All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go

Actually, that's not really true but when I got to the RV point for riders from Gloucester to go to London to attend the protest, against veterans being prosecuted for doing their job in Northern Ireland, only one other person was there out of the 7 or 8 that said they were going.
One sent a message, to my mate who did turn up,  to say his knees were playing him up. That was from the leader of the group. When my mate, Nigel, said he didn't fancy riding down there on our own I agreed. 
Dissapointed, and also feeling very ashamed, we called it a day and
 returned home. So instead of doing about 250 miles today, I did 10.
Now I'm back home I'm thinking I should have carried on but the bloke with the knees problem actually fought in Northern Ireland, alongside those being prosecuted, so maybe I shouldn't feel so bad. It was also he that changed the original plan to meet everyone else at Heston Services (M4) and we go as a Gloucester group, I should have just carried on with the original plan.
Gear all hung up, lunch and flask out of the pannier, and I'll finish unpacking other stuff when the weather improves. I'll also have to clean the bike of course. It's not very surprising at how dirty it is after only 10 miles but the rain was rather heavy and lots of standing water on the roads.