To Tiverton and St.Austell

Up Wednesday morning and thinking I should stay one more night.
Had finished a couple of tasks on my toDo list. Zero distractions.
Pub was OK.
Price was reasonable.
Asked abount an extra night during breakfast. They are full.
Worse still, when I looked outside, it was raining. Hard. 

Packed.
Settled the bill. 
No TLC for the bike. I had not gone far enough!

Very quickly, I met a nice young couple from London.
That sort of thing happens when you drop the bike. Steep slope on a nasty corner. Bike just got away from me. And once it starts falling, it’s tough to keep up. They didn’t see me on the ground. Had to get out of the car. Told you the ground was steep! They got out of their car because they heard me say “Oh dear. I’ve dropped the bike”. Or words to that effect 🙂
Nice chat.
I offered beers. But they will be at Glastonbury when I am in Town 🙁

Rode on to Tiverton.
The heart of lace making in the 19th century. 
I know. What’s a rough tough biker like me doing in a frilly lace town.
Well. As it turns out, the Heathcoat company makes 90% of all timing belts, and parachutes for NASA, amongst their specialised products! 500 employees in a leading edge company. All within small-town Devon. All started by John Heathcoat over 200yrs ago.
Plant tours only now and again 🙁
But the security guard was excellent. Aside from not letting me into the plant. hahahaha

The Tiverton museum is full of interesting stuff. And helpful staff.
There is a charge, unlike the one in Honiton.

Visited the church.
Helped a white-van driver find his destination.
Had a bacon buttie for lunch.

Rode onto St. Austell. Motorways or dual carriagewas for nearly all the way. Bike seemed to like the chance to run fast and steady.
Suspect that I ran past a speed trap. Not sure if I was speeding. May find out!

Found my B&B.
Tricky parking spot. Steep slopes and no obvious motorcycle spot. Turned on my psychic navigation and parked perfectly 😉

Unpacked.
Did some planning.
Booked accommodation for the weekend.

Jobs done, I ‎walked over to St.Austell brewery. 
Silly me. It was after 5pm. They were closing! The brewery tour closing I can sort of understand. But the on-site bar!?!?!?
Sad to say, whilst I sat outside and had a whinge to Barry, two other chaps showed up, to be similarly disappointed. Only in England!

Started walking to Charlestown but decided that it was too far for tonight. Walked over to the White Hart, as recommended by Tracy from the B&B. 

Bit of a mistake due to the young bar-staff.
That or I was wearing my cloak-of-invisibility. 
Mind, Druid-Ian could see me well enough. I suggest he is a druid as he is heading to the Shetlands for mid-summer’s day. Then touring for a couple of months. In real life he was something to do with the back-rooms of international banking. Hmmmm. Forgot to ask if he has a Swiss numbered bank account 🙂

Moved onto to the Seven Stars. 
Similar young staff.
Hope I wasn’t as clueless at that age! This one had not heard of The Pirates of Penzance, nor Gilbert&Sullivan. What do they teach in school these days!

Home and to bed, for an early night.