Jason's Daily Notes

Last day of the road trip. We made sure to get up earlier, around 8:30, to be out the door around 9. It was starting to snow. Bern drove us to Ambleside, where we had breakfast at the Apple Pie cafe. We then drove to Rydal lake, where we parked the car and hiked through the snow to Rydal Cave. It was cool. We almost missed the aves if not for Bern spotting it. We hopped over the water into the cave.

Back to the car, we drove past Langdale, headed toward the other side of the Lake District to see the other side of the region. However, the road conditions were not good. The roads were icy and not properly salted (or not salted at all). Bernadet was (rightfully) uncomfortable driving on such roads. So we turned around, and instead headed south to Coniston and instead explored there.

We stopped at the tourist information office and asked the woman for an easy and nearby hike. She directed us to tarn haws (?), which was like a 10 minute drive away. We parked the car on the road because it was also snowed in and started walking. The path was difficult to keep track of. We walked past nice views and we even spotted a deer.

We walked to the lake and took in the view. We found some inflatable tubes and slid down a hillside (and a bit more on the walk back to the car). It was already 3pm, and we wanted to get out of the lake district before dark, so we headed out. The road was small, though, so it was over an hour before we got to the motorway.

Bern drove us to Lancaster, where we stopped for food since we were hungry. We went to the first restaurant we saw - Pizza Hut. Mike and Bern shared a bottle of wine, which they didn't even charge us for. There were several birthday celebrations going on, and they kept asking Asia for a lighter.

Then came the treacherous drive back. Asia took over since Bern had been drinking. The weather was switching between rain and heavy snow. It was really difficult to see the road ahead of you. We just wanted to get home as quickly as possible but safely - we were driving 30-40 mph the whole way. Around Manchester, just after shopping at a service station, the whole motorway came to a stop. There was a big pileup right in front of us - at least 8 cars had collided. Five off to the left and another three to the right. A traffic officer closed the road right in front of us. Asia panicked as we sat there for over half an hour. She was too stressed to drive, so I took over.

When the traffic opened up, I took over with Mike as my copilot. I took it easy - it really was almost impossible driving conditions! We just needed to get past Birmingham, where the weather looked like it was clearing up. The snow changed to rain and I was able to drive faster. We reached the outskirts of London around 12:30 and soon dropped off Asia. Then I drove us home; Bernadet stayed over, so that we could come with her to return the car in the morning.