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nope, its Maddy's blog!
Sorry its a bit late today but a meteorological incident (rain yesterday) threw my plans out a bit and so I ended up doing my Saturday ride today on Sunday. The weather really has been the plaything of the Gods this week but it gives us something to complain about that's apolitical, areligious and annoying!
So, Thursday. The forecast was a bit non committal and to be honest so was my enthusiasm so rather than plan some huge adventure I decided on a bit more lane exploration nearer to base. You can find some interesting stuff down some of these no through roads, I found the impressive Oxwick farmhouse of 1722 down one, yep it was over half a century old at American independence!
I stopped for lunch in nearby Wickwar church yard then continued laneing around more of South Glos. to eventually land back at Bev's acres with 105km total and @ 35km of new roads bagged for the day. I was feeling more positive by then, it was a quite relaxed day, warm, sunny and dry, my thuse had regained at least some en.
Friday, well on a positive note I got in a 15km roundtrip walking into the city centre, it was also dry and sunny.
Saturday's forecast was dire, wet all morning and again in the evening, my ride plan was toast! I spent the morning in the dry, updating some of my databases which have been sadly neglected lately. Then, after a light lunch, and with a gap in the weather I set off to get at least some exercise in with a short walk - well define short! A quick walk around the block turned into two hours and 11km, I got back just in time as it started to rain as I sat recovering with a cuppa.
My thuse was still lacking the full en this morning when I set out on two wheels with only the vagueist idea of where I was gonna go. Some people are good at maths, others are really talented with a paintbrush, me, well maps and roads are my thing, I can spend hours poring over a map, I have a huge library of them covering a good chunk of 'northern' Europe. And then I'm as likely to not carry/use them when I go somewhere having memorized the salient points of my route. Areas that I travel more frequently (which might mean the whole of Yorkshire rather than the few miles around Maddy central!), even if i don't use all the roads, I can usually navigate my way around without referring to any cartography, today was one such day.
There was a bit of laneing through North Somerset on my way to my halt at Clevedon and a little more on my return via Portishead and the Clifton Bridge to end up with 107km ridden. There was a nagging wind most of the day but at least its southerly aspect meant it was a little warmer than of late and the grey clouds intermittently let through a few rays of sunshine.
Todays Gaby is chapter 3 of Ontario, BC Blues. There's disappointing news for the BC crew and Max tries to turn on the charm.
Thats it for today, more mid week,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid
