With the prospect of no Zwift (nor EXR) for a week as we will be away, I jumped on the bike this morning for a last minute fix before setting off.
Sunday is usually a couple of rides with the Wobble Cycling Club (WCC) but with all the things that needed doing I jumped on a ride with a different club, in this instance, GTN for a thirty minute ride after which I jumped onto the usual Sunday Breakfast ride with the WCC for another twenty minutes. A bit of a mix but I did manage to clock up a total of twenty seven kilometres.
After a quick freshen up we were out of the house heading for a geocache meet hosted by a couple of local cachers who had recently married and this was a belated reception.
Following the meet up it was back home for a quick snack before I took the dogs to the kennels where they’d be spending the week whilst we were away under canvas.
Returning home, the car was loaded up with all the camping gear (which didn’t take too long) and we were off.
Unknown to me, I had selected “Avoid Motorways” on Google Maps so we ended up going by a scenic route mainly up the A38.
Less than two hours after leaving Brum, we were pulling into the car park of the Best Western Aston Hall Hotel on the outskirts of Sheffield.
We checked in and off loaded our over-night baggage into room 101 (nineteen eighty eight ?)
Leaving Sue to check out the beds for comfort, I nipped out to grab a cache in the adjacent church.
The cache was classed as a Church Micro which usually involves collecting some information from a notice board, bench or headstone to give the co-ordinates of the final hide.
The required information was collected and co-ordinates calculated followed by far too many minutes scrabbling around to locate the actual container.
I was amused to discover that the container for this church micro was an actual micro church.
Looking at the geocaching app, I spotted another candidate less than a mile away so set off to locate another cache.
The cache was located away from the village along a field track. From the site, I continued along the footpath returning to Aston near the Yellow Lion pub.
The Good Beer Guide listed this establishment, not as a proper CAMRA boozer but did state that they served number of real ales.
I entered the bar as the barman greeted me with, “You strode across that car park like a man on a mission”. Pointing at the three beer pumps, I replied, “They are my mission”.
“Sorry, we’ve got no traditional ales on”, he continued, “The closest we’ve got to real ale is …” I waited with baited breath, “… John Smith’s”
Hardly, I thought, thanking him and walking out.
Returning to the hotel and finding Sue awake, we decided to nip down to the bar for a bite to eat and a bevvy.
Not wanting a full meal, we had a couple of bar snacks washed down with a Somersby cider for Sue and a pint of keg Hobgoblin in a very nice glass.
On our last hotel stop I’d had the same beer in the same glass and had commented on the nice feel of the glass.
Another beer (or two) and it was back to the room for a spot of TV before turning in for the night.
