Rain started shortly afterwards, Mum spent 10 minutes flat on her back on her car seat, we set off – continuing our journey to the Isle of Sheppy (Wikipedia – Isle of Sheppey); it was misty, then Faversham was passed at 1.27pm, Teynham had a water purification plant, and was followed by the town of Bapchild, and Sittingbourne – which had lots of newly built houses, and further along the A2 – in Borden – was a shop that said ‘Big Boys Pizza – the home of the 18” pizza’ on the front. The A249 crossed the River Swale via a ginormous bridge, signs were visible for H.M prisons, a disintegrating building said something I forgot on it, and several ginormous wind turbines were spinning.

2.10pm was when (with 20096 miles on the milometer) the hotel was reached – and it had a rather odd parking area; the car doors appeared to lock themselves while I was sat in it on my own – several minutes after Mum went into the building (with the keys). She returned, said the place was complete crap, and then the car was unloaded, everything was heaved inside, I thought both the corridors and the room were extremely prison like, the window overlooked the loud road and the graveyard of the church next door, and the Haggis family gathered on a bed (these are soft toys called Wild Hairy Haggis – named of course, and the 2 oldest came from a Lands End to John O’Groats trip done in 2008) (Wikipedia – Wild Haggis)

I reviewed my photos – of which there were 254 at that point, Mum started snoring, I did a bit more Duolingo, and she vaguely did something I forgot because she woke up again, and at 3.50pm – the kettle was boiled. The petrol station down the road caused a brief chat about the lorry driver protests (as this was during the 2021 United Kingdom fuel supply crisis – Wikipedia – UK 2021 Fuel supply crisis); and then it was proposed we went to Sheerness.

It was raining torrentially when we got in the car, Eastchurch was left and bright sunlight was shining as we approached Sheerness – and a rainbow appeared as we went over the bridge by the marine town.

At 5.20pm we parked in a car park opposite Sheerness police station, there was an Absolute Body Piercing shop on Victory Street…

…as well as Sheppy Vape Shop, Lisa Nails, Tammy’s Nails, multiple hairdressers, estate agents, a pet shop (that appeared to have closed a long time ago), a hairdressers called Brothers & Scissors, and then we tried to find the seafront. A woman we asked gave vague directions; we found it, shellfish collection rules were on the stairs to the beach, a big wind farm was off to the west…

…a few boats were visible, and a father and daughter were throwing pebbles from the beach into the sea and watching the splashes. We turned round and returned to the car – passing Bitz and Bobs Hairdressers and Simply Silhouettes – which was offering intimate waxing (among other things). Back at the car at 5.50pm, the sun was beginning to set, the car said it was 15°C, and we both termed the place ‘seen better days’. On Chequers Road – near the sea – was a street called Pig Tail Corner, we were back in Eastchurch and at the hotel at 6.15pm (and 1 jet trail was visible in the sky). I stuck my phone and camera on charge, and the extremely strong smell of air freshener in the room meant opening a window and having to hear loud traffic noise. We both sat on our beds to read, the Haggis family were continuing their conference, it got dark, I closed the window – as it was beginning to feel chilly, and I’d read another 5 chapters of the book I’d brought with me by 7.30pm, and no way of turning the TV on had been found, so Mum phoned downstairs and asked if they could do anything about it. I checked the COVID figures, which hadn’t been updated because of a late receipt of data, no help with the TV materialised, and so I put my pyjamas on, ate the remainder of a homemade croissant that had been in my bag, and a rant was had about the disgustingness of the room. At 8.30pm – Mum was eating flapjack, the Haggises had gathered together on a towel (covered by another towel),

I got tonights A Question Of Sport up on my phone, and the WiFi and its complete shitness was briefly ranted about by both of us (the program kept stopping and starting and the picture was intermittently going blurry – meaning it took 45 minutes to watch the 30 minute show).