It's time for another road trip again, over the next 12 days, Mark (Teapot), Steve (Daisy) and Tim (Skiddy) will ride to Plymouth, get a ferry to Spain and then make our way to Portugal and back again.
The first part of the journey is always the boring bit and also the only time we're allowed to use the motorway. We managed to avoid the rain on the journey south although it was extremely windy which nearly flipped a caravan in front of us.
We had to stop several hundred times for loo breaks before our first proper stop for a coffee at some motorway services. We debated having some food but none of us were hungry, so Tim just had a snack; a massive burger with some chips :)
Luggage was a big problem last year, Tim's kept falling off and Steve's bungees broke 2 miles into the journey, this time though it was Mark's that gave a little bit of grief, his Lego modular Kriega luggage coming a little bit loose just as we got to the ferry. Saying that, Steve's BMW luggage has started to rub the paintwork already so we may have to find a paint shop somewhere in Spain...
Another lesson learned from last year was the purchase of a sat nav, although this did cause some confusion as the signposts pointed one way and the sat nav another. Steve jumped a couple of red lights while staring at the screen but we eventually made it to the ferry alive.
Whilst in the queue for the ferry there were a bunch of bearded BMW riders and Mark and Tim had to restrain Steve from rocking up to them to chat about waterproof braces or something. Tim did some successful queue jumping to get us onto the ferry quicker before deafening the entire boat with his baffleless exhaust. It's wouldn't be the last time that Tim's rumbling caused distress...
We dashed to the cabin, standard rules applied, whoever got their bags on the bed first got to claim it, so after a scuffle in the corridor, Mark got the bed, Tim got the sofa and Steve was left with the shower. It did actually take us a few mins to find Steve's bed as it was hidden in the ceiling. Once pulled down it proved that Steve's bed would be an interesting sleep, with no guard rail, a slight angle to the floor and the ship rocking like it was, we'd have to bungee him in otherwise he'd be waking up on the floor!
It was time to explore the boat and we soon found the shop, this is where we discovered that Steve hadn't actually packed anything and needed to buy trunks, flip flops, underpants etc. in fact that's not true, he did pack some broken flip flops on the off chance that we rode past a flip flop repair shop. There were some odd things in the shop such as Irish shot glasses and a potato sack, this did make us question if we were on the right boat, it turns out that we're on a French ferry taking us from England to Spain which sells Irish produce.
By now it was about time for a beer, so we had a few and got a prime seat front of house for the entertainment. The duet came out and let rip with their best singing voices so we relocated to some new prime seats which was the opposite side of the ship! Lets just say that we won't be watching these two on the X Factor this year, although the woman's dresses would make a cracking test card.
The entertainment didn't improve, there was a Sarah Jessica Parker clone who also looked like a horse and a guy who thought he was Derren Brown by asking you your name and then guessing it.
Mark felt a little sea sick, so we went back to the room for a lie down which turned into a two hour kip before he went back to the bar for last orders.
At about 2am we went back to the room where Tim proceeded with his 21 fart salute and stank out the room gassing mark and Steve to sleep. Next stop Spain...providing we make it through the night.
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