Rain, Rain, Go Away…

and stay away! 

Despite the weather forecast saying less than 5% chance of rain it started just as I was getting sorted out for the day. At first I thought it was only a brief shower but it then got heavier so I decided to abandon the cycling plans. 

I’d intended to go into Barnstable tomorrow to visit the museum there and do a bit of shopping so I just changed things round and went today. It was still quite heavy when I arrived but did eventually clear later on. My first port of call was the tearoom for coffee and a toasted tea cake, very good they were too. The museum is fairly typical of the genre, covering the town and North Devon in general, for once there wasn’t too much I recognised from my lifetime! 

The bonus however was that it has a model railway, an old exhibition layout inherited from its owner. The current keeper was in attendance so we had a good chat. The layout is partly of the town station with non-prototypical additions, including the goods shed and turntable from Ilfracombe; it’s a shame they don’t have the length to fully assemble it though. The modelling is generally excellent and he’d done a good job of the cameo scenes that can make or break a layout* such as having an overturned milk churn with a dog after the spilt milk. 

From there I had a wander round the town and had some lunch. It was a good job I’d put plenty of parking time on the ‘van, a simple Brie and Bacon baguette took a very long time to arrive then had to go back as they’d messed up the order slightly; it was very nice when it finally arrived though. 

I always take the front off the radio when I’m parked and stow it on the shelf above the windscreen, I doubt it’s much of a deterrent to people breaking in but it may help. This time I couldn’t find the blooming thing again! It was there, of course, it had just buried itself somehow in the space where the courtesy lamps are. Having found that I forgot the other important task when pulling off, disable the tracker alert for the bike! I know it works, I’ve tested it three times already this trip. 😀

I set the SatNav into eco-route mode for the fun of it rather than go back on the main roads, fine until I came up behind a tractor with a wide harrow on, the local Devon lanes weren’t built for such traffic so good job I wasn’t in a rush - at one point a van coming the other way had to back up 100 yards or so to find a wide enough spot to pass. I’d noted a farm shop near the site so decided to pay it a visit, it was rather disappointing though on the fresh salad side, just a few items obviously from the wholesaler, so I’ll have to try and get something tomorrow. Close to the farm shop was a car park by an old railway line so I stopped off, very briefly as I realised I’d cycled past there yesterday, I’d forgotten I was that close to the caravan site. 

As an aside I’ve been reading a book by an ex railwayman who started as a signaller then went though various control roles. He spent some time in Northampton and mentioned something I remember well. Carlsberg had a huge advertising hoarding there but used it for local fun, not naming the product. Mentioned in the book is when they had an image of a railway totem sign saying Northampton, then below in small letters, Probably! After that they had Wilkommen Til Northampton (sp?)  I often wondered what strangers to the town thought of these. 

*No, not every church needs a wedding or funeral cameo!