This was a very uneventful Tuesday evening ride, so uneventful that even Charlie has nothing to say. Well nothing that is worth repeating or adding to his text. Incidentally, did I ever tell you that despite Charlie’s literary triumphs over the years, he never could get the spelling of Tuesday correct. So sorry, Charlie, for allowing me to put the ‘u’ and the ‘e’ in the correct order for you !
Charlie often mentions getting lost, and reading today’s Journal entry it has occurred to me that perhaps he doesn’t have a very good sense of direction. I cannot think why I haven’t thought of that earlier ! However the miles they covered in the mist today seem to have been enjoyable.
Charlie’s hanging about today because it was raining isn’t the case because he comes across workmen deliberately setting the moors around Belmont on fire. Perhaps with it being a Monday – Washing Day – he was getting under his Mother’s feet, and was perhaps offered enough money to cycle out somewhere and buy his tea at the Unicorn in Walton le Dale.
After darkness fell our hero decides to tackle the ‘Haunted Tunnel’ with, it has to be said, great composure.
How Charlie was bested by a Tramp. Knowing how parsimonious Charlie was – from necessity I agree – it is interesting to read that a Tramp could get the better of him, but apparently it was so. One never sees true tramps these days, they used to be quite common. I suppose they are all encouraged to live in institutions these days for their own Health and Safety.
Typical Charlie, starting off at 2.30pm for an 8 hour ride ! He doesn’t know the location of the teaplace etc etc, but waits around in Alderley and sure enough another club member eventually appears, with the knowledge, and all is well.
And now, in 2015, I actually know motorists who are incapable of driving anywhere without first setting their satnavs. What children are the general populace becoming !!
This was a Saturday afternoon ride and I think our readers need a little enlightening as to why Wilmslow is such an attraction for Charlie’s un-named friend and why so often they go there. Simple. His friend had found a girlfriend.
The other aspect of Charlie was that his parents had a big say in what he did – no starting out on the bike if it was raining hard, for instance, and I suspect that his cycling was another casualty when it came to him having a heavy cold.
Dear Reader, we are on a learning curve ! Today is all about taking tea in a café and spending four and three quarter hours doing so. Then the run home, with a heavy price to pay come the morrow.
Think about this – terrible roads on the way to Liverpool and constantly on the move all day – all on a heavy steel roadster bike, because that was all he could afford.
Getting weary with the sounds of vehicular traffic was his only irritation – I wish those days would come back !
It started with doing an errand to Chorley. The strong headwind whilst returning obliged him to take shelter behind a tramcar. Then he comes across a clubmate and time stands still. One has a vision of Bolton filled late at night with cyclists scurrying hither and thither on their many errands.