I'm at the Chingford Premier Inn now but not without some fun along the way.
It was a fairly long drive south the A1(M) which isn't "M" (motorway) all the way. Now looking at the map, I could have turned and stayed on motorway but perhaps this was more interesting.
I was to turn west at M25, the London ring-road, but thought that the exit was another hundred yards on so I missed that. Drove 2 miles further, around the roundabout and back north to M25. On the roundabout there, the two lanes going to M25 were stopped, couldn't get in and was routed back onto the M1 northbound (besides, there was a police care beside me and I didn't think it prudent to do anything crazy). 3.5 miles north and then aroundabout again headed south ... and this time successfully onto the M25 west. That cost me 15 minutes. Then the M25 was slow for a couple of miles. That cost me another 15 minutes. Then, everything going well I went to turn right onto Ranger Road and my hotel, and my destination. Ranger Road was closed. I had to do a circle to come onto the other end of Ranger Road (only two access points to this road) and finally got to my destination.
All in all not too bad though since I arrived just after 4pm having left around noon.
I'd originally planned to leave around 10 but had a few "adventures" before leaving, one of which caused me huge consternation ...
The Garmin Western Europe maps are on a Micro-SD card that I'd purchased before going to Italy in 2010. I copied that onto another card which made it easier to use both my bike and car Garmin without moving the card from machine to machine. Well, that didn't work. Apparently there's coding on the card somewhere that it cannot be copied. Both machines say something like "cannot unlock maps". I obviously should have checked this out before leaving ! Perhaps I could break that code with some research but hadn't realized that it would be a problem. The maps that I bought for North America don't have that problem, but perhaps someone has already broken those and I'm using "counterfeit" maps.
So I moved the card to the bike Garmin while at Allan's, since I wasn't driving and then back to the car Garmin to head for London. Somehow the card went in behind the slot and I couldn't get that out. Some more trying and it actually disappeared inside. Uggh !! Perhaps I could have used old-school navigation to Chingford but I'd surely have had a real problem at the Ranger Road closure ! Then cycling with only the pink line without the background maps would have also been a pain.
So I endeavored to get the unit open. There are no screws so I had to pry at the seams with a screwdriver. It now has lots of hack marks and is missing the on/off switch, which is a slider that fell out. I've got it and can pry open again to re-insert, but once I retrieved the card, I stopped ... and yes, I did retrieve the card. At one point, with the unit partly open at that side, it fell out. Plugging the unit in turns it on. Unplugging turns it off. Great. I re-inserted the card and it went in properly and was then working. Quit while you're ahead !
I've mostly got the hang of this drive-on-the-left business. I now automatically move to the left side, enter a parking lot from the left side etc. Also, while driving, I'm centered in the lane. I've gotten used to where my body has to be in the lane to center the car.
As for the windshield wipers vs turn signals, unlike the car that I'd driven in Cayman, my only other experience, the turn signal is on the same side as the rest-of-the-world. Interesting. In Cayman, whenever I hit the turn signal, the wipers would go.
I also found out something interesting when talking to the cyclists at one of our tea breaks the other day -- they run the right-hand brake cable to the front brake, vs the rear brake, so that when they are turning right, they can extend their arm but still use the left hand, rear brake. In North America, we run that cable to the rear brake. Motorcycles in North America have the right hand brake operate the front brake, so it's similar. You have the foot brake for the rear and of course on the left side is the clutch.
I filled up the tank with diesel on the way yesterday as I'd gotten down to 1/4 tank. At that same stop, around 2pm or so, I also got some food -- McDonald's -- it was excellent ! I had their grilled chicken salad and couldn't have done better in a restaurant.
Once in Chingford at the hotel, I headed back out to find groceries. I kept it simple last night, rolls and sliced chicken and other snacks for dinner. This morning I've had my bran buds, some muesli that I bought yesterday, that last coffee and now cup-a-soup. That's the full eating report !
Today is still an unwritten page. I may or may not get together with some other Canadian riders. I'll wait to see the email traffic. Hamid and Shab have arrived and he's planning on bringing his bike over here later today. I'm not 100% sure why since he's about the same distance from the start, I think.
Onward ? The sun is out ...
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