What a journey home

My daily commute takes me about 27 miles across the moors. Its usually fairly standard.

Today however, for reasons I can not explain (because I don't know myself), I felt the urge to take the coast road instead.

First up, I missed the turn off for the coast road and ended up on the moor road anyway. Oh well, moor road it is then. Except I got stuck behind a gritter. 25mph all the way and no safe chance to overtake.

So I spotted a sign for Port Mulgrave, which is on the coast, so I figured what can go wrong? That must lead to the coast road. I took it. So in the dark, I found myself on a single track "road" that just went on and on, getting more and more narrow, and it had fords in it and everything, and gradients so steep and slidy and muddy that I found myself constantly on the lookout for ditching opportunities in case I lost it on one of these very steep, very slippery gradients.

After about three quarters of an hour of this, I was relieved to finally see green 'primary road' signs. I'd somehow arrived back on the moor road. I must have been a bit pixie led though because here's the twist. I came out on the same side of said moor road as I'd been on before pulling off it, and I hadn't gone under a tunnel, and there are no bridges over the road, so I have no idea how that worked. Some sort of magic I guess.

So a few miles later, I still had the inexplicable urge to not be on that road, so I came off at the junction that leads to my dad's village, knowing that its only a short drive from there to the coast road. I got to the coast road, where there were coppers everywhere directing traffic around some sort of incident. Very, very slow.

Anyway the journey continues. Then nightmare. Gothilda sounds different. I know she has a slow oil leak that I've been meaning for ages to fix (it is literally a half a job even for someone like me with no mechanical skills). I think she has lost too much oil.

Anyway, home now. After Gotty has cooled off I'll give her a drink of oil and hope she's ok, then at the weekend I'll do that job I've been putting of for ages.

 

You must be so glad to be at home, Clue. Have a cup of tea. Or something stronger.

 

So glad that your guardian angel was with you this evening Clue. Welcome back to the comfort of your GC armchair,
Jenny

 

Quite a lot by the sound of it.

I think that's where you went wrong Clueless. Never tempt fate. You start doing that and she takes it as a challenge.

Anyway, at least you're home now, better luck tomorrow.

 

Clueless, that sounds like a typical day at work for me, trying to avoid our appalling motorway traffic! Glad you are home safe, no joke in the winter, things can get serious very quickly in cold weather so I'll give a bit of advice here, always have a sleeping bag, water and high energy food stashed in the boot, just in case

 

Such thoughts did enter my head when I was lost on some remote single track road. I'd seen the gritter out on the main road, meaning they expected it to drop below zero, the road I was on was already wet and slippy, and I just kept thinking if I don't get out of here before it freezes, chances are I'm spending the night out here

 

Thank the Lord for a mobile phone when you feel you might be "painting yourself into a corner",
Jenny

 

The Moors are a pretty bleak place at this time of the year....Glad you got back home safe

 

Lead by a Pixie? Lead by a bottle more like

 

I've been down roads like that in a 44ton Artic going the farms in the middle of nowhere, some places in Devon,Someset and Cornwall are just as bad, been on roads that says unsuitable for cars and carvans and i'm going down with 44ton Artic

 

We got a single track road with blind bends near here, they built a huge potato packing factory along it, so now the road is covered in skid marks as folk come face to face with huge lorries coming and going along it.

Daft thing is, its right next to the A303, so it could have had its own slip road without too much effort.

 

Not just as bad. Worse

I've been to Cornwall a few times. The terrifying little single track road I found myself on last night was practically the M1 compared to some of the 'A' roads in Cornwall.

As horrid as this road was, I was able to drive down it without the hedgerows brushing down both sides of my car at once

Oh, I forgot to mention. There was one funny bit. I met another vehicle. We obviously needed to pass each other. I was in my rear wheel drive road car, he was in a big new looking 4x4. We stopped, facing each other. Either side of us was just sloppy mud, all churned up. I thought to myself, 'if I put my car in that, it aint going anyway til I can find a friendly farmer with a tractor, you're the one in the 4x4 matey'. After about a minute I think he realised, and took his new looking clean 4x4 into the mud. I was glad I didn't yield when I saw how far he sunk. He was nearly down to his axles but he was ok. There's no way on earth I could have got through it in my car.

 

Few years back, I pulled over for someone & got stuck in the mud.

The bloke saw I was stuck in his rear view mirror & came back to help me out, broke a few of his dog leads before he managed to tow me out, bless him

 

The sugar beet harvest is in full swing round these parts at present. It's not always possible for the farmers to clear all the mud off the roads straight away, which usually catches a few people out.

Just last month, right outside where I work, we had white van man ending up nose first in a deep ditch after he failed to realise that wet mud on road, plus sharpish bend at the bottom of a hill, meant that the road might just be a little slippery.