An eventful day!

Yesterday the journey to the show , just under 70 miles away, was the same as normal, a bit murky and drizzly going up over the moors with the sun ALMOST breaking through as I neared Lanark. The show was pleasant with a fairly good entry although there were a few absentees and Roley and Mo won their classes, Swallow had a 4th place and Spencer came 2nd in a class of 17 veterans (for which we won £4, promptly spent in the cafe). I left the showground for home about 3.30pm--home in time for tea...........huh!!! It was all downhill from there on.
About a mile down the road I ran through a pot hole (legacy of the terrible winter) and there was an ominous thud and crack. I drove on for a bit but realised something was up. I got out and peered under the car not knowing what I was looking for but thinking, "There's not much room between the wheel arch and the tyre." However I drove off again but now the noise from the front was louder and the smell of burning filled the car and a trail of blue smoke followed me. I realised that the tyre had now burst and I managed to grind up on to the very low pavement.
I have breakdown cover, from my Civil Service work days so unearthed the little plastic card with all the details and phoned the number thereon....(mobile phones are such a blessing!) only to be given a recorded message which said the office was closed, gave the office hours, which, of course, did NOT include Sundays and told me to refer to the website for "out of hours service! Oh, silly me, I forgot to take my laptop to the dog show! Then followed a call to a daughter in Musselburgh who had to phone me back with another number to ring. Thankfully I did get through to rescue this time.
An hour later the breakdown truck arrived. My rescuer promptly announced that a spring had been broken and the loose bits had torn and punctured the tyre. He had thought it was merely a wheel change and was on his way to another job. However he arranged for another truck to pick us up, meanwhile wound my car, plus the 5 dogs and all paraphernalia up on to the back of the truck and then deposited us back in a supermarket carpark. Thankfully there was a cafe and toilet and I also took the dogs out to "stretch their legs." The replacement truck arrived after half an hour and through intervening phonecalls it was arranged to take us to my son's workshop at a farm in Midlothian, south of Edinburgh. The post code was tapped into the sat. nav. and off we set. That damn sat. nav.! It took us, maybe by the shortest route across country on a map but by no means the quickest. Two hours later we reached our destination after lurching in every direction on little back roads. "Poor dogs", I thought, "they'll all be sick."
Just my luck, when I slithered out of the high cab, I landed in fairly deep mud, as it had rained there most of the afternoon. The mud squelched into the openwork of my light dog showing shoes! We were offloaded, the dogs had a short run in the mire and then we loaded up into my son's car, which he was loaning me till my own was repaired, and an hour and a half later we were home....9.15pm........... just another incident filled dog showing Sunday!