Well talk about a “jammy sandwich”, no nothing to do with the tapas, but the weather. It turned out to be a cool but sunny day sandwiched between two slices of soggy wet and windy days. Ten Knights took advantage and turned out for the start of this Friday’s ride to the Fiddle Drill at Goodmanham for Xmas Tapas.
After setting off we headed to South Dalton with Heather 😬 leading the way. “Straight on here Heather! ….. Left turn here Heather!” shouted Russ encouragingly from behind. Once we’d regrouped after passing through the gates into Dalton park, Neil zoomed off ahead. “Where’s he going?” queried someone. “Photo Op time” came the reply but as Neil disappeared around a bend in the road we began to wonder how we’d know when he was ready. Not to worry though, just as we were about to mount up there was a mighty roar from the distance.
On leaving the park, we turned left towards Kiplingcotes where by luck or by design we were joined by Colin, just in time for the climb up Arras hill and over to Sancton. Regrouping at the bottom of the hill, we waited for an opportunity to dodge the traffic to get to Houghton lane which then took us to Cliffe Road. “Left here to North Cliffe then right to Harswell and Everingham” advised Neil, however by the time we reached Market Weighton road it was felt that there wasn’t enough time to complete the intended route and still arrive on time at FD. Michael and Colin left the group at this point going to Allerthorpe instead while the rest headed for Pocklington along the busy A614 with Stephen peeling off home via Market Weighton. By the time we arrived at the Fiddle Drill we had five minutes to spare and the group was now down to six. Even a picture of the tapas was not enough to encourage others to join us except for Sean and wife Gillian who’d made their own way to the cafe.
Although Jim didn’t partake in the tapas he decided to join us for his version of “Dine & Dash” except he did a forgetful “Tea & Flee” instead. While five of us tucked into our wonderful tapas plate, Neil had decided to ‘share’ one with Heather, however as we struggled to finish ours, we found his beady eyes swivelling in our direction. “Are you not going to eat that?” he enquired before swooping in vulture like, mopping up some of the left overs.
After a very enjoyable Xmas Tapas it was nearly 1.5hrs before we were ready to set off home again. “Which way are we going back?” asked somebody and with general approval the reply was “Shortest and quickest” which in this case was along the Kiplingcotes valley to Etton. Many thanks to the staff at the Fiddle Drill for making such a festive table.