As usual, our meeting place for our monthly rideout was The Redbeck Cafe, meeting at 8.30am leaving for 9am. Terry & Sharon met up with Glynn & Sam (newbies to the area but certainly not to MAG) & John where we had a cheeky bacon butty and then Terry preceded to lead the way to our 2nd rendezvous point at Squires Cafe, where Sharon enjoyed her first ever famous Squires drinking chocolate.
At Squires we met up with run leader John, Joan, Jagster, Pete, Chas and a couple of others, making 12 in total on 9 bikes. The run set off at 10am as we had advertised, led by John and Chas being our back marker. The route from Squires took us to Micklefield, Aberford, Wetherby, Dishforth, Thirsk, up Sutton Bank and our first stop (stretch the legs and a welcome toilet break) at the home of this years Farmyard Party venue, Helmsley. Chas relieved us all of a pound by getting his raffle ticket bag out, well done to the lucky winner Pete, who in great Wakey MAG style pulled out his own winning ticket!!
From Helmsley, John took us to Stokesley for a fuel stop, then onto Great Ayton and finally, our destination of Redcar where we stopped on the sea front at the Stray cafe for lunch.
The building was very deceiving and didn't look like it would be able to accommodate us all but we were wrong, the staff were very obliging and we all enjoyed a nice lunch from their extensive menu.
After our food stop we saddled up again and made our way towards the picturesque Saltburn with its winding downhill roads that make you feel has if you are driving straight into the sea. Then onto Sandsend, skirting past Whitby who were holding their Regatta weekend, over the stunning North Yorkshire Moors where we finally caught up with the big black cloud that we seemed to have been following all day, there was a brief five minute downpour and then we rode back into the lovely warm sunshine once more. Heading through Thornton-le-Dale to bypass Pickering, then Malton and Fridaythorpe for another leg stretch, cuppa and toilet break at Seaways Cafe, giving us the perfect photo opportunity.
From Fridaythorpe, we headed through Garroby, Pocklington, Sutton-on-Derwent, Elvington, Weldrake, Eskrick (the site of this years YPR), Cawood, Monk Fryston and the A1, and at this point we all said our farewells as we all made our exits to our different homeward destinations.
A Lovely ride out (of some 240 miles) was had by all, through some stunning scenery and in good company.
Thanks John for leading such a brilliant ride out - it was worth the saddle sore bottoms !!!