What a beautiful morning ! Bright sun, clear roads and for me - a chance to kip in the van whilst Tim drives us back up to near Flint. I tried to stay awake but not a chance. Kept coming to with this funny rattling noise going off somewhere - oh yeah, that'll be me snoring then!
The wind was still blowing but a bit less strong. To be honest though - who cares, it's behind me again !
Now, all the routes I've done have been planned using mapmyride.com and downloaded onto my Garmin GPS device. Absolutely great when 1. you know roads really do exist and 2. when the Garmin works. Alas, day 6 showed the pitfalls of neither of the above going according to plan.
At various points during the day I ended up in a secure oil refinery installation, private company grounds (with no exit) and several un-metalled tracks for example alongside the Manchester Ship Canal. Also, my type of bike is known for winning the Paris Roubaix race which involves going over miles of cobbled streets. I went over a cobbled bridge in Preston and above 3 mph i lost my glasses, above 5 mph my fillings started falling out and above 10 mph my eyeballs hurt - how do the pros do cobbled streets at 25mph+. I think even my hair would fall out at that pace!!
Also through the day the Garmin started doing random bits of navigation. At one point the route suddenly got 24 miles longer - I was particularly pleased about that one. It just meant losing time whilst it was re-started and it found itself and the route again. Technology - great when it works, lump of expensive plastic when it doesn't.
I got to Preston in good time though ready to go out for another lodge visit.
I should probably also comment on the accommodation - Travelodge. My room was fine except for:
When you flushed the toilet a fog horn went off next door (at least that's what I think it was, it was so loud);
The kettle was u/s - when the water was still stone cold after 10 minutes, even i gave up
I couldn't get the bed side lights to work no matter what combination or permutation of switches I tried; further investigation showed that the previous guest had 'half inched' the bulbs
The sink tap only dispensed hot water wherever the mixer arm was placed and for however long it was turned on. Not good for sports drinks.
Apart from those, top hotel !
Ready now for a trip to Cumbria via Lancaster!
No comments:
Post a Comment