MSAs, broke my own rule
Aug 27, 2016 13:54:42 GMT
Post by Humph on Aug 27, 2016 13:54:42 GMT
I avoid motorway service areas as a rule. Apart from being occasionally convenient places to stop for a pee they hold no other attractions for me. Expensive fuel and expensive food usually not of a very high standard.
But I especially avoid them during peak holiday seasons because they are inevitably crowded and the facilities are never clean.
Instead, I usually take any motorway slip road which leads to a reasonably sized town and there is almost always a large supermarket on the outskirts of the town. Most have cheap fuel, many have decent and cheap cafes, or of course take away sandwiches etc at reasonable prices. Toilets are usually immaculately clean and parking is free.
But yesterday, I sort of forgot about all that and swung in to Ferrybridge services on the M62.
Disaster.
Took ages to find a parking space, not least due to the ditherers ( strikes me if you are that bad at parking then how good are you at other aspects of driving? ) in front of me. The toilets were disgusting and the whole place was badly overcrowded. My car had run into the place on the fumes remaining in the fuel tank, and with more than 100 miles still to go, I decided to stick some diesel in now that I was there rather than have to stop again. ( £1.27 a litre ) 😫
Getting out of the place was as bad with staff directing traffic due to the volumes of vehicles. Took 15 minutes from having refuelled to getting back on the motorway which in turn was by now ( Bank Holiday Friday afternoon ) starting to congest.
I keep reminding myself that it's a really bad idea to travel anywhere on holiday weekends, it's never pretty, but then I convince myself that it'll be alright.
But it rarely is.
I do wonder why people use MSAs so much. Surely most of them aren't actually travelling all that far, or are so desperate for expensive bad food and overpriced fuel?
Bleh !
But I especially avoid them during peak holiday seasons because they are inevitably crowded and the facilities are never clean.
Instead, I usually take any motorway slip road which leads to a reasonably sized town and there is almost always a large supermarket on the outskirts of the town. Most have cheap fuel, many have decent and cheap cafes, or of course take away sandwiches etc at reasonable prices. Toilets are usually immaculately clean and parking is free.
But yesterday, I sort of forgot about all that and swung in to Ferrybridge services on the M62.
Disaster.
Took ages to find a parking space, not least due to the ditherers ( strikes me if you are that bad at parking then how good are you at other aspects of driving? ) in front of me. The toilets were disgusting and the whole place was badly overcrowded. My car had run into the place on the fumes remaining in the fuel tank, and with more than 100 miles still to go, I decided to stick some diesel in now that I was there rather than have to stop again. ( £1.27 a litre ) 😫
Getting out of the place was as bad with staff directing traffic due to the volumes of vehicles. Took 15 minutes from having refuelled to getting back on the motorway which in turn was by now ( Bank Holiday Friday afternoon ) starting to congest.
I keep reminding myself that it's a really bad idea to travel anywhere on holiday weekends, it's never pretty, but then I convince myself that it'll be alright.
But it rarely is.
I do wonder why people use MSAs so much. Surely most of them aren't actually travelling all that far, or are so desperate for expensive bad food and overpriced fuel?
Bleh !
