Jul 29-Aug 14 - off we go; body anomalies

What a trip.  We had a blast. 

We headed north towards Scotland, getting as far as Carlisle. I was pretty wiped by that time, no patience for getting through the old city in traffic to our hotel. Getting to the back of the hotel was a 2km drive through narrow one way streets and pedestrian areas. However, we eventually got parked, had a good dinner at the hotel. 

Next we drove to Thurso for an overnight before a morning ferry from Scrabster to Stromness in the Orkney islands. It's a 1.5 hour ferry ride, easy and inexpensive. We then spent the day driving from west to east, lingering in Kirkwall, wandering the pedestrian areas. Cruise ships come in here and it includes the usual souvenir shops etc. The ships don't actually dock, passengers are shuttled over. 

Scapa, south of Kirkwall, rang a bell. It was home to the British Fleet and was mentioned in some fiction (or non) that I read at one point. Apparently there are wrecks etc but we weren't there to dive the North Sea. 

We made our way to the east - Orkney - and then south to Berwick and then north to our accommodation at Dounby, the Smithfield Inn. We had a wonderful dinner at the Inn, finished our island tour the next day and got back to Stromness long before our afternoon ferry. 

Looking for lunch, Sandy found a place with recent reviews from only hours before but upon arriving, met up with a very unhappy group of 30+ who had a reservation but the place was shuttered.  We did finally find some lunch and a drink at the local Legion that was happy to have business from non members. 

Ferry back to the mainland (well not really, since the UK is also an island), we headed for our booking at Borgie. This was amazing.  The middle of nowhere took on new meaning. A road led off to the hotel, a long ways away from the middle of nowhere road. 

The next day's drive was even wilder. We must have driven 200k of single track, polite driving required, including Applecross Pass, in time for our dinner reservation at the Applecross Inn. That singletrack drive up the pass was wild.  Very steep, traffic both ways, including fully loaded bicycles. I don't know how they managed it. 

Our accommodation was not at the Inn. Rather it was at the B&B.  Unfortunately we finally found some rain.  

Onward the next day to Glasgow, we found more scenery, more singletrack,  skirted Skye, did some wandering, then left the next day for Helen's. We opted to bypass the pass, taking the long way around.   We met some friendly Highland Cattle along the way; very photogenic.

We met their daughter Claudia, had dinner with Helen and Mark, but before that, I assembled by bike. The next morning, I did an exploring run, hitting some very steep roads. Thank goodness, I thought, these 15+% roads aren't in LEL. Little did I know …

Next up, Alan & Christine. We had a great visit and went out for dinner.  Seeing them was both good and bad. Alan is now fully blind, Christine is hunched over, but their minds are sharp for their ages. Yes yes they are forgetful. So am I !!

We're now at Aug 5, had breakfast with Helen and Imogen before heading for the Waltham Abbey Marriott. Many randos were in evidence, Mark T, Jason from S Korea, other Americans and Canadians.  Dinners, drinks, all good although we did get tired of the Grill menu. We ate there once or twice too often over the course of our stays pre and post LEL. 

Registration was on the 6th, one half hour trip by bicycle, one by car to drop off my drop bags. 

My ride start was at 6am the next day.   It broke down as follows.  Note that I decided to quit early each day, get some sleep and then head out again.  I would then get some more sleep at the next control.  That seemed to suit me well as I was never sleepy.  With some work on my Garmin, I could probably figure out the start time for each stage because somewhere in all that time is a lot of time spent at controls, besides sleeping.

	km	arrival	sleep
Debden		Sunday 06:00
St Ives Northbound	101	Sunday 10:31
Boston Northbound	191	Sunday 15:08
Louth Northbound	244	Sunday 18:02
Hessle Northbound	302	Sunday 21:18	1hr sleep
Malton Northbound	369	Monday 05:36	2hr sleep
Barnard Castle Northbound	482	Monday 13:28
Brampton Northbound	566	Monday 20:26	1hr sleep
Moffat Northbound	640	Tuesday 04:26	2hr sleep
Dunfermline	751	Tuesday 12:23
Innerleithen Southbound	832	Tuesday 18:36
Eskdalemuir Southbound	881	Tuesday 21:57	1 hr rest
Brampton Southbound	940	Wednesday 03:06	2hr sleep
Barnard Castle Southbound	1024	Wednesday 12:06
Malton Southbound	1136	Wednesday 19:59	1 hr sleep
Hessle Southbound	1204	Thursday 04:41	2hr sleep
Louth Southbound	1263	Thursday 11:04
Boston Southbound	1315	Thursday 14:50
St Ives Southbound	1407	Thursday 20:40	1hr sleep
Great Easton Southbound	1477	Friday 04:09	1hr sleep
Debden Finish	1525	Friday 08:07

All told, it was a relentless approach to the ride. Lots of short sleeps of 1-2 hours each, mindful of the time. It was hot and progress at times was slow. I had a worn pedal problem for the last 150k and had to learn to keep my right foot flat on the pedal or it would slip off.  At one point I was considering finding pedals to purchase. It was dicey. 

Back at the ranch (Marriott), more beer (need carbs, y'know), I made a trip to the finish with Nigel to pick up my, his, Christine and George's drop bags. All three had dnf'd the ride; all three had a good time and were comfortable with their decisions, making tours of the experience. 

Did it go according to plan?  Well, at sone level, yes, but the plan morphed along the way. I was never sleepy on the ride because I did stop early and often. I didn't have any roadside naps (aka ditch naps) and got 'er done. 

Now we're flying back. I was scanned, felt up, told more than once to empty my empty pockets. The scanner showed a suspicious area at my left rear pocket. I asked and was told that sometimes body anomalies are picked up. Well who knows what kind of anomaly I might have since I've never had a hip operation, don't have any in-body metal :).

Getting into the flight there was a commotion with this fellow who kept tagging through close to the person ahead and was sent back. 3 times, I heard. Invalid boarding pass, I heard. (We were there). Well, somehow eventually he got through and into the aircraft (assuming it was him) and everywhere he sat and touched was inspected.  Bathrooms were checked. Paperwork was lengthy with airport authorities. Luggage had to be sorted (why, I don't know if he wasn't supposed to be here)  About 1.5 hours later we were on our way.   Fascinating. 

We were late into Toronto, due to the security issue.  That all went reasonably well and in the space of an hour we were through customs, collected our luggage, made our way to the Viscount "value" parking lot and hit the road.