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A Day trip to France - Russ's story.
Well, here’s a yank’s take on the ride.
I spent a rather fun day on Sunday- left my house at about 4:30 and rode out to meet the Honda lads north of the Dartford crossing. From there we set off at 6:00 AM to Dover for an 8:30 ferry crossing, and had to check in by 7:45. A nice brisk ride there, although the Gerbing’s jacket kept me warm, and no one got lost. We stopped for petrol a couple of miles from the ferry terminal, the smart ones filled their tanks there. Once reservations were confirmed, we were given a lane to cue in, and parked 2 abreast. We totalled about 16 bikes, probably 4 were riding 2-up. A nice showing for an unscheduled non-club event! It just goes to show the members of this club want to ride too, not just sit around the pub on Thursday nights. Anyhow, it was fairly windy, so it was a rather choppy crossing over to Calais.
The deal was for £19 you got the round trip passage, a case of wine (South African, red or white), and 2 for 1 breakfast. Due to tax laws, you had to pick up the wine on the crossing to France, this could not wait until the return trip. No problem, but a couple of the guys didn’t listen when this was explained at the meeting (and printed in an e-mail too) so they didn’t get their wine. One of them was reminded on the ferry ride over, yet he still didn’t pick up his case. Not a one of us had any sympathy. Anyhow, the breakfast was filling- a fried egg on a piece of toast, a sausage, a couple of pieces of Canadian bacon, hash browns, baked beans, a tomato, and 2 slices of toast. Coffee was extra, so what. All told, it cost about £5 (about $6.50 now). Very nice J Once we were allowed back on the car decks, I carefully loaded 3 bottles in each saddlebag, with good padding between each.
We had a nice ride along the coast down to Le Touquet, stopping about midway there to stretch and take in a town square. One of the guys simply put his case of wine lying flat in his top box. First of all, there isn’t much protection that way, secondly that is the wrong orientation from a strength point of view. Bottom line is that one of the bottles broke, and of course he was unhappy. After unloading and rinsing his top box, he packed the remaining bottles with a bit of padding this time. (Yes, they had survived at least until we had boarded the ferry). Amazing how much work you generate when trying to save a little bit of effort up front. We left the town square, continuing a nice pace, not too fast, and while windy, it was a beautiful day. I didn’t take any photos during the ride, except at the town square- guess I better download them. It was fun to ride along the shore, come out from behind a hill and look at surf, then come into an old town, sometimes with cobblestone streets, always an old church with tall spire- picturesque. Guess that’s what I love about Europe.
We got to Le Touquet, found a good place to park the bikes all together, and walked about ½ mile to the town center where the restaurant was. They were expecting us, had the correct number of seats and place settings, every dish on the menu looked great- and every plate of food I saw was appealing, so I had a heck of a time making up my mind. I had just got back from India the day before, and anything without curry sounded good. Anyhow I wound up with a bowl of onion soup, and a salad with smoked salmon and mackerel. Plus the bread basket, a bottle of beer to start off, and a liter of water. It was a great atmosphere, my Honda buddies are a fun group- the one sitting across from me is an ex-pro boxer, he really knows how to enjoy life. All too soon it was time to go, not a particularly cheap lunch at €27, but reasonable. Afterwards we walked to the beach, and hung out there for a few minutes, watching the amusement rides and wave action.
We had to be at the ferry terminal before 5:15, and as it was about 3:30 we started off. Before we got out of town we stopped for petrol for a couple of bikes with limited range, which meant we then had to head back on the motorway. Not my favourite type of riding, but better than missing the ferry back. The customs took awhile before looking at any of our passports. I was about mid-line, and he reminded me that I was supposed to fill in a landing card. I apologized, and said of course he was correct, I’d be happy to fill it in for him, he just stamped the passport and handed it back to me, and said to remember next time. I thanked him and joined my buddies at the ferry check-in. After getting my boarding card, 3 of us were riding to the line, when a truck turned in front of us, maybe 50 yards away. One of his tires blew, you could see a spark, debris flying, and a huge bang like a shotgun. Once we got to the line, I pointed out that that tire burst was exactly why you speed past a truck, not ride next to one. It made an impression with these guys. The ones in the line had heard it, but didn’t know what it was.
We had a bit of a wait, and the wind was blowing straight at us from the sea, and it started raining. It really came down for a bit. As a group, we moved between two tour buses and waited in relative dryness there until it passed, about 15 minutes. Finally they started boarding, bikes first. We all got on without incident, basically the loadmaster placed us on the outer sides of the ferry, under stairs, out of the car lanes, where they have steel anchor points set into the deck about 5 feet apart. You hook the anchor point on each side of the bike with a ratchet strap, put the cushion on the seat (bike on centerstand), and cinch it down. The ferry could do a roll and the bike would stay in place.
We sat around swapping war stories for an hour, it passed real quickly. I put on the waterproofs, even though their need was questionable, and put on the electric gloves too. We stopped for petrol, and most of the bikes had left before I was ready. Fine, I knew the way back. I rode with the 3 remaining bikes through town until we got to the motorway, and I decided not to keep up with their pace, opting instead for a leisurely 75 mph. The rain hit after a while, I just turned up the heat a bit and the gloves kept dry. The temperature plummeted maybe 10 miles from M25, and it started snowing about 7 miles from the exit. It wasn’t sticking to the road, I slowed down and kept moving at about 50 mph. Some snow stuck to the top of the windscreen, but the majority of it remained clear and I could see fine. I noted a group of bikes pulled over about 2 miles from the exit, so I pulled over. It was my buddies, they were debating waiting it out or moving on. They decided to move on. Once we got to M25, the snow and rain disappeared, the pavement became dry, and my windscreen dried off. Sure glad we didn’t “wait it out”, but I would have stopped if snow had started sticking to the road.
The rest of the ride was uneventful; I got home about 9:30, plenty of time to catch a movie, if only I could have stayed awake J
Thanks for a great day John, I appreciate the efforts you put into it to make it all worthwhile for the group.
Cheers,
Russ Rutledge
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