Sunday 9^th March 2008 - The Spinnaker Tower Portsmouth

Where did January and February go? Having spent Saturday afternoon giving the bike a spring clean, checking tyres and fuel, the bike was ready to roll out of the garage Sunday morning. Ride-out to Spinnaker Tower was the order of the day and off to Chieveley for a 09:45 departure, now that’s a reasonable time on a Sunday morning (even for me).  

Arriving at Chieveley we find Roger’s HOG and a Virago parked up. Decamping we find Roger tucking into a mega yummy fry-up and new member Dan hugging a hot drink to warm his cold hands. Soon Barry, Keith, Ashley, Sue and Ed arrive closely followed by Nick. As the clock is approaching 09:45 Paul turns up.  

On hearing Ed’s whistle we roar off to meet up with the next group at J9 M4/A34 Winchester/Tesco services at 10.15. The ride had been going so well up until now, when we ‘lost’ 2 bikes. Not that they were beamed up to outer space or magiced away by Tommy Cooper, they just took a wrong turn. No change there then so this was going to be a ‘normal ride-out’. Keith joined us then we headed off to Portsmouth. 

Colin led the convoy via the ‘scenic route’ and there was only one minor delay, a kamikaze swan dawdling across the road. As we approached Portsmouth and came over the ridge we see the magnificent view, the sun low and shimmering on the water silhouetting the city and the tower. Only one minor detour and we arrived at Gunwarfe Quay’s car park where a Sunday driver tried twice to remove me from my armchair. Two fingers on his windscreen soon encouraged him to put his foot on the brake. We parked up in the cycle bay and made our  way to the escalator. Last one to the loo is a ninny, or is that a Nancy. More on that later. We then went for a nice cuppa and sticky bun and let the 2 bikers who’d earlier gone AWOL know where we were.

Suitably refreshed some of us went up the tower while the rest did some window shopping. I bought a gorgeous pair of lovely snugly gloves. Walking round we saw a guy sitting in the middle of the shopping centre advertising hand readings and tarot card readings. I couldn’t resist, handed him £5 and showed him my palm. The crap he came out with took about 2 minutes – easy money.

As agreed earlier, we reconvened in the car park at 3pm. You know how it is, you chit chat about all sorts of things, WELL, it turned out that earlier, when we’d all gone to the loo, a certain person dropped his trousers to show THE MEN his fishnets. Unfortunately however, or fortunately depending how you look at it, he was reluctant to repeat this exposure for Sue and I in the car park.

 A couple of bikes needed fuel and after missing the first garage we’re now on the M27 heading west towards the M3. The sign states 17 miles to the services so hopefully that’d be okay. On the M3 Colin decided to peel off to ASDA at Eastleigh for those requiring a refill but to our surprise everyone else just waved to us as they carried on going.

The weather so far had been sunny, bright and fresh but we eventually rode into the edge of a shower. It only lasted a few minutes but those with screens had their visibility greatly reduced. Back onto the M3, no sight of the group, and off onto the A34 and towards Newbury. Skies were patchy but plenty of black rain clouds to the north and we hit them just before getting home. As ride-outs go this was in keeping with a classic Vultures ride-out. Lost riders, u-turns etc. and it’s only the first run of the season - it can only get better.                                                                                                                              Di & Colin