In search of a reminder from the past

For quite some time now I have been wanting to go back to my youth, and when I say go back I mean about 40 or so years. You see when I was a young lad of around ooh I would have to say 10 or 11 years of age my dad bought me a car. Now I am talking a proper car not a Dinky or Matchbox. No, it was a Classic T1 shaped VW Beetle. The car was a light blue, a bit like a baby blue and although it was nothing out the ordinary, for me it was a very special little car.

Similar to the car I had

A ride around the Bath Tub Loop 10 times

The weather didn't appear too bad this morning, as I just had a nice relaxing mooch about indoors. I then became a little bored, having watched the stuff I had recorded over the course of the week. I love watching The Curse of Oak Island and also enjoy Forged in Fire, so have these programs set on the set-top box.

Coming up the Bath Tub Loop Trail

I had checked the weather forecast the previous day so had an idea it was due to rain, never the less I decided to head out on my Specialized Turbo Levo. There is a trail over on Chapman Wells, a local nature reserve and I quite enjoy riding over that way as there are not a lot of people or cars. 

Heading down past Stream Valley

I had gone out on my Fat Bike sometime earlier in the week and measured the Bath Tub Loop, using Strava, it came in at 1.8 miles, starting at the Stream Valley Equestrian/Farm of course, I had to also ride there and back so that also added a few miles.

As I set off I was pleased I had prepared for the weather, having put on a base layer, my Race Face Jersey and my Endura Hoody. To be fair it was not really cold as I rode to start with, without my gloves. It was, however, a tad damp and overcast.

A spot of rain over by the pond

Puddles starting to accumulate upon each lap

The ride to Chapman Wells is only about 2 or so miles. I had brought my GoPro, however, had an inkling that it would not be of much use today. I have mentioned this before I have the GoPro Hero 5 and it is terrible in poorly lighted situations. It is hard trying to get a photo of yourself using photo mode as the timer is only 30 seconds long. And when you try to use the time-lapse photo, well you do not have as much control over the image settings. Needless to say not too many quality images today.  Never mind the purpose of today's ride was more just to get out of the house and challenge my self to do 10 laps of the Bath Tub Loop.
 

Over by the small pond. Gets some lovely wildlife here

 

I kept my bike in eco mode throughout my time out, and this gives me a canny workout on the off-road trail.
 

  
It has been some time since I have been out and got a good soaking, however, I really enjoyed my time out. It's nice to have a bit of solitude and just relax and reflect on all that is going on. I also use this time to reflect and generally just be grateful for the small things in life, the things that don't cost anything and all of us take for granted.

A ride out with Reptile Number 2

Awaking this morning I was kind of lost as to what to do, and as the morning slowly passed away and I couldn't think of anything I decided to hide under my throw and see if possibly falling asleep would help either motivate me or bring some positive ideas to spring to mind.

Just as I was dropping off, wor Kyle (Reptile #2) poked his head into my room and said: "hey what are you doing in bed, it's a lovely day do you fancy doing something, maybe go out in the bug?" Well obviously now I thought I was having some sort of a weird sleepy dream state event, as Kyle rarely asks me to do I fancy doing anything. Apparently, it had been really slow at KFC and the Colonel had given Kyle the day off.

I agreed to a lookout and suggested Bamburgh, well it was a nice day and it is pretty beautiful up that way, plus Kyle had never seen the Castle before.

On the beach at Bamburgh