When the schedule was put together I hadn’t realised it was a bank holiday and that Tamara ice cream parlour would be standing room only - so we went to Epworth.
There were five of us: Mike Devine, John Knott, Denise Motley, Robin Heyward and me. And although it was fair, it was cool and windy which built up to very windy as the ride went on.
We headed off to Bawtry with a pause at the lights, then Austerfield, Misson and out along Idle Bank before turning right towards Westwoodside and more importantly to pass John’s house. For the sake of a hill (!) we went straight up at the pond.
And then we came down to go back through the village and on to Owston Ferry the stepping stone to Epworth. We were not even all off the bikes before one of the workers came out to ask if we wanted to put our bikes in the barn. Once done we headed in to the cafe, ordered and got seated.
Peter Wilby, no longer bow legged but perhaps older saw us and came to chat. More worryingly an elderly chap asked if we were from Tickhill. Now I thought that was a joke as it is in big letters on my jersey so I asked how he knew. “I told him” his wife said. “He’s blind”. “I’m from Harworth” he said. “No, we don’t live there anymore love”. “ I’m driving home” he said. So if you see a blind man driving round Harworth he doesn’t live there!
The way home was back to Idle bank where John left us to go back to WWS and we headed to Wroot. The wind by this time was pretty strong - and against us! It had been building up the whole journey but Mike and John kept pushing us along and our average speed was surprisingly high (for us).
From Wroot we on to Blaxton and through more temporary light before heading passed the airport off onto Rossington. It was just hard by this time but we made it back safely. It had been a good ride despite the wind and good for there being no technical problems!
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