The day dawned bright and fair but the weather forecast was gloomy......

At the start (Poplar 2000), there were 16 bikes (once Steve and Dave had navigated the Thelwell traffic jams) and 21 people including pillions - a nice turn out for so early in the year. No Gary - he was on babysitting duties.

We knew something was going wrong when the question arose "Who is leading". Everyone pointed at me - and I had no idea where were going. So, a hurried look at the map, a call for a volunteer (thanks Brian and Mandy) and we were off.

First stop was the Midway services near Whitchurch. What we didn't know was that there was a classic bike meeting. Thousands of bikes were there. But we still managed a cup of tea and a bacon butty. At this point the heavens opened and a revision of the route was planned. As we set off, the rain stopped.

We had a nice ride up some back roads over to the Ponderosa. As we got there, it really started to rain. Chucked it down. But the meat pies were up to their normal standard and, being bikers, we knew where we were heading  - homewards.... So, the last part of the ride was over to Ruthin and round some nice back roads to Mold, onto the M56 and home. The first part was nice, the second part, we got wet (surprise!!). Its the first time I have cleaned the bike in the pouring rain - but I wasn't going to let my nice new paint job stay dirty.

Pictures - not too many this time.