Hills on Wheels

On the home stretch now. Today, drove from York down to Reading. Within a 10 minute walk of the city center but unfortunately, the city center of Reading is not all that exciting. So in for the evening to have some tea and cookies and watch tv for a while. Tomorrow we have to drag the bikes out of the car to clean them up before packing them for the trip back. Will be meeting up with Jim again... He graciously stored our bike bags while we were out traipsing through his country. THANK YOU, JIM!!! Just for you, Ted... These babies are cast iron, over 8 feet tall, and weigh 1.25 tons. Not shipping any home for the pub OR your back yard! Sorry! Other tidbits... A groupie named Michael followed us along our entire bike ride in this little beauty... A 1965 MG convertible. Michael is the husband of Jan, the oldest rider in our group. To wrap this up... Looking forward to getting back home. There better be a fresh keg on tap in the pub, kids. Maybe this little lady will have missed us and not...

Walked a lot in Edinburgh yesterday and our feet HURT! Weird that we can ride bike more than a thousand miles with no issues and we walk four measly miles and we're knackered. Went to the National Museum of Scotland and found the perfect bicycle for our next long ride... Dolly, the first cloned sheep, now stuffed, is on display there. Remember her? Drove down here to York today and are staying at The Bar Convent Guest House. It's a real convent still and pretty neat. Considered eating dinner at this establishment but changed our minds... Tomorrow is another day of toodling... Railway Museum, Castle Museum, Quilt Museum... Etc. Etc.

On our last evening together Saturday, one of our Canuck friends shared this great poem... Yesterday we all got on a bus and rode from John O'Groats to Inverness where we went our separate ways. A couple people were going to visit the Orkneys... Others off to visit Ireland... Others back to their homes directly. We got dropped off at the airport where our rental car was waiting. And off we went, heading south to Edinburgh. The car was supposed to have built in GPS but unfortunately did not. But we made do with Google Maps on my smart phone, taped to the dashboard... Our first stop in the city was to a laundrette where we finally got our clothes really clean and not just rinsed out in a bathroom sink. Then checked in to our guest house and off for a walk to the Royal Mile (the main downtown street here). It was extremely crowded and noisy. We both agreed that after cycling along rural quiet perfect roads, that we would rather be back out there instead. Tomorrow we plan to go to a lo...