One of you identified the errant spelling of the “Euro-Traveller” series. However, having consulted page 3331 of 3742 in the “Shorter” Oxford English Dictionary…
… I find that “travelers” can be spelt with either one or two Ls. So, no problem after all!
While staying with Rod and Marion, I read an old letter to the Daily Telegraph in 2011 by someone by the name of Joe Gibson Dawson. He used the brilliant expression – “A fainéant band of contriculators”. “Fainéant” is a well recognised word meaning (as I expect you will know) – “A person who does nothing, an idler or an inactive official”. “Contriculators”, on the other hand, appears to be a constructed word based on “Con” and “Tricks”. I can only imagine he was referring to EU officials at that time. I’m determined to get this expression into my text. I may need some help with this because I’m ruling out using it to describe the current “band” of EU mandarins. Anyway…
We stayed the Monday night at the Punchbowl pub in Lapworth, near Solihull. I mention this specifically because it was really good. Highly recommended!
We even had the bar to ourselves at breakfast time!
There’s a lot of moving around on this trip. Lots of activity – and not much time to keep up! It’s Tuesday today and that means the caravan show at the NEC (Birmingham). All day! We were waiting in the atrium outside the show for over half an hour before opening time! And we were still looking at caravans seven hours later!
But we didn’t buy one, although we did bother a few of the hundreds of salesmen at the event!
So OMEHO 2 (Our Mobile European Home number 2) survives to serve another year. Always assuming that the replacement of the whole rear panel goes according to plan…
After the show, having located our car in the massive sea of other peoples’ cars we headed off North. Slowly. Extremely slowly! The first 18 miles took us best part of two hours. Rush hour on the M6 is a battle in its own right. The junction of the M5 and M6 is always a virtual carpark. But when there’s an accident which blocks the road immediately after that point, it becomes a fully qualified picnic area. We got the “rush-hour-with-accident” version.
Actually, related to this, today’s joke is a short one.
The M6.
I told you it was short joke. And, sadly, not a funny one! At the outset, there was the disastrous accident which had really spoilt one family’s day and annoyed another 60,000 motorists. And when we did eventually get into third gear, we discovered that great sections of the road are being widened to make way for four-lane picnic areas. This is being done under the guise of converting the motorway into a “Smart Motorway”. Presumably this is so they can keep changing the speed limits with the combined aim of improving traffic flow and increasing revenue from fines applied to motorists more intent on self-preservation than checking the speed limit every two minutes. (Clearly the latter is expected to pay for the £274 million investment!) One section being up-graded was an exasperating 19 miles long. With narrow lanes and a 50 mph limit enforced by the dreaded (but effective) average speed cameras. The 108 miles took us nearly three days to complete – well it seemed about that long anyway! And so we reached Preston (give or take five miles).
The Hallmark Hotel has the great advantage for travellers (and travelers) of being located about two and a half metres from junction 28 of the motorway. Well less than 200 metres, anyway. Its other main selling point is that it’s cheap! I suppose it also has the additional advantage of getting us to within an hour’s drive of the Lake District – our next target.
On Wednesday, after filling up with fuel at non-Lake-District-prices we drove to meet cousin Mary – Contrary Mary – at Beetham garden centre.
Now we have no need to visit New England to see the “Fall colours”, and, absolutely coincidentally, their tea shop does sell amazingly enormous cream-plastered gooey meringues. I do like co-incidences of that sort! Three coffees, one meringue and three spoons! Excellent. Not a calorie in sight (after we had finished!).
Onwards and upwards. From Windermere up to Kirkstone Pass…
… and down to Patterdale, Glenridding and our hotel. The Inn On The Lake. The “Lake” in question being Ullswater.
The view from our room and that from our dining table.
Tomorrow is another day filled with the promise of walking in the fells – perhaps better descibed as “walking, looking up at the fells”! At least we don’t have to face travelling anywhere via Paddington or Victoria stations in London. All trains seem to have been cancelled there this morning. And we can avoid the M6 with its attendant traffic jams and the M40 with foreigners towing caravans the wrong way for 8 miles. Not to mention the M4 and M56 closed by other serious accidents.
I blame Brexit negotiations…
Travelers must be an acceptable alternative for Britain only, here in the colonies we use travellers (or in America- as computers don’t like Australian English )