The journey continued . . .

[peck72]

Well, a little later than I had intended but such is life.

    We left Edinburgh about 3pm, and took what was probably the long way out of the city ("Have you got the map?" "No, I though you had the map." "Oh ok, lets try this way then") and onto the A1.
    The Friday was definitly the longest days travelling we put in and had me pretty much completely wiped out by the time we stopped for the night but I was glad to have got the bulk of the move over with and was thinking that it would be all much easier from this point on. We had intended stopping at a place called Scotch Corner (strangely enough in Yorkshire rather than Scotland) at the Travelodge there. So we arrived and went to see if they had a room for the night. You'd think that a hotel situated at the services of a busy A-road/motorway would happily take walk-ins.

But apparently not.

• To book into the hotel you had to leave the hotel reception (which comes complete with receptionist).
  
• Go across the car park to the main services building there.
  
• Use a free phone in the open in the middle of the services (just so that anyone walking past can hear your credit card details).
  
• To call Travelodges automated booking hotline and book yourself into the building next door.
  

    Now it was a bit of a moot point since Scotch Corner was fully booked anyway but really where is the sense in a hotel not being able to accept guests without reservations? Surely it isn't too much trouble for the receptionist (not getting at the receptionist's here but the people who make the decisions higher up) to make the booking in person? Their computers are linked to the booking system anyway or else how do they know about new bookings?
    Anyway, after going through their automated system a few times we got ourselves a room at the Pontefract Travelodge (another 50 miles further on) and drove down there. So after leaving Newcastle at 9 that morning I finally got to a proper rest just after 9 that night and boy did I sleep well that night (or at least I did once I'd turned myself around to have my head down at the foot of the bed, the bed tilted down towards the headboard and I can't sleep if I'm lying with my head lower down a slope than the rest of my body. Anna did get very confused to wake up to the sight of my feet next to her though, which was amusing ;)

    Saturday consisted of a 4 hour drive and unload at the family farm. After which we got to meet all of Anna's (other) sisters growing managerie including the donkeys and Quail and had a catch up on the news with Anna's parents. We left on the Sunday, after church and a cracking roast dinner, and took our time coming back up the M6. So, 5 hours later we got home and collapsed onto the sofa. The final tally on the milage was around 920 miles for the trip from Speke to Speke (where we had hired the van from).

    Sorry about the lack of details on these days but I need to finish this and go to bed, plus not a great deal happened ;)