Team Dave

Last nights mattresses were covered in a thick plastic material just in case we weee the bed, but it made us sweat like a drain. It does seem to be a common occurence on this trip, sweat by day and sweat by night. Sue aint gonna be happy when i get home and sweat under our new duck feather duvet. The walkers we met last night warned us to expect 85mph winds today, i bet it wont be on our tail. Heavy rain has also been forecast for the whole of the UK all day. We set off in dry weather and into yet another head wind. The climb up Shap Fell was the second best moment of the day. Whilst making the 7 mile descent into Kendal it started to rain. The waterproof jacket and leggings were utilised and remained on for the rest of the day. Making our way from Kendal i decided to put my ipod on to take my mind off the rain, traffic and horrid dual carriageway that we were on, Pearl Jam should do the trick. We were heading southbound on the A6, Lancaster, Garstang and Preston our immediate targets. The wind and rain was miserable and to add to my misery the waterproof pocket on my jacket filled with water and saturated my ipod – not a good combination, i shall have to ride without lala. The section of road between the M55 and M56 was giving me some trouble in my head. This is the really busy section that takes in Preston, Wigan, Ashton, Warrington amongst other built up areas. This trouble in my mind manifested itself as soon as we hit the big traffic island for the M55 – no cycle path round so we had to use the main carriageway. Pricer was in front. The driver on our right was looking to his left and probably completely unaware of our presence. I could see trouble unfolding before my own eyes so i backed off, it is a dreadful feeling watching events in front of you unfold not knowing what to do. It would be foolish to shout at Pricer because he could look over his right shoulder causing him to swerve further into the path of the car. The car accelerated from the junction, his bumper getting closer and closer to Pricers pannier until he made contact and at this point he must have swung his head round to the front again and yanked the car to the right away from the pannier. Pricer used a few words from his Profanisaurus in the direction of the driver and remained upright on his bike – Phew that was a close one. It did not put our minds at ease considering we had so many miles to ride on busy roads, we had more close shaves during the rest of the day. Car drivers seem to get more impatient when the weather is bad, they drive closer to the car in front and are less courteous. I am sure i am the same so will try to be aware of this when i drive my van when i get back home. We pushed on thro Preston then the sign for the A49 was now in front of us, our tarmac ribbon all the way home. I had to pull myself together here, i was getting all emotional, c’mon Dave sort yerself out. We rode thro dinner today so we could call in on Pricers Aunty Hazel who lives in Euxton. When we arrived she was in and expecting us, we were soaked so we used this oppurtunity to get some dry gear on. We ate some sarnies and crisps whilst Hazel made us a brew. We chatted about the ride and Strictly Come Dancing with Hazel and enjoyed escaping the rain for a while. Saying our goodbyes we got back on the bikes making our way thro Standish and Wigan. Heading thro Abram avoiding the A49 dual carriageways and busy junctions we were now cold, tired, hungry and looking for accomodation. It was obvious that they dont get many tourists round these parts, every sign outside a house we spotted got us a little excited until we got closer only to find that all the signs up were for sale signs and not B&B signs. Row upon row of red brick terrace housing, its grim up north. We just kept pedalling on and on. Warrington was coming up soon so surely there would be some accommodation there. Now for the 1st best moment of the day, like an oasis a Premier Inn sign appeared in front of us. With a pub attached we did not take any persuading, £51 for room only and we were in. The lady in charge even let us use the tum ble drier to dry all our wet gear. 90 miles completed today, we were really happy with that effort and leaves us only about 80miles tomorrow. Hooray, only one more sleep to go. Ive been looking forward to writing that into our journal for a long time now. Nothing is gonna stop us now, we would even ride home on the rims if we had to.
Noshbedanya x