Kent Pet Food Run - June 23rd

I loaded up the bike last night with the dog food we had bought earlier in the day at Tesco.  The large back of Wagg (17kgs) went on the back seat and the smaller bags in the System panniers, plus two boxes of cat food that our Hilly has decided she will no longer tolerate in her food bowl that went in the top box.

 

 

 

I was on the road by 1030 and arrived in very good time at the meeting place at Maidstone Service on the M20/A20 junction. One other bike and so I parked nearby to create a space big enough for a lot....

 

Whilst having a coffee (skinny latte) in Costa I saw another bike arrive. It was club mate Neil Dalton on his XJR1300. He also had a big bag of Wagg on the back seat.  Gradually bikes started riding including regulars from the Kent Riders Club, Bruno from the R1150GS FB Group and Jim Sanderson, a fireman in Kent who started and runs the Fire Bike Service - http://www.kent.fire-uk.org/your_safety/road_safety/fire_bike.aspx

 

Jim brought his son Charlie with him on the back of his own VFR800. The Fire Bike is a Fireblade I think.

 

We set off about 1145 for the ride of about 30 miles through the lovely Kent countryside to the Blue Cross Animal Centre in Northiam that is actually across the county line in East Sussex.

 

Our county has some lovely villages and many houses that wouldn't look out of place in a historical movie!  It's a shame that people don't take more notice of our heritage.

 

We were met by a new parking area, a little soft but flat.  Luckily, most of us carry "pucks" to put under our stands to save them digging in.  The GS leans over quite a way anyway!

 

The co-ordinator, Jonathon, and the volunteers had prepared a nice table of snacks and home made cakes. 

The rehoming centre isn't that big and we were unlucky that there weren't many inmates as most had been rehomed.  Unlucky for us, but lucky for the dogs and cats that had a new home.

 

As a result, some people that had taken dogs from the centre had brought them for us to meet.

 

An old friend, Tony Young and his wife, Heather, and daughters Helen and Lucy arrived on their car.

Lucy is my god daughter. We haven't seen much of each other for a few years.  They also brought food and Tony's wallet seemed to be "Bank of Dad".

 

We had a photo shoot but getting everyone together was problematic and in the end the numbers look a bit sparse!

 

 

So many riders had left before the cameras came out.

 We were lucky with the weather, it came over black a couple of times but I managed to get home without any rain.

 

Thanks to everyone that came and made the day a success.

 

Next year?