Time Out in Tewkesbury

Sweep was still very excited - it was a long time since he'd been on a journey, and from his special place on the dashboard, he could keep and eye on Auntie Angela, Uncle Bill and the Cubs, as well as being able to see out of the window. He loved to watch as they whizzed along, past all the big lorries and the little old men in their little old Hondas doing 50mph in the middle lane - it was all so interesting!

Sometimes, Uncle Bill would try to say things to the people in the other cars, especially when they were doing something silly. Sweep wondered why Uncle Bill was doing that - surely he realised that the other people in the other cars wouldn't be able to hear him? "But," thought Sweep, "it doesn't seem as if Uncle Bill is in the right frame of mind to discuss that with me right now", so he kept quiet.

After a long time in the car, with trees and bridges and things whizzing past, Uncle Bill said something about stopping "near Looe" - that's what it wounded like, anyway. "Wow!" thought Sweep, "I'm sure that's in Cornwall - we've got there so quickly!" But when Uncle Bill stopped the car, they were at another one of those theme parks where you can sit and watch humans being complete idiots. Auntie Angela told Sweep that this theme park was called "Wetherby Services". She said they were still a long way from Cornwall. Sweep thought "I must tell Uncle Bill, when he comes out from that door with the little stick man on it, that we're nowhere near Looe yet..."

They set off again, and Sweep decided to have a little nap. The motion of the car and the hum of the tyres on the road were helping him to nod off into a lovely sleep. He thought how nice it would be to spend the journey in a lovely relaxing snooze, just like his grandad used to do - not wide-eyed and screaming, like grandad's passengers used to be.

When Sweep woke up, he realised that Uncle Bill was stopping the car again - "could this be Cornwall?" thought Sweep, "Uncle Bill seems to be talking about Looe again." But no, it was another one of those McTheme-Parks, and everyone got out, had a little walk around, drank coffee, and went into the doors with the little stick people on them again. But quite soon, it was time to go again.

This time, they went on a road with lots of big gantries across the road, with big red circles all lit up and numbers in them. Sweep was puzzled and asked Uncle Bill what they were. Uncle Bill told him that they were special numbers that kept changing - and if you didn't slow down enough when they changed, there was a camera that took a picture of you driving along. "Ooh!" thought Sweep, "I like having my picture taken - speed up, Uncle Bill, and see if we can get them all to take pictures of us!" But Uncle Bill said no, and said that Sweep was being a daft... well no, Sweep doesn't remember words like that.

After a while, the car stopped again so that everyone could have something to eat - the place was called a "Hut", but it looked very big for a hut to Sweep. Once everyone had eaten some pizza, they went back in the car and drove the last few miles to the place they were going to sleep for the night. Sweep thought it was a lovely hotel, because it was right in the middle of a load of factories with lots of interesting noises and things happening - and it was right next to the motorway, so he could watch all the cars and lorries with their lovely shining lights all night. He loved to listen to the roaring and whooshing noises they made as they went past. Such fun!

Well, said Auntie Angela, we'd better all go to bed soon and get some sleep, or we'll all be overtired. Sweep lay there, gazing out at the lights on the motorway, and nodded off, hoping to dream of wonderful and exciting things. Like breakfast.