Day 3 - Hexham
In stark contrast to yesterday, I think that we actually overdid it a bit with the driving today - the journey took us from Oxford all the way up to Hexham, which is right next to Hadrian's Wall, and slightly beyond that the Scottish border. On the way, we stopped near Coventry to take the opportunity to visit lupineangel, who I've been talking to for some years but had only met in real life for the first time during the convention in October. I had thought that we would only have time to see each other quickly, but his family were so welcoming (and so lunch-providing) that I was able to stop worrying and we stayed for a couple of hours - thank you once again for your hospitality!
Most of the freeways around Boston are constrained at about a 55mph speed limit, so it was somewhat refreshing to go once again at Warp Factor Three, paying attention to where cars slowed down a little over the striped patches of roadways covered by speed cameras. Even with that, the drive took us about five hours in total - it was practically one unbroken road, with our TomTom navigation unit occasionally saying "Keep right ahead" to mean "stay on the motorway" just because it wanted us to know that it was still there.
It was dark by the time we reached our bed and breakfast, and suddenly we had to turn off the main road and on to a set of tiny little winding roads - these are the kinds of roadways that I used to drive on in Scotland, but having got used to the wide expanses of American roads even out in the middle of nowhere, I find it a wonder that I ever managed to cope with the incredibly tight corners and constant fear that another car might come around them in the other direction (with "Passing place" signs where it's possible to actually fit two cars around each other specifically signposted). This is the kind of place that has the official address "Near Hexham (six miles into the hills)" - but what I hadn't realized when we booked accommodation for about the same price all up and down Britain was that this would get us a whole lot more the further away from London we were. And this was a beautiful farm lodge run by Dapperkeet McBeaks, a very gentlemanly and well-spoken landlord who greeted us by saying they had had some sort of mix-up and had therefore put us in the Superior room, with a king-size bed, bathtub and a shower with the audacity to have double doors.
In many ways it's a shame that we only get to experience all of these places for about three waking hours each, but tomorrow, we'll have reached our northernmost destination and will be able to stay still for a while.