Finally walked in the front door at 5 minutes past midnight!!!!
96.4 miles there, and 102 miles back, plus 48 on the back of a tow truck!!
Sequence of events:
Left the zoo at about 4.15pm. I had route planner from AA, and they were really unclear! We went one way, then another, and got completely lost. Didn't realise how lost until we saw a sign for Liverpool!
Then saw another one for M6, and said that if we could get on that, we could get home. So, 22 miles later, we're finally on the M6. Fine, I thought, we'll be late, but we'll get there.
So, Charlie should have had his bottle at 6.30 and bed at 6.45, but no chance of that, so we stopped at the services. Not sure which ones, but the next ones we hit after were Sandbach, so it was further north than that. They had no baby stuff!
So, I bought one of those Kellogs breakfast things with cornflakes and milk. Charlie was not at all interested, so we did the best we could do and bought him a pint of semi-skimmed (no full fat!).
So, set off again, everything still okay. Until I hit the M6 Toll. 10 miles along and the temp guage starts going up - rapidly. I rang Stu at home (on my bluetooth headset - don't worry!), and was asking him if he knew anything I could do, and he said to stick the heater on full blast. In this bloody weather! Well, we did, and it was freezing cold air coming out! Then the temp light came on, then, just before the main toll plaza on the toll road, the oil light started flashing and everything was beeping at me! So I pulled over on the hard shoulder about 300 yards in front of the toll booths.
Kayleigh got out with Charlie and climbed up on the grass verge to safety, and I rang the AA.
I was in tears as by now it's 6.38pm and Charlie should have been having his bottle.
The AA woman couldn't understand where we were.
I kept telling her we were at the only main 10 lane toll plaza on the whole M6 toll road so they couldn't miss us, but their system needed her to input 2 junctions to tell them which ones I was between!
So she asked me to walk down the motorway to ask one of the people in the booths. I've since found out that it is illegal to walk down a motorway!
So, I walked all the way, then saw a guy getting in an M6Toll van outside their building, so I started jumping up and down like a madwoman and got him to stop. He was lovely and he spoke to the AA woman and told her exactly where we were. She said it was within the hour at that time of day, but she had put us on the highest priority as I had 2 kids with me - one a baby.
The toll guy then excorted me back to the car as he had to by law! He asked if I could start the car and move it into their staff car park, so I managed to just get it there before it cut out completely.
So I rang the AA back to tell them that we had moved, and nothing was on the system!
A priority call and nothing there 15 minutes later! So he took all my details again, and again this guy had to explain where we were.
When I hung up from him I got a voicemail from the original lady saying it was all done as priority and someone should be with me shortly.
I then got a text saying they would be there by 7.10pm. At 7.20, I got a call from the AA man asking where we were. He was saying that he was at the Weeford plaza, in the staff car park and couldn't see me! I was standing in the bloody car park - was he blind!!!! Then luckily one of the operators came out to ask if we were okay and I asked if he could speak to the AA guy. Turns out he was at Weeford junction and not Weeford Toll Plaza.
Luckily, only 5 miles away.
Finally, he's here, but unfortunately, diagnosed a blown head gasket.
He'd been told that there was only myself and Charlie, no mention of Kayleigh, so he couldn't tow us as he only had 2 seats in the van.
So, he phoned someone and told them we needed a flat-bed. When he came off the phone he said they had told him up to 2 hours!!!
This was now 8.30pm. He gave me a job number and told me to ring them in 45 mins if I hadn't heard anything. Then he went.
The guy came out the office then and asked if we wanted a coffee! Lovely, lovely man.
By now it was getting a little chilly and poor Charlie was only in a vest and shorts, so I've got him wrapped in a blanket. We went in for a coffee and then I got a text to say that they were sending us an external company to speed things up, and he would be here before 9.10pm.
At 9.20pm, I got a phone call asking where i was again! The AA had told this company that it was a lone woman in a VW Golf somewhere between T4 and T3 on the M6 Toll. He had driven past us about 10 mins ago!!! So, he had to leave the toll, go up the A38 and rejoin the toll. We went and sat in the car and he finally arrived at 9.45 in a tiny little van.
I got out and asked how he was planning on towing us in that, and he had been told by the AA that he was here to assess the problem - exactly what the AA man had already done! I stood there and just burst into tears!
He was lovely, he calmed me down and got straight on the phone. He rang his mate that drove the flatbed and asked if he could start work early (he wasn't due to start the nightshift till 11pm. So, he set off to get us, and this guy stayed with us the whole time. He let us sit in his van with the heater on, and at 10.15, Charlie finally fell sleep after screaming for 20 mins.
There was an accident further up the road and they shut the toll and sent everyone off, so finally, the truck turned up at 11pm. They loaded us up, and we were home at 12.05am.
Charlie had his bottle, change and was in bed by 12.20am. Kayleigh heated her burger and chips up the Stu had picked up from the takeaway earlier and was also in bed for 12.20am.
I had 2 very very large glasses of wine and 2 slices of cold pizza and crashed at 1am.
Shattered, angry, but home safe. When I've calmed down I'm going to phone the AA, but not until I'm calmer.
Made me realise how good my kids are though. Charlie was starving, but was no trouble at all apart from crying himself to sleep, and Kayleigh had nothing since lunch, but was also really good.
Now got to sort out what to do with my stupid car!
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