Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

It would be nice to report that Wednesday dawned sunny and bright, it didn't but at least the wind had subsided. Due to the inclement weather I followed the main road rather than going through the rather drab towns along the Ayrshire coast. I did follow my route of a small road inland, after Girvan down to Stranraer. I went down to Whithorn and then up to Gatehouse of Fleet, some wonderfull names, how about Haugh of Urr on the old road from Castle Douglas to Dumfries, much better than the modern road. At Carlisle stopped for fuel and wondered about replacing my tent. Feeling rather wet and fed up decided to go directly to Ulverston, where there was a large outdoor emporium and so booked an hotel. The rain had stopped after Stranraer but recomenced with a vengeance when I arrived in the Lake District, slow twisty roads are usually great but here they are clogged with idiots going at a snails pace, even on a wet Wednesday at 5 o'clock. Hotel was poor, football and yellow beer but did have a bath at the end of the corridor, no plug though. Sorry no pics, nothing worth removing wet gear to photograph. Today England, tomorrow Wales.

Roger - inspiring stuff, and you got the 'now' pic for the location in Fort William! (Here's hoping you'll get away from that weather as you get further south.)
Here's the 'then' pic from 1954: There's a great pic of Gordon Square and the building while it was still a garage on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/131286969 ... otostream/
And Google Streetview of what looks today to be a good stop for coffee and cake!
https://www.google.com/maps/@56.8162771 ... &entry=ttu

SG

After nursing a reluctant machine as far as Poulton le Fyde near Blackpool she refused to go any further. I had been experiencing an intermittent misfire almost since leaving home and had tried various things to find the problem, without success. I coaxed her as far as a supermarket that had buns and drink, better than the main road and eventually found the points to be only just closing and no doubt not closing sometimes, an easy fix, as these problems usually are, it's finding them that is the difficult bit. Rang the wife to see how she was, answer not well, so I decided reluctantly to go straight home 250 in 6-3/4 hours using main roads and yet more rain and will unfortunately miss the annual at Tewkesbury, the first time in 47 years, what an old fart. The good news is Caroline never missed a beat and cruised happily at 55-60 mph all the way, what a star.
Total trip was 2177 miles, not all on the coast route, there was 144 miles included visiting the Cuddy rally and the 250 miles home and another 60 miles to take in Applecross. An average daily mileage of 272, a little more than Hugh and Marjorie managed over their 13 days but to be honest I had had enough especially on the more crowded roads and numerous towns once away from the Scottish Highlands.
One for the canal enthusiasts, a little known canal, only 1.25 miles long into Ulverston, the sea lock has been derelict for many years.
Morecombe was a delight with many attractive buildings along the sea front and the famous Art Deco Midland Hotel opposite a really nice old station. The hotel was not built until 1932 so was not there for Marjorie's trip.

Really Good Effort Roger.

Hope your wife is OK.

She will survive, made of stern stuff

Looking at the routes for the earlier runs I reckon that Bristol/Berkeley/Gloucester was just up the A38, so on the way to Tewksbury for the Annual I followed that, just to add in another section. (I had thought to maybe let this link up with Roger's trip and eventually let us claim a segment from Norwich, up around Scotland and then around north-west England and Wales and down to Lynmouth but that wasn't to be.)
Not a lot of coast on view but the road was surprisingly empty so it was a nice enough run. However I didn't have the time to go off searching for some sights so the only pic is going to be of bike and tent at journey's end! (The other side of the camping meadow was a river bank so that must be almost 'coast'!) SG