Adventures with a Rover 114

I had the Honda Civic crushed but knew I had to get another car. I had a new tyre put on the front of the bike and used that for a while. Luckily the weather was good. Located a Rover 114 with automatic transmission in Wakefield and went and bought it. 23.8K on the clock and in average condition for the year.

Last weekend I drove to London and dropped the cat off at her London wesidence then proceeded on to Guildford. Off we went, down the M1 and I kept an eye on the fuel gauge because I was starting off with a 3/4 full tank. The Rover is certainly more gassy than the Honda was. I stopped en route to give Pwecious and myself a short break and then we toodled on. I knew I would need petrol but wasn't sure how much longer that 1/4 tankful would last as I shot past Toddington thinking I'd be ok for getting to London Gateway if I get desperate.

Then we hit a traffic jam. The outside lane went to a dead stop with the inner two slowly edging forward. I watched the petrol guage and the cat and the cat and the petrol guage and pulled off into a service station at Flamstead where I fueled up, parked in the shade and rang to let him know we were a bit stuck with traffic.

Decided to try to navigate into London using A roads and headed off in the wrong direction. Turned round and toodled back, saw a really nice B road going to Hemel Hempstead and took that; getting a reasonable turn of speed and air flow through the car to keep me and the cat cool.

Said B road goes under the motorway which is now moving freely so I followed signs and checked roadmaps and found my way to the next junction down, stopping off for 10 cigs at a petrol station. Have you noticed the price of cigarettes in these places? Outrageous. I really should deal with this nicotine addiction before it bankrupts me!

Anyhow, MsP and I managed to get safely back on the M1 and continue our journey safely to MsP's London wesidence where much fuss was made of her and she was happy to be out of the car.

Various sundry tweats fwom Sainsbuwy's were offered in appeasement of her ordeal.

More anon ....