WooHoo!! the sun has been out

but I don’t know what next week will bring. So we made the most of it.

However, there still have been hard frosts in the early mornings, so earlier in the week , when I was working, I stuck to short afternoon rides.

We decided that it was time for a ride to Thirsk. We haven’t been since last year and I wanted to visit The Fabric Bird, quilting shop as non-essential shops can open now. These small businesses need all the help they can get.

So we were packed and ready but waited until the frost began to lift and set off just after 9.00am. We decided to use the route over and up through East Harlsey and then on a single track road to West Harlsey.

looking north east

Roseberry Topping . the pimple on the right of the hill line.

There is a lovely decent down through West Harlsey and then at the T junction we turn riught over the level crossing and a very sharp left takes us off road down a farm track. As the weather has been so dry, it was not its usual muddy state, so that was one of the reasons we decided to go this way.

Eventually, after passing through 2 farms we ended up in Brompton and on to Northallerton. It was still chilly but what a lift the sun brings, to our spirits.

We decided to ride the A167 down into South Otterington where we stopped for 2nd breakfast.

South Otterington Church

From here we continued on the A167, until we came to a left turning we noticed on our last ride this way. It is marked Thirsk 3 miles and we have never been along it. We had checked the maps and knew we weren’t going to be pushed out onto some busy road.

The gates of an estate – firmly locked.

It was the gates that had made me stop as I could see a quilt design waiting to be used.

We carried on along the road and I could see the church in Thirsk and we came out near the park that we have sat in previously. We went to the quilt shop but she didnt have the supplies I required so I helped put by buying a half yard of fabric ( probably a 1/2 mt).

We had just pulled away , when DH felt his back tyre go down. Still we had a spare tube. While he did the switch I went and bought chocolate cake and scones from a small bakery. Helping small business again heehee!

So we decided to have lunch in the waterside park and had a nice chat with some caravanners from Lincoln. They told me that the willows had once been used in a basket making industry around here.

willows

an old lock

Not long after, about 200 yds, Dh’s front tyre went down!! So , he put in a repaired tube and would you believe it, a couple of hundred yds again and it popped again. So frustrating. We phoned DH one so he came and brought 2 replacement tubes and then went home to cook dinner for us.

So with new tubes front and rear we were able to get home. We think that it was tubes beginning to perish and the unexpected warmth that caused the problem. We both remarked that it couldn’t have happened on a nicer day.

So it was so nice to have a chicken stir fry ready to eat when we got home after 69 miles.

Now I had heard that me older brother and his wife had got back and were out of isolation after being in Tenerife since last year. So I asked if they would care for visitors. They would , so I worked out a route using Komoot and tweaked it a little.

They live up north near the Angel of the north so we set off along familiar tracks up to Haswell and then along through Hetton Le Hole . The roads were much steeper than the previous day and a lot busier. We made a few “detours” short lived but it all takes time. We got there about 2.30pm having stopped at this picnic site near the river Wear. It’s Lambton Worm country around here.

From here , there is a lot of off road /cycle track routing which wasn’t always as accurate as we liked. At one point wewere supposed to go on a main road alongside the A1. We didn’t but managed to find cycle tracks nearby and could hear we were going in the right direction because of road noise.

We stayed at my brother’s for about an hour. I was sad to see he was looking like an old man and isnt walking too well but he is 76 now so 5.5 years older than me. They think we are “crackers” for riding up but also awesome , so that’s nice.

We stopped at the same place on the route back. I had intended to make cheese toasties but very stupidly forgot the frying pan. The sandwiches were fine though.

Back on the road, we had an easier time following the route and had a short stop at Hurworth Burn before getting home. This time I had left spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker so it was just a case of making some wholemeal pasta to go with it.

I told DH , no 60-70 mile rides on Saturday and I actually got to lie in until 7.30am. We did go out on the bicycles to get some shopping and exteded along the river, It was good to see paddle boarders in one section and jet skis in another.

Paddle board beginner class

noisy jet skis

all in all a very satisfactory 181 miles so YTD1458 miles