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General Category => General Discussion => What did you do to your FJ today? => Topic started by: Millietant on September 21, 2020, 06:30:00 PM

Title: Stonehenge Run
Post by: Millietant on September 21, 2020, 06:30:00 PM
 Sorry Guys - lost the whole story so will have to do it all again !!
Title: Re: Stonehenge Run
Post by: krusty on September 21, 2020, 06:44:18 PM
Quote from: Millietant on September 21, 2020, 06:30:00 PM
Sorry Guys - lost the whole story so will have to do it all again !!
Stoned again, eh? :shok:
Title: Re: Stonehenge Run
Post by: Millietant on September 21, 2020, 06:48:13 PM
Here goes for a second time, hoping I don't lose 90% of the text and photo's

Had a run down to Stonehenge today with a couple of friends, hoping to get a photo of my old relic, in front of a really old relic.....but the powers that be decreed it was not going to happen - roadworks around Stonehenge meant that there were no road-side photo points accessible and to get into the car park and use the toilets at the visitor centre was going to cost £19 each for my companions (I get in for free as I'm an annual contributor/member to/of English Heritage, but i couldn't just go and leave them!).

Here's the route we chose, just shy of 250 miles of mostly twisty curvy A roads - and seriously, we did not realise how it would look in "outline" form  :sarcastic:

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_05_44_0.jpeg)

From home we headed down The Fosse Way through The Cotswolds, with a cuppa stop at Kemble Airfield (the UK's biggest commercial aircraft graveyard).

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_05_45_2.jpeg)

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_05_45_1.jpeg)

Spotted this lovely Aston Martin DB4 when we pulled in for a tyre pressure check on the Tiger 800.

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_05_46_3.jpeg)

As we couldn't stop for a photo at Stonehenge, I managed to "sneak" a walking pace selfie and a slightly better pic of the actual Henge.

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_05_46_4.jpeg)

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_05_46_5.jpeg)

Thought I'd try and get a photo of another nearby "relic", the Wilton Windmill, with the FJ......but its barely visible.

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_20_37_0.jpeg)

The main A338 through The North Wessex Downs "area of outstanding natural beauty" isnt in the best condition !!

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_20_38_1.jpeg)

More to follow in the next post...........................
Title: Re: Stonehenge Run
Post by: Millietant on September 21, 2020, 07:16:26 PM
Traffic was our biggest problem with the roads in the south today....lots of queues and double solid centre lines  :dash2: (future rides this year will likely be north and west, to avoid "people" !!!!

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_20_40_3.jpeg)

Sorry for the quality on this one....my phone obviously couldn't focus while moving (slowly).

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_6_01_26.jpeg)

Gridlock in a little town (Burford) in the middle of nowhere, on a "quiet" Monday afternoon when the kids are at school and people are at work !!!

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_20_41_4.jpeg)

Final stop of the day on the return journey was in picturesque Chipping Norton, for tea and ice cream - another small,  "quiet" picturesque country town.....not !!

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_20_41_5.jpeg)

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_20_42_6.jpeg)

All in all, it was great day, brilliant weather, great company, varied machines - my FJ, a Triumph Tiger 800, a Suzuki V Strom (ridden by a 76 yr old), and my pal Jim on his Can Am Spyder trike ----funnily enough, today, I witnessed a rabbit being killed by a spider, for the first time....sorry, that should be Spyder, not spider  :sarcastic:

A load more place with great British names have been visited....Littleton Panell, Collingbourne Ducis, Stanford in the Vale, Lechlade-on-Thames and Broughton Poggs to name just a few.

AND, just for Gavin....further proof that we do indeed build houses right beside main roads in the UK - this is the main A361 between Banbury and Daventry at a lovely little place called Chipping Warden  :yes:

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_20_43_7.jpeg)




Title: Re: Stonehenge Run
Post by: PaulG on September 21, 2020, 07:42:26 PM
Quote from: Millietant on September 21, 2020, 06:48:13 PM

The main A338 through The North Wessex Downs "area of outstanding natural beauty" isnt in the best condition !!

(http://fjowners.com/gallery/11/6213_21_09_20_5_20_38_1.jpeg)

In Ontario a backroad like that would be considered in very good condition.  Count yourself lucky.  On the other hand once we're out in the country, gridlock is a distant memory.  Oraygano - Orahgano or something like that.  :scratch_one-s_head:
Title: Re: Stonehenge Run
Post by: Millietant on September 21, 2020, 07:59:31 PM
If that was a back road here, it would be considered to be in decent condition too  :good2: - but its a main A class road !! (our back roads are either "B" roads, "C" roads, or "Unclassified Roads")

Must admit though, when I visit my family in Brockville, Cornwall and Montreal, the general condition of the roads there isn't that great (but then again, your summers are hotter and your winters are colder - and the construction methods and design lives of roads are very different on that side of the pond).
Title: Re: Stonehenge Run
Post by: Waiex191 on September 22, 2020, 01:04:07 PM
Very nice - makes me miss New England.  We didn't have many houses that close to the road though.