ROAD TRIP (photos!!!)
 

Picture the scene. I'm sitting in a pub on Monday night with my friend Matt "the Hatt" when we are joined by two more friend, Dave and Sirey. They are planning a pub crawl (y'know, like bar hopping), and ask me if I'm in.

"Sure," I say. When and where?

"Tomorrow. In Plymouth"

Now, we live in Sheffield, and Plymouth is on the south coast. Plus we go via Harwich, to pick up Will whos gonna join us on the pub crawl, and Guilford (south of London), to have a cup of tea with Annie, another collective friend. So far, so good. So starting at 4PM, we get to Harwich by 7.30, Guilford by 9.30 and Plymouth by, oh, 3AM - All driving at 90, repeat 90 miles an hour!

You just cannot do that in the states.

The pub crawl is part of the "Rail Ale Challenge" and you get a leaflet which gets stamped at each pub, though you have to use the rural train line to get to each pub in the different villages. Now, I really don't think it was meant to be a pub crawl - more a real ale weekend of drinking in the sunshine... but being students, and the middle of January, we tried to do the whole lot in a day.

We managed 11 out of 16, but there were 7 villages and only 5 trains a day, so it's pretty much impossible.


Will's house, Harwich.


Annie's house, Guilford. Left to right - me, Indie, Sirey, Annie, Dave. Annie's mum was really worried about us and made us all soup. :/


Annie said the previous owner was a freakishly small woman who made a custom step ladder to fit in with the rest of the kitchen.


Will is very tall. We took lots of photos of him in tight situations.


First pub, the Cider Press. BTW, this is Plymouth. Y'know, where the Founding Fathers and stuff set sail for the new world in the 1600s, or something. So be grateful, bitches.


James Street Vaults. 'Nuff said.


The Penny Come Quick. But it's closed down! NOOOO!!!!!!


Dave, "Freestyle Walking" on the train station.


Will finally passes out in the Riverside Inn. In the last pub he was actually sick, but vomited pure beer directly into his pint glass. It was still fizzy and everything! Haha!!


The morning after, all hungover. Even the camera is drunk.

What a life. :)

CORN FLAKES.
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Prilosec settlement update

Um...don't drink and drive kids.

Are you an 'hooligan'? Because I once read an article about them and it frightened me.

You started at 4 PM and arrived at your destination at 3 AM? I could probably make it as far west as Detroit or as far south as Raleigh in that time.

It is very possibly to keep an average speed over 90 MPH if you're driving at night in the US. I drove through Pennsylvania on my way to Minneapolis at about 100 MPH in the AM hours... until I blew out a tire. Scariest thing that ever happened to me on the road.

In any event, that looked like a cool-as-fuck roadtrip. If I had any tolerance for being in a car for an extended period of time, I would totally take a roadtrip like that. Unfortunately, I hate driving :(

Going 90 for 11 hours I could possibly get to Mexico, which I suppose is useful knowledge. I might also be able to get to Las Vegas. Weddings and booze. Good times.

Heh.

The fastest I have ever driven was on the M54 between Telford and Birmingham - after a week away in Wales. It's a three lane motorway in which the slow lane was doing 80! I stuck it out at around 85-90 in the middle lane but occasionaly strayed out into the fast lane to do battle with the boy racers and supercharged SUV's. My little 1300cc Nova engine strained under the pressure as I managed to just squeeze 100mph out of it! I'll bet the camshaft would have exploded if I'd kept it up for more than a couple of minutes. It was great fun, speeding around the traffic islands at 50mph in second gear, then accellerating away again cutting people up left right and centre.

No Max, I am not "An Hooligan"- we just enjoy our beer and high speed driving. Not at the same time, oh no. That's why we took the train.

Oh FatSatan, I am so glad I'm not from the Netherlands - being able to drive from one side of your country to the other in, oh, fourty minutes must make Road Trips sweet and short.

Yes, my road trips are more like... hiking trips.