A White Knuckle Day

As its been a bit of drag, the past few days for the kids, and we either haven't gotten out enough (sitting all day in the house, waiting for a refrigerator that never comes) or everyone has been grouchy, I decided that I was going to venture out and take the kids to someplace special. Searching through my tourism pamphlets last night, I discovered that "A Day out with Thomas" was happening today.

I packed up the kids and didn't tell them where we were going until about halfway through the trip. I couldn't. I didn't dare take my eyes off the road.

Let me preface this by saying that the countryside around Hay-on-Wye is some of the most stunning I have ever seen, especially on a gorgeous sunny day like today. Or, I should say, some of the most stunning I would have liked to have seen. Because , again, I didn't take my eyes off of the road.

The driving on the left bit hasn't fazed me a bit. The sat nav, on the other hand (thats the GPS to my American friends) drove me insane. It would direct me to "make a left, then a sharp right". Sadly, the "left" it was advising of was actually a curve in the road before a stop sign, so I didn't actually need to turn - if I didn't follow the road, after all, I would have ended up square in the middle of the hedgerow! That said, the GPS is a Godsend - the trip had so many turns to follow the road, I would have been lost in no time, so I'm glad I have it - especially now that I know to keep a close eye on the direction of the arrow despite the direction it instructs me to go.

So, back to the white knuckle part. Most of the trip to Lydney consisted of quiet roads. There was not a lot of traffic, which was lovely, and when I'm more familiar with the roads around here, they will be a heck of a lot of fun to drive on - hilly, twisty, turny - the whole shebang. However, a lot of the trip constituted the driving of narrow roads with tall hedgerows lining the way, no shoulder. Some bits were only wide enough for one car. And then you look down, and realize you are going 50 MPH. On a narrow, twisty road.

In some parts (the most nervewracking when cars barrelled past the other direction) reminded me of Star Wars Death Star battle scene where Luke was flying through the trenches:



Yeah, like that.
Well, like that, without the shooting.

So, thanks to the sat nav, we arrived at our destination only 10 minutes later than initially estimated - not bad. We were in one piece, the car was in one piece, no one was traumatized.

When it came time for the return trip, I was feeling pretty confident (silly me). I programmed the sat nav for home, and it played a trick on me - it didn't take me back the same way. Instead, it took me on a mountain road, with many, many parts that were one lane wide. With tall, tall hedgerows (two stories tall). Or one lane bridges.

White knuckles, people.

But now, with the kids in bed, sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea and a biscuit, I'm sitting back, fingers unclenched, proud of my adventure today. Yes, Thomas was wonderful, and I had a wonderful time with my kids, and they had a great time (I'll post pictures), but I'm most proud of the excursion itself.

Good one, me!