The disadvantage of Bank Holiday weekends is the predictably miserable weather. The advantage of Bank Holiday weekends is the lack of time pressure. After a month of 6-day working weeks, with my throttle hand itching and my sanity slipping, the idea of a 3 day weekend with the opportunity to go riding and no need to check my work email or be on call had me purring like a cat in the sun. Or like my bike, which stopped growling at my neglect in fairly short order and proceeded to purr happily along the diversion around the closure of the A29 at Ockley.
Monday, you see, had dawned dry and hinting at sunny. A pub lunch at the Parrot called.
This time, we had no satnav, and I was leading, crossing my toes (you can't cross your fingers on a bike) that I remembered the diversion route from the pub website, which I'd last seen weeks ago.
You go right around the roundabout at Clark's Green and take the first left. Which isn't what the diversion signs say, but I swallowed and put my trust in a pub's desire for customers to find it in the first place.
I did quite well, with only 2 sudden stops. The first when I got distracted by a 'freshly brewed coffee' sign outside a farm shop, and the second when the turn to Forest Green was vastly sooner than expected. Luckily, only Lynn was behind me, and she knows to give me my space. I've never liked the feeling of someone reading over my shoulder, and on a bike that sense of personal space expands exponentially.
The B2126 is an underrated road, which runs though beautiful bluebell woods, which I pointed out repeatedly - because it's not that common to have a road running between blue-carpeted glades for miles, whatever the literature says.
I proudly pulled into the Parrot, where there is a new coffee roastery attached to the farm shop. This was also a fascinating discovery, especially after my limited sleep the previous night. I like coffee shops with free sample espressos and chocolates to go with them.
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