Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Making More Friends and a Ride through the UK Lake District...

Dear Family & Friends,

Another couple of days have passed on our great adventure.. Every day is special.. As Duane says every time you experience something new you gain 75 days of life so I expect to be a very old man!
After the Isle of Man we ferried back to Liverpool and rode north to visit some people I have known through business for 20+ years but never met. They are John and Jackie and they own Unity Spares, a cafe racer motorcycle supply company.
The could not have been more gracious. They put us up for a night and took us to a great local pub over looking green hills and pastures and we spent the night talking, dining and drinking... Needless to say I slept well last night.
The following morning we waited for UPS to show up with a part to fix Duane's motorcycle. Right on time it arrived at 10am. Duane installed it and off we went to the famous Lake District in England..
It is FINALLY starting to feel like England today... cool, cloudy, and grey... At least there was no rain so the ride was really pleasant. We had a whole day with NO freeways, just beautiful twisty back country roads passing through quaint English villages.
I have been coming to England for over 35 years and all my UK friends kept telling me I must see the Lake District so today that is where we ended up. 
It is a national forest with beautiful rolling hills, obviously lots of lakes, and the most beautiful and quaint villages and towns that look like they have not changed in 300 + years!! They all looked like they should be in a fairy tale book. It was well worth the trip. We did not cover lots of miles today but they were very enjoyable miles.. 
Having traveled for years in England it never surprises me some of the unusual names they pick for their towns... I know of a town named "Cum Studly" and today we passed through "Cockermouth".. I won't even begin to speculate where these names come from or what they mean... with my mind it would only get me in trouble and embarrass my family... Let me just guess there are some happy Lords and Dukes naming these towns..
Tomorrow we will cross the boarder into Scotland where we have ten days to explore. We will slowly work our way north to the Isle of Skye which is supposed toe be spectacular.
Will have lots more to report over the next few days...
Jason
Our new riding friend from England, Ian Cole.. He really helped make our weekend on the Isle of Man special. I am sure we will ride together again..

The three "Wise Men" if the TT. We offered free advice where ever we went...

One more lap around the mountain course of the Isle of Man..We tried to keep our top speeds below 200mph so as not to show up the pros.... it would hurt their feelings and we did not want to be labeled another "Ugly American" for showing off.... :)

This rider did a 127 mph AVERAGE lap around the TT, on his cool off lap he waved to us and thanked us for showing him the fast line around the track..
A great evening out at a local pub in Todmodern with our friends John & Jackie. I have known them for over 20 years  buying motorcycle parts from their company Unity Spares but this was the first time I had met them in person. Very warm and friendly people..
The towns and villages in the Lake District are spectacular..

Every village we rode through looked like time stopped 300 years ago.. or more.







Even very old towns need a boudoir shop for the ladies!















1 comment:

  1. These pictures are HEAVEN! I noticed some are other photos...but still beautiful!
    jealous!!

    ReplyDelete

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