Monday 29 June 2009 - Rest Day

Uncertainty reigned during the morning. I hoped that John would recover sufficiently to enable him to continue after a couple of days rest, although this seemed very unlikely. Knowing Paul, I felt sure he would want to carry on, but if he did decide to abort the ride, I would have to either go it alone or call it a day myself.
As arranged, Paul called me late in the morning. He had taken John to see a doctor who diagnosed tendonitis and advised a couple of weeks rest. Thankfully his condition was not serious, but he was well and truly out of the ride. However he was keen for Paul and me to continue.
We agreed to take another rest day and start again on Wednesday. This meant that all our accommodation would need to be booked again, but also gave us the opportunity to revise our route. Our original destination for the next leg was Cheltenham, but I had misgivings about this as it would mean a total distance of over ninety miles, much of it through Birmingham. We decided instead to cross over to Shropshire and keep close to the Welsh border, using the Severn Bridge to enter the West Country. We worked out a detailed route and I agreed to book the accommodation.
“Oh, bugger it”, I thought. “We’ve got another day, I’ll book the B&Bs tomorrow. I can’t be arsed to do it now”.
A few hours later, Paul phoned again to ask if I’d made the bookings. “Er - no, not yet”, I replied. “I…”
Paul seemed less than impressed by my incorrigibly laid-back attitude. “We’re not going to do it, are we?”, he interjected.
“Yes we are - I’ll do it now”, I grovelled.
In the interests of fraternal harmony, I set to work and after forty minutes of Googling and phoning, the bookings were all made.