Day Four

Hawick to Lancaster - Today with blue sky and sun saw Mike joining me to the English Border just south of Canonbie.  Mike was using my second bike following his tyre exploding on the ride yesterday. We had a superb trip which started with 22 miles to Langholm where we used to take our kids when they were young to feed the ducks. Noticed the duck was still there. Alan then took Mike back up to Edinburgh to catch his plane back to stansted.  I wont say there was a problem but the van now requires a new glass roof and the reversing camera reconnected.  This has put a bit of a damper on the whole thing but its happened and we cannot undo it but must cope with it - at least no-one was hurt apart from my feelings.  The ride then continued with me on my own down to Lancaster - Well everything went well until like the last time i did the ride it started raining at shap and all the way to Lancaster but i wasnt disheartened this time and coped really well.  Got up to an amazing 42 mph going down from the summit which drove the rain straight through me.  Lost power in the old legs about 11 miles from Lancaster but saw a garage which had a fantastic display of Kendal mint cake.  Ate tmost of it and the sugar rush say me cover those 11 miles in 40 minutes with a top speed along the flat of 24 mph.  Finally thanks to Virgin staff at Lancaster for getting me onto a train with bike etc for the journey back to Carlisle to stay with mum and dad before travelling down tomorrow to Lancaster for the next leg. I must thank everyone for the tremendous support they have given me with all the texts blog comments, emails and calls it really does chirp you up.  Goodnight everyone!!!