Yesterday was yet another long day in the saddle. I left home early (7:30am) to go to Ilminster to collect a PPE package. I stopped at the local petrol station to fill the tank (1). Everything was fine until I was 3 miles away from the pickup and they had closed the A303 due to an accident.... all traffic was now diverted through the town - where it just happens they had also eased parking restrictions so cars were parked everywhere and all the big trucks had trouble getting through - it took over an hour to travel 1.2 miles.....
So finally made the pickup and off to Bodmin to hand over the package to Craig and he was going to take it onto its final destination in Hayle. Arrived on good time and even manage a tea break in the cold empty services - no place to sit down. Handover now complete.... and petrol tank nearly empty it was time to fill up (2) just short of 200 miles ridden.
I then took advantage of my return trip to visit a friend in Port Isaac - I have not seen her - or her late husband for over 27 years so a visit was due. A pleasant ride up but I missed the turning and Gertie Garmin suggested a route via St Ewe's Highway .... this is was certainly not a highway - my panniers were touching the bushes on both sides!!
I finally arrived at Port Isaac and found the house, Jill was at the door to greet me ... (Note: everything in Cornwall is on a slope) so as I parked the bike and in my haste to say hello ... I put the side stand down and climbed off... I then looked away only to see the look on her face as the bike tipped over and landed with a crash .... bugger. We both managed to get the bike upright again and safety parked properly - I did feel so foolish - not too much damage, just a broken indicator. The Lomo bags on the engine bars sure did cushion the fall...
Anyway we had a very pleasant distanced cup of tea and chatted about the past 40 years since we were altogether in NATO SHAPE in Belgium.
Time to hit the road, as it is about 3.5 hour ride back home in the drizzle. I got as far as Wareham and thought I had better top up the tank (3) and put on a extra layer as it was starting to get cold.
All done and I arrived home at 8:45pm. Knackered.... just a 365 miles round trip.... not sure about the economics of riding all that way, using two full tanks of petrol to deliver a 1kg package of PPE that could have been posted via the Royal Mail for less than £3.00 1st Class and signed for .... ah well crazy times....
Nite nite.....