Well well well

Where to begin. You may notice a lack of Blogs today. Well this was oh so very very nearly the 'I'm wimping out' post. This will be a very long post so you may want to skip to the end for the outcome and the bit with Lucy. Today became a problem. I set off to do the map thing but doing that on a bike and not using motorways is nigh on impossible. Particularly going through towns you've never been to and don't know. I was stopping every few miles to check the map. When you've got 700 to go (and that's just to John O'Groats) that's a lot of stopping. Fun factor zero. I looked at the sat nav again. More water. So I thought I might be able to dry it out if I could take it apart. Special tools needed. I knew I could get the tools from Screwfix and I knew they had a trade counter at Aintree. I knew how to get to Aintree so off I went. I got the tools and sat down in their car park and took my sat nav apart. It didn't look good. Rust on the inside of a gadget is rarely a good sign! Meanwhile my local mate was phoning every shop he could think of trying to find a replacement sat nav. Thanks machinehead! Meanwhile, I was touring gadget and car shops in the North West. Problem is there are only 2 bike sat navs out there. Garmin's is so new it's not actually available yet. And TomTom's has been withdrawn as there is a new model out next month. So, crap timing then! Then I went to Halfords. The guy was a star. I explained my problem. He ended up finding what I think is the last TomTom in Britain and gave me it half price! Then I decided to visit machinehead who plied me with tea so I decided to find an hotel in Preston and stay the night here. The bit with Lucy is coming up now! I tried a couple of hotels. All full. Then I tried a Travel Inn. They were also full but, Lucy explained (I told you she was about to feature), she was about to call the police to have two drunken yobs evicted and if I wanted to wait, I could have their room after it had been cleaned. I waited. We chatted and laughed. She told me tales of ghosts and the time passed. The police showed up and said they couldn't do anything. Lucy was not happy and was threatening to throw these guys' stuff out herself. It pained me to do it but I didn't want her to end up in trouble so suggested that maybe it wasn't a good idea. It meant no room at the inn for little me but I just couldn't live with myself if it would cause her problems. I'm sure one of her motivations was that she didn't want me to have waited around for nothing. In the end she phoned around and found me a room. She put a good word in for me and made sure I got a very nice room. Thanks Lucy and enjoy the psychic. So I typed up this long Blog while sitting in the hotel bar enjoying the above drink. I haven't drunk on the trip but tonight, this went down a treat. Lucy, I hope Darren comes home with armfuls of gifts and a wallet full of winnings. Thank you! And I don't just mean for the room. It's the golden moments like meeting Lucy and finding Mousehole and machinehead trying so hard to help and all the motivational texts from my mates (you know who you are) and Debbie's support that make all the crap less important than all the good stuff. It's been a long day and I've hardly moved. But it feels like the biggest day of the journey so far. I wonder what tomorrow will bring...