Thanks for that one, I would have missed those roads in the south. I put together a loop I can use as the basis of a days riding. 
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Did you find some of the locals to be a bit taciturn?
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I know all those roads well: you’ve chosen a good route, but quite demanding to do it in a day.
Didn’t speak to anyone local as we were only passing through. We based ourselves in Newton Stewart for a couple of nights.
I meant that the bronze man in the photo can’t have been very talkative…
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went straight over my head 
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Following my trip out in the rain yesterday to go watched my grandson play rugby, I have washed the tiger. Dry’d it off with my blower and tucked it away in the garage. Polishing job tomorrow lol 
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Wanted to do sumthin a bit different (a bit of trial, error and learning too)
Cut out some cardboard
And then cut out some copies from steel sheet
Spent all day hammering and welding the pizza shapes into a cap. I’ll finish off tomorrow/another day to hang up on the garden fence to go rusty and all patina’d.
I, sort of, am getting the hang of welding thin steel sheet together. I don’t know why I’d like to be able to do that but hey ho. thank you…welcome…over 
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You’re taking this English Civil War re-enactment very seriosly, making your own armour.
Yes, that’s what I was thinking, satnav reckons 5 hours riding and I have to travel to the start too. Thing is, from where I’m based, to get to the west bit I’ve got to put the miles in. My first and last day is 6 hours riding to/from digs too, so it could be quite a knackering trip.
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Today I have been preparing for tomorrow’s Scotland trip, where ‘preparing’ = ‘faffing and procrastinating’ 
Decided to leave behind most of my just-in-case-it-comes-in-useful stuff and filled panniers with leather jacket and riding jeans. just-in-case new textile suit doesn’t suit.
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It’s always interesting to see wild ideas being realised, love to see the finished cap. Me, I’m lazy and just buy this.
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I think the satnav is a bit optimistic. Some of those roads are quite slow, and you have to look out for loose grit and bad potholes. (The Council doesn’t seem to have done any repairs yet after the winter.) Not much traffic to worry about, though.
Laurieston to Gatehouse is one of my favourite bits of road.
I’ll be interested to hear how you get on with your new kit: I bought a new Mondial jacket at the end of last season.
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Have a great time, and ride safe mate. Jealous!
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I have the Modial jacket and trousers. They got me through Norway last June/July. We had heat of 30C in the valleys and 2C in the mountains, together with 3 days of biblical rain, they performed perfectly.
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That’s good to know, Paul. Thanks.
Today I commuted on the 'blade. 10% chance of rain at my destination at 1200hrs reckoned the weather app, 10% of light rain at home at 0500hrs, so not bad at all.
I got up and out at 0450hrs to do my phys before work as always - very light rain did indeed fall, but roads pretty much dry by the time I left at 0630hrs. All was fine until I reached a big hill about 15 miles into the journey…I entered fog at the top and as I came down the other side (dodging a big diesel spill for good measure) it had clearly been raining very heavily and was indeed still raining, but fairly moderately. So a very damp me and filthy bike arrived at work (having first done a big diversion through the city in rush hour as my usual route had a closed road 
).
At least it was nice and dry on the way home, although a few large spots of rain fell as I was leaving work which did initially make me think it was going to be a reverse of the morning’s journey.
All that said, it was still better than being in the car and I arrived at work and at home with a big smile on my face and it was another 80 miles or so I got to spend riding my bike .
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