On the road again

This weekend saw us at the Hungry Hedgehog Rally organised by Hungry Hedgehog Moto Touring Club .
The Rally took place near Abingdon and helped raise funds for Hedgehog rescue

We rode down on Saturday to join some of our club for Saturday night, these photos were taken Sunday morning as the mist and frost started to burn off.

Breakfast for Drake MCC, Moorlanders MCC, and Tamar MCC

Dutch contingent getting ready to ride to Dover

The sun broke through eventually!!

When is a quiltie not a quiltie?............

..................When Sue gets carried away with the hand stitching!!!! This is my October offering for Unlimited Textiles group 'feeling blue' category.

Still it was fun to stitch and I hope Liz C likes it.

Sandracing

Sunday proved to be sunny and warm for October, even on the east coast. It was also the first race day of the sand racing season at Mablethorpe. So we made the trek over, took our inflatable cushions and sat on the steps watching the bikes.

Blue Quiltie

This wonderful quiltie popped through the door this morning together with a packet of goodies to play with (I am really enjoying being part of this group). It was stitched by Linda from the Unlimited Textiles group.

The subject for October was Feeling Blue, I am busy stitching my quiltie for Liz and must admit that I am getting carried away with the stitching so the final piece will be more embroidery than quilt- I hope you don't mind Liz.

Autumn Glory

Seeing the leaves on the pavement this morning reminded me of this photo taken last year.

Plus size inchies

First attempt at inchies, well plus size inchies really as they are 1.5 inch square, photo doesn't show much detail as I had to compress it to load using dial up- otherwise it takes forever-must sort out broadband asap!!

Return of Biker Ted

Update on the bike, she is now safely installed in our garage once more although there are still some problems to be sorted. We were very relieved to see that Biker Ted survived his extended holiday. He has been resident on this bike since our first trip to Norway in 1997 and we made the decision to leave him in France to guard the bike in our absence.

Although he is looking slightly smoke damaged these days!!

Nottingham Goose Fair

Nottingham Goose Fair

Yes its that time of year again, chance to watch the rides, try the rides and get thoroughly sick on mushy peas and candy floss. Not many really old rides this year unlike some years but still nice to wander round and soak up the atmosphere.

We had to watch the Wall of Death, I just love Indian Motorcycles, they have so much character

One of two big wheels this year

All lit up Saturday night

Beach huts and slot machines

As we are still waiting for the bike to return from France, we decided that it was time to visit the seaside to play the slot machines and find the new beach huts at Mablethorpe. We have spotted 3 so far and will track down the other 2 when we go over to the motorcycle sandracing meet ( the season starts on 14 October)

Anyway, these are the huts we have seen so far.

Great reflections

Gin and tonic anyone?

Old slot machines at one of our favourite arcades

not quite pinball- is pinball going out of fashion? there don't seem to be many around these days. Sometimes I miss the one we used to have in the flat!!

more old machines- Ian tried this one again and again, then declared it to be impossible to win

Quiltie and shopping

This wonderful quiltie was waiting on my doorstep when I got home. It was stitched by Sue Krekorian from unlimited textiles group- Thanks Sue.

This stall was spotted on the market at Dignes Les Bains, lots of useful wooden thingies

Couldn't resist buying a FRENCH french knitting doll and the other item is a wooden sewing case, your needles go inside the bobbly bit, your threads on the outside then it slides into the wooden cylinder and the screw top is your thimble.

It was too good to last.......................................

View from the top of Col de la Bonnette

Unfortunately on the way back to the hotel, the charging light came on. So Ian phoned the recovery service who picked up the bike on Sunday to take it to the dealer for repairs

Monday- received phone call to say the shop was closed for the day. Tuesday received call to say they were looking at it.

Wednesday received call to collect the bike. Taxi supplied by recovery company Wednesday afternoon. Bike pronounced ok, no problem other than loose wire.
100 mile later we were clipped by a car on the motorway, stayed on bike, scratched pannier but no serious injury.

Thursday morning travelled a further 100 mile before rectifier/ regulator burnt out big time, so much for the repair!! Recovery service supplied hire car on Friday for 550 mile dash back to Calais

Hopefully the damage is confined to this, anyway bike is still in France awaiting transport to Italia Moto at Lincoln for inspection and repair. The French bike shop will be hearing from us when we have the full report.

The road to the sun

riding the Col du Galibier, France

stop to admire the scenery

stop off at Cannes to top up the suntan

Try and find the sun.

As you can see, the weather was not what we were wanting. The heavy rain in Austria and Switzerland has fallen as snow on the passes and our idea of riding the Grossglockner Strasse in Austria were abandoned after we found out how much snow had fallen there. Although the snow would probably clear after a few days, we decided to head towards the south of France were the roads were still twisty but somewhat warmer.

Back safe and sound (just)

unfortunately these photos have loaded in the wrong order! anyway this is the Grimselpass in Switzerland

Summer Holiday???

but beautiful to look at

Ian finds a snow drift

Yes, I was there, HONEST, just don't like being in front of the camera!

lake at Morzine, France

Packing the bikes for the next leg of the journey, Paris for Andy and Elaine, Switzerland for ourselves

Mountains overlooking Interlaken

Greetings from Interlaken, Switzerland

Guess what, Its still raining here as well, absolutely tipping it down. We have spent the last two nights with friends at St Jean D`Aulps in the French Alps and rode over the mountain passes to Interlaken today. Up till about 4 hours ago the weather was great, then the mist came down, the clouds opened and it poured.
So tomorrow it will be time to either chance the rain and head on to Saltzberg or chase the sun down into Italy.