Mikes Big Adventure

Sunday 17th August 2003 - Day Two

The next day I wake quite early and surprisingly not feeling too bad. Showered, shaved and ready to go, I hear that everyone else is going down to the seafront for breakfast. Yeah! Great idea! So, into my casual clothes and hitched a lift in Jeanettes people carrier. The other lads rode their bikes, I was feeling good but not that good! Scrambled eggs, veggy sausages, beans, hash browns, mushrooms with two large banana milk shakes set me up nicely for the trip to Yorkshire, some 265 miles north.

Apart from the roadworks on the M25 (London Orbital motorway) the journey was very straightforward. Only a few roads to follow and Id be there. A127, M25, M1, A1. It was tempting, as I passed signs for the M6 and M62, which would lead me directly to home, to take a detour. That was an option if the weather turned bad, but it was gloriously sunny and I had people waiting for me. Somewhere around Leeds I stopped at a service station to fill the petrol tank and use the toilet. As the bike trundled along to the petrol pumps I noticed the concrete forecourt was very wet. First sign of rain? I`d done exceptionally well for weather so far. Suitably refreshed, me and the bike headed off again, onto the slip road to the M1 and strangley theres no sign of water on the road. There had been some building work at the service station, maybe they had hosed the whole area down? I still don`t know!

Anyway, not too far to John and Gails house now and Im doing very well for time. The GPSr is indicating I`ll be there for about 6.30pm. I`d told John that I thought it would be 7pm so I slowed down a little. John and Gail live only a few minutes from the main A1 road so the GPSr reading ought to be very accurate for time. Sure enough, I`d adjusted my speed to arrive exactly on time - 7pm.

As I rolled up to the house, several young chilren came running toward me. One was Thomas, John and Gails son. The others, I`ve no idea. One of them came up to me and shouted "Are you Mike??!!", "Yeah", I nodded. They started to cheer. I was a hero with the streets young kids and I`d only just arrived!

John strolled over and welcomed me in. "Put your bike round the side, come in, glad you made it!" he said with a grin on his face. His eyes were all over my bike like a kid weighing up his next new thing. I let John sit on my bike, it was obvious how much he liked it but, how can I put it nicely?, John is a big fella. My bike is 535cc, 400lbs and definitely undersized for him. I reccomended he get the next size up, a 750 or even an 1100. He agreed and later that night, over a meal and several cans of beer, we talked about how and where to buy his motorbike.

John and Gail have other interests too - testament to that are the number of animals (besides the four children) that live in their house. On that day there were four cats, two dogs, two(?) budgies and a very large and very noisey parrot called Boris. All of us, especially Boris, enjoyed a late evening talking about all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

The next day brings bad news. It`s rained quite heavily in the night. The weather forecast isn`t too promising either. For weeks the weather has hit all time highs but now it seems to be over. I ponder over my options. I really want to do the whole trip but its meant to be fun. John had mentioned that if I want to stay another night then its fine by him. I ask Gail what she thinks and she confirms Johns offer. I decide its safer to stay and hope for an improvement in the weather. The next part of my journey would be taking me further North and through hils and mountains with very little in the way of service stations, towns, even civilisation!

So, its with a sense of "safety first" that I settle in to another day at John and Gails in Yorkshire. Gail suggests we go to visit Johns work to watch the jets taking off and landing. The RAF station is only minutes away and we`re able to park up by one of the busy taxi ways watching Tornado and Hawk jets doing practice manouvres. Katie and Thomas in the back of the people carrier are excited by the roar of twin jet engines hurtling past. Then Thomas is quiet (yes its true, he really was quiet for at least a few seconds!). We look around and hes gone! He hadnt opened the door and escaped, he`d hidden himself under a blanket on the floor!

So, its the next day and I really must make headway on my journey. I`d phoned ahead to explain the delay and my next hosts were waiting for me about 170 miles away in Falkirk, Scotland.