Tour Finale

II guess it's true that all good things must come to an end... The tour is done. Not the trip or the adventures, but the tour itself.

The final day brought another day of bright, sunny skies and perfect riding conditions. It could not have been any better. We were very fortunate to have an almost unprecedented 12 consecutive days that were dry, with most being sunny or at least partially sunny.

At Ferry Landing

We did the usual morning drill. Big breakfast, get packed and on the bikes. We stayed in the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. Right on the waterfront of one of the lakes in

Wonderful Accommodations

the lakes region of England. I checked rates on their website, and for a room for two, with breakfast and dinner (which we had), the nightly rate was £509 Pounds! With the exchange rate, that's $750!! It was very nice...

We got on the bikes and took the meandering roads to a ferry that crossed the lake. After about 10 minutes, the ferry pulled into the landing and we loaded. We started to pay the £1.60 fare, and they asked if we were part of the "American Contingency". Not knowing who they were, but knowing we were American, we responded "yes", to which they said the fare was already taken care of. I have no idea who actually paid for us!

Small Ferry

The ride was good, but with some frustration trying to follow the route. The power plug broke on my bike on the second day of the tour, so I had to swap batteries with anyone else I could find several times a day. Mostly that was Gary. If mine ran low, and we kept riding, I'd turn it off to conserve, saving some for an emergency. However, Gary's would intermittently charge the battery or not. We couldn't figure out the problem as to why it would charge and sometimes not.

The GPS routed us to two places we couldn't deal with. One was a VERY steep dirt road that we skipped, and the other was up a very narrow paved

Rob, Where in the World are We?

drive a few hundred yards to a metal gate blocking the road. We declined to go through the gate, not sure what to do. So, that messed up the routing.

After wandering around a while, we backtracked to a larger road and rode south towards Manchester.

After lunch, we decided we had ridden enough of the small roads in the dales and headed towards home for the night.

We made one small side trip, to the hotel we used for the first two nights on the tour. They had my replacement phone.

Then on to our hotel for he night near the airport in Manchester. One note about the last leg of the ride--we got on the interstate equivalent, and it was amazing how fast the miles count down at 70mph. We were flying, compared to most of the riding.

Pretty....

The final group dinner was great. Rob did his usual closing talk and handed out certificates to each participants on the tour. It was a bittersweet ending for a great two weeks. I am so glad I did the trip. More on this later.

Next few days will be riding in a car in Scotland. Until later....