DAY 5: 23rd June 2010

The birds didn't bother us so much this morning, as the double glazing in the Travelbodge managed to block them out - plus there weren't that many round the motorway.

We managed to assemble in time in the car park, with Bug's Prozac gland working overtime. No one has yet figured out any other explanation for the high level of cheeriness...

And so, it was time to roll up a short bit of motorway, heading for Kendal and breakfast. The run up there was straightforward, we'd managed to avoid much of the rush hour and then we hit Kendal town centre. Just for us, Kendal Council had decided to close the road which would largely take us straight to our food, and the diversion was taking twice as much traffic as normal.

We got split up at this point, with some of us continuing down the closed road (which was only closed halfway down its length) and ending up in a housing estate, where a passing person was asked for directions. By this time I'd managed to get the Morrisons store in TomTom and we headed for there, with the Golden Girls in tow - but then we found that route wasn't too hot either. Onto Google Maps on the phone, and we ended up going the right way, and caught Lottie on the way, who followed us in to the store.

So, breakfast was ordered, and we were soon munching. Tony and Ian (car 4) nipped off to grab some stuff from the store, whilst someone nipped out of the fire door in the restaurant, setting off the door alarm. Wasn't going to stop me eating my breakfast of course...

Once done, it was back to the cars, where we found that the bits bought by Tony and Ian were to decorate Luna, as it was Bug's birthday. The pink ballons didn't last that long though once we got on the road.

Bug also got a present in the form of an interactive children's book, with pictures of guinea pigs, rabbits and cats. The interactive part was that each animal had some "fur" attached that could be stroked. Yes, I don't know quite why someone bought that, but Bug seemed to like it and there were plenty of innuendos flowing...

And so the journey continued; though it was a bit hazy (and cloudy in places) we could see Shap Fell, which was nice, and apart from getting split up a bit in Penrith there were no issues until we left, when we were buzzed by a Vanker from JC Furnishings of Penrith, who was rather keen on overtaking with oncoming traffic, and cutting up every car he pulled in front of.

Next challenge was, as ever, Carlisle. As if the traffic and lights weren't bad enough we had to get out of the way of a police van too - and the whole run through Carlisle could not have been fun for the GOlden Girls who haven't had a CB for the whole run - but once we got up to Gretna they were once more very appreciative of mine and Tony's attempts to keep them together with the group.

The Gretna stop was not too far, and welcome once we got there. Souveniers were bought, ice cream eaten and Barry got some vegetarian haggis too and before we knew it, we were back on our way to Moffat, another nice but uneventful journey.

Once on the campsite we got set up, and the Students headed off to the Star Hotel to watch the football. At this point, with us having plenty of time before we were eating, some people got together to try to get better reception on some of the CBs. Carol and Michelle's was first, ands bad SWR was diagnosed, fixed by fiddling with the aerial. Apparently, Carol had "pushed it in too far", and when doing the same with Stacy's, she proclaimed that "it's tight behind there, be careful"...

Still with plenty of time before food, Barry offered to take some of us Geocaching (a GPS based activity where objects are hidden and swapped by other geocachers - I'm sure someone has a fuller description). So Barry, me, Tony, Bug and Stacy headed off about 4 miles from the camp site to find a cache called the "Last Post", not far from a memorial to 2 postal workers overcome by snow in 1831... We were rather lucky on the way, as a nutter in a Peugeot decided to cross the white lines on a narrow bridge - a nasty crash was narrowly averted, and the rest of the visit to the geocache was much happier.

We got back and had a little more time to chill out before heading off for our food at the Star Hotel. Although the ordering system was fine again, there was some confusion over who was having haggis as a starter, and as a main course. In amongst the confusion it had been orgnaised that the vegetarian haggis from Gretna would be cooked up and served for Bug's birthday treat, which went down well in more ways than one. And so the innuendos flowed...

After our meals, some of us headed back to the campsite whilst others stayed in the pub, discussing how the run was going so far, who was driving which sections next etc. And after a few more swahlees (as I believe it's spelt) we headed back to the campsite ourselves. We tried our best to not annoy the caravan crowd, but it's not that easy when your tents are identified by a light, and me and Chris were singing "There's a light... over at the Frankenstein place"...

And so, to bed...