amount of blinding spray.
And actually when we speeded up a bit we felt we had had enough of poor visibility and decided to go across country on little roads.
We were heading for Nantwich to find food.
But actually stopped in a village called Woore - the pub proclaimed that they were doing 2 meals for the price of one.
This was just as well for the prices were well above our normal lunchtime eating. But it was very good and a welcome break from the incessant rain.
The staff were friendly and we chatted for a long while to a young lad working as a waiter who was looking forward to getting away from the rain and going to Egypt this weekend.
Then we were back on the road again through little villages with wonderful names like Loggerheads, Mucklestone, No Man's Heath etc.
We seemed to be making some progress at last - until I saw the sign warning us of delays ahead caused by road works. It took half an hour to crawl through those 3 or 4 miles onto the Chester By Pass.
And still it rained.
I was getting a bit uncomfortable by this time - but soon we would be in Bangor.
And then about half a mile before we reached Abergwyngregyn the radio announced that there were delays on the A55 at this village just about 4 miles from Bangor.
And so we crawled slowly along - but in a certain amount of sunshine. For as if my magic we came through the Conwy tunnel and the light changed and the world looked brighter.
We pulled up in Orme Road almost 8 hours after we had left home - and I rushed straight in to the loo!
Katya had on one of her best dresses and was keen to show off some of her latest interests.
I played with her as she had a bath and then we ate a meal that Ashley had got ready for us.
Nice to be pampered.
I have read an Angelina Ballerina story and I am now ready for bed. I am so tired - partly the journey but also because I was up for a couple of hours in the night with bad pains from the treatment.
Tomorrow is another day. We hope that fields are not too soggy for car boot sales in the morning.
