We didn't set off until 11.30, a serious tactical error. The roof rack was hard to pack and lash down, and no, we hadn't practised that part of it. We got as far as the Burtonwood services on the M62 when the radiator boiled over. An RAC man arrived after about an hour, flushed it out and we set off again. A few miles down the road - same thing. This time we waited for 1 hour 15 mins before another RAC man turned up, only to tell us that the radiator is duff and we need a new one - terrific! All this time the girls have been really good, maybe oblivious to the situation, only vaguely wondering why we aren't moving.
We limp to the nearest service area to be told now that not only has the radiator gone but we need a new cylinder head gasket - even more terrific. The mechanic further complicates matters by informing my husband, David (who doesn't drive and knows less than nothing about cars), that "You can't just change it, you have to skim the head first" - What?! Oh and by the way, "We can't do that until Monday, sorry!"
OK, so now what to do? Go home? How negative! Limp on and hope to stay with a friend further down the motorway and chance getting it done on Monday? Not an option. Phone the RAC again? Why not? So now the third RAC man was on the way, leaping into his little van, (they were little in those days), and comes to look at the car. By now it's the most looked at car on the motorway and if he does that thing of pursed lips, sharp intake of breath and shaking head, I might thump him, because I'm fed up and it's damned hot.
But no, my hero knows of a garage who will fix it tomorrow. But, I say, it's Sunday tomorrow. He's very matter-of-fact "They work a 7 day week", he assures me. Now in 1978 that's quite something and I don't think I believed him until he had towed us there (at the best speeds we had done all day) and deposited me with the garage man in some little outback in Cheshire - we didn't really know where we were until he told us he had booked us a hotel in Holmes Chapel - at a price. So in a day we had managed to travel from Formby to Holmes Chapel, a distance of about 50 miles which we would have expected to take an hour on a bad day ...
Lovely hotel, we bathed the kids and put them to bed after tea and then had a lovely meal with wine. Very relaxing and all the better for being unexpected. So we were down a day, didn't really matter.
Expenses £
Petrol 5.07
Meal (Burtonwood) 2.39
Tea (Knutsford) 1.30
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