I would drive 500 miles - Day 1

So we drove to Scotland, it was pretty, the end.

Ha, you wish, we all know I'm about to write more words than any sane person is willing to read. Insinuations about your sanity aside, welcome back to Ron goes somewhere. This time Sofia is also here...

We wanted to do the NC500, so much so that we talked about seriously once. Looked up car rentals, flights, possible accommodation etc. We did this last thing whence we were super low energy, and the plan stalled.

After a bit of mmmm'ing, we decided to head up the west coast of Scotland and see where we could get. With a loose plan of possibly hitting Jason and Sam's up in Skye, if we got that far. We booked a couple of hotels, with Sofia wanted to leave it open if we stayed in an area or decided to go oscar mic.

My dad was kind enough to let us borrow his Toyota Corolla, a car he's had a love affair with since his first car. Which was also a Toyota Corolla, it was commandeered by the LTTE, returned but was repainted and never quite the same. This version looks a lot like a Scirocco, so much so that in an airport carpark I once walked straight past it as I thought it was a Scirocco.

Anyhow he got it serviced to make sure it was super safe, something he did in Derby, as all other services were unavailable. He didn't want to wait around and they didn't have a courtesy car. So he hopped on a train to Beeston, where I live with Sofia. He then found his way to our house and asked to borrow my car. I'm putting this in so I can remember him rocking up whilst I was in a forecasting meeting with Matt Jones.

Car stocked with clothes, pineapple juice, icepacks, camping stove, moka pot, cutlery etc. We get going about midday, maybe a little later, because I was eating my eggs. I'm driving the first leg. 180 miles to the Lake District.

We did stop for some lunch, Burger King, managed to get 30g of protein with a chicken Royale and some nuggets. There's a hench dude who reminds us of Haran, super hench gentleman/coach. We faff about a bit and get back on the road, I remember my spirits were lifted by the dogs I saw #DoggusIsTheBestus.

We were somewhat bewildered by the state of pop music i.e. Radio 1's playlist. So I think this is where we started station hopping.

As we approach the lakes it starts to get pretty. Mountains on the horizon, bodies of water. It's been several months since I started writing this, and here I am back at it again. But this time I'm in Manchester. An attempt to touch base with my little brother, he's gone to ground. Naturally my final resort is getting myself accommodation for 4 days and leaving an open invite.

One wrinkle, I've probably got covid. My one and only FiFifiFia has it, she's the one I went on this road trip with. Ah yes that's what I was doing.

Elevation, water, dusk, it's all rather nice indeed. We take a few pics, probably deploy the dash cam/active cam/go pro knock off. We notice that the lake district is full of middle aged folks, living their best outdoorsy lives. Driving through Windermere, Ecclerigg, Ambleside. I think we decided to head back, perhaps not to Windermere, as every man, lady, and their dog was there. Ah dogs!

We do a little loop through Keswick and come to our accommodation for the night. Rickerby Grange It's rather nice, there's a code for the door. We park up, grab some supplies and head up. The rooms nice, I cast to the TV and we watch a review vid for the area.

We also decide to head down the road for our dinner, at The Farmer's Arms. It was the late queen's funeral that day. My feelings towards the monarch, will not feature here. But there was a lot of mourning, there was no choice but to know what was happening. Dinner was good, I think I had a sticky toffee pudding? And Sofia embarked on her quest for a good beef pie.

We walked off the road for a bit and got this pic, much happy!

Once back to Rickerby Grange we watch a few vids on what's good to do in and around the area. Avoid the names you know is the advice. So we endeavour to do just that, and hit the sack.