Pale Rider
Legendary Member
At least it's warm and windless.
A shower or two in those conditions is bordering on pleasant.
A shower or two in those conditions is bordering on pleasant.
England : Cheshire Sat, 2nd June, 2018 - 200 km Cheshire ride (with shorter route options)
- Thread starter ColinJ
- Start date
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OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Carrie and I are at Manchester Victoria with 26 minutes to wait for our train back... It has been a long day!
More to say tomorrow. .
More to say tomorrow. .
Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
Don't get in any lifts or it might become longer ....
GuyBoden
Guru
- Location
- Warrington
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
First, I'd like to apologise to @accountantpete - there were some reasons and some excuses, but whatever ... we are not normally so late that somebody waits about an hour and a half for us and then gives up, and that was made worse by the fact that he was soaked after being caught in heavy rain on his way over! 
Anyway ... Here is a long post about our day out. No photos I'm afraid.
I was a bit worried about the recent problems with Northern trains and @Littgull and I did suffer a delay of about 20 minutes getting to Manchester Victoria, where we met my pal Carrie who had come in on a different train. Well, at least we hadn't had our trains cancelled ...
We went over to the toilets at the station. Now, Manchester Victoria is the station immediately adjacent to Manchester Arena which suffered that terrible terrorist bombing in May 2017. There is a little shrine to the victims there opposite the toilets, and what did we spot behind a seat right next to the toilets ... a 'suspicious item'! It looked to me like a wheel bag with a wheel in it, but I certainly wasn't going to open it! Stupidly perhaps, we decided to use the toilets before alerting station staff ...
After we were done, I found a couple of staff members and took them over to the seat to show them the bag. They didn't know what it was so I explained that a cyclist had probably accidentally left an expensive wheel behind in it, but in the light of past terrorist outrages, we thought it best to report it. As we set off, we saw one of the staff members dealing with what was potentially a terrorist bomb by ... pulling the bag out of its hiding place and unzipping it!
Outside the building, I gave Carrie and Littgull the usual safety warning about tram tracks on the route between there and Altrincham. Carrie shattered her right leg a year ago on a crashing on a railway crossing in Switzerland and has only just recovered. Brian forgot my warning on last year's ride and very nearly rode into a tram track, only saved by a last-second shout from me when I spotted what was about to happen!
Off we went, about 40 minutes later than planned ... The city centre is busy so we were not going to break any speed records but Carrie was already starting to lag behind. That isn't like her - she is very fit and normally the problem is trying to get her to slow down so she does not get lost in front of us! I asked if she were okay and she told me that she felt really sluggish but was sure that she would perk up later in the ride (which she did). The problem was that instead of making up for lost time on the ride out to Dunham, we were getting further behind. Eventually, I texted @GuyBoden to tell him.
We met Guy at the Old Oak in Dunham and by then we were probably an hour or more behind schedule. I was starting to feel a bit stressed because we still had @si_c and Pete further down the road. They would be hanging about for ages, and also the Venetian Marina cafe might close before arrived (it did!). I texted Simon to let him know our ETA near Mobberley.
We eventually spotted Simon at the roadside before Mobberley. He'd got soaked in heavy rain earlier, probably the same downpour encountered by Pete. The rest of us completely escaped rain yesterday so I got away with dressing for mild/warm, dry conditions and not carrying my rain jacket. (My bag was already filled with other stuff.)
My ageing bladder was by now conspiring to slow us down even more! It seemed like I had to sprinkle every bloody hedge in Cheshire ...
And then Brian ran out of steam ... He'd had a busy week, including offering support to his son in this amazing ride so he hadn't slept well for several nights. He didn't feel up to riding the full distance and his GPS technology was playing up so he wasn't confident of being able to improvise a shortcut back either so he did the sensible thing and bailed out as we passed Plumley station. I hope that he got back okay and has now had a good snooze!
Pete rang me. Now that isn't a great idea for several reasons... I am a bit hard of hearing so I often don't hear the ringing when I am in traffic. If I do hear the phone, it always seems to be when I am halfway up a hill, doing a right turn on a busy road, whatever ... The next problem is that my phone is in a waterproof bag (ever since my nephew's iPhone got destroyed by filling with water during a deluge!). The waterproof bag is usually buried in a pile of other stuff, zipped into my Camelbak bag. That bag is on my back. So I struggle to get to the phone while it is ringing and will have to ring back. The next problem is that I have often forgotten to turn the brightness up and can't see the screen properly ... and so on and so on! Texting is better. The next time I stop for hedge-sprinkling, I can do any necessary texting as well!
I tried ringing the number which had just called. I didn't have Pete's number so I didn't know if it had been him calling. I got a strange tone which I did not recognise so I assumed that the call had been one of the junk calls which have plagued me recently. I grumpily repacked the bag, remounted, set off with the others, and had just got back up to speed when ... the phone rang again! I still suspected it was a junk caller, but I had to try and answer it in case it WAS Pete. Carrie told me later that she had never heard me swear like that before!
I managed to answer the call before the ringing stopped. It WAS Pete! I'm hoping that he didn't catch what I had just said as I was 'picking up' ...
Pete sounded really cheerful and friendly despite having already waited for ages, which made me feel even more guilty and desperate to get moving again so we could actually join him at the cafe. I just needed to finish talking to him first ...
Onwards ... We did eventually get to the Goostrey cafe but by then Pete had got bored of dripping puddles all over the seats and had opted to go home and dry out.
@Pale Rider - you were right about the Sheffield bike stand parking at the cafe, but wrong about taking bikes into the garden/play area by the cafe. The gate by the bike stands is bolted (marked as a fire exit), presumably to encourage people to walk through the shop to get to the cafe, and hopefully buy things before they get there, but there is another gate on the other side of the play area which is unlocked. We wheeled our bikes to where we could keep an eye on them. Food/Drink/Chat!
And eventually we left. Now that Pete was no longer an issue we just had to worry about the next cafe stop, but it soon became clear that we were likely to miss it.
I liked our new diversion via Swettenham. I definitely would not fancy riding through the ford, but the footbridge solves that problem. Somebody noticed that a kindly villager has draped a towel over the railings next to the ford, presumably so that the foolhardy can dry themselves after their soaking!
The climb back up from the ford was doable on my singlespeed bike. In fact, I rode the entire route except for 10 yards over the same extremely steep humpback bridge at Wharton's Lock which caught me out last year. I think that the only way I would get over that on the bike is to remember it was there and to get to it at full speed but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try in case a car was coming the other way. The other 'walker' was the very short, steep cobbled ramp to a footbridge on the run back to Manchester.
I was just looking at my tracklog for the ride and wondering why we had stopped at Maw Green on the NE fringe of Crewe and then I remembered that I had punctured there. We couldn't find anything lodged in my tyre but we found the hole in the tube, and a tiny hole in the tyre which probably corresponded to it. We reckoned that I had ridden over something sharp which had done the damage, but not stayed in. TBH, I would rather find a thorn, nail, piece of glass, (whatever) because after removing that you could be pretty sure that the replacement tube would be ok. My pump is slightly fiddly and I accidentally deflated the tube while pumping it up so Simon donated a tube's worth of CO2 to speed the process up.
The weather was getting better by the minute. Even though the rest of us had dodged the rain that had caught Pete and Simon, it had still been a cool, very overcast start. So overcast in fact that though being nearly deafened by planes passing over us in and out of Manchester airport, we couldn't actually see them! The sun finally burned the cloud cover away and we were left with a lovely bright afternoon, pleasantly warm without being oppressively hot
Yes, we did miss the Venetian Marina cafe! We got to Cholmondeston at 15:40 and the cafe shuts at 15:00 on Saturdays. We came up with a 'Plan B' - ride on to The Shady Oak at Wharton's Lock near Tarporley, the one with my singlespeed nemesis bridge outside. On the way there, Guy led us round the eastern side of Beeston Castle, rather than the planned western side. I agree with his choice - we'll do it that way in future.
The pub's outdoor seating surpasses that of the Venetian Marina, in a similar canal-side setting. It also has the advantage of being deeper into the ride, which spreads the stops out better. The downside is that the Marina cafe is very good value for money whereas the pub is significantly more expensive. (Sneaky option is to just buy a drink and eat your own food? It is what Carrie did.) We can see what we think about the choice of stop #2 when planning next year's ride.
We had a good stop and then set off for the last part of our ride together. We passed through Kelsall and then onto the undulating road up though Delamere Forest. I found the forest road easier than last year so I must be getting fitter. A couple of the ramps had me breathless last time but yesterday I felt fine. Perhaps I have finally started to get fitter this year? The lingering winter really held me back earlier in the year.
Simon said goodbye to us at Flaxmere and turned for home. Guy, Carrie and I continued on our way.
Having skipped riding up down down the road between Cholmondeston and the Marina cafe earlier, Carrie and I were going to be a bit short of our 200 km target for the day and Guy short of his 100-miler so he used his local knowledge to help us divert from the planned route and claw those kms/miles back.
I just loaded the planned route over the top of the tracklog of our ride to see where we made the changes...
We had planned to ride directly from Great Budworth towards the bridge over the M6 via Bate Heath, but Guy led us on a longer route via Budworth Heath and Arley. It was a nice change, and another that might become established in later editions of the ride. There was a short stretch of small cobbles made from stones embedded in the road surface. I wasn't too bad on standard road tyres. (It might be a bit slippery when wet, however?)
We rejoined the planned route just before the M6 bridge but then diverted from it again before High Legh, instead riding via Hoo Green. There is clearly some serious money in Cheshire - we passed so many huge and/or gorgeous properties on the ride and we were passed by scores of Range Rovers, Porsches etc. Opportunity Knocks, eh? (Hoo Green, Hughie Green ... Hint for my younger readers!
)
Before long we were back in Dunham and back up to our projected target distances. Carrie and I said goodbye to Guy and set off back into Manchester. We were way behind the time it should have been and the light was starting to go. Fortunately, I had catered for this eventuality and packed 2 pairs of Lidl LED lights. It was pretty dark by the time we hit the centre of Manchester so really we needed those lights.
After playing a fun game of 'Dodge the City Centre Drunks' we finally arrived back at Victoria and caught our train home.
I had been feeling good all day but my mind and body started shutting down almost as soon as got into the house, which was at 23:45, having set off 17 hours and 205 kms (127 miles) earlier. I was too knackered to have a shower, and I barely stayed awake long enough to eat the food waiting for me. I started to conk out and decided to go to bed. Unfortunately, my body wasn't having any of that malarkey ... I couldn't get off the sofa. I woke up at 03:00 and dragged myself up the stairs. The next thing I knew it was 10:40 today and I was lying on my bed with half my cycling kit still on and the other half dumped on the bathroom floor. I think I can honestly say that I found those 205 singlespeed kms 'somewhat tiring'!
It had been a long, hard day but I'd had good company for it and I enjoyed the Cheshire countryside. Let's do it again next year, and if reading this hasn't put you off - come and join us.
PS Some bits of the route had been busier than I remembered them being. I will probably ask Guy to make a few suggestions here and there. I think the second half of the route is currently better than the first, so I think I will continue to try to improve it.
Anyway ... Here is a long post about our day out. No photos I'm afraid.
I was a bit worried about the recent problems with Northern trains and @Littgull and I did suffer a delay of about 20 minutes getting to Manchester Victoria, where we met my pal Carrie who had come in on a different train. Well, at least we hadn't had our trains cancelled ...
We went over to the toilets at the station. Now, Manchester Victoria is the station immediately adjacent to Manchester Arena which suffered that terrible terrorist bombing in May 2017. There is a little shrine to the victims there opposite the toilets, and what did we spot behind a seat right next to the toilets ... a 'suspicious item'! It looked to me like a wheel bag with a wheel in it, but I certainly wasn't going to open it! Stupidly perhaps, we decided to use the toilets before alerting station staff ...
After we were done, I found a couple of staff members and took them over to the seat to show them the bag. They didn't know what it was so I explained that a cyclist had probably accidentally left an expensive wheel behind in it, but in the light of past terrorist outrages, we thought it best to report it. As we set off, we saw one of the staff members dealing with what was potentially a terrorist bomb by ... pulling the bag out of its hiding place and unzipping it!
Outside the building, I gave Carrie and Littgull the usual safety warning about tram tracks on the route between there and Altrincham. Carrie shattered her right leg a year ago on a crashing on a railway crossing in Switzerland and has only just recovered. Brian forgot my warning on last year's ride and very nearly rode into a tram track, only saved by a last-second shout from me when I spotted what was about to happen!
Off we went, about 40 minutes later than planned ... The city centre is busy so we were not going to break any speed records but Carrie was already starting to lag behind. That isn't like her - she is very fit and normally the problem is trying to get her to slow down so she does not get lost in front of us! I asked if she were okay and she told me that she felt really sluggish but was sure that she would perk up later in the ride (which she did). The problem was that instead of making up for lost time on the ride out to Dunham, we were getting further behind. Eventually, I texted @GuyBoden to tell him.
We met Guy at the Old Oak in Dunham and by then we were probably an hour or more behind schedule. I was starting to feel a bit stressed because we still had @si_c and Pete further down the road. They would be hanging about for ages, and also the Venetian Marina cafe might close before arrived (it did!). I texted Simon to let him know our ETA near Mobberley.
We eventually spotted Simon at the roadside before Mobberley. He'd got soaked in heavy rain earlier, probably the same downpour encountered by Pete. The rest of us completely escaped rain yesterday so I got away with dressing for mild/warm, dry conditions and not carrying my rain jacket. (My bag was already filled with other stuff.)
My ageing bladder was by now conspiring to slow us down even more! It seemed like I had to sprinkle every bloody hedge in Cheshire ...
And then Brian ran out of steam ... He'd had a busy week, including offering support to his son in this amazing ride so he hadn't slept well for several nights. He didn't feel up to riding the full distance and his GPS technology was playing up so he wasn't confident of being able to improvise a shortcut back either so he did the sensible thing and bailed out as we passed Plumley station. I hope that he got back okay and has now had a good snooze!
Pete rang me. Now that isn't a great idea for several reasons... I am a bit hard of hearing so I often don't hear the ringing when I am in traffic. If I do hear the phone, it always seems to be when I am halfway up a hill, doing a right turn on a busy road, whatever ... The next problem is that my phone is in a waterproof bag (ever since my nephew's iPhone got destroyed by filling with water during a deluge!). The waterproof bag is usually buried in a pile of other stuff, zipped into my Camelbak bag. That bag is on my back. So I struggle to get to the phone while it is ringing and will have to ring back. The next problem is that I have often forgotten to turn the brightness up and can't see the screen properly ... and so on and so on! Texting is better. The next time I stop for hedge-sprinkling, I can do any necessary texting as well!
I tried ringing the number which had just called. I didn't have Pete's number so I didn't know if it had been him calling. I got a strange tone which I did not recognise so I assumed that the call had been one of the junk calls which have plagued me recently. I grumpily repacked the bag, remounted, set off with the others, and had just got back up to speed when ... the phone rang again! I still suspected it was a junk caller, but I had to try and answer it in case it WAS Pete. Carrie told me later that she had never heard me swear like that before!
I managed to answer the call before the ringing stopped. It WAS Pete! I'm hoping that he didn't catch what I had just said as I was 'picking up' ...
Pete sounded really cheerful and friendly despite having already waited for ages, which made me feel even more guilty and desperate to get moving again so we could actually join him at the cafe. I just needed to finish talking to him first ...
Onwards ... We did eventually get to the Goostrey cafe but by then Pete had got bored of dripping puddles all over the seats and had opted to go home and dry out.
@Pale Rider - you were right about the Sheffield bike stand parking at the cafe, but wrong about taking bikes into the garden/play area by the cafe. The gate by the bike stands is bolted (marked as a fire exit), presumably to encourage people to walk through the shop to get to the cafe, and hopefully buy things before they get there, but there is another gate on the other side of the play area which is unlocked. We wheeled our bikes to where we could keep an eye on them. Food/Drink/Chat!
And eventually we left. Now that Pete was no longer an issue we just had to worry about the next cafe stop, but it soon became clear that we were likely to miss it.
I liked our new diversion via Swettenham. I definitely would not fancy riding through the ford, but the footbridge solves that problem. Somebody noticed that a kindly villager has draped a towel over the railings next to the ford, presumably so that the foolhardy can dry themselves after their soaking!
The climb back up from the ford was doable on my singlespeed bike. In fact, I rode the entire route except for 10 yards over the same extremely steep humpback bridge at Wharton's Lock which caught me out last year. I think that the only way I would get over that on the bike is to remember it was there and to get to it at full speed but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try in case a car was coming the other way. The other 'walker' was the very short, steep cobbled ramp to a footbridge on the run back to Manchester.
I was just looking at my tracklog for the ride and wondering why we had stopped at Maw Green on the NE fringe of Crewe and then I remembered that I had punctured there. We couldn't find anything lodged in my tyre but we found the hole in the tube, and a tiny hole in the tyre which probably corresponded to it. We reckoned that I had ridden over something sharp which had done the damage, but not stayed in. TBH, I would rather find a thorn, nail, piece of glass, (whatever) because after removing that you could be pretty sure that the replacement tube would be ok. My pump is slightly fiddly and I accidentally deflated the tube while pumping it up so Simon donated a tube's worth of CO2 to speed the process up.
The weather was getting better by the minute. Even though the rest of us had dodged the rain that had caught Pete and Simon, it had still been a cool, very overcast start. So overcast in fact that though being nearly deafened by planes passing over us in and out of Manchester airport, we couldn't actually see them! The sun finally burned the cloud cover away and we were left with a lovely bright afternoon, pleasantly warm without being oppressively hot
Yes, we did miss the Venetian Marina cafe! We got to Cholmondeston at 15:40 and the cafe shuts at 15:00 on Saturdays. We came up with a 'Plan B' - ride on to The Shady Oak at Wharton's Lock near Tarporley, the one with my singlespeed nemesis bridge outside. On the way there, Guy led us round the eastern side of Beeston Castle, rather than the planned western side. I agree with his choice - we'll do it that way in future.
The pub's outdoor seating surpasses that of the Venetian Marina, in a similar canal-side setting. It also has the advantage of being deeper into the ride, which spreads the stops out better. The downside is that the Marina cafe is very good value for money whereas the pub is significantly more expensive. (Sneaky option is to just buy a drink and eat your own food? It is what Carrie did.) We can see what we think about the choice of stop #2 when planning next year's ride.
We had a good stop and then set off for the last part of our ride together. We passed through Kelsall and then onto the undulating road up though Delamere Forest. I found the forest road easier than last year so I must be getting fitter. A couple of the ramps had me breathless last time but yesterday I felt fine. Perhaps I have finally started to get fitter this year? The lingering winter really held me back earlier in the year.
Simon said goodbye to us at Flaxmere and turned for home. Guy, Carrie and I continued on our way.
Having skipped riding up down down the road between Cholmondeston and the Marina cafe earlier, Carrie and I were going to be a bit short of our 200 km target for the day and Guy short of his 100-miler so he used his local knowledge to help us divert from the planned route and claw those kms/miles back.
I just loaded the planned route over the top of the tracklog of our ride to see where we made the changes...
We had planned to ride directly from Great Budworth towards the bridge over the M6 via Bate Heath, but Guy led us on a longer route via Budworth Heath and Arley. It was a nice change, and another that might become established in later editions of the ride. There was a short stretch of small cobbles made from stones embedded in the road surface. I wasn't too bad on standard road tyres. (It might be a bit slippery when wet, however?)
We rejoined the planned route just before the M6 bridge but then diverted from it again before High Legh, instead riding via Hoo Green. There is clearly some serious money in Cheshire - we passed so many huge and/or gorgeous properties on the ride and we were passed by scores of Range Rovers, Porsches etc. Opportunity Knocks, eh? (Hoo Green, Hughie Green ... Hint for my younger readers!
)Before long we were back in Dunham and back up to our projected target distances. Carrie and I said goodbye to Guy and set off back into Manchester. We were way behind the time it should have been and the light was starting to go. Fortunately, I had catered for this eventuality and packed 2 pairs of Lidl LED lights. It was pretty dark by the time we hit the centre of Manchester so really we needed those lights.
After playing a fun game of 'Dodge the City Centre Drunks' we finally arrived back at Victoria and caught our train home.
I had been feeling good all day but my mind and body started shutting down almost as soon as got into the house, which was at 23:45, having set off 17 hours and 205 kms (127 miles) earlier. I was too knackered to have a shower, and I barely stayed awake long enough to eat the food waiting for me. I started to conk out and decided to go to bed. Unfortunately, my body wasn't having any of that malarkey ... I couldn't get off the sofa. I woke up at 03:00 and dragged myself up the stairs. The next thing I knew it was 10:40 today and I was lying on my bed with half my cycling kit still on and the other half dumped on the bathroom floor. I think I can honestly say that I found those 205 singlespeed kms 'somewhat tiring'!
It had been a long, hard day but I'd had good company for it and I enjoyed the Cheshire countryside. Let's do it again next year, and if reading this hasn't put you off - come and join us.
PS Some bits of the route had been busier than I remembered them being. I will probably ask Guy to make a few suggestions here and there. I think the second half of the route is currently better than the first, so I think I will continue to try to improve it.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Bonus report on 2 drunks on the train home ...
Drunk #1:
Carrie and I got our bikes into the bike compartment and took a seat close to it. An attractive woman got on and she had clearly had a fun night out. She wasn't slurring, but was speaking slowly and having to work hard to avoid doing so. She looked at the pair of us and asked us where we were getting off. I replied "Todmorden and Hebden Bridge" (after Rochdale on that line). She told us that she "might" doze off and if so, would we mind waking her up. I told her that we would.
She stretched out across both seats and one second later was out for the count with her face against the back of one seat. She slowly slid down and the seat contorted her mouth so she looked like the winner of a gurning competition. I whispered to Carrie that an unkind person would post a photo of her on Facebook/Snapchat/whatever ...
As we approached Rochdale, the conductor announced our arrival. It was a quiet announcement which I could barely make out, and I was wide awake. Naturally, our drunken pal did not stir. I put on a fake announcer's voice and said "Rochdale, Rochdale - Rochdale is the next station stop". Our drunk did not stir. I tried again, leaning closer to her ear ... "ROCHDALE, ROCHDALE - ROCHDALE IS THE NEXT STATION STOP!" She mumbled something, but did not stir. Once more, with feeling ... "ROCHDALE, ROCHDALE - ROCHDALE IS THE NEXT STATION STOP!" That did the trick - she opened her eyes, looked at me, said "Yes, I know it is" and promptly fell asleep again! Aaargh. By now everybody else in the carriage had turned round, sussed out what was going on, and was cracking up. The train pulled up at Rochdale station. "WE HAVE STOPPED AT ROCHDALE AND IF YOU DON'T GET OFF NOW YOU ARE GOING TO WAKE UP IN LEEDS!!!" She woke up again, looked out of the window and said "Oh, are we in Rochdale?" "Yes - you need to get off quick before the doors close." She stood up, squeezed my shoulder and said "Thanks, love" as she wandered out onto the platform to begin the final stage of her nocturnal oddysey.
Drunk #2:
It was a 2-carriage train. I was looking down to the far end and saw a drunken young man lurch to his feet and heard him announce that he was "going to the effing toilet". He meandered past me, past the effing toilet and through to the end of the next carriage. He turned round there, walked back past the effing toilet, back past us and to the end of our carriage. He then told us again that he was going to the effing toilet, and repeated the process. For goodness sake! I was about to tell him that the effing toilet was the effing compartment in between the carriages with the effing word 'Toilet' printed on the door when he finally worked it out for himself. He saw me looking towards him. "I'm going to the effing toilet" Ah, so now we know ...
I'm glad that I have given up drinking -I could have been the one gurning into my seat or risking peeing myself trying to find the effing toilet!
Drunk #1:
Carrie and I got our bikes into the bike compartment and took a seat close to it. An attractive woman got on and she had clearly had a fun night out. She wasn't slurring, but was speaking slowly and having to work hard to avoid doing so. She looked at the pair of us and asked us where we were getting off. I replied "Todmorden and Hebden Bridge" (after Rochdale on that line). She told us that she "might" doze off and if so, would we mind waking her up. I told her that we would.
She stretched out across both seats and one second later was out for the count with her face against the back of one seat. She slowly slid down and the seat contorted her mouth so she looked like the winner of a gurning competition. I whispered to Carrie that an unkind person would post a photo of her on Facebook/Snapchat/whatever ...
As we approached Rochdale, the conductor announced our arrival. It was a quiet announcement which I could barely make out, and I was wide awake. Naturally, our drunken pal did not stir. I put on a fake announcer's voice and said "Rochdale, Rochdale - Rochdale is the next station stop". Our drunk did not stir. I tried again, leaning closer to her ear ... "ROCHDALE, ROCHDALE - ROCHDALE IS THE NEXT STATION STOP!" She mumbled something, but did not stir. Once more, with feeling ... "ROCHDALE, ROCHDALE - ROCHDALE IS THE NEXT STATION STOP!" That did the trick - she opened her eyes, looked at me, said "Yes, I know it is" and promptly fell asleep again! Aaargh. By now everybody else in the carriage had turned round, sussed out what was going on, and was cracking up. The train pulled up at Rochdale station. "WE HAVE STOPPED AT ROCHDALE AND IF YOU DON'T GET OFF NOW YOU ARE GOING TO WAKE UP IN LEEDS!!!" She woke up again, looked out of the window and said "Oh, are we in Rochdale?" "Yes - you need to get off quick before the doors close." She stood up, squeezed my shoulder and said "Thanks, love" as she wandered out onto the platform to begin the final stage of her nocturnal oddysey.
Drunk #2:
It was a 2-carriage train. I was looking down to the far end and saw a drunken young man lurch to his feet and heard him announce that he was "going to the effing toilet". He meandered past me, past the effing toilet and through to the end of the next carriage. He turned round there, walked back past the effing toilet, back past us and to the end of our carriage. He then told us again that he was going to the effing toilet, and repeated the process. For goodness sake! I was about to tell him that the effing toilet was the effing compartment in between the carriages with the effing word 'Toilet' printed on the door when he finally worked it out for himself. He saw me looking towards him. "I'm going to the effing toilet" Ah, so now we know ...
I'm glad that I have given up drinking -I could have been the one gurning into my seat or risking peeing myself trying to find the effing toilet!
accountantpete
Brexiteer
Sorry I missed you Colin and friends.
I waited as long as poss but I had wet clothes and began to start adjusting my attire to stop the itching which generated some some funny looks from the parents of all the kids in the Cafe playground
especially as I was on my own and had been there for an hour .
Anyway I tried to phone but no success so I gave in and returned home to dry me and the bike out.
Never mind - there's always next year or I might make it up for one of your other rides
Pete
I waited as long as poss but I had wet clothes and began to start adjusting my attire to stop the itching which generated some some funny looks from the parents of all the kids in the Cafe playground
especially as I was on my own and had been there for an hour .Anyway I tried to phone but no success so I gave in and returned home to dry me and the bike out.
Never mind - there's always next year or I might make it up for one of your other rides
Pete
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I think the other thing is that the further into the ride it is, the harder it is to get the ETA right. We were running late getting to Manchester, later getting to Guy, later than that to Simon, and clearly ridiculously late getting to Goostrey. I got home about 2 hours later than I'd planned to!Sorry I missed you Colin and friends.
I waited as long as poss but I had wet clothes and began to start adjusting my attire to stop the itching which generated some some funny looks from the parents of all the kids in the Cafe playground
Anyway I tried to phone but no success so I gave in and returned home to dry me and the bike out.
Never mind - there's always next year or I might make it up for one of your other rides
Pete
You are always welcome to join us over here somewhere, and we will run the Cheshire ride as long as I still live in this area and am healthy enough to do it.
Evening All,
Firstly, apologies to @ColinJ, @si_c ,@GuyBoden and Carrie for uncharacteristically bailing out after just 31 miles ridden. Unfortunately, the large sleep deficit I had accumulated over the week leading up to the ride proved too debilitating and despite the excellent and supportive company I started to become all too aware that I had 'bitten off more than I could chew'. Many thanks Colin, for your linked report and kind words about my son's 'Everesting', achievement. It left me more knackered than Matthew and I only did a total of six hours and 53 miles in two separate support shifts!!!
I had a very early night last night and fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. I'm feeling better than yesterday but still not at all right so hopefully a few quiet days rest will do the trick.
I'm really glad you all ended up having an enjoyable day out on the bikes albeit with a very late finish due to the delays which included the stoppage relating to my 'bail out'. Apologies also to @accountantpete for adding to the delays and him missing the ride. Colin's account is an interesting read with his customary attention to detail and humorous style.
Firstly, apologies to @ColinJ, @si_c ,@GuyBoden and Carrie for uncharacteristically bailing out after just 31 miles ridden. Unfortunately, the large sleep deficit I had accumulated over the week leading up to the ride proved too debilitating and despite the excellent and supportive company I started to become all too aware that I had 'bitten off more than I could chew'. Many thanks Colin, for your linked report and kind words about my son's 'Everesting', achievement. It left me more knackered than Matthew and I only did a total of six hours and 53 miles in two separate support shifts!!!
I had a very early night last night and fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. I'm feeling better than yesterday but still not at all right so hopefully a few quiet days rest will do the trick.
I'm really glad you all ended up having an enjoyable day out on the bikes albeit with a very late finish due to the delays which included the stoppage relating to my 'bail out'. Apologies also to @accountantpete for adding to the delays and him missing the ride. Colin's account is an interesting read with his customary attention to detail and humorous style.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
@si_c, @GuyBoden - I was going to fix my punctured tube last night but couldn't find it in my bag. Did one of you happen to pick it up, or did we leave it draped over the fence where we stopped?
I'm not bothered about the cost of the tube, but I don't like chucking away things that could be repaired and reused, and I certainly don't like littering the countryside with cast-offs!
I'm not bothered about the cost of the tube, but I don't like chucking away things that could be repaired and reused, and I certainly don't like littering the countryside with cast-offs!
@si_c, @GuyBoden - I was going to fix my punctured tube last night but couldn't find it in my bag. Did one of you happen to pick it up, or did we leave it draped over the fence where we stopped?
I'm not bothered about the cost of the tube, but I don't like chucking away things that could be repaired and reused, and I certainly don't like littering the countryside with cast-offs!
I'm pretty sure Carrie put it in the side webbing of her rucksack so as not to get it mixed up with non-punctured tubes.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Ah, actually - that rings a bell!
I was going to text her to see how she feels. That would have been her longest ride since breaking her leg. In fact, it was probably one of her longest rides ever. She tends to do shorter, hillier rides.
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
Be sure to roll out the red carpet to Carrie for York/Humber Bridge.
She did the old route, so hopefully will be attracted by a new one.
You can at least reassure her we really ought to get to the cafe in time for hot food, which we didn't the last time she did the ride.
She did the old route, so hopefully will be attracted by a new one.
You can at least reassure her we really ought to get to the cafe in time for hot food, which we didn't the last time she did the ride.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I'm trying to remember what she said about doing the ride ... I remember her saying that Kevin can't give her a lift this time, and I also remember telling her that we will be starting from York station. I have a vague recollection of her mentioning Bingley station, but I think that was to do with the possibility of doing the Dales ride in July.
She replied to my text about the punctured tube. Yes - she has it.
She said that she conked out as quickly as I did on Saturday night.
I'll contact her again to get her to remind me what she said about York!
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