Wednesday 11th October 2023

Time to go home.

I did wonder if I should have made tracks the night before, travel back in the evening, as Wednesday was expected to be wet.

Very wet.

Especially in the north and west.

Which is where I was setting off from.

I had all day, so take it easy. I thought.

I went for breakfast at eight, mainly for the coffee, although I did have sausage and bacon butties.

From the terrace, views across the car park down to the Mersey and the Wirral beyond, with dark clouds gathering, promising lots of rain.

Again.

Back to the room to pack, then load the car and set the sat nav, just in case I had to avoid traffic.

Which is pretty much what happened. The sat nav, or i phone, took me off the main road, away from the "delights" of Manchester in the morning rush hour, instead taking me down A roads to Chester and Nantwhich to joining the M6 heading south there.

I remember little of it, a series of ring roads and by-passes with roundabouts and traffic lights, with most traffic heading the other way, and then it began to rain.

Not the monsoon we were told to expect, but heavy steady rain, which while on A roads was fine, but once on the motorway, heading south into the brighter skies of Northamptonshire, the spray was alsmost impossible to see through, not helped by those cars whose drivers must think lights are not needed once dawn breaks

I crawled at 50mph southbound, cars and lorries overtaking until i reached the M6 toll, and traffic thinned, and the modern road surface seemed to make no spray, and driving became a pleasure again.

All was going well until I turned onto the A14 heading south east to Cambridge, when traffic stopped for then minutes, so we were held up by the age old problems of lorries and truck whose drivers were using cruise control, so going 1 mph quicker meant it could take 5 minutes to inch past the truck in front.

Mile after mile of that, until just before the A1, the road cleared and we could pick up speed and really get some driving down.

From there, very little trouble, roads quiet enough even in bleedin' Essex, onto the M25 and to Dartford and crossing the river into Kent.

It was even nearly sunny, so my mood lifted down the M20 to Dover and home.

After unpacking, I made a brew and was not shocked at the poor feline welcome I received with only Scully approaching for some "meow".

I took the car back at four, then went to M&S for some shopping, and finally to the White Horse for a pint and wait for Jools to drive by and take us home.

After two and a half weeks of travel, I was back for some time now, and it felt good.

And relax.

Though no football to watch, so we had an early night