Day five: keep them guessing

"If we do what they're expecting us to do, then they won't expect us to do it, because that's what they think we'll do. I think."

Morning came, better weather than expected but still darn early. This year we decided to head for Blackpool, to make a bit of a change.

It was shut. There was nothing to see except a bit of a rusty erection. The tower is not looking good these days, and a lot of the promenade is being rebuilt, tarted up or just generally being fettled with.

During this detour it was mentioned that Linda would like to see the horse drawn trams on the Isle of Man, but as David pointed out, how do the horses hold the pencils?

"... but if we do what they don't expect us to do, then they'll be expecting us to do that instead... I expect..."

So with nothing else to keep us there, we decided to run up the prom and head for Fleetwood, then cut over to the A6 and our usual route.

Obviously this was a new route, largely unplanned, so at one point with all the TomToms fighting each other it was the Google Navigation woman who came to the rescue and before we knew it we were on our way, along a great set of roads which helped ease us into the day after the big trek the day before.

Lancaster came next, then Carnforth - which we seemed to have hit on "cut up a Mini day" - and we also tried to look out for Trigger following a sign staying "SLOW ROAD SWEEPER". It wasn't long til we hit Kendal for breakfast. Jock was getting a little thirsty on oil (too much marking of territory!) so a stop at Halfords was needed.

The run up Shap was easy enough, the weather mostly holding and traffic was light, except the push bikes...

"But if they expect us to expect that we'd expect they'd expect us to do what they'd expect us to expect them to expect us to do, then we should just expect to do what they expect us to do... I expect..."

Even though this year's run is down to 3 Minis and Lotty's van, Carlisle still beat us. By the time we were half way we were in three groups: Carol and Michelle leading Terry and Linda, me and David out on our own and James somewhere way behind. So much so that although me and David managed to catch up and follow on along the A7, James ended up on the M6... we waited in a layby about 4 miles out of Carlisle, but eventually got a phone call saying we'd meet up again at Gretna Green, our next destination.

"Things can change at any minute. We need to be less conspicuous... disguise ourselves... they won't be expecting that..."

And lo, the wetness did descend on our intrepid travellers, making the short(ish) run to Gretna fairly rubbish but we managed to get to our lunch stop without too much hassle. Lotty was already waiting there for us so we parked up in our usual places and headed in to see if there was any new tat. There wasn't, but we did manage to get a pair of "Jock disguises"...

With the rain proving particularly persistent we weren't looking forward to pitching tents at our overnight stop, but Moffat had a break while we got set up. Of course the break wasn't quite long enough so we did end up with a few damp patches again.

Having previously been dubbed "Team Gaffer Tape" I decorated Lotty's bonnet with the team name, written in gaffer tape in backwards letters, ambulance-style. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself...

Following this, and my earlier purchase of the cake that thinks it's a biscuit that thinks it's a cake, we ended up being dubbed Team Jaffa Cake, to complement Team Gaffer Tape.

"I think we can relax a bit now. We're amongst friends..."

Star Inn was next, me, David and James heading up first to check out the place. We ended up having quite a pool tournament, with James coming on top after several games. Personally I think we were hustled, seeing as he's still the de facto John O'Groats champion...

So after whacking a few balls and drinking the odd pint of Criffel (the local brew, very nice) the other LEJOGgers arrived and it was time for tea. The usual high standard of food and an easy to wind up waiter (poor lad ;-) ) followed, with plenty of good natured banter and a review off the run so far. Not sure the other patrons were quite so happy with the banter though...

The others left with David and I having another, and we finally got back to the camp site at about quarter to 10. Everyone else was in bed and mostly asleep by then, so we thought we'd do the same. No point staying up any later as the wee beasties were absolutely vicious this year...

Glens tomorrow, then Inverness. 7am start, up at 6am to pack away...