Happy Birthday Dad, and Hai Ms.Arell!

The morning began with loading a pannierful of things onto Biscuit before waving the household goodbye and riding over to my parents house to wish Dad a Happy 75th Birthday :-)

He has recently gotten a turntable to plug into their hifi, and thus three of his presents were 12" discs of black vinyl with music on them. Mum got him this one - Eric Burdon & the Animals - who he has never forgotten seeing live at Manchester's Belle Vue in the '60s, of. How cool Eric looked & how raw his voice was.

After drinking several cuppas and watching Peggy-Sue entertain herself by dropping her toy into my motorbike boots & fishing it out again(!) I climbed back aboard the loaded little bike than can, and pop pop bang popped away in a south easterly direction to Derby. In Chapel-En-Frith I stopped to ask a Honda Cub rider if they were okay at the side of the road (they were "....but thank you!") and it seemed a Lady Bird had climbed aboard on my dash binnacle. It enjoyed the ride for most of the journey before flying away at a traffic lights near the destination.

At Derby rail station I parked up 15 minutes later than planned, cursing myself for being late, but never mind because as in sync as ever, Ms Arell had rolled in only 3 minutes prior, her train being delayed. These things just happen, the universe appears to work like that.

After attaching her pannier to Biscuits other rack, off we bimbled to nearby Elvaston Castle that sat in a beautiful gardens & park. Within we sought out two Giant Redwood trees before finding a well situated bench from which to sit and eat peanut butter & banana sandwiches on Ms.Arell's home baked bread (very Nom) whilst watching the happiest Staffordshire Bull Terrier sleep, wake up, roll over having a mad few moments, stand up again and just wander around it's owner wagging its tail like it was going out of fashion :-)

On our way back to the bike we spotted another redwood a way off the path, even having to go all Dora the Explorer, finding a little bridge to cross a stream to reach it. A first for us both, this was the 3rd and final variety yet to spot - a Coast Redwood - and very grand it was too, the flare of the truck less pronounced than a Giant and the bark firmer too.

By now the early evening, we checked in at a hotel, had cuppas & caught up on natters, shared a delicious mushroom pizza downstairs, went for a nice stroll around the locality, and then went for a nice deep snooze. Tomorrow would be a fine day we hoped to see from Choo-Choo's.