A busy month was had in July part two!

Our busy month continued as the day after returning from Verona as we headed to Hull for Owen’s graduation, a brief stop in Rotherham to collect his girlfriend from her home and we arrived and booked into our B and B, then all out for a meal.

The next day we were off to the Bonus Arena in the centre of Hull for the ceremony and of course the ritual of getting gown and mortar board and photographs, funny how somethings never change as it felt no different to my own graduation thirty seven years ago. 

Owen received his degree, a First Class Honours in Computer Science and then it was on to a reception held in the next door shopping centre... somewhat bizarre!

More photos around the City Centre and another family meal followed, this time it was Owen’s choice and we ended up in Weatherspoons! 

Actually the Three John Scotts in Hull was not at all bad and of course being “Spoons” was dirt cheap!

We left Owen in Hull as he now has a job there.

After the long trek back home (I have decided that Hull is definitely the end of the known world) preparations started for the next “adventure”.

Following my visit to Ragley Hall the previous week, I was off again this time with the 1090 loaded in the van (yes it can be made to fit). I set up camp on the Thursday soon meeting up with my friend Andy and an impromptu “Camp TRF” was established in the motorhomes field (the main camping being reserved for those arriving on their bikes). After unloading the bike I set about swapping the van around to become my camper for the weekend.

After that was done, I set off to inspect the course, now fully marked and signed up. 

All was well so after returning to the van and changing we headed off to the main marquee for the exhibitors dinner… free food and bar, what was there not to like!

Concious that I would be on the bike all day tomorrow I was suitably restrained on the free beer and managed not to have too late a night.

The next day saw a dampener to proceedings as a fellow TRF member had a bike stolen overnight and Patsy Quick from Desert Rose Racing lost five bikes! I was glad I had locked the 1090 securely: A large chain to one of the van wheels and through the frame, a disc lock and large steel tent pegs and ratchet straps holding the bike down, these were in case it got windy overnight and pushed the bike over and into the side of the van but had the added advantage of making it that much harder to remove. But of course all the stolen bikes had been locked too. It seemed the thefts were targeted, so I can only guess 1090 Rs were not on the shopping list 

The next three days were great fun, helping out on the adventure trail, with thankfully very few accidents and breakdowns, we had to do a few bits of rearranging as one very muddy section got progressively worse and one particular off camber descent through a gate saw a few casualties! We ended up having to transport straw bales on our bikes to make that a bit safer!

Josh Costa Sa showing how it's done on Dad Mario's bike

All in all it went well and was deemed a great success by all involved, it was great to see so many smiling faces all weekend.

From my point of view it could have been a nightmare for the myasthenia but I was able to take plentiful rests, each lap stopping to check on various sections or to chat to marshals, medics and organisers as well as catching up with loads of friends I kept bumping into. That way I was I was able to keep the fatigue in check and keep going all weekend.

So a great weekend and we are hoping to build on the success for next year.