Changing Gears 2005 – The UK leg
How to explain it to someone who was not there? Hmmm that’s difficult. You see, we started out as 16 individuals who just happened to have a common goal. At the time of meeting we each had our own idea as to what that goal was and how we would achieve it. As time went on, we started to see that we were singing from the same hymnbook. That in itself was an achievement.
Wednesday 17th August
So, there we were. In the hotel conference room with our nametags and our cups of tea and coffee. Most of us had read the book, so we had an idea of what we expected Megan and Meredith to be like. They already knew each other and some of us felt that by reading their story, we kind of knew them too. As time went on and we really got to know them, I realised that the book barely scratched the surface of these two amazing individuals.
We each had to describe ourselves to the group. It didn’t take long to suss out the loud ones (me) and the quiet ones – and we were to prove the old adage that the quiet ones are the worst! (Jacqui O’Keeffe with a drink in her….) It seems so strange now when I look back on how nervous and unsure we all were that first night.
My roomie for the first three nights was Donna from Australia. What a lovely person – a joy to spend time with her. We each were nervous that we would keep the other awake with our snoring. The solution was mutual ear plugs! Worked for me..
Thursday 18th August
The first morning we were setting off to pick up the hired bikes and do a media call at Warrs Harley-Davidson dealership. My first mistake was to believe Meredith when she said the route was ‘real easy’. The second mistake was to drop the bike at the front of the hotel… thankfully no real harm was done to anything other than my pride!
The weather played ball and Mother Nature flashed her brightest sunshine at us. The bikes gleamed in the heat of the day and we melted on the tarmac. We met with Alan who was an absolute sweetheart and looked after us with drinks and donuts. He made sure that we were treated like queens and could not do enough for us. That was the first time we would see him, but such was his dedication and enthusiasm for our cause that he would drop in on us at several locations to look after the bikes or join us for lunch. He brought his lovely wife with him to see us. He’s a very lucky man as she is a darling, and she’s a very lucky woman as he is worth his weight in gold.
That day was the first of many media calls, by the end of the ride as soon as someone flashed a camera, there were an extra 16 in the photo. We were well pleased with the article that appeared in the Daily Mail.
Friday 19th August
Practice day two and an ‘even easier ride’ – yeah right. We headed off to another dealership. The weather this time was not so promising, but we did have BBC London come along to film us. They wanted us to coo and purr over the lovely shiny chrome – and like true media sluts, we obliged! They filmed us riding along the road in the rain and they filmed us stopping for lunch at a truck stop along the way. That café and the poor unsuspecting waitresses were to provide one of the most hilarious moments of the ride. We each ordered our food at the counter once we had managed to safely navigate our way across the slippery floor. We were given our slips with our order number on it and sat down with our teas and coffees. We had started to sing ‘Born to be Wild’ and the film crew asked us to start it again with the cameras rolling…. Naturally we obliged. ‘Get your motor running’ ‘ head out on the highway’ ‘ looking for adventure’ we took a breath ready to launch into the next line only to have the moment shattered by the waitress calling ‘number 32?’! We watched the news that night and were delighted to see that the film crew had left that part in! It was hilarious!
Saturday 20th August
I was finding it really difficult in the mornings trying to eat my breakfast. I was suffering the effects of nerves and could not relax enough to eat until lunch or even dinner. Didn’t do me any harm – I’ve got plenty in reserve as it is! On the first proper ride day I wasn’t worth a button. Would I get lost? Would I drop the bike again? Why was I doing this?! We made it safely to the Ace Café for the launch. More cameras, lots of peoples friends and relatives, and a lovely cup of tea thrown in. We set off without any dramas and hit the open road. Traffic was a bloody nightmare! We were all suffering in the heat, especially in the dead slow and stop traffic on the way to Stonehenge. Stonehenge was nice – some stones standing upright in a field. Dee worked her magic and got us in for nothing – Dee proved to be a genius at this. Can’t say I was overly impressed at Stonehenge. I fielded the hypothesis that it was some poor guy’s first attempt at building a house and he had a crap architect.
Stonehenge to Bath – it was a long day and we were glad to get to Bath University and our accommodation for the night. It was strange being in single rooms – I missed my roomie..
Sunday August 21st
What a day! Lunch at Chipping Camden with a load of Harley men and women who were going to ride with us to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Dee had also arranged for us to be met by three strapping policemen on bikes who were going to ‘escort’ us to Stratford. It was totally awesome – police escort through traffic lights, roundabouts etc. We were even allowed to ride up the pedestrian precinct and park in front of Shakespeare’s birthplace! It was a very emotional moment for all of us – especially Megan and Meredith who had visited the site in darkest winter and dreamed of what it would look like with all the bikes parked up and the sun shining down on us all. The police escorted us to our accommodation for that evening and managed to get most of us there without incident. However, one of our party and one of the police officers managed to ‘get lost’…. Laney, our anchor, support van driver extraordinaire did not arrive with the rest of us. When she turned up, she got some good-natured ribbing about getting stuck in a lay-by and using the spare space in the van for some shenanigans! Angi – bless her – asked Laney what the officer was called. ‘I don’t know’ she said ‘but it had P Olice on his helmet’ she joked. Angi then decided (not getting the joke) that he must be called Pete or Paul and he was henceforth known as Pete Olice. The officers had arranged for us to be fed at a local pub and we were treated to a BBQ. The food was delicious – apparently so were we.. Heather and myself were bitten that night. We had a lovely time and headed back to the Hostel nice and early to prepare for the next day.
Monday 22nd August
Our lovely police officers came to escort us out of Stratford and took us along to Warwick Castle. The weather was not so kind this day – we had frequent sharp showers and arrived a bit wet and miserable. We headed up to the castle, had a photo taken and went exploring. Well, the others did the exploring bit; Laney, Julie and I explored the café instead! From there we were escorted to the Birmingham Motorcycle Museum where we had a lovely lunch. Then it was on to our destination for the day – Hartington Hall. Some of our group decided to take a slightly more scenic route than others – this was to be the first time we became properly separated, but the rest of us continued on and we all met up at the YHA. What a beautiful place! The accommodation was in fresh rooms overlooking fields and open countryside. There was a pet’s corner with pygmy goats that just loved attention, guinea pigs and rabbits too! There was a lovely seating area in the grounds where we drank wine and beer and watched squirrels chasing each other around. As time wore on we got a little rowdy – the girls with prostheses thought it would be a grand idea to whip them out and wear them on their heads….. in no time at all, it looked like a drunken ‘coneheads’ convention!
After dinner, Laney swears that she saw someone sitting in a chair in the corner of the room…. but there was no-one there and no way that they could have left without passing us by. We asked how old the property was and were told it was several hundred years old ‘But there’s no ghosts you know’?!
It was a wonderful evening for most of us. Alison went to visit a friend of hers in hospital. He was seriously ill and has since died. Alison was upset to see him so ill, but she was glad that she was able to visit and spend some time with him. It broke my heart to see her looking so sad, but it was good to know that she had all of us to support her when she needed us most.
Tuesday 23rd August
The day started out ok – the weather seemed fine to start with. An unexpected bonus was the addition of Claire to our ride that day – she had signed up to join us and ride with us to Hawes. I can’t imagine how terrified she must have been coming into a well-established group, but she coped really well and it was a pleasure to have her along.
We dropped in to Manchester Harley-Davidson for more media stuff and to pick up beautiful Harley-Davidson leather jackets that Alan had arranged for us all. Oh it was soooooo impressive to see us all in matching jackets. And of course, the fact that they were a gift left a pretty big lump in the throat. Most of us agreed to hold off wearing them until the last day and our triumphant arrival in Edinburgh.
We stopped for lunch at the Dog and Gun pub in Glusburn. It was a lovely place and they had reserved a table for us. We had a lovely lunch, made even nicer by the generosity of the landlady who treated us to it! The best lunches and dinners we had were those we didn’t have to pay for – must be the stingy Scot in me.
The weather degenerated in the afternoon to an outright downpour, the roads were awash and we were soaked through. Poor Claire not only having to ride to Hawes in this, she also had to ride all the way home again. We were a bit miserable to say the least when we all finally got changed out of our ride clothes. Heather a bit more so as the bite she had received on the Sunday had by now become infected and her ankle was badly swollen. We managed a trip down into the village for dinner and a few drinks, then headed back to the hostel to settle down for the night.
Wednesday 24th August
The night had been very stormy with heavy rain and wild sounding winds. It didn’t look much better in the morning. Heather’s ankle was getting worse so a decision was taken to delay departure until after Heather had seen a doctor. This turned out to be an excellent decision as the weather dramatically improved as we were leaving our petrol stop just next to the hostel! The improvement was short lived and it was soon raining again, although not as bad as it had been the day before. The doctor had given Heather antibiotics and these helped to control and reduce the inflammation and swelling.
We were running almost two hours late so as a result of this and of the temperamental weather, we decided against stopping at Lake Windermere. We stopped and had lunch at a service station en route to Glenridding. The weather picked up again and allowed us to enjoy the extremely up and down and twisty roads on the way to Once Brewed. I have only one word to describe those roads – ‘mental’! I don’t normally ‘do’ twisty roads but I can honestly say that I surprised myself at how much fun I was having! The hostel at Once Brewed was in a lovely location just below Hadrian’s Wall. Charlie came to collect some of my stuff from me, taking away my waterlogged jacket and my washing. It was a relief not to have so much stuff to carry. He didn’t stay for long as he had been working in Newcastle that day and had to get home to our Claire who was home alone.
A short walk from the hostel was a pub called ‘Twice Brewed’. We had a really nice meal in there and a couple of drinks were enjoyed as well. Some of the crowd thought it would be nice to take a couple of bottles of wine and head up to the wall. It was a lovely clear night. I had intended to go with them but I got so far and my legs had had enough! Heather was struggling too so we headed back to the hostel.
Thursday 25th August
From Once Brewed, we headed out along the road to Chester’s Fort, which is on the line of Hadrian’s Wall. The weather was sunny and warm; the fort was very interesting. We also had a talk from a ‘Roman Soldier’ explaining how their methods of wielding their weapons made for an easier kill… it was quite graphic at times!
Crossing the Scottish Border was a very emotional experience for me. Can’t really explain why, after all I’ve crossed it many times in the past without so much as a second glance. For some strange reason, I felt that this time I was really coming home. Once we had stopped the bikes, I jumped off, flipped up the front of my helmet and kissed the ground (after making sure that the ground was on the Scottish side of course!). We danced with the piper and posed for more photies!!
We stopped in Hawick for lunch and found ourselves in a tearoom where we ordered something to eat. It was good to hear Scottish accents, and I reckon my own accent started to get a bit broader from that day onwards! I had mince and tatties for lunch… mmmmm tasty!
Destination for the day was Melrose. We kind of toured the town trying to find the turn off for the hostel! The locals certainly heard us coming that day. Dinner was had at one of the hotels in town. Dee set about persuading the owner to give us a substantial discount on dinner. As usual, she succeeded! What a girl! We put the owner in one of our Harley jackets and he posed with us quite happily. We promised to make as much noise as we could when passing his hotel on our way out of town.
Friday 26th August
This was going to be an emotional day as tonight would be the last official night of the ride. We had mixed feelings as we set out, not helped by the rather stingy breakfast offered by the Scottish YHA. I resolved that that day I would make sure I had tattie scones and fry them up for breakfast the next day.
By now most of the bikes were manky from driving through puddles and the like. My bike had arrived almost clean apart from some heavy bug splatter, now it was almost unrecognisable.
We set out for Aberdour. Meredith and Megan had found us a spot at the beach. When they were there last there was a restaurant on the site. Unfortunately, the restaurant had since burned down! We had parked up and made use of the toilets – Alison had used the automatic loo with the revolving doors, and had somehow managed to lose her mobile phone in the floor space. It was quite a picture seeing her and fearless with their bums sticking out of the door as they scrabbled for this phone before the whole thing flushed! They were successful and much fun was had by everyone!
Meredith was determined to have a paddle in the water. The air temperature was very cold for the time of year, so I asked the first aiders if they had resuscitation equipment to hand just in case! They didn’t have a defibrillator but assured me that they were trained in CPR techniques..
We moved to another car park, which was closer to the town. We found a hotel at the bottom of a hill and took over the restaurant. We ordered as separate tables but for some reason they seemed to think that we all wanted to be served at the same time. It took forever waiting for the meals to arrive. As far as I can remember, the food was quite good. On the way back to the bikes I found a bakers shop and picked up some tattie scones and some oatcakes.
Then it was on to Stirling for the last night of the ride. Once we had parked the bikes at the back of the hostel, Jacqui, Carolyn, Donna and I went off to find Tesco’s to get the booze in for our group dinner. I picked up some pate and cheese to go with the oatcakes. We bought a lot of booze. I had received a text message from Charlie earlier, which said ‘we have gone to the gym there’s something behind the desk for you’. This had puzzled me – had something been left at the gym for me? If so – what?
We arrived back at the hostel after getting lost in Stirling’s one way system. When we walked in the guy behind the desk handed me a cool bag and said that a man had left it there for me earlier in the day! In the cool bag – six bottles of champagne and a lovely card from Charlie and Claire! We had ordered pizza and various other stuff, so settled down in the dining room and had a mega party.
The champagne did not last long, so most of us were well on our way to being drunk in a very short period of time! We had some emotional speeches, Megan and Meredith gave us all beautiful pendants, which we shall all treasure. We gave them some gifts as well. We sang some songs, were entertained by two lovely little girls from Belfast and spread some wine and beer among the other hostel visitors. I think it is safe to say that a good time was had by all. So much so that someone had to come up to our rooms and ask us politely to keep the noise down…
Saturday 27th August – last day
It was a sorry looking crowd that morning! I had fried up the tattie scones and forgot all about the eggs that we had also bought. We sat there looking at each other over the measly breakfast with a mixture of excitement and despair. Dee had organised that we would have a police escort into Edinburgh.
We headed off in a mixture of sunshine and rain. We stopped off at the Forth Road Bridge viewpoint with its spectacular views. We then headed across and met up with our escorts. We all got changed into our new Harley jackets for our triumphant arrival. It made me feel both emotional and extremely special to arrive under police escort. They stopped the traffic to let us through. They took us up Princes Street with sirens blaring and the crowds of tourists who were there for the end of the Festival stood watching, bemused at the sight of us!
Then it happened, what we were both looking forward to and dreading at the same time – we reached our final destination. Due to a mix up over times, no-one from my lot were there to meet me, but it was very emotional for all of us as we hugged and cried together. We had lunch and then dispersed – some to the Harley dealership to return their bikes and some to the youth hostel as we had arranged to stay over one last night and go out on the town.
Charlie arrived to take away the bike and I got lost taking the car and my luggage home! See what happens when you get used to having someone to lead you? Total loss of any ability to navigate by myself! We had a laugh about that at dinner that night at the Walima Restaurant. Lovely meal, lovely company and again someone treated us on the night!
There’s so much more that I could talk about but these are the events that were special to me. It’s been therapeutic to write them down as they helped me to remember what a very special time it was and what very special people they all were. I will remember some more than others for the simple fact that I got to know them better, but will still remember them all.
Megan and Meredith – our leaders and our inspiration. Only as time went on did we start to realise how much time and effort they had invested in making this ride safe and very enjoyable. The V Rod that Meredith rode was silver and chrome and was a thing of beauty to behold. I was too scared to ride it in case I damaged it, but it was lovely to see it glinting in the sunshine! Megan was my group leader and I became like a limpet mine and attached myself to her right flank, trying desperately not to let her out of my sight!
Heather and Carolyn – we had already met up at Knockhill when we were collecting there, so we were already good friends before the ride. I’d like to think that we deepened our friendships along the way.
Kathryn (Kathy) – my angel on my right shoulder! She looked out for me and protected me from other vehicles when my bike was misbehaving. I felt lost without her.
Donna – roomie and friend! She was also the sweep rider in our group and it was comforting to know she was watching out for us.
Jacqui F – young Jacqui.. what a sweetheart! I felt very protective towards her, she was like a little sister to me. I’ll never forget what she looked like with Laney’s prosthesis on her head!!
Laney – support van driver and our anchor. We could not have done this without you – next year I’ll drive the van and look out for you on your trike!! We have become real good friends and I look forward to getting into many scrapes together in the future!
Jacqui O – yes, it’s true what they say – the quiet ones are always the worst!!
Alison – ah pet, your pink jacket is now famous far and wide! I miss you already..
Dee – what would we have done without you? We would have paid out a lot more and would not have had the pleasure of those police escorts. Probably won’t miss you singing along with the headphones on though!
Wendy – great gal, great sense of humour and a fantastic support.
Cathy (aka Fearless) – mad, bloody mad, no – seriously bloody mad!
Julie – perched up there on that bloody big bike you looked fantastic, like you could take on the world! Wicked sense of humour and the politest snorer I have ever heard!
Angi – so sweet and so naïve! You will always be remembered for Pete Olice!! Your family are lovely too – I can see where they get it from.
So endeth the ramblings of one Karina Gallagher aka Clueless aka The Media Slut. Make of them what you will. They are written for my benefit but published for your perusal. Amazon warriors – have completed their conquest of the UK, next stop USA….
