Pump It Up

Yesterday, I spent a few hours at Heathrow airport. I was taking a very special friend there to catch a flight (really? fancy that).

The journey down was so typical. The first bit travelling a few back roads of Norfolk/Camb was easy and pleasant. The second sector was okay, drop onto the A14, then A11, then M11. All dualled and flowing freely. Hit the cruise button and chill.
Then comes the M25. The first couple of miles were fine. We hit traffic at one of those "2 miles to roadworks" signs. We then crawled for 90 minutes. I say crawled, but it wasn't even like that. It would be preferable to travel at a constant 10 mph, but no. That would be way to easy. We have to sit for 2 mins, then engage 1st and travel for 10 yards before doign the same again, over and over and over and over. So depressing. I am so glad I don't do a job where I have to do that every day.

Eventually we clear the jam. Whay it is that you all of a sudden start moving again without anythign to indicate actually why there was the holdup???
20 miles or so and we got to Heathrow. Very busy. Fortunately it's all well signed and clear, so we were in the car park pretty smartish.
I like airports, but I've been spoilt somewhat by travelling from Stansted quite a bit. Heathrow is like Stansted except it's all squashed up with lower ceilings and less to do. Rubbish!

After an hour or so we had to say goodbye and it's homeward bound again. I know I haven't mentioned who I was dropping off, but I will at some point, and it's linked in with the August holiday, so keep guessing for now.

I get back on the M4 and look out for services signs. On the way in, my tank had got fairly low and it was telling me I had about 29 miles to go until I needed to fill up.. I saw a sign. 25 miles to the services. So this was going to be close. I know that manufacturers play it safe, and I probably had 40 miles or so in the tank. However, I did not relish the idea of running out and being stuck on the hard shoulder. So I bottled it.
Yet again, I'm going to sing the praises of Satnav once again. As far as I was aware, the nearest services were 25 miles away, right? Well, I hit the "Points Of Interest" button on the Tom Tom and pressed "Petrol Stations". It instantly showed up one about 3 miles away. Selecting it, I came off the motorway and after going off down some strange backroads, I was there within 5 minutes. How great is that? A road atlas can't do that for you!
Dialling in home again, it took me straight back to the M25 and onwards. Interestingly though, it came off before the M11 and went up the A1. I didn't mind this as I didn't really want to be stuck in traffic again (although it would have been considerably lighter at 21:00)
Flying along nicely, I was back in Camb with half an hour to go and then I noticed cars turning round in front of me. Bloody road closed due to an accident. This is the only route home I know! It's dark and I'm tired. Satnav to the rescue again! I hit "Find Alternative" and it takes me round the accident. Brilliant!

Get One!!!!