Ride 22 of 31

So, as a well known tartan clad poet would put it "the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley" which roughly translates to a biker girl who can't scrape her head off the pillow and then forgets her map will not get that planned ride done. A few friends had arranged to meet in Blackpool for lunch today at 1pm, trusting the BBC weather to correctly predict sunshine I boldly announced that I would ride all the way there and back (probably a total trip of 60 miles). So first hiccup was the oversleep situation, meaning I couldn't possibly make it on time for my friends, a quick check of the train timetable and I decided Northern Rail could chew up a few of the miles for me and get me back on some sort of schedule. I hopped on the train with the bike and piled out at Kirkham station, at this point the forgotten map became an issue, after asking 3 different people I managed to establish which way Blackpool might be, a gloriously accidental route was discovered, a really nice b-road weaved me round to Lytham, a bit of a guess had me finding the sea at St Annes and I rode mostly on the prom in to Blackpool. Found my friends, who were suitably impressed by my athletic endeavour. Face stuffed with food, 2 pints of soda water glugged and all news exchanged I got back on the bike. This is where that lack of map became a problem again, I've ridden from Blackpool to home before and the ride as far as Preston is OK, but then I always end up on the worst bit of dual carriageway ever, and was hoping today to be armed with a map and find an elusive b-road to ride the final 10 miles. As I reached Preston at a few minutes to five, I just couldn't face the prospect of having to deal with death trap roads in rush hour so I cut through the city to the train station and let the railway save me for the second time. A total of about 36 miles and not the planned 60, but I had a good day out on the bike and that is surely what matters.

Vikki