discovery tour, day 6

[kirkcudbright]

May 6 - Worksop to Birmingham

We liked Sherwood Forest so much, we saw it twice.

We had a long breakfast at the Little Chef (think Denny's) next to the hotel, then drove into Worksop town center to pick up the bike trail. We've fallen into the habit of sagging around anything remotely congested. This is in keeping with our mandate to stay on the cycle route at all times, regardless of length and terrain. Lord only knows what these guys are going to do in France, where there's not a mapped and signed cycle route. I guess they're going to have to wing it then.

Today's cycle route was mostly off-road, about half on pavement, half on dirt (e.g. logging roads). We missed a turn in the Sherwood Forest, and ended up doing a 10k loop. And yes, the logging roads were in the Sherwood Forest; it's even more "managed" (commercialized) than US National Forests.

We got picked up in Ravenshead, short of Nottingham, to try to make a 2pm visitation in Birmingham. Got there closer to 3, but it was a quiet time there (the clinic closes at 4), so the staff had plenty of time to talk to the riders about their equipment and experiences.

Coming out of there, we ran into a major accident in the city center of Birmingham, and it took us an hour and a half to get across town to our hotel. Ironically, it was caused by an unmarked police car running a red light on its way to another accident. Also ironically, it was right in front of the city hospital.

	Trying to get a picture from a moving bike. I like the effect.
A percheron.	The signpost we missed the first time through Sherwood Forest.
A much better sign for the cycle route. Still, Dan and Mitch managed to miss the trail entrance.	Brad, Dan, and Mitch in Birmingham.