Yippieee - got my PC back.
Ok, so the lazy Saturday was all my fault...
First obstacle was the language barrier - Jim and I were supposed to meet at Thurrock
Services. Well, my bike always comes first so I thought this would mean the service station in order to fill up. Arrived at twenty to 10:00 and waited... and waited... and waited...
Twenty past 10:00 and no Jim in sight... Called him on his mobile and found out that he had been waiting 200 yards further up at the restaurants - that's priorities clarified then...
One point we better agree on with the Region 1 team before the 5th September.
Around 10:30 I finally had the pleasure to meet Jim in person:
Another photo and ten minutes later we actually got going:
Only to stop again at the next roundabout and help an old Swedish guy on his Vulcan to find his way to the A13... So I think the proper start time was rather 11:10?
After a very enjoyable ride through the residential areas of Sandwich, a closer inspection of the Pfizer estate and a detour to Deal I caused Jim to perform an emergency break in Folkestone next to a roadsign promising sandwiches and all-day breakfast: "Me hungry!".
Well, and if you have just met somebody you obviously want to get to know him a bit better - so we kept chatting for another hour (which was also my fault, as I kept saying: I know from my dry run in March that we can do the fast version of this route in five hours - so let's do the scenic one and see how far we get...).
Approaching Eastbourne we saw a lot of posters by the road advertising a special airshow that day "Airbourne" - and Beachy Head turned out to be the perfect view point...
Eastbourne in the distance (and my conventional SLR zoom is still better...
)
Can we stay another ten minutes, please?
You know the rest of the story - pretending he was looking for a filling station Jim used the opportunity for another detour leading to Steyning where his brother and family live. All lovely people, I have to say, and the coffee and biscuits were rather nice.
By then we had been on (and off...) the road for eleven hours (at least me, starting at 8:20 from Oxford) and decided to call it a day. Said goodbye to Jim, pressed the "home" button and took the scenic route back north (which was a bit pointless due to rain and darkness). Arrived shortly after 22:00, being welcomed by a slightly worried Possu...
What a great day! We had so much fun, Jim is not a bad rider himself, and I am really looking forward to the "proper" run - even though we can't afford to slob about to the same extend... Ok, Jim?
Will check out your map-file tonight - just in case you have managed to smuggle in another of your odd detours...
CU soon,
Ela