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May 2020
6:20pm, 22 May 2020
46,680 posts
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Velociraptor
The joys! 12 hours from Kilmarnock to Newquay, with motorway only between somewhere south of Carlisle and somewhere north of Exeter, and 1970s service stations that were just a cabin of smelly toilets in a muddy field with huge queues, a bit like at a big city race. Traffic jams. Dad getting his right arm sunburned from hanging it out the car window while the car was stuck in a traffic jam. Fortunately, none of us habitually got sick.
I think we quite enjoyed it 
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May 2020
6:28pm, 22 May 2020
16,138 posts
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Rosehip
I used to love the journey to campsites - we would leave at about 4 am (a habit I continued for our family trips to Devon) with us kids in PJs with bedding and pillows in the back with us.
We would take flasks and picnics and stop in a town to use public loos - again a habit that until recently and my dashes up and down the A1(M) I continued.
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May 2020
6:37pm, 22 May 2020
2,459 posts
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um
V'rap - now you know how much we southerners appreciate the Lake District by doing that in reverse.
Well, missing out the Kilmarnock bit.
Although in all my years commuting from Southampton to Ayr, I managed to bypass Kilmarnock.
Rosehip - that sounds familar. Leaving home at some ungodly hour to meet rellies in a pub car park an hour away and continue the journey in convoy to Lymington or Bournemouth.
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May 2020
6:40pm, 22 May 2020
4,606 posts
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quimby
I remember one holiday where the Morris Minor went wonky with the electrics. The indicators stopped working. We had to pull over, and Dad walked to the nearest town and bought a two-way light switch from Woolworths and wired it up to the indicators. I miss both Woolworths, and a time when that kind of thing was a possibility. No idea what goes on under the bonnet nowadays.
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May 2020
6:51pm, 22 May 2020
2,461 posts
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um
In 1980 I was driving from So'ton to Dingwall for a holiday. yes, I was 25 then, not in the back of parents' car.
Going along the M6 (up north somewhere) the lights were slowly fading at about 2-3am.
Stopped at a services somewhere, (possibly the other side of the road to V'rap's toilet queues), to dismantle, reassemble and tighten the fan belt thing (water pump / alternator / fan).
Oh for 'easy' mechanical things on cars that could be fixed with a spanner, hammer and screwdriver.
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May 2020
7:08pm, 22 May 2020
3,031 posts
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12barDavid
Okay, time to get your hankies out everyone. We never had family holidays, my mum & dad couldn’t afford it.
Every August, we used to have three or four train trips, mainly days out to the Isle of Wight or Salisbury, somewhere like that.
When I was sixteen, myself & my older brother, saved up our paper round money & cycled over to Newhaven & caught the ferry to Dieppe. We camped just outside Dieppe & had a great time cycling all over Normandy for five days. In my mind at that time, it was such an adventure. It was akin to going to Saturn. (Slight exaggeration.)
If I remember correctly, we got our passports, made of card from the local Post Office & they were valid for a year. I think they cost 5 bob.
Oh dear, such a long time ago.
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May 2020
7:11pm, 22 May 2020
46,682 posts
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Velociraptor
My parents had a Morris Minor break down on Hardknott Pass. I have no memory of this.
I don't think there was ever any need to go through Kilmarnock to get to Ayr from the south, even pre-motorway. There were (are!) lots of nice ways to get there either cross country or up the coast. I haven't been to Ayr for years. Might set that right next time I'm up that way.
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May 2020
7:11pm, 22 May 2020
16,139 posts
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Rosehip
I remember dad burning out the brakes on Larlie (our Morris Marina) trying to tow a trailer "over" Mam Tor - when the A62x (?) was still open.
Actually, it may have been Winkie, the Austin 1100 - he set fire to the brakes of that driving up the hill from Lynmouth
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May 2020
7:13pm, 22 May 2020
16,140 posts
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Rosehip
(down to not up from obvs.)
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May 2020
7:26pm, 22 May 2020
2,462 posts
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um
V’rap - the commute was So’ton airport to Glasgow airport, then drive, other than 2 occasions when I drove all the west. Even that, I think was to Glasgow then back, rather than cross-country?
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