I took the bike to work with me on Saturday morning. At 2pm I closed the pharmacy and took to the road. I took the motorway over to save time and then down to the Clare rally point. A quick stop for petrol and then about 30 minutes of back roads to the hotel. A quick shower and change into the monkey suit and I'm down for dinner.
I had an early-ish night (about 1am) as I wanted to be more than half alert on the bike on Sunday.
I had a big breakfast as I was skipping lunch and then into the AGM. Parts of it droned on. The president when he's speaking could put black coffee asleep.
It was all over by 2pm and I was on the road by 2:15. The slowest part was getting out of Galway city. But once I was on the N59 I started to make progress, at least I would have if it wasn't for all the tourists. Most were gone after about 20km and then I had about 50km of open road. It's supposed to be a national route but in reality it's just a well surfaced back road.
I got to the next rally point Omey Island at 4. It was low tide when I got there but I didn't have the time to go out. Also I would have need to wash the salt and sand off before going any further.
I set off for the next point, Mayo but after about 10 minutes my sat nav just lost the road that I was on and re-routed back to Galway. I took an executive decision and performed a U turn and headed in the direction that I knew was right. After about 20 minutes the sat nav came round to my way of thinking and gave correct cordinates. All in all it lost me about 15 minutes. A quick stop just before 6 for a Mars bar, a cup of tea and petrol for the bike and I got to the second point about 30 minutes behind schedule.
After taking the photos at the second point I did some calculations. If I went to the third point, Roscommon it would take 10 minutes longer than going directly home. Working on the it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission theory I headed to the third point.
As I set out for home I thought that the ETA on the sat nav was a bit optimistic. I knew how long it would take me to get home from Athlone and I still had a way to go before getting there. As I was going down the road to Athlone the sat nav indicated that I should leave it well before Athlone. What the hell I thought and took the turn. It brought me down a well surface side road that cut about 10km off my expected journey.
I got to Athlone and then took the motorway the rest of the way home. I got home 7 hours after leaving the hotel, exhausted but content.
So for next week it's maintenance and repairs to the bike and the grass needs cutting again. I will also have to put in some "home" time to make up for all the bike time of the last few weeks. Well worth worth it.