We got up around 7.30, and headed down to breakfast at 8.30, not a particularly brilliant one. It was pouring down with rain outside, making loading the car a mildly unpleasant activity. The situation was not helped when Richard thought he'd lost the better of our two keys to the car, causing us to spend some time looking for it with no success. Eventually Richard found it in one of his various pockets, enabling us to complete loading and to get on our way.
The rain was fairly heavy all the way, so we spent the morning pushing on down south until we reached the services at Gretna. We had lunch in the car, sheltering from the downpour outside, swapped drivers and continued on our way, crossing the border into England and progressing down the M6. The weather was absolutely atrocious for much of the way and the traffic fairly heavy, necessitating extreme caution when passing the many heavy lorries.
We stopped again at Charnock Richard services, just north of the Liverpool/Manchester area, soon after getting into the first dry weather of the day. We changed drivers again so that Pauline could drive the remainder of the way to her parents' house in Utkinton, a village a few miles to the east of Chester.
We arrived there around 4.00, relieved not to have to go any further that day. Some time was spent describing various episodes of the previous fortnight, and we were able to see the first photographs: Pauline had sent off a slide film from Orkney to be processed, and the results were awaiting her arrival.
Following an excellent dinner of beef casserole followed by ice cream, and doing the necessary after-dinner chores, Richard and I went upstairs with Paul, Pauline's father, to take a look at his computer and to offer advice with respect to his Linux installation. We remained upstairs for some time, chatting as well as solving a few problems, before Pauline and her mother started wondering whether we'd ever reappear downstairs and we decided to call it a day (or night, if you will).
We remained downstairs for a while until a mass outbreak of yawning prompted Pauline to order everyone off to bed, making use of such subtle persuading tactics as switching off all the lights. Richard and I took the spare bedroom, and got to bed around 11.30.