Dawn Raid latest
Discussion
Hi everyone,
I think my last detailed post got lost amongst the pages of the first dawn raid thread, so perhaps it would be better to clear things up with a new thread.
I'll e-mail the route to all those who respond to this post, nearer the time.
Right. What I’m proposing is that the very best time of all to go for a blat is dawn, early in the morning, right at the start of daylight, making the most of it with not a second to lose.
To do that means, not unnaturally, an early start. Now, it would be nice to make an early start without having to get up in the middle of the night, so I’m suggesting we all check into a Travelodge, get into the cars at 0530 the next morning and hit the road.
I have a route which is just under 140 miles, around the very best of Derbyshire and the peak district. It’s a little bit longer than I would have wished, but I can’t reduce it without losing some really great hooning road or other. Most of this route is on good old honest-to-goodness hoonable roads. It’s got great views, and a few hairpins, as many as you’ll get in one run in England I would have thought. Not continental type hairpins, but good tight bends nonetheless.
Some singletrack lane is used, to get from one hooning area to another, or just because the view is great or some other point of interest. Also at one point there is a bit of turning left and right etc. for a while. This has allowed me to keep the route circular, without criss-crossing or using roads twice etc. except we’ll be using the Cat & Fiddle road twice, both in and out. Had to do this due to the mileage getting too long.
I did a full route reccie a couple of Saturdays ago. I have to say, I had a great day. It was one of those crisp clear days, once the mist had lifted. The views are terrific, it really is big country in parts up there, and really beautiful.
As I’ve said before, I’ve got the whole route on a tulip roadbook. Each instruction gives the overall mileage from the start of the run, an intermediate mileage, a landmark or location if possible, a tulip diagram which shows the layout of each junction and the direction to head in, and a specific instruction. There are 8 instructions to each page so each one is fairly large to see should you be in a car on your own. You could turn these into a set of instructions if you wish. I’ve included some warnings of sharp bends, but not all. You all will have to watch it, there are some delicious off-camber corners, or bends on brows etc. It’s unrealistic to include them all, plus it may lull you into a false sense of security. Be warned: they’re proper roads up there!
It is my intention to e-mail these out nearer the time for you all to print out.
I don’t really recommend trying to follow the route on your own, I think it would be better and more enjoyable for you if you just tagged on the back of another car. I know you might like to find one travelling at a pace to suit you, but you’ll be free to choose, obviously. I think if you did try it on your own you’d end up keep having to stop to check the route. Just IMHO.
The good thing IMO about using a road book is that you can bring a passenger and he or she gets to play a part in the process.
The Travelodge: There is a Travelodge 4 miles north of Macclesfield, at a place called Adlington, with a Little Chef on site. www.travelodge.co.uk/travelodge/location.php?hotel_id=152
The lodge itself is situated out of town, and the carpark is behind the little chef, so those cars that are there overnight aren’t on wide-open show, plus there can’t be too many passers-by from the pub etc. All the rooms there are Family rooms, which mean they can sleep 3 adults, apparently all can sleep separately – the beds come apart in other words. You can cancel up to 12 noon on the day – 12 noon that is, they’ve changed from 4 pm. There are 21 non-smoking rooms and 7 smoking. All are en-suite with tea/coffee facilities. Rooms cost £44.95.
I haven’t managed to find a café etc that would be open en route. I’ve found one that opens at 9am but I reckon we should all have been past there by then. To be honest, 140 miles at an average speed of what? 45 mph minimum means we should all be back between 9 and 10 am. That would probably mean we’d have to go back to the Little Chef for brekky and post hoon gossip as most pubs don’t open til 11-12. Perhaps we could ask them to save us a corner so we can all get together afterwards.
The date will be Sunday June 6th. For those that can’t make it, if it’s a success, we’ll do it again this summer. I’m already working on another route, which I promise will be just as good, if not better.
So, what do we think? A major 140 mile hoon on some of Britain’s best roads for not a lot of money. Interested?
If you are, then the thing to do is book a room at the Adlington travelodge for the night of the fifth of June. Remember, you can cancel until 12 noon on the day should you change your mind.
I think my last detailed post got lost amongst the pages of the first dawn raid thread, so perhaps it would be better to clear things up with a new thread.
I'll e-mail the route to all those who respond to this post, nearer the time.
Right. What I’m proposing is that the very best time of all to go for a blat is dawn, early in the morning, right at the start of daylight, making the most of it with not a second to lose.
To do that means, not unnaturally, an early start. Now, it would be nice to make an early start without having to get up in the middle of the night, so I’m suggesting we all check into a Travelodge, get into the cars at 0530 the next morning and hit the road.
I have a route which is just under 140 miles, around the very best of Derbyshire and the peak district. It’s a little bit longer than I would have wished, but I can’t reduce it without losing some really great hooning road or other. Most of this route is on good old honest-to-goodness hoonable roads. It’s got great views, and a few hairpins, as many as you’ll get in one run in England I would have thought. Not continental type hairpins, but good tight bends nonetheless.
Some singletrack lane is used, to get from one hooning area to another, or just because the view is great or some other point of interest. Also at one point there is a bit of turning left and right etc. for a while. This has allowed me to keep the route circular, without criss-crossing or using roads twice etc. except we’ll be using the Cat & Fiddle road twice, both in and out. Had to do this due to the mileage getting too long.
I did a full route reccie a couple of Saturdays ago. I have to say, I had a great day. It was one of those crisp clear days, once the mist had lifted. The views are terrific, it really is big country in parts up there, and really beautiful.
As I’ve said before, I’ve got the whole route on a tulip roadbook. Each instruction gives the overall mileage from the start of the run, an intermediate mileage, a landmark or location if possible, a tulip diagram which shows the layout of each junction and the direction to head in, and a specific instruction. There are 8 instructions to each page so each one is fairly large to see should you be in a car on your own. You could turn these into a set of instructions if you wish. I’ve included some warnings of sharp bends, but not all. You all will have to watch it, there are some delicious off-camber corners, or bends on brows etc. It’s unrealistic to include them all, plus it may lull you into a false sense of security. Be warned: they’re proper roads up there!
It is my intention to e-mail these out nearer the time for you all to print out.
I don’t really recommend trying to follow the route on your own, I think it would be better and more enjoyable for you if you just tagged on the back of another car. I know you might like to find one travelling at a pace to suit you, but you’ll be free to choose, obviously. I think if you did try it on your own you’d end up keep having to stop to check the route. Just IMHO.
The good thing IMO about using a road book is that you can bring a passenger and he or she gets to play a part in the process.
The Travelodge: There is a Travelodge 4 miles north of Macclesfield, at a place called Adlington, with a Little Chef on site. www.travelodge.co.uk/travelodge/location.php?hotel_id=152
The lodge itself is situated out of town, and the carpark is behind the little chef, so those cars that are there overnight aren’t on wide-open show, plus there can’t be too many passers-by from the pub etc. All the rooms there are Family rooms, which mean they can sleep 3 adults, apparently all can sleep separately – the beds come apart in other words. You can cancel up to 12 noon on the day – 12 noon that is, they’ve changed from 4 pm. There are 21 non-smoking rooms and 7 smoking. All are en-suite with tea/coffee facilities. Rooms cost £44.95.
I haven’t managed to find a café etc that would be open en route. I’ve found one that opens at 9am but I reckon we should all have been past there by then. To be honest, 140 miles at an average speed of what? 45 mph minimum means we should all be back between 9 and 10 am. That would probably mean we’d have to go back to the Little Chef for brekky and post hoon gossip as most pubs don’t open til 11-12. Perhaps we could ask them to save us a corner so we can all get together afterwards.
The date will be Sunday June 6th. For those that can’t make it, if it’s a success, we’ll do it again this summer. I’m already working on another route, which I promise will be just as good, if not better.
So, what do we think? A major 140 mile hoon on some of Britain’s best roads for not a lot of money. Interested?
If you are, then the thing to do is book a room at the Adlington travelodge for the night of the fifth of June. Remember, you can cancel until 12 noon on the day should you change your mind.
DustyC said:
Excellent date. I think thats D-Day isnt it?
Yep. Might have to make some mention of this in the road book.
I mean, hopefully if we're all getting in our cars just about dawn, we'll have to just have a think about what was happening at that very same time, just what, 300 miles south of where we'll be, 60 years ago. Young men and women going through quite a different dawn experience. Lets celebrate the freedom they fought to give us.
Hi all,
Just a line to say I'm going away for a long weekend, to Monaco for the GP Historique, and on my return I shall be cracking on with the final touches to the roadbooks and will start e-mailing them out.
Don't forget to book the Travelodge if you don't want to travel to the start location in the early hours, you can cancel up to 12 noon on the day.
Summers coming, with those lovely mild mornings...
NN
Just a line to say I'm going away for a long weekend, to Monaco for the GP Historique, and on my return I shall be cracking on with the final touches to the roadbooks and will start e-mailing them out.
Don't forget to book the Travelodge if you don't want to travel to the start location in the early hours, you can cancel up to 12 noon on the day.
Summers coming, with those lovely mild mornings...
NN
burriana500 said:
Already booked in oh 
Can you email me and let me know how many we have attending?
Will do, next week if you don't mind, when I can devote my best attention to the job.
Stainless, ooh, that's a tricky one. I do think there is one section that has some lovely fast straights, but is in a remote part of the county that obviously gets some hard weather through the winters, and the road undulates a bit. I think the rest is ok. There is some single track road, but you can't get up to a high speed on these parts - the views are good though.
And there's some great twisty quick stuff - in fact care is needed, 'cos there are one or two tricky bend-over-brow-off-camber type corners to watch out for.
Of course I don't know how vunerable your exhaust is, but to be honest, given the state of the UK's roads, if you can drive quick elsewhere you should be ok in Derbyshire.
There definitly isn't any rough stuff - I know what sort of cars will be coming along, and I think the roads are fine for hooning.
Hi All,
I'm just about ready to start e-mailing the roadbooks out. However, a problem I haven't thought about, so some advice please: The roadbook is 13 pages in all. To create each page I create a page in Word, print it off, draw the tulips in and then scan it and save it as a jpeg. This means I now have a file of 7 megs or so, way too big to email. If I were to resize each page to what, 72 dpi what would this mean when you guys come to print each page? (Well I could try it and see, of course.) Should I rescan the sheets and save it in another format? Which would be more suitable?
As regards organising lists of whose coming etc. I don't really want to do things that way. I sort of figured it best by saying "this is what we are doing, this is when and where etc" and you guys then turn up. The thing to do as I see it is to book the travelodge. If you want to come up as a group etc, fine, but you need to sort that out. You can get an idea of whose coming by re-reading the posts, I suppose.
Or maybe if we get the e-mail issue sorted and I start sending them out, we start another thread on who is definitly coming along.
As someone said, time is running, we need to get sorted for definite, now.
Just one more thing, I was up in the peaks earlier this week, having a bit of a blast in a sporty car (nothing that special) but does have low profile tyres. Someone on an earlier thread was asking if the roads are rough, and whilst I never once bottomed out or scraped the exhaust, I did notice the road surface more than I had before. When all is said and done some of the roads are quite remote and have harder winters than most in England, I dare say. Can't help thinking that maybe the more specialised cars, I suppose I'm thinking of exotica, might not be suitable. I would think TVR's and Porsche's would be fine, not sure about Ferrari's etc. If any were thinking of coming, that is. Don't want to put anyone off, and I think it's a great route, but maybe not all of it is suited to 3 figure speeds. Ahem.
Most roads are dual width, but there are some single width sections to link interesting bits together, or for other reasons of interest.
Due to the early start, I don't think there will be any establishment open for us to meet up at en route, but there is a couple of spots, one in particular, that has a great view and room to stop on the road, where the coffee flasks and breakfast bars could be opened/consumed. From that one spot you can see where you've been abd where you're going, for a few miles.
I had a great evenings thrash around earlier in the week, up there. If North Derbyshire is an area you don't know very well, come along and give it a go. It really is great driving country.
Oh, I'm from the Midlands myself, in answer to the query above. happy to travel up in a group.
Oh and one last thing. One aspect that was bothering me was finding a good venue to finish at. The route takes us back down the Cat & Fiddle road to Macclesfield, whereupon we hack our way back to the Little Chef at the Travelodge, which is a bit boring. Or we could stop somewhere in Macc, but a bunch of nice cars in all that Saturday shopping traffic? Hmmm. So we could finish at the Cat & Fiddle itself, which i think would be quite interesting. I'll give them a bell over the weekend, but the last time I was there (and I haven't been often) I noticed they're much more geared to the 'tourist' shall we say, than when I was last there before, which was some years ago. I reckon they might do us all coffee and breakfast/brunch/lunch or whatever if I give them some notice.
So then, I just need a quick answer to the e-mail prob and we're up and running.
Nonny
I'm just about ready to start e-mailing the roadbooks out. However, a problem I haven't thought about, so some advice please: The roadbook is 13 pages in all. To create each page I create a page in Word, print it off, draw the tulips in and then scan it and save it as a jpeg. This means I now have a file of 7 megs or so, way too big to email. If I were to resize each page to what, 72 dpi what would this mean when you guys come to print each page? (Well I could try it and see, of course.) Should I rescan the sheets and save it in another format? Which would be more suitable?
As regards organising lists of whose coming etc. I don't really want to do things that way. I sort of figured it best by saying "this is what we are doing, this is when and where etc" and you guys then turn up. The thing to do as I see it is to book the travelodge. If you want to come up as a group etc, fine, but you need to sort that out. You can get an idea of whose coming by re-reading the posts, I suppose.
Or maybe if we get the e-mail issue sorted and I start sending them out, we start another thread on who is definitly coming along.
As someone said, time is running, we need to get sorted for definite, now.
Just one more thing, I was up in the peaks earlier this week, having a bit of a blast in a sporty car (nothing that special) but does have low profile tyres. Someone on an earlier thread was asking if the roads are rough, and whilst I never once bottomed out or scraped the exhaust, I did notice the road surface more than I had before. When all is said and done some of the roads are quite remote and have harder winters than most in England, I dare say. Can't help thinking that maybe the more specialised cars, I suppose I'm thinking of exotica, might not be suitable. I would think TVR's and Porsche's would be fine, not sure about Ferrari's etc. If any were thinking of coming, that is. Don't want to put anyone off, and I think it's a great route, but maybe not all of it is suited to 3 figure speeds. Ahem.
Most roads are dual width, but there are some single width sections to link interesting bits together, or for other reasons of interest.
Due to the early start, I don't think there will be any establishment open for us to meet up at en route, but there is a couple of spots, one in particular, that has a great view and room to stop on the road, where the coffee flasks and breakfast bars could be opened/consumed. From that one spot you can see where you've been abd where you're going, for a few miles.
I had a great evenings thrash around earlier in the week, up there. If North Derbyshire is an area you don't know very well, come along and give it a go. It really is great driving country.
Oh, I'm from the Midlands myself, in answer to the query above. happy to travel up in a group.
Oh and one last thing. One aspect that was bothering me was finding a good venue to finish at. The route takes us back down the Cat & Fiddle road to Macclesfield, whereupon we hack our way back to the Little Chef at the Travelodge, which is a bit boring. Or we could stop somewhere in Macc, but a bunch of nice cars in all that Saturday shopping traffic? Hmmm. So we could finish at the Cat & Fiddle itself, which i think would be quite interesting. I'll give them a bell over the weekend, but the last time I was there (and I haven't been often) I noticed they're much more geared to the 'tourist' shall we say, than when I was last there before, which was some years ago. I reckon they might do us all coffee and breakfast/brunch/lunch or whatever if I give them some notice.
So then, I just need a quick answer to the e-mail prob and we're up and running.
Nonny
I've resized the pages to 1084 x 700-odd pixels and the file size is 1.2 megs, which is much better but would still be a slow process to e-mail. The printed page is perfectly legible, but does not have a professional finish to it, but that's not important, I suppose.
Or perhaps I could e-mail to someone who has got the dogs doo-dahs of a mail system at work and could pass them on, maybe?
Let me know,
NN
>> Edited by Nonny Nimity on Saturday 29th May 00:49
Or perhaps I could e-mail to someone who has got the dogs doo-dahs of a mail system at work and could pass them on, maybe?
Let me know,
NN
>> Edited by Nonny Nimity on Saturday 29th May 00:49
Hi Mod,
The idea was to have you guys print the book off yourselves thus avoiding any printing costs. I reckon I can persevere over the weekend, shall be home for the duration laying slabs etc
But what I need is your e-mails, guys, 'cos I can't send attatchments via the PH site email links.
So come on everybody, send me an e-mail and I can send you the roadbook by return. I've already sent some out, can I have a confirmation that someone has recieved it, please?
More than anything though, right now I NEED YOUR E-MAILS
The idea was to have you guys print the book off yourselves thus avoiding any printing costs. I reckon I can persevere over the weekend, shall be home for the duration laying slabs etc
But what I need is your e-mails, guys, 'cos I can't send attatchments via the PH site email links.
So come on everybody, send me an e-mail and I can send you the roadbook by return. I've already sent some out, can I have a confirmation that someone has recieved it, please?
More than anything though, right now I NEED YOUR E-MAILS
Ignore my earlier comments re e-mailing the roadbooks, they seem to be going out quite nicely.
Unfortunately, I understand the Travelodge that we are starting from is fully booked. If this causes you a problem remember that rooms can be cancelled up to 12 noon on the day so it might pay to check with Travelodge to see if any cancellations have been made, nearer the time. It will be interesting to see how many PHers are staying the night.
Anyone know of a travelodge type hostelry near Macclesfield that might be suitable?
Unfortunately, I understand the Travelodge that we are starting from is fully booked. If this causes you a problem remember that rooms can be cancelled up to 12 noon on the day so it might pay to check with Travelodge to see if any cancellations have been made, nearer the time. It will be interesting to see how many PHers are staying the night.
Anyone know of a travelodge type hostelry near Macclesfield that might be suitable?
Perhaps it might be time to accept that the formula is not what people want. 
Maybe an evening run? Saturday evening, perhaps? Start at the Little Chef at the same travelodge and perhaps finish at the Cat & Fiddle, with a bite to eat to end the day.
Can't be this saturday though, 'cos I understand DavrIan is going to the historics at Silverstone that day, and he was keen on the Dawn job right from the start.
I'm quite happy to accept that maybe the idea was better in theory than practice. I just happen to think that too many people go into the Peak district during the summer days, so for a proper hoon on those proper roads we have to be 'out of hours' so to speak.
I was up that way during the evening a week or so ago. It's lovely in the changing light, and the evening air, as it cools, is fabulous, IMO.
What do we think?
Nonny
Maybe an evening run? Saturday evening, perhaps? Start at the Little Chef at the same travelodge and perhaps finish at the Cat & Fiddle, with a bite to eat to end the day.
Can't be this saturday though, 'cos I understand DavrIan is going to the historics at Silverstone that day, and he was keen on the Dawn job right from the start.
I'm quite happy to accept that maybe the idea was better in theory than practice. I just happen to think that too many people go into the Peak district during the summer days, so for a proper hoon on those proper roads we have to be 'out of hours' so to speak.
I was up that way during the evening a week or so ago. It's lovely in the changing light, and the evening air, as it cools, is fabulous, IMO.
What do we think?
Nonny
davrian said:
It's probably me age but I'm so excited I'll be there at 3.00am Er will that be the Travelodge to get you up or at the Little Chef?
Morning All,
The Chef won't be open at our time (it's at the same location as the lodge.
I think we should move the start time to 06.30 then. Perhaps the too early a start has put people off.
We have another car hopefully comuing along, a friend of Oggs in a Chimera. He says he is 9/10ths on for it, work allowing.
The weather forecast for the area on Sunday is dry with sunny periods.
C'mon guys, let's go for it! Let's get the first one out of the way, we can have a good chat about how we'd like these runs to er, run, and have a meet up and a good look at/chat about the cars. And a good 125 mile run with some opportunities to open the lungs on the motors as well.
What do we say?
Hi Oggs,
Yeah, I'd second the proposal to use the M6 Toll, much as it grates to say so. There are roadworks due to start on the M6 itself, don't know if they have yet, but also you can never rule out the fact that there is a humongous Ikea store right next to J9.
You can leave M6 at J18, and if you check the map, there is a back road that avoids downtown Macclesfield.
Might be worth avoiding all the Saturday shopping numpties.
See you Sat pm.
Cheers,
NN
Yeah, I'd second the proposal to use the M6 Toll, much as it grates to say so. There are roadworks due to start on the M6 itself, don't know if they have yet, but also you can never rule out the fact that there is a humongous Ikea store right next to J9.
You can leave M6 at J18, and if you check the map, there is a back road that avoids downtown Macclesfield.
Might be worth avoiding all the Saturday shopping numpties.
See you Sat pm.
Cheers,
NN
Hi Everyone,
Well it all seemed to go very well, on the whole. I think it became clear why its worth making the effort to get out there early. For the first couple of hours we had the roads totally to ourselves. What a gorgeous sunny morning we had.
As ever things seemed to take longer than planned, and we didn't get back to the Cat & Fiddle 'til 11am. That worked out quite well though, 'cos that is when it opens. I thought it was great sitting in the sunshine, watching all the bikers, walkers, mountain bikers, etc. There were vintage cars calling in too, obviously on a rally of their own. First vintage car up there was a pre-war Fraser-Nash, crewed by two young girls. Sexy or what?
The C&F does nice bacon and egg baps, too.
It was a shame we lost a car. Hope you get everything sorted out, Steve. Oggs's Tiv had a paddy later on. I think it objected when it was called upon to shower the cars behind in sparks. So it decided to stop, and didn't start again untill Oggs had spoken nicely to it and apologised. After that it behaved itself. Whilst Oggs was on his knees begging his car to start, Burriana's Griff decided that the Porker's rump was just so sexy it decided to give it a kiss, whilst no-one was looking.
I should also point out that the Porsche and FTO behaved impeccably, as far as I'm aware.
As ever, improvements can be made. I have a second route, not quite finished, still working on it. The next route will have more A road and less unclassified roads. The TVR's do touch bottom a bit when the roads start undulating a lot. Normally A-roads are a no-no 'cos of traffic, but there just wasn't any at that time. I'll also get rid of the sneaky back road bit to the Cat & Fiddle road, next time we'll just leg it to the traffic lights in Macc and go for it from the very start.
I realise that I must put a coffee/toilet stop in. It's not that easy at such an early hour, but I'm sure we passed 2 establishments that looked open. They definitely weren't back in December, but I must say, the area is so different between winter and summer- it's like a differnt country. I'll get that sorted though, if we do it again.
The Travelodge is quite a good choice IMO 'cos it's out of town, so you don't get too many pi**eads passing by on the way back from the pub, and the carpark is behind the Little Chef so the cars aren't too obviously displayed when parked overnight.
There is a Post House Hotel on the other side of the peaks, however, on the west side of Sheffield. Anyone live that way, what's the carpark there like, is it secure? The Post House would have its own restaurant, and perhaps a bar, so that might be worth looking at in the future perhaps. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. And anyway, we found a good bar in Hazel Grove. Such sights to see.
So, anyone like to suggest a date? August, maybe?
Lastly, pictures. That webalbum that fto has used looks good, made one myself now, but what's the best way to post it on the 'net? The 'tunnel clip' is good too, but it's 5 megs. That makes it possibly too big to e-mail, so what's the best way to either send it to someone (I've never found Winzip much use) or can I post it somewhere and place a link on this thread? If so, how? And can I just say that I'm fairly PC illiterate, so explanation will need to be step by step.
Next lastly, Thanks to you guys for coming out to play. I enjoyed your company on the night out, and enjoyed meeting new people the next day and having good chats about Le Mans and road rallying etc. A good Pistonheads day out.
Well it all seemed to go very well, on the whole. I think it became clear why its worth making the effort to get out there early. For the first couple of hours we had the roads totally to ourselves. What a gorgeous sunny morning we had.
As ever things seemed to take longer than planned, and we didn't get back to the Cat & Fiddle 'til 11am. That worked out quite well though, 'cos that is when it opens. I thought it was great sitting in the sunshine, watching all the bikers, walkers, mountain bikers, etc. There were vintage cars calling in too, obviously on a rally of their own. First vintage car up there was a pre-war Fraser-Nash, crewed by two young girls. Sexy or what?
The C&F does nice bacon and egg baps, too.
It was a shame we lost a car. Hope you get everything sorted out, Steve. Oggs's Tiv had a paddy later on. I think it objected when it was called upon to shower the cars behind in sparks. So it decided to stop, and didn't start again untill Oggs had spoken nicely to it and apologised. After that it behaved itself. Whilst Oggs was on his knees begging his car to start, Burriana's Griff decided that the Porker's rump was just so sexy it decided to give it a kiss, whilst no-one was looking.
I should also point out that the Porsche and FTO behaved impeccably, as far as I'm aware.
As ever, improvements can be made. I have a second route, not quite finished, still working on it. The next route will have more A road and less unclassified roads. The TVR's do touch bottom a bit when the roads start undulating a lot. Normally A-roads are a no-no 'cos of traffic, but there just wasn't any at that time. I'll also get rid of the sneaky back road bit to the Cat & Fiddle road, next time we'll just leg it to the traffic lights in Macc and go for it from the very start.
I realise that I must put a coffee/toilet stop in. It's not that easy at such an early hour, but I'm sure we passed 2 establishments that looked open. They definitely weren't back in December, but I must say, the area is so different between winter and summer- it's like a differnt country. I'll get that sorted though, if we do it again.
The Travelodge is quite a good choice IMO 'cos it's out of town, so you don't get too many pi**eads passing by on the way back from the pub, and the carpark is behind the Little Chef so the cars aren't too obviously displayed when parked overnight.
There is a Post House Hotel on the other side of the peaks, however, on the west side of Sheffield. Anyone live that way, what's the carpark there like, is it secure? The Post House would have its own restaurant, and perhaps a bar, so that might be worth looking at in the future perhaps. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. And anyway, we found a good bar in Hazel Grove. Such sights to see.
So, anyone like to suggest a date? August, maybe?
Lastly, pictures. That webalbum that fto has used looks good, made one myself now, but what's the best way to post it on the 'net? The 'tunnel clip' is good too, but it's 5 megs. That makes it possibly too big to e-mail, so what's the best way to either send it to someone (I've never found Winzip much use) or can I post it somewhere and place a link on this thread? If so, how? And can I just say that I'm fairly PC illiterate, so explanation will need to be step by step.
Next lastly, Thanks to you guys for coming out to play. I enjoyed your company on the night out, and enjoyed meeting new people the next day and having good chats about Le Mans and road rallying etc. A good Pistonheads day out.
oggs said:
I lifted off in the tunnel..
to take my shades off, LB YHM just incase nobody has sent it to you.
Hmm, according to my 'puter the e-mail I sent you with the tunnel clip bounced back, but it sounds like you got it. Is that right?
Have a great trip to Le Mans, you lucky sod!
NN
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