Moniaive 2012

[Miti]

That's me back from the "Squire's Rally", held over (what has to be) the sunniest weekend Jockland has seen this year.

It's been held over the past 8 years in a lovely village called Moniave in the beautiful hills and glens of Dumfries and Galloway.  I travelled down with a friend (Gordon - Honda GL1800).  Gordon had had to work an early shift on Friday, so we left my place just after 16:00 and elected to nip down the M74 to avoid getting caught of in Friday rush-hour traffic...  We came off the motorway at Crawford and onto the A702 - acknowledged as one of the best biking roads in Scotland.



The trip was uneventful (apart from a large moth that made such a mess of my visor I had to stop and wash it off... Yuk!

The rally coincides (not even slightly accidentally) with a real-ales festival, also held in the village, so you can see the attraction...

Friday night was most entertaining and after a decent rest on Saturday morning, we set off down to Southerness to visit a friend of Gordon's... The ride-out was brilliant and we swung arounf in a great clockwise circle, taking in Dalbeattie, Castle Douglas and St. John's Town of Dalry before returning for more refreshment in Moniaive.

The V1000 attracted a LOT of attention and was great to ride.  There was a bit of oil here and there when I got home, but just under 250 miles covered and not a drip on the floor, so I'm happy enough with that...

I hope other folk made use of this "Indian Summer" weekend too...

Miti

[REMF]

The Squires eh?

I hope Alan and Susie were on best behavious :-)

[Miti]

Dunno about best behaviour, but they were certainly on good form... Susie spent a couple of hours with us on Friday night.  We had a nice long chat in the Craigdarroch Hotel, where she and Mr Strongbow were becoming very well acquainted (again..!)

I was speaking to Alan yesterday about dates for next years do, when he suddenly realised that I had a "Hesketh Owners Club" tee-shirt and fleece on... "Is that your Hesketh" he says... "So, signing in as a Hesketh OC member and stating my bike was a Hesketh V1000 not enough for you then?" says I..  He was manning the signing in book when I arrived, but it was about 6pm on the Friday, so he'd already visited the bar a few times by then...

I had wondered why that tatty old Guzzi had won best bike... They though the V1000 was owned by a visitor and wasn't signed in... I'm not bitter an twisted though... Not much anyway..!! ;-)

Miti

[REMF]

None of the club I belong to made it this year, it's a long way from Hampshire and the weather reports weren't good.
However, if you did happen to see a slightly bewildered elderly bloke wondering around cluching a Teddy Bear, that was Bruce. He's one of ours and he should tell you all you need to know.......