I can't believe we've come all this way - 863 miles. Well done Bob and well done me. Navman and I are getting along fine. We've had one or two dodgy moments and a few fallings out - just like a real relationship! Like the morning in St. Helens where he routed me round the one-way system and into the bus garage! I was trying to find my way out through loads of buses - none of which wanted to give way to me and a little green Scooby - sob, sob. Also on that day I had to turn back to meet Bob and Navman routed me onto what seemed like every motorway in the Northwest (I'm sure Navman didn't want Bob and I to meet up)! By the time I reached Bob in the pub car park I was really cross and I sulked in the car for a while (Bob had made the mistake of asking where I'd been).
While I'm on the subject of Navman, Bob keeps mentioning its gender - to me it's a man with a female voice - maybe it's my gay best friend?
I don't usually manage to surprise Bob, but I managed it on Sunday when Boik and Bev joined us at the lunch halt. We had a really good time together: flying a kite on top of The Long Mynd, Boik driving too fast down the lanes (I think I'm an expert now I've been driving for two weeks non-stop), having a nice meal and acting the goat at the restaurant. N.B. If you need to know what 'acting the goat' means, talk to Alison, Louise, or Louise's mi'Julies.
Anyway, to bring things up to date, I've been shopping in Glastonbury today to buy some more postcards and pay my usual visit to the Tourist Information centre (TIC). It's been really hot today and I know we shouldn't complain, especially as we were wishing for dry weather in Scotland, but today it was too hot for cycling and too hot for sitting in a car. We had a lovely long lunch break at a cider farm and neither of us really wanted to get going afterwards. In fact, sitting here in a pub on the northern edge of Dartmoor, I'm too tired to continue (I've missed my afternoon lie-down).So, love from the Bag Lady/mum/Jan
Bob says: I suspect I've miscalculated the mileages on my route cards - today should have been fairly easy and only 48 miles BUT it was VERY hard and even at 59 miles I was well short of my intended stopping point, still it was meant to be a rest day! Because we finished so late we couldn't do our planned evening jaunt to Ilfracombe to see Jans mum and Auntie Cec who are on holiday there.
I can tell today has been hard work because I've only got two photos - one is a direct result of a request from Mick at work (he says he needed proof I was actually riding the bike) and the other is an attempt to demonstrate that even my bike was getting tired today. I think the things that slowed us down today were:
i) I serviced my bike, so we didn't start until 10:30
ii) we both got lost in Taunton
iii) we had a very long break at the Cider farm (and I was sampling the product)
iv) Devon is hill after hill after hill after hill etc. etc. etc.
Anyway, I'm feeling tempted to ride the A30 - no I'm not, that would be just too dangerous. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll meet up with Mick & Marilyn (although it'll now be 30 plus miles to the lunchtime pub rather than the 20 I thought when I arranged it with Mick). Hopefully I'll have a longish downhill run to the pub, so I'll be able to make it on time.
Anyway, just in case anyone thought otherwise, this ride is TOUGH - tonight, for instance, I'm so tired that I couldn't make my mind up what to have for tea ( in the end I had two pints of cider and apple pie with ice-cream), so now I'm going to sign off, night-night, Bob.
Todays stats:
Accumulated mileage : 863.5 miles
Todays mileage : 59.75 miles
Todays average : 12.8 mph
Todays maximum : 39.6 mph
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