Day 26 - On the road

 

Today's stretch from Sandymoor to Standish was always going to be a strange one. For one thing, I was on the road all day when most of my walk so far has been out in the countryside. I was also visiting the Diabetes UK offices near Halliwell Jones Stadium but, most importantly, my two day stay at home was over, this time for around 4 weeks. This meant I had needed to reassess my kit requirements for when we are reunited with the motorhome on Sunday.

With a day on tarmac, I decided I would wear my running shoes and give my boots a day off. That plan worked well and my feet are still feeling good. Suzanne joined me for the four miles to Warrington and I also picked up friends Malcolm, Scaz and Fral along the way. Another chap also turned up but can't be mentioned because he should have been keeping the wheels of industry turning but had sneaked out.

We did have our collecting tins at the ready but Warrington at 9.30 in a morning is a pretty quiet place, as I suspect most towns are these days. It was good to meet the team at Diabetes UK - a cup of coffee always helps - and then the gang accompanied me a couple of miles further. Scaz and Fral retired to the pub and there are rumours they were still there when I finished. Wheels of industry man probably popped in around lunchtime.

I've driven down the A49 many times but never walked it and was suprised to come across a plaque marking the site of an historical battlefield: the Battle of Red Bank was an apparently crucial development in the English Civil War - who knew?

Passing The Bay Horse in Ashton in Makerfield, I recalled that was the pub that the famous mini-car jumper and occasional footballer, Duncan McKenzie, was once landlord of. Duncan used to turn out for his pub's Sunday League side (after his professional retirement) and had the honour of playing against me in one match. I think we kept him down to a couple of goals, helped by him barely being bothered to run for most of the game. He went off early - not sure how he practiced his mini-jumping but the car park was in a terrible state after the game.

I even had time to nip into a barber's for a quick trim (barber was the image of Farokh Engineer but, fortunately, gloveless) and walked the last few miles with Phil and two other friends, Dave and Jon, both no longer troubled by industry wheels. Dave rarely was.

I'd soon reached 22 miles but had quite enjoyed it being a different kind of day and being joined by various friends along the route made the time pass quickly. I'm being well looked after in Standish tonight (they're even letting me watch the rugby) before I spend the next three days on the Leeds Liverpool Canal heading toward the Pennine Way at Gargrave.