Marilyn was to chair the Probus meeting yesterday so we planned to set out a little earlier than usual to make sure we got there in plenty of time for her to gather her thoughts before the meeting started. It's close to 60 Km so it takes a reasonable amount of time especially if there is slow traffic, which is always possible. In our most pessimistic expectation, we could not have predicted the reality.
It's a pretty good highway, but it's just a single lane each way with an occasional passing lane to allow faster drivers to get past the odd tractor or slow cattle truck. This morning, we found ourselves at the tail of a slow line of traffic almost as soon as we joined the highway. On a straight stretch I was able to see, far ahead, the flashing light of a vehicle and I realised he was part of a procession ushering along a wide load.
We were stuck. The miles unrolled slowly and the minutes ticked away. I caught a glimpse, at one point, of the load and it looked like it was a swimming pool and it was much wider than our single lane, impinging on the opposite lane so than oncoming traffic had to lurch over onto the far edges of the carriageway.
I couldn't see any way out of it and hoped that the police escort might pull the pool carrier over somewhere and give us a chance to get past. No such luck. Marilyn rang ahead and said we were going to be late and I took the first opportunity to turn off into one of the villages and we got ourselves onto the minor road which took us to Deloraine eventually.
As it happened, we were about ten minutes late, not a big issue in the scheme of things and I hope the people who receive their pool have many happy hours in it.
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