1 May - Caught Up

All up to date - I think

Okay, it’s a late Spring catch-up phase while I have some time to scribble.

Saddest thing was my step mom dying early April. I rode up to Stoke twice with Shadowfax and as is characteristic, made an adventure out of it. I also got to ride up to Macclesfield briefly along my old haunts from Mier to Leek and on. Both trips were in beautiful weather and traversing along the foothills of the Peak District National Park was a real joy with borders of daffodils and other such like.

I camped down the road from Alton Towers and the picturesque village of Alton toward Cheadle. The site was expensive and actually a dump but I got to practice packaging a complete weekend kit list across the two panniers without needing the top box or to strap any regalia across the seats, etc. This included tent, mattress, fart bag, stove, pan, water, cup, kfs (well, wooden spoon), cold kit, and this months copy of National Geographic. Fitting a quick shop in there was tight but do-able.



Of note was the run up on the second trip. The speeds everyone was doing was all I could do to keep up! Approaching J10 of M40 though there was a sudden rhythmic thumping, which lead to a belief a tyre was gone, or something had collapsed in the suspension. We slowed back down to about 80mph letting the stream of ton-up traffic pass and peeled off at the junction for a quick inspection. Luckily – but oddly, I found nothing amiss. We continued on our way cautiously at first but pretty soon hit the M42 for the M6 and had no further issues. Odd indeed.



On the trip back I wasn’t feeling that great and Shadowfax auto-piloted us at great speed back south. It became obvious I didn’t really need a stop – even with my bladder – and we pushed on well down the A34 before my knees gave such an ache I couldn’t stretch it off in the 50-zone around Oxford. 3-times stroll around Shadowfax and we were off again, essentially treading the Motorway commute route and well in home territory.

Suffice to say I was knackered with completing almost 2400 miles over the 2-weeks. But some of those are another story :)

UK-Southern Tag

http://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74740

It was a while ago now but I made an entry to the ST-Owners UK-Southern Region Tag a while ago. I took a trip off the Ottery-St-Mary to catch Peter (Exeter)'s tag of the St.Mary's church there and then sped round to Corfe Castle to set my own.





I didn't leave home until 2pm - dithering over whether, after an already long week I should actually go haring around southern Britain just to play a game on a forum. I'm glad I did. Although I didn't get home until quite late, and despite being pretty cold, I enjoyed the sheer pointlessness of the whole day - a real ride for pleasure (if not with 100% commitment).