It was the 13th on Friday!

But we are jumping ahead a bit, what happened to Thursday? Well Brizzle was beset by another damp and windy day so rather than go out for the sake of it, i elected to delay my ride for a further day, after all the forecast for Friday was dry and sunny and less windy, what could go wrong?

So Friday morning i got myself organised and set off for Weston, what could be better than chops on the sea front? (well actually quite including some half decent chips!) It was into the wind but it didn't feel too bad, i made reasonable time considering, the sun was shining and i was enjoying the ride. The first hiccup came when i reached my usual Weston stop, it was closed (they were open all through Covid) and it looks like they've ceased trading, disapointing but there are other places, who apparently enjoy fleecing the visitors. To sit in would cost me £11 for sausage & chips so i opted for take out which was still an eye watering £6! The chips were terrible and trying to eat and keepo warm in 40mph winds didn't help.

Oh well, its a tailwind back, i set off and enjoyed the assistance even if a fledgling River Yeo fid need to be forded after bursting its banks. As i headed towards the Avon there was increasing amounts of water spilling onto the roads but the sun was still out and i was into the last hour of the ride, maybe 20km left when a hole hidden by field run off did the business on the back tube. Damn, so i stopped, changed the tube and set off again.

After a couple of miles i thought i should top up the tube, i'd been a bit lazy on the change, so i stopped and got the pump out and started to pump but nothing was happening, try again, nope, check the pump over, all looks well but it certainly wasn't delivering air, Okay, push on but it was soon clear that ithere was an issue with the new tube, it wasn't flat, a working pump would likely get me home, new plan then. I wasn't that far from a bike shop so i walked down into Keynsham to find the shop closed as they are moving premises and on investigation that was far from open too.

The light was starting to fade now so i took the decision to ride walk the last dozen kilometres. The result was one tired and annoyed Maddy and a rear wheel thats gonna need some major surgery to return to service, i know, my own fault for riding the flat but even my winter boots are not exactly great for walking in so it was six of one, half a dozen of the other. I will be avoiding riding on Friday the 13th again at all costs! For the record i did 105km riding, my first century since before my Xmas trip a month ago.

I was in something of a mood yesterday due to Fridays fiasco but i made a start on the next segment of Trixie so it was a total loss. On to today, well i arranged a loaner bike from Aunty Bev and with a gap in the weather i set out for a short ride around the lanes to the north of here. It wasn't too bad on the weather front, bit windy but i remained dry from the heavens at least, no, todays wet was already on the ground, sat in fields and flooding roads, the deepest was probably @ 20cm which doesn't sound much but that meant my feet were submerged at the bottom of the stroke and it was @ 50m long at that depth - good job my winter boots are pretty good at keeping the wet out! It was all of 55km for the total ride but it was enough for today.

I've put up the next bit of Gaby book 25, Of Gloo Wine and Pommes answers some questions and maybe a couple of new worm cans.

I'll be back Wednesday for now tho',
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid