Day 14

Day 14 Near Thirsk to Scorton

There's a strange perception of cyclists travelling within the space between the solid white line and the actual kerb itself - car and, more importantly, lorry drivers seem to assume that in this 'designated' area a cyclist has all the room she needs and therefore, they don't have to make any attempt to move over to the right when over taking. On a road where there's no such area, most motorists give you twice as much space and will usually slow down as they approach.

On the A168 around Thirsk I kept to the left of the solid white line which was strewn with eyeball sized pieces of gravel and patches of broken glass as the lorries thundered past and I wobbled in their slipstream.

Inevitably, I got a puncture and chickened out of fixing it myself on the side of that road. The noise & speed of all the vehicles had an even greater effect on me once I'd stopped. My nephew Shaun, came out to assist & found that, instead of the glass on the road having caused the problem, the inner tube had been trapped between the tyre & the rim when it had last been changed. He put a new inner tube in the tyre & watched me launch off into the thundering stream of traffic. 50 yards down the road, the back tyre went flat again & so the bike was thrown in the back of his pickup & taken to the repair shop in Thirsk. Thank goodness for family!
 
A planned coffee stop with a friend's mother turned out to be more of a lunch stop since I was so delayed & then I had a second 'lunch' with my pals at TASTE deli since we'd arranged a pit stop there a while ago. Lou, Pierre & I were all involved with the same company for several years & it was good to catch up with them. The last 18 months of having the business haven't been the best time to launch something new, but they both keep smiling through.

The day was too dull & dismal to bother with many photos but the seat in Bolton on Swale where I had a tea break, amused me. It's inscription read, "Best Kept Village 1967".


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