Changing Travel Plans
This was originally intended to be published on my blog at Suite101, but after six hours of trying –and failing– to connect to their site, I’ve given up and posted it here instead…
It’s eleven o’clock in the morning on the day that we’re supposed to be going away, but we’re not actually going.
Last night was an education; we went to Clutton, on the road between Bristol and Wells, for Kate’s Departmental Christmas Dinner. Kate suggested that we took the main bus routes, since they were the ones most likely to have been gritted. The downside to that was that the road was unfamiliar and –as we discovered when we travelled it– poorly lit.
But the scariest aspect was that although we de-iced the car, a clump of ice formed on the windscreen right in Kate’s line of vision; after a couple of minutes travel it became difficult to safely pull over, so I navigated for Kate as a co-pilot (when I was much younger I had a go at navigating in a rally car, but my rections weren’t fast enough; nonetheless, I’m used to ‘instructing’). The trouble with that was the road’s tendency to switchback abruptly, made worse by it being difficult to see more than fifty yards ahead.
So today we learned that the forecast has changed, and that while conditions here are bad, they’re appalling down south. Rain is hitting the ground and freezing on impact. The in-law’s drive is a skating rink, and the roads aren’t much better. Whereas the temperature is supposed to gradually rise today, overnight and tomorrow, so it should be okay to travel then.
And if it doesn’t, we’ll have enough food to get us through Christmas, although our diet will be a bit hit-or-miss.
Mince pie and slab of cheese, anyone?
