Present: Rob, Fee, Johnny
Date: 09/10/2004 Cost: £8.90 Saving: 8.95
Total Distance Travelled: 89 Miles
Furthest Point from 82 stop: Marford (52 Miles)
Final Destination: Marford, a small town in North Wales, 3 miles North of Wrexham, and 30 miles (yup, 30 miles) from Liverpool by the most direct road route (NOT the most direct bus route).
Proposed Transport: Must arrive in Marford ONLY through bus network, using a £1.60 child's all day bus ticket, valid only on Arriva buses and only in the North West of England and North Wales. Must use public transport to get home.
Aims: Arrive in Marford, having visited Saughall Massie on the way, use only transport stated above, smoke REAL, genuine CUBAN cigar in Marford, be back sometime between 7pm-8pm so as not to miss a party Have manliness competition.
Information on Marford is hard to come by but its website, www.oocities.org/themarfordwebsite, teels us that it has one pub and restaurant, The Trevor Arms, and a small primary school, The Rofft (yes, there IS meant to be two letter fs), half way between Marford and neighbouring Gresford which educates the children of both towns. There are around 250 pupils. Marford has a population of about 350.
We got the first bus, the 82 to town, at 12:42 and purchased our £1.60 all day ticket here. On arraival in town, we made a detour to Music Zone so Rob and JB could buy some Cds and it wasn't until 1.30 that we got the bus to Birkenhead station. The woman in front of us on the bus REALLY stunk, but we grin and bore it and arrived at the station, which is by now familiar territory. The 447 to Saughall Massie was relatively painless and it was there that the fun really started. First of all, Rob and JB were messing around with the condom machine and a £1 coin got stuck. The solution to this problem was, clearly, to go and complain to the female barmaid, who had clearly recieved several similar complaints that day and we were reimbursed, but suitably unashamed. Rob then bumped into someone he knew, which is the most unlikely thing EVER, because Saughall Massie is the last place you'd expect to bump into someone and then it was off on the bus to Chester. This was the first part of the trip that was unfamiliar to us and we were, naturally shocked to spend 2 hours meandering through Welsh countryside, until we finally arrived in Chester. While in Chester we ate Subway and spoke to a bloke who HATED Wrexham and refused to give us directions as such and laughed at our mish and said that it couldn't be done. Loser. Saw a Dead Kennedys symbol in a squat and spent half an hour trying to find the station, only to stumble across a bus to Marford, the number 1, completly by chance. Any thoughts of resignation were shelved, the time was now 5.30, and we were once again on our way. The journey wasn't a long one but one man on this bus laughed off our chances of completing the mish. We showed him. We arrived in Saughall Massie with 11 minutes until the last bus back to chester, at 6.13, and so we didn't have long to collectively smoke our Cuban cigar, the first and last thing Rob has ever smoked, and visited the local pub to relieve ourselves before we were back on the bus. We arrived back in Chester in time for the 6.45 train to Lime Street and then got another 82 to Louise's party, 45 minutes late but nevermind. And the mish was completed and a rousing success.
