Rich,
Thank you soooo much for a fantastic weekend. We arrived to drinks on the terrace on Friday night
It looked a bit stormy over the mountains, but fortunately the weather was coming in from the coast!
We had a lovely evening, during which a few small sherries were enjoyed. We got the bikes off the trailer, packed the trailer into the boot of the car. Met the next door neighbour - Emrys...who is completely bonkers!!! and settled down for a lovely evening catching up with he crazy antics of 'munke' and his long suffering lady.
Saturday morning started with the promised breakfast at Fitzpatricks, on a sunny terrace, overlooking the Ogwen river. The cafe is highly recommended, with great food at a good price, in lovely surroundings which are wall to wall with motorbikes and motorcycling memorabilia.
After brekkie, we headed out to Betws y Coed, to refuel and see if CJ & Jane had made it to the stables, as they had delayed their journey due to the liquid sunshine pouring down over Yorkshire. No sign, so off we went. We travelled over many a pass, including the Ogwen pass, the Crimea pass and the Horseshoe Pass. The roads were fantastic, and I was surprised that so many of them were beautiful big long sweepers, with so little traffic on them. Rich got plenty of opportunities to give it the beans, and waited for me to catch up...eventually before briefing me on the next part of the journey and disappearing into the distance. We stopped off at Capel Curig, so that Rich could show us his daily commute
Not jealous...much!
We arrived at the famous Pondarosa - Cafe in the sky, to find Adams X1 Black Thunder in the car park.
I was was delighted to have a cwtch with Adam when we found him just inside the door. We made it at exactly the right time, as a hurricane seemed to arrive as we were making our way into the cafe. The wind howled an the rain lashed...we ate, drank and laughed! As we were leaving, the sun came out and dried up all the rain!
We shared part of the road back with Adam, before waving him goodbye, as an angry man in a small white van chased him up the road...I don't think he caught him! I think he had small van syndrome.
We got back to the ranch and had a beer, in our riding gear - just like the badass bikers that we are. I went off with Gill to visit the horsey, who has a poorly hoof, whilst the boys freshened up and prepared for the evenings festivities. It was nice to have horsey hugs.
CJ & Jane arrived and the barbecue got started. We all got that lovely smoked aroma and had some delicious grub, sitting in the garden and marvelling at the views. Afterwards, we retired to the lounge and stayed cosy by the inglenook. Ritch had to try out one of his presents
He is gonna be a nightmare in the nursing home!! We managed to smash a fair size in the Stone bubbly stock, though CJ & JJ stuck to coffee, as they had to ride back to the hotel.
Next morning,
Jesse came out of his shed to inform us, that today - we would be mostly riding on fantastic roads
We had another lovely breakfast at Fitzpatricks, in the sun, on the terrace. My 'little' cousin arrived from the Wirral to have brekkie with us. He had ridden through some hideous weather, but Royal Marines are made of stern stuff and I was glad that he had, as I don't get to see him that often and hugs are always magic.
We were joined on our ride out by a friend - also called Ritchie who Restone met at Ty Croes. Ritchie is an incredibly nice fella, and one of the most impressive riders I have ever seen. We started out with a bit of green laning, to get us over to the Llanberis pass...Wow - what views!! We stopped at the viewpoint at the bottom of it. Photos were taken, and the real bikers amongst us, had a tab.
[/img]
After this, we headed down to Aberdaron, stopping for a cuppa at the Eric Jones cafe, and seeing the legend that is, 'the man who fell to earth' He looks like a proper old grandad, all meek and mild. It is hard to believe that he is such an adrenaline junkie.
We had a bit of confusion, as we hit Pwhelli and Llanbedrog, where in an almost carry-on style, the Blades and Ducati headed off to Abersoch, CJ & Jane headed off towards Nefryn and I made my way to Aberdaron...as briefed at the last instruction!!!!
I had a hoofing ride to Aberdaron on a fabulous road. I parked up, smoked ten fags, had an ice cream, signed a few autographs, had a kip...and finally the Blades turned up!!! They had CJ & JJ in tow - but no husband!
It turns out, he did not realise that I had left the group, when they had all decided to go their own sweet ways and thought that I must have taken Bob bog snorkelling again! Of course, there is nothing resembling a phone signal in Aberdaron, so I just had to order lunch for us both and wait for him to rock up eventually. Fortunately, the sun was out, and again we were sitting on a terrace, with a beautiful view.
The ladies who lunch:
Sadly, CJ & Jane had to leave us, to start their epic trip back to Yorkshire...cue more hugs!
We had another phenomenal ride back to Bethesda, where I really did make the blade boys wait less and less time. I really cannot believe how fantastic the roads are around North Wales. I always expected them to be much smaller and tighter and dirtier and with much poorer surfaces...though there was plenty of muck around, as farming is a major industry round there!
We retired to the Restone ranch for a quiet evening, reflecting on an awesome weekend. Richard seemed so much more mature, sedate and considered now that he was 40. He even sorted out the recycling before retiring - and was heard to say to the neighbour, in a strong Brummie accent - Moi recycling box, is consssiderrrrably more posh than yowarrrs!!
In the morning, we had to say goodbye to Gill early, as the work of a research professor is never done and she had to see to the poorly horse before heading to the University. Rich helped Clive to sort the trailer and get the bikes on it, whilst I enjoyed one last cuppa on the terrace.
We made good time on the road home and had the bikes and trailer stowed in record time.
What a fab weekend. If you ever get the chance to go on a North Wales ride out, organised by Restone...DO IT!!!!
Register
Login
FAQ
Search
Can't really believe that Richie has grown up though 
....
