A muddy trip

At Callander House, Falkirk..we went to watch our Fife friend racing the Cyclo-cross British national championships 

Pirate and our Fife friend..almost exactly twenty years difference in age

 Great mates.

Pirate got muddy feet looking after the spare bike in the pits..and shouted himself hoarse as we had a clubmate and a couple of other friends in the same race!

I escaped for an hour of me time..looking round the exhibition in the house..usually there are two as well as the history exhibitions about Falkirk and the Antonine Wall which is in the park in front of the house.

Then taking a few photos during the race.

Pirate is not angry about his diagnosis..a trifle pissed off, but he is determined to keep doing what he wants to.

He needs to allow me more Me time though, so that I can cope....

A long day

 Up at six, out at first light..and off to collect a reading magnifier that belonged to a friend's late wife. 

It looks like a microfiche reader that archives and libraries used to have..but has different degrees of brightness, colour and magnification that you can adjust, so that you can read on the screen what you place on the movable flat plate below.

We have bought it (luckily it is third hand, so far from the full price..which is eye watering!) for Pirate's ex-wife who has developed macular degeneration, the same as its previous owner.

Coffee and tattie scone and egg set us up there, and we retraced our steps along the Solway Coast to Castle Douglas..5 miles further than the cross country route, but we had found a short section of flooding which we had no wish to repeat!

We watched the end of a rather muddy Cyclo-cross..after a long night of rain! Our Fife friend was second in the 60+ group..it is a series, so he still leads that.

The course was in a park by a municipal camping ground, just off the centre of Castle Douglas. It has a beautiful loch in the park, with all sorts of waterfowl..all looking healthy, thankfully.

Lunch was bought at the event catering..for a change, not a burger van!!

Quiche, samosas and a chocolate brownie were welcome at the next stop!

Gretna Green shopping village was too full!! A quick foray for underwear in one shop then on down the motorway to Tebay and the Westmoreland services...one of the few that you can quietly cross from southbound to northbound! As we left Scotland the weather turned grey and definitely unfriendly!!

There we met with Pirate's machine to exchange presents and pass on the reading machine to go to his mum.

A meal and chat...after saying hello to a junior Scots team on their way home from a track event at Newport Velodrome!

Then the long drive back home, with the weather initially improving again as we left England! A break for a rest and a drink at the services where we left the motorway..very sensible ones that are off the motorway so can get business from all sides.

Then across on the A 70 all the way home, with some sleety rain on the highest parts as we came back into Ayrshire.

A long day, but not too tiring as we had enough breaks.

Callander House

 We went to Falkirk today, Pirate helped a friend who was racing in a national series Cyclo-cross in the grounds of Callander House....he was the pit bitch!!  Bucket and Brush and spare bike at the ready... thankfully not needed.

It gave me a chance to see the latest small exhibitions there...one on graphic magazine covers produced by hand locally in the 60s to 80s, and one of local art and craft...very good quality indeed.

Our lad done well..3rd 60plus...

The rain then set in...so no bike ride for us.  A good reason to celebrate his 70th birthday and drink coffee with a friend in his bike shop!!

Then home through Glasgow...but to avoid the football traffic, had a diversion to Ikea....a good supper and buying a much needed bedsheet!!

So we left in the dark...and got home in the dark!

Pen y Ghent

 We stayed in a roadside hotel outside Skipton on the way home....I wish it had been a lot further from the road!! Still, had it been, it would have been much more than £55.....

This was just over halfway home, and a chance to see a little of where pirate raced nine times, in the Three Peaks Cyclo-cross race.

Through Settle to Horton in Ribblesdale, where the cyclists start up towards Pen y Ghent mountain, after doing Ingleborough and Whernside (including going past the Ribblehead viaduct) . We walked up nearly the first half...1½ miles....the second half..1¾miles...would have been too much!! As it was the three miles took nearly three hours.

A wooden footbridge...the road bridges are narrow, and the quarry lorries wait for nobody!!

Along the road to where the riders leave the road and head up a track.

An apt name...seeing the view...

Onwards and upwards....

Looking back

I don't know how they do it!!....and in three or four hours as well. Just crazy.

Sandwiches and cake from Kirby Lonsdale...then on the road again. 

A much needed stop at Gretna Green....then home shopping in Thornhill...one hour of travelling to go, as it gradually turned to night.

We were very glad indeed to arrive home. The car was emptied ...cleaning it can wait!!

Today has been catching up time...doing the laundry, packing two fleabay sales and taking them to the post office by bike. Relaxing, then clearing the polytunnel of tomatoes...a washing up bowl full! I must clear and clean the greenhouse tomorrow morning.

Cyclo-cross day out

 Watching others get muddy!!

The essential coffee cart!

First off the youngsters... instructions, it's not a race, just go as slow or fast as you want! Have fun!!

Just 20 minutes for them and prizes for all!

Then the B race, 45 minutes and a lap...

Men off first, then the 20+ women a few minutes after.  Everyone wears a transponder so that the lap times and number of laps is on a computer as well as recorded by hand (just in case!!)

I had two clubmates in the race, and one won it! ( The red is our winter kit)

Then the A race...I watched the start....

Not sure what happened...but in a bunch of well over 50 riders no-one ride into him and he was back on his bike straight away...

I didn't stay to watch that race, but sheltered from the rising breeze in my car..and knitted a test square in my new yarn as well as reading some of a book....

Late lunch then in The Coo Shed, run by a farming family who sell milk in a vending machine, have a small garden centre and have a 70...probably now down to 50...seat café selling food prepared there.

The lights....

Are milking clusters...

The cow theme goes right through the place....Toilets...Udderly bursting...Kitchen....farmhands only.....the hook on the back of the toilet cubicle doors are shaped like the back half of a cow....

And the food and drink is top class!

Pirate rode the nine miles home from there...better than starting from the race and crossing a very busy A77. Home before dark, just! 

Then time to put our feet up  before supper!

Sunday cyclo-cross outing

 After the storm...nothing blew away thankfully...we woke to a little snow on the ground.

What better than to go and watch a cyclo-cross, supporting a friend who was riding!

We went to Rouken Glen, beside Giffnock in Glasgow. This is the fifth time they have run this event, and the fourth time that they have had snow!!

There were three races and a total of three hundred riders...B race in which our friend (in the blue top) was racing and got 8th, the women's race and the A race.

I liked the alternative podium!

It seems to be the fashion to put jackets on dogs!! Ok if they are unwell or very old I suppose......

I think I would like to return in the summer!! There is a big garden centre there with a decent sized café, and the whole lot is on East Renfrewshire council ground.

If nothing else the garden centre wouldn't be overrun by Christmas tat and fir trees in plastic netting jackets!!.

Since the evening, Pirate's toothache has been seriously bothering him. I think that it is a tooth that has been grumbling for a long time and that has been pulling his health down a tad, as I would expect.  Naturally he doesn't want to lose it...who would....but it sounds like an abscess, so it should come out!  I think that is one anchor for a bridge which complicates matters and he is against getting false teeth.  

I think that they are not the end of the world, they are considerably cheaper than the alternative and won't be pulling his health down...but it is his decision. 

I am just looking forward to seeing the back of the bear with a sore head!!