Journey from hell

To put things simply, we could not have timed this more badly.
Hubby had an INR appointment this morning, after which we decided to have a few days away with MOH.
It’s the first time we’ve attempted anything longer than an hour’s duration since the DVT problems that manifested themselves when we went down to the funeral.

We set off at 10.30 totally confident of our route, after all, I had it all written down on a piece of paper in the car……………….. not.
Hubby has cleaned the car inside and out since and had a tidy up. The map book has also been binned, so we were now totally reliant on the SatNav, which had a thing about wanting us to go on the motorways. There are major roadworks on the M4, M5 and M32, surprisingly all three en route a la SatNav.
No matter, I was pretty sure of where we were going, even if we had disagreed at the first major junction.

After thirty minutes, we changed drivers and I drove for about an hour. We did this in relays with fifteen minutes potty breaks/stretch of legs each time we stopped.
Hitting the Lincoln bypass, we passed the biggest traffic jam I’ve seen in a long time going in the opposite direction.
It did not bode well for us coming back, nor did it help when we then started to hit roadworks on our side.
At least we got through the first set of lights relatively quickly.

We followed a mobile home for about 30 miles. No, not a caravan or camper van, one of those huge mobile bungalows that was being delivered to wherever and it took up the entire width of the dual carriageway, so no-one could get by (not that it was actually hanging around).
We had to stop for a break though and took a good half hour as Hubby was suffering. Maggie had been extremely good so far, bless her.
By the time we got back on the road, the mobile unit had gone but we hit everything else and lost valuable time, and patience.
Needing to stop later, all lay bys on our side were closed, and the service station was service-less as the garage and shop attached were shut.
Knowing we could get a Subway just after we crossed over the M4, we carried on. We couldn’t find it, and ended up in a supermarket superstore for a sandwich and much needed cup of tea. We’d been on the road for over 6 hours.

I was driving again, Hubby having had to take one of his major bomb painkillers, and I took a wrong turn. Nothing too drastic as we were able to turn off and pick up the right road again. We were behind a couple of idiots who didn’t know where the gas pedal or indicator switch was, and being unfamiliar roads, I couldn’t overtake them.
We were extremely relieved when both turned off, only to notice a tractor holding three bales of hay aloft turn out of a side road in front of us.
It just was not fair!

I now recognised where I was, having previously lost all sense of direction, distance and time, and we finally pulled into MOH’s drive at 6pm.
Bless him, there were two huge mugs of tea waiting.
We have not done much this evening apart from catch up on the news.
Maggie is exhausted and curled up on the bed between us, Hubby is equally shattered and the painkiller is wearing off, and I’m also tired, but my mind is going twenty to the dozen.

Hopefully we’ll all sleep well and I can catch up with everything tomorrow……… maybe!
Photo: MOH and me taken in the quarry, June 2015

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