It was good to see Lawrence and Jack on the ride again today. While Lawrence was eating his usual toast and marmalade he revealed his middle name was Michael – an excellent name by any standards.

The forecast was for a mixture of sunshine and showers, but it was sunny all the way up Green Lane to Broadhempston where we played in the park. Michael was only planning to stay there ten minutes before moving on, but when John went to check out the village shop and returned fifteen minutes later with two takeaway coffees it was clear that we wouldn’t be leaving any time soon. So Michael enjoyed his first ever cappuccino while taking some photos of the youngsters playing happily on the park equipment. Then Ash wanted to check out the shop too, so we all went in there and finally left at 12.00 after a very enjoyable 45-minute break.

Michael’s original plans of skirting around to the back of Landscove for a café stop were now dropped in favour of the shorted route past Ron Greet’s tractor yard. When we got to the start of Beaston track there were some dark clouds looming ahead so we made the sensible decision to skip the track and head for home. We only got halfway up the hill to Memory Cross when the heavens opened, so we took shelter in an old barn.

To keep the ride fresh we detoured via Landscove on the way home, but we got a few more showers along the way and were a bit damp when we finally arrived back at 1.20. Everyone did really well on the ride, especially Lawrence. There were the usual games of Modern Warfare 3 after the ride until 2.45.