Soaked, tired but resting in the perfect B&B

I think I must have overdone the blogging at lunchtime in Kendal as James got hacked off waiting for me to compose the opus. He was right of course and we should have been hitting the road. Official apology.
His annoyance was brought to boiling point as whilst waiting for me he struck up conversation with a local decrepid ex-cyclist who claimed to have some 'good' news. Weirdly this was that as pedallers we were near certaintities to develop prostate cancer and he was living proof. In James's state of physical exhaustion and compound injuries this was not what he wanted to hear. I think the final straw was when the harbinger of doom said that at least his leg bag gave him some relief from perpetual toilet visits and we made a hasty exit when the next step was an offer to see this quality of life enhancing receptacle.
The road to Lancaster was good and excellent progress was made. Unfortunately an earlier collision on the M6 had thousands of cars and the entire Eddie Stobart fleet using the A6 to Preston. Rather than spinning along at 15mph we were reduced to weaving in and out of the traffic and taking our life in our hands squeezing between tankers and the kerb. Very unpleasant and very slow. It seems cycle lanes are fair game to park in as well. One thing that will come out of this trip is that I will be over the top in consideration for the needs of cyclists.
The only evidence of wildlife in this part of the world was a police cordon around a robbery on an armoured cash vehicle outside the Spar north of Lancaster.
We pushed on and with one eye on the Severe Weather Warning eschewed stops in favour of getting to our refuge for the night at Beak and Jackie's. Unfortunately 10 miles out the heavens opened and once again we were soaked. James blamed my excessive obsession with blogging as otherwise we'd have arrived before it poured. A beautiful friendship and end-to-end cycling partnership is threatened. I say it was the traffic.
I don't know what happened to the route planning but the expected 72 miles turned out to be 83. That's a lot especially including Shap. Thankfully because of his focus on overcoming his pains James was oblivious to this - thank goodness as with the overblogging I'd have been lynched.
Bedraggled we finally made it through Preston to Penwortham and Beak and Jackie's. The welcome was superb and ticked every box in our B&B assessment form. Cold beer, hot baths run for us, washing and drying sorted, great meal. I don't think we will leave, isn't 500 miles good enough?
Assuming we can drag ourselves away tomorrow we head for a stopover at home in Chester with Alan (James's friend) joining us for 3 stages and Beak coming along for a few miles. It's a short 54 miles but we're unsure of our route and the weather forecast is atrocious - that'll be fun then.