What a lovely journey we had up to Grantham.
We weren't completely unforewarned; with the major UK airports grounding all domestic flights and the attendant travel chaos being reported on the news for the past fourty eight hours, not to mention the rather unmissable thick fog outside the window and all added to the fact that it was the last work day before Christmas, we had a reasonable idea that it wouldn't be a great journey.
For a two and a half hour journey under normal conditions, we thought three and a half hours wasn't too bad, but that was in the end. From the junction with the M11 until Cambridge the journey sucked. Not only was visibility very low, making for lots of stop/start traffic, but 20 miles outside of Cambridge, everything slowed down to about ten miles an hour.
We've been here before. In fact, three Christmases ago we must have been one of the last cars to make it past Cambridge as a bad snow storm closed in. That time, thousands of motorists ended up stuck on the motorway overnight. We were wheelspinning on the snow that was rapidly hiding the tarmac, but we were able to get to K___'s mum and dad's for Christmas.
At the time we were thinking that we'd had a lucky escape, but ultimately, whilst being stuck in the car overnight in snow wouldn't have been much fun, we would have coped. This year it would have been very much less amusing, with a heavily pregnant wife in the car. Still, it wasn't snowing, and although the traffic was slow, it was at least moving. As is often the case, once we got past Cambridge, things eased up.
By the time we got up onto the A1, there were patches where the sun was able to shine through with sufficient strength to cast shadows. Nice in its own way, but when you pitch between clear and foggy patches, it's not much fun.
We were stiff and bored by the time we got to Grantham and we weren't impressed to see someone had put out a traffic cone in the only free space outside my in-laws. Selfish bastards, we declared and drove round the corner. As I lugged several tonnes of presents up their steps, I was met by my mother-in-law. 'Why didn't you phone us - we put a cone out, so you could have the space,' she said.
Still, at least we were there now - time for a nice relaxing Christmas.
We weren't completely unforewarned; with the major UK airports grounding all domestic flights and the attendant travel chaos being reported on the news for the past fourty eight hours, not to mention the rather unmissable thick fog outside the window and all added to the fact that it was the last work day before Christmas, we had a reasonable idea that it wouldn't be a great journey.
For a two and a half hour journey under normal conditions, we thought three and a half hours wasn't too bad, but that was in the end. From the junction with the M11 until Cambridge the journey sucked. Not only was visibility very low, making for lots of stop/start traffic, but 20 miles outside of Cambridge, everything slowed down to about ten miles an hour.
We've been here before. In fact, three Christmases ago we must have been one of the last cars to make it past Cambridge as a bad snow storm closed in. That time, thousands of motorists ended up stuck on the motorway overnight. We were wheelspinning on the snow that was rapidly hiding the tarmac, but we were able to get to K___'s mum and dad's for Christmas.
At the time we were thinking that we'd had a lucky escape, but ultimately, whilst being stuck in the car overnight in snow wouldn't have been much fun, we would have coped. This year it would have been very much less amusing, with a heavily pregnant wife in the car. Still, it wasn't snowing, and although the traffic was slow, it was at least moving. As is often the case, once we got past Cambridge, things eased up.
By the time we got up onto the A1, there were patches where the sun was able to shine through with sufficient strength to cast shadows. Nice in its own way, but when you pitch between clear and foggy patches, it's not much fun.
We were stiff and bored by the time we got to Grantham and we weren't impressed to see someone had put out a traffic cone in the only free space outside my in-laws. Selfish bastards, we declared and drove round the corner. As I lugged several tonnes of presents up their steps, I was met by my mother-in-law. 'Why didn't you phone us - we put a cone out, so you could have the space,' she said.
Still, at least we were there now - time for a nice relaxing Christmas.
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