Au Revoir Big Brother

We woke up to a grey day, which suited the day in a way. First thing we did was watch the video of Mike's funeral. It was a lovely service and I was especially impressed by how bro #3 spoke: even people you think you know well can surprise you. Lots of people from his work, hockey, the biking world, and other friends and family were there, so there were many left standing. It still feels unreal, and will for some time. You don't really feel a hole in your life until you reach for the person who was there.

By the time we had breakfasted it was bucketing down. Good thing we weren't in a tent! We headed off to Colchester to see C and her new man. How exciting, though C says he is very nervous about meeting us. Dunno why. 😇

Just a little way down the road we saw a sign to Armourgeddon. How could I resist? And the beauty of having time means we could just pop in and have a look. It's an armoured vehicle museum that also lets you drive and, get this, fight paintball 'tank' battles. https://www.armourgeddon.co.uk/ [I kinda winced that they were calling these vehicles tanks, but these were turreted versions of FV432's so I guess that does make them close enough to a light tank. Turret? Tick. Tracks? Tick? Armour? Tick. Anti-tank role? Cross. Hmmm.] As it was raining still we went through the museum then sat in the MH  - hereafter known as Reggie according to J - for a sandwich and cuppa.

A corporate group was booked so watched them do their driving instruction,  then their gunnery instruction before they headed out of sight for their tank battle. I'll post a pic later, but as you can't see the battles we got in the van and moved on.

Somewhere on the A14 outside Ipswich the traffic ground to a halt.

J checked the 'net and discovered a truck had overturned on a key junction and was overhanging the A14 underneath as well [the driver was taken to hospital without serious injuries apparently]. A second accident was further down the motorway added to the woes! Fortunately we had reached an on ramp when everything stopped, so when we saw cars on the ramp turning around and going back up we decided to do the same. We then found another route across the motorway and down past the blockage. The detour was empty on our side but  nose to tail on the other and only just wide enough to let us past. Sometimes I had to mount the pavement and my mirror collected quite a bit of hedge. J even screamed a couple times. After all this we only reached the campsite at 8pm - 9  hours to go 160 miles.

A quick dinner and now I have dishes to do...