50 mile spin today .

[jags]

Just in from a lovely 50 miler through the lovely lanes of Co Louth and Meath.very dull kinda day but the rain held off and not to windy perfect.
anyway I'm posting this because i came across what looking like a private graveyard,i decided nice place for a 20 min break,well most of the graves  were marked Shackleton wonder were they related to that great explorer Ernest? amazing the things you come across on a bike ride.
mind you i could have it all wrong.
BTW the graveyard was in a village called Drumcondrath co louth.
there yiss go boys that's how i spent me day what did you lot get up too.

cheers
jags

[Planet X]

Plan to head through Drumconrath on Friday. On towards Kingscourt area first night then maybe Midlands on Saturday for a night.
Know Drumconrath area pretty well as I used to fish around that area alot years ago. Carrick. etc.

[Danneaux]

Hi jags!

Interesting ride. According to Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton )...

Ernest Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874 in Kilkea near Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, about 46 miles (74 km) from Dublin. Ernest's father was Henry Shackleton, and his mother was Henrietta Letitia Sophia Gavan. His father's family was Anglo-Irish, originally from Yorkshire, England. His mother's family was Irish, from counties Cork and Kerry.

I suppose those could have been graves of family members you saw, or relatives of some sort.

My day's riding yesterday wasn't as interesting, perhaps, but it had its exciting moments as I rode some 53km in busy rush-hour traffic between two towns chasing parts to repair the car. No single store had all I needed, and even the dealer admitted my '89 Honda Civic Si has fallen off their list of stocked parts. The drivers who were out between 13:00 and 14:30 were simply vile, and the air was blue with their epithets as I rode along. Man! Wrong-way drivers, U-turning drivers, it was take-the-driver's-manual-and-pitch-it. There's lots of summer road construction about, and this includes sections of bike path, so routing was affected for everyone. Maybe that accounted for the short tempers?

In sharp contrast was the 15:00-18:00 crowd, who were models of driving civility, waving me on at lights, actually taking turns (!) and being responsible on the road (!!).

Today won't be as much fun as I spend part of it under the car replacing the water pump, alternator, timing belt and tension pulley. Probably no time for a ride, but looking for'd to the next one even more!

Best,

Dan.

[jags]

Plan to head through Drumconrath on Friday. On towards Kingscourt area first night then maybe Midlands on Saturday for a night.
Know Drumconrath area pretty well as I used to fish around that area alot years ago. Carrick. etc.

yeah great cycling country around that area quiet roads,you should stop off at that graveyard  in through the blue gates and take a look at the headstones. on to nobber to kingscourt, are you doing a short tour if your camping will you be wild camping can't say i know of any nice wild camping spots but then again i never looked.

[jags]

Dan could be related right enough it was a nice stop off regardless.

sorry to hear about your disastrous spin today be carefull in all that crazy traffic,a woman in a car nearly  knocked me over today only a couple hundreds yds  from my house overtook me at speed on a bend complete idiot i had words with her but waste of time.

[Planet X]

yeah great cycling country around that area quiet roads,you should stop off at that graveyard  in through the blue gates and take a look at the headstones. on to nobber to kingscourt, are you doing a short tour if your camping will you be wild camping can't say i know of any nice wild camping spots but then again i never looked.

I know all the lakes around there to Carrickmacross. Plenty of wild camping available.

[jags]

Oh will have to hook up some time if thats the case

[Danneaux]

sorry to hear about your disastrous spin today...

Thanks, jags, but nothing to make it really disastrous. Just a few of those "Yaaaaaaaah!"   moments that really kept me on my toes.  The adrenaline rush was nice, but I'd've rather it come from a less-risky outcome.

All the best,

Dan. (...who likes the musicians' advice to C Sharp or you'll B Flat while riding in traffic)

[jags]

  good line that 

[Andre Jute]

Lovely ride this morning, only the standard daily circuit of 11km but then I'm not as muscularly fit as Anto.

Interesting thing was that on a narrow country road I was nearly totaled by a badly driven delivery van going too fast and meeting opposing traffic just as it passed me on a road really not wide enough for two cars. The good thing about it was that I wasn't on the bike, having parked it in a driveway to paint a striking multi-layered flower on the verge. On the bike I would have been hit, at the very least broken ribs from the huge mirror. I escaped by stepping onto some farm wife's flowerbed and the truck brushed the back of my shirt, sending my heartrate up by about 10bpm. The driver coming from the other end had come to a dead stop in the driveway opposite to let the maniac in the van pass. She said to me, "Pity the camera on your bike isn't pointing at his licence plate. He's a menace."

A bit further I saw a pre-school child ride towards me on the wrong side of the road, it's mother running along behind for her exercise. The child gave me a loud "Hello!" but the mother had only enough breath to smile sweetly.

[Danneaux]

Goodness, Andre -- that's too close for words. So sorry you had such a close call and scare; surely the last thing you needed or wanted as you stopped briefly on your journey to paint.

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All the best,

Dan. (...who is awfully glad you're still around to tell the tale!)

[Andre Jute]

Thanks for the good wishes, Dan. Looks like I chose exactly the right time to stop for a few minutes to make a sketch. Piccie fixed.

[Danneaux]

Piccie fixed.

Oh! What a lovely lane that is -- and what an unexpected place to nearly lose one's life or incur a severe injury. Man! That driver could have collected the little girl and her mother as well. One shudders to think of the possible outcomes. Menace indeed. 

Best,

Dan.

[jags]

Wow that was a close one andre be carefull my friend.
i come across lunies every time i'm on my bike ,i read a post on another forum some guy cut up  a cyclist as he passed, the guy on the bike waved at him to give more room, the hero in the car jumped out ready to kill the cyclist, but hah the cyclist was a cop he's now gonna appear in court.

[jags]

i got a lovely 40 miles in yesterday had plans for today, as i wangled my way out of going to a wedding the wife is gone i wished her well man i hate weddings drinking sessions.anyway the skys are black and its very windy what to do what to do.
to late to meet up with planetx  besides he should have tent well pitched by  now.wonder where he's is