I'm really sorry that your first long trip was so tricky.
We are half way through our first ( 500 mile ) long trip from Bognor to Frodsham.
We left home with 98% and needed our first loo + coffee break between Oxford & Birmingham. The single Gridserv charger at the services was free, so after connecting the cable & swiping my credit card, we had coffee. Returned to car & we were already back up to 80%. It couldn't have been easier, but it was 89p/kW. If we could have held out for another 20 mins we could have charged for 49p at (I think) Cherwell.
So its going well, we just need a bit more bladder control so we can reach cheaper chargers.
Oh, our car is also Piccadilly Blue.