On Sunday me and the Mrs got in the car for a trip to see my mum, she had just moved house and needed a hand. 230 miles isn't an a small journey but you would think as it's one I do regularly one that shouldn't have too many surprises...

Well this trip had a couple, firstly for a bank holiday weekend Sunday morning was a good time to go to Cornwall. There was very little traffic and they have opened up a whole new stretch of duel carriageway in Cornwall that gets around a nasty bottleneck. Both of these plus a terrible case of lead foot syndrome mean that we got down in record time of about 3.5 hours.

It turns out that that a Thursday isn't a good time to take a 230 mile road trip!

First off someone thought it was a good day to stuff their car under the wheels of a truck on the A30. They payed the ultimate price for their mistake and have the rest of eternity to contemplate the whole car v truck thing. With the A30 completely closed for the guys in the white jumpsuits to question does my bum look big in this? We had to take another route, for those that weren't aware there are not too many ways of getting out of Cornwall.
We set out at 10:30, spent about half an hour getting fuel and nipping in to Rowe's to get the pasties. It was 13:15 before we crossed in to England! The only high point was the trip over the bridge, fantastic views but were mugged for a quid by a grumpy bugger in a booth. If you lived in Plymouth you would be grumpy too but what the heck we were on fast roads to Exeter! Once we were back on our normal route having spent an extra two hours getting out of Cornwall I thought our troubles would be over...

What's this fascination with using your car to test the breaking performance of trucks?!? This time it was at Wimbourne, I don't think it was fatal this time but I do know it was an hour of my life I'm never getting back!

The M27, not a terribly long motorway but always busy. At rush hour (why is it called rush hour when it lasts for 4 I don't know) an agile monkey could jump from car to car and make it from Southampton to Portsmouth without touching the ground! Someone else picks an argument with a truck and the M27 s reduced to one hell of a car park! At this point Julie complains that she has read all of the writing on the vehicles around us and could we get a move on because she is bored and need new vehicles to read! We all have different ways of dealing with boredom of long car journeys. Julie plays word games with sign-writing and number plates! It would appear my only job in this is to provide new things to read...

At Portsmouth the M27 turns into the A27 and at this point some burk thinks it a good time to brake down in the middle lane. Portsmouth is an island with a limited numbers of ways on and off. We have grid lock lady's and gentlemen, it's not a theory it's a fact! It takes another hour just to get from the A27 on to Portsea island. Half a mile! Grrrrrrr...

Both tired and emotional me and the Mrs get home at 5:30, 7 hours in a car just to find that the milk is off and somehow we have run out of toilet rolls.