Shaftsbury-Salsibury A30 unmaintained roads

by bella157@btinternet.com

26 Nov 2010

Driving along the A30 from Shaftsbury to Salisbury, I was rather chuffed by saying "not doing bad timing so should be with my Brother and sister-in law in time to have supper and watch the new Harry Potter..that's if I don't stop and just keep going!" It was then, at that point, that I cast my mind back to the time before (when I did this journey - Poundbury, Dorset - London- previously) when I stopped the the BP petrol Stn, and the main reason for that was to check my tyres 'cos I had gone over a small pot hole and had wanted to investigate - luckily there was no damage at that time. However, no sooner had I been thinking of that then
***Bang!!** - my car abruptly hit a pot hole! Talk about jinxing myself! So i slowed the car down but kept driving forward waitng to feel whether I had an immediate burset tyre, It didn't feel like it so I kept driving. As I kept going on, I noticed th car pulling to the left a bit so I thought I'd better pull over and investigate! So no sooner than I had thought it safe to pull over, I saw that I had in fact got a flat..it in fact looked worse than an average flat tyre because it looked like the rim of the wheel was almost piercing through the tyre because it was stretched over the wheel so much! "Great!, I thought, "just what I need after a bad start to the week!".
I did intend to try and change the tyre myself but what with luck not being on my side and it being 1.5 outside, i thought better of it and called 'Greenflag' to get some roadside assistance, which I waited about an hour for in the freezing cold - thank goodness that I had some extra layers in the car otherwise I would have frozen!!
After the tyre was changed by a lovely cheerful, friendly man (thanks Griffin Rescue from Shaftsbury), i decided not to continue with my journey to London via Surbtion (cos I would have hit rush hour traffic in Salisbury and on the M3 plus probably aroungd Kingston too) and just go and stay at my folks place which is about 10 miles form Shaftsbury...
..so not only was my journey interupted and severely delayed, I think that the signs this week, were telling me not to go to London, which did mean missing out on what would have been a great business opportunity! GRRRR! but I guess things happen for a reason..C'est la vie I guess =(

Wiltshire CC have already got an strong-worded email about this..perhaps too hasty though - now that I've found this sight!