Driver 308’s Commonwealth Games Adventure-Day 4

Dear reader, Driver 308’s story continues as below, happy reading.

Day 4 July 7^th  2022

Alison and I had to be ready to leave Guildford Holiday Inn at 07:30 with the convoy. Consequently Trevor and I had to get up at 05:30 in order to get to Guildford in time to have breakfast before the convoy left for Tonbridge.

We were the allocated pickup shuttle in Tonbridge and simply followed the convoy, which had a police motor cycle escort . Driving with a blur light police escort means obeying ALL instructions from the police officers and may mean ignoring red traffic lights, going the wrong way down streets or round roundabouts, driving on the wrong side of the road. The police bikers are amazing, as a driver one has to be on the look out for them whenever they are behind, because they can and do come psat on either side through gaps which simply don’t exist, weaving through traffic.

After Tonbridge we left the convoy to make our way to Canterbury.  A couple of photos near the Guildhall in Canterbury, where we stopped for our lunch.

We were to be drop-off shuttle traveling through the pedestrianised shopping centre, with a police escort in front of the Pilot vehicle.

After completing our drop off we were finished for the day and made our way to the Holiday Inn Maidstone, although I was in the overspill hotel at Chatham. Although it involved a 15 minute journey each way the benefit was having one’s own room.

Trip to Bletchley Park

What is Bletchley Park and why is it so important?

Bletchley Park, British government cryptological establishment in operation during World War II. Bletchley Park was where Alan Turing and other agents of the Ultra intelligence project decoded the enemy's secret messages, most notably those that had been encrypted with the German Enigma and Tunny cipher machines.

https://bletchleypark.org.uk/

Alex Fox

Day out whith Thomas

They're 2, they're 4, they're 6,they're 8, eight residents had a day out hauling freight, Anthony, me, Callum and Joe, Leigh, Alan, Thomas and Clare too.

All with different roles to play, round our garden sheds or Pennyland. Down the cafe and round the houses, Thomas and his friends.

https://www.dayoutwiththomas.co.uk/

https://www.bucksrailcentre.org/

Alex Fox

Driver 308’s Commonwealth Games Adventure-Day 3

Day 3 July 6^th  2022 

Today I was with Alison as the shuttle host. Although we had been teamed up together during the training, due our R&R days this was the first day we actually worked together. On R&R days there are relief drivers and shuttle hosts to cover our duties. We were scheduled to be in Portsmouth at the D Day museum at 16:00. We decided to arrive early and have time to look round the museum and Southsea Castle. We found the D Day museum easily and then went to find our IP (Insertion Point) . This is the place where our first BB will be dropped to start their segment and where we wait for the Pilot vehicle to find us and lead us to all the locations, indicated with a pink circular sticker, to drop off our BBs. It was a good thing we went to look for the postcode was not very accurate. We soon found the location, which was the Charles Dickens house museum.

The team manager had set us a challenge today which was to find the most unusual hat. As we had some spare time we went to B&Q to get a coir hanging basket liner to make a hat, which was decorated with a windmill and lighthouse purchased at Southsea Castle.  

Here is the hat and it was the winner!

We didn’t finish dropping off our BBs until 19:45 and it was nearly 22:00 when we arrived at the hotel in Guildford for the night, I though was in a different hotel to Alison. Trevor, my roommate, and I had to drive to the Holiday Inn in Woking where we found that the room only had one bed, they had to get another bed – it was 00:30 before we were able to go to bed. I knew Trevor from 2014 when both of us did the Baton Relay around Scotland.

<End of Day 3, Day 4 to follow shortly>