Day 1: 19th June 2010

An early start at work saw me and Tony with everything packed into Dennis and we left the back door at about 0702, once again waved off by a throng of, er, none.

Straight on the A61, wondering whether the waypoints that TOny had set would work OK. We had a few curious changes of route on the way, thanks to things like TomTom's most up to date maps not knowing about the 2 year old changes to the centre of Wakefield.

This time, we chose to follow the A38 through Birmingham rather than trying to skirt round, and so this year is the first that we've not used a single M-road. Going this way, Dennis almost went home again as we drove through Longbridge. Not much there now but it actually seemed a lot easier and quicker.

We saw the Doors on the way too. Not the real ones, nor even a tribute band, but loads of them stuck against a wall. They'd tried to get into the music business themselves, but found it wasn't the opening they were looking for (groan)...

The run down to Bristol went well, and we met up with Team Luna (Stacy and Sarah - AKA Bug) earlier than expected. A quick loo break reminded us of the old adage: "Always check round the corner for urinals before taking up 2 cubicles"... After a wander around Bristol thanks to a road closure, we ended up crossing the Clifton Suspension Bridge. 50p in the bucket later - and the little bloke in his jacket running out to press a button - and we were on to the other side.

A nice steady run down to Bideford after that, traffic was fairly good and we were at Asda to pick up some more supplies by 1615. Full of stuff, we headed off to the camp site, where some of our fellow LEJOGgers were already pitched. Chris had made it in his tractor (BIG SMILEY) after following our many instructions, and we pitched the tents, chilled out for a little and headed off to Alison and Ian's for the barbeque.

Once there, we found the beer bucket a little lacking (I think some BYO was expected) so me and Chris shot off back to Sainsburys to grab some more for us, and by the time we were back the food was nearly ready.

And so, the evening progressed; we got to hear that since Jock was fixed, Carol's not had trouble with trapped wind (BIG SMILEY), and every third sentence for a while was ripe for (and followed by) "as the bishop said to the actress" or vice versa. Good stuff.

And then, after a small forehead/lintel interface moment (which is still a little sore) we got to hear about the annual inspections that Chris does, once a year... We got to hear how wood and steel frames for buildings differ, and established that rabbits last better in shipping containers but marshmallows don't, unless they're in Chard. All brought about by the jet engine which was lit again this year, although burning through 4 days of Penny's wood may have been excessive...

And so, as the evening drew to a close, we heard that Bug likes to party by herself, with the music in her head audible all over the camp site (BIG SMILEY). It was time to retire for the evening, and so following a hike to the loo block (and a scary meeting with Chris in his dressing gown on the way back) I settled down for the night.