Ian Ransome and i decided to do the Royal British Legion riders 1000 mile ride with the Iron Butt association U.K for the poppy appeal we had never anything like this before.
So there we are two bikers both over sixty 1000 miles around Scotland what could possibly go wrong??
ADVENTURE BEFORE DEMENTIA


Squires cafe Sherburn-in-Elmet nr Leeds 0500 Saturday 22.6.13
wet start thank god for gore-tex

The first two stages Berwick-on-Tweed and Dreghorn services on the Edinburgh ring road were uneventful by this time we had established a routine, fill up tea and a snack stretch the legs on to the next stop.
I had a difference of opinion with my sat nav on how to get to get to the Forth road bridge, note to self must get the maps updated.
Once over the bridge we started north on the A9 to Inverness where according to the song the four and twenty virgins came from

mine is the stylish old beast in Marrakesh red which of course is much faster.
I decided a hot snack this time so a hot chocolate and a Scotch pie YUM, this is not a compulsory stop but a fill up between Edinbugh and Wick get fuel when you can.
Tea break over north to to Wick Airport on the A9/A99 which gets interesting with blind crests, tight nadgery bends, and fast sweeping curves the best part of which is we have to do it again going South.
Tesco's Wick must be the northern most supermarket on the British mainland and what is the first thing we see i hear you ask?
> > > Eddie bleedin Stobart that's who you cant get away from the bugger

Until now the weather has been quite good now we started south to Inverness 'and when the war was over there was four and twenty less'
240 miles to Glasgow on some of the finest biking roads there are in the country south on the A82 past loch ness, Glen Coe,why does it always rain in Glen Coe? and Rannoch moor a combination of tight bends, fast straights, and long fast curves, weather getting worse heavy showers wet roads but we were still making progess.
On the way to Ft William we stopped at the Commando memorial at Spean bridge to pay our respects, hows that for an ex-para!!

The view from the memorial

When we got to Ft William i had a mouth like a sumo wrestlers jock strap, jock strap geddit oh never mind
i was getting some strange looks stood there in the garage scrubbing me pegs anyhoo suitably refreshed we continued south past Loch Lomond the road tight and twisty weather crap.
Now there was about eight riders keeping pace then they would fall away and we would meet up at the next stop this happens throughout the whole ride.
Once we got to the Erskine bridge East of Glasgow we started the long grind south on the M74/M6 we stopped at Lanark services there was about ten bikes filling up a chap asked me what we were doing when i explained it to him he gave me £20.00 to 'put in the pot' as it was a worthwhile thing we were doing that was the icing on the cake for me.
Heading south again the rain was getting heavier and colder, flaming June eh?? A long wet ride to the last compulsory stop at Birch services Eastbound on the M62 we are now about twenty miles from the finish at Squires now the rain is bouncing about a foot off the road and we are in the fifty MPH limit in the endless road works on the M62 which tested my throttle discipline to the limit as we were nearly finished but given the weather fifty MPH was about right.
We arrived at Squires cafe at stupid o-clock after twenty one hours twenty minutes.
The next two photo's show time and distance

so now my Ironbutt stickybit hangs in pride of place in the downstairs bog

The ride was not as bad as i anticipated and as it is the centenary of the start of the great war i will be doing it again if you like what you see have a look at RBLR1000.co.uk hope to see some of you next year.

Thanks for looking
regards
John Morning
# IBA 57639