InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

Well, that came as a surprise... I turned on the Dell Inspiron and it started to download the latest updates to the OS.   It was on the dining table and I let it run as this operation seems to kill the machine, making it impossible to do anything else.  Returning an hour or so later, after taking Reggie (the dog!) for a walk, and it was about 25% the way through installing Windows 10.   That was yesterday. I know I had requested this "free" upgrade some months ago, but I thought I had the ultimate control on when I wanted to run it.  I let it run as it seemed the lesser of two evils rather than cancel it. Sadly, my first inclination may have been the right one as over the next twelve hours it installed and welcomed me to Windows 10. I then logged in and after a few minutes the desktop disappeared and this was it.  Just the weather widget! No toolbar and no "start|" button. The only way I could get the desktop back was to restart t...

The next and who knows, last Devall Boys trip? https://devallboys.blogspot.com/

I've seen this guy on the tv and in newspapers. What a great story it makes and they obviously enjoy their lives together. If only Reggie didn't hate bikes! theoasisofmysoul

3. The home signal is definitely as bad as O2 but everywhere else it is about the same. On the train journey home, there is a signal at 3G and occasionally 4G where the O2 SIM had nothing, so the £6.75 a month it is saving me could be roughly called a success.....

The final requirement to take a bit of the wind off my head and shoulders is a screen. I looked at the Triumph flyscreen, and although it looks good, it might not be what I need. Instead, I ordered one of these and it arrived recently.  I need to spend a few hours in the garage and get it fitted. Skidmarx advert The instructions are pretty poor and I have a better idea from the picture of where the fittings go. So far have only had the time to offer it up and have a look at where it will go. Trying it for size

With quite a few blogs covering travels that Claire and I have done over the years it was getting too much to manage and so using the Blogger export and import tool, I have merged them here. Now almost only in one place. One blog won't export/import from its home location as apparently I have exceeded the number that can be imported.....  "Come back later" it says....

To cut down on the blogs I have merged  a few into one another. It makes management far simpler! Blogger allows and provides a tool to aid the export of a blog's contents, and then import those contents into a new or existing blog.  It also retains the publishing dates, photos, labels and the comments as they were and also sorts the posts into the right place in the new blog. All the travel oriented blogs are now in one place:   HERE Dora the Explorer has been imported here, into "On the Road Again" The Ashes Tour has been merged into The Devall Boys On Tour - both these are shared blogs with my brother Neill. Paul

After several years with O2 I have moved to 3 for a year at least.  The signal is about the same as O2 at home, poor, but the monthly charge is 25% less and for that I get "eat as much as you can" data, which is a bonus. We'll see how it goes!

This is review of the Suzuki Marauder VZ800 that I originally wrote for a website I did for the Suzuki Owners Club that didn't get accepted and that I simply did nothing with until Geocities was closing down, so I saved it and two others. So far it has over 12700 views. Thanks everyone.

After a couple of years as Johnny No-Mates,  I again put it on the Meldrews Facebook page to see if anyone wants to go this year. So far not many takers. This year will be 30 years since I went for the very first time....... I have a spare crossing on Eurotunnel to use, one that I originally booked for the Charles Devall Memorial Ride  and then changed when we went as a family in the car. I still had the motorcycle booking to re-use. The plan is as usual. An early but not too early crossing to Calais, either by Eurotunnel train (me and maybe others!) or the ferry (others), and ride along to Ostend where the local club, Motor & Toerisme Vrienden Oostende have hosted the Sinterklaastreffen for over 45 years. Once again the rally will be over a weekend but we have begun going for just the day over the last few years. Sometimes we go and join in the ride around with St Nick, other times we go, have lunch, buy chocolates and watch them ride past.  It depen...

In "Car Poorly" ( http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/car-poorly.html ) I mentioned the Insignia was unable to take us on the France trip as the rear spring was broken. I was advised that long journeys were out of the question but taking it gently to the station was okay. So that's what we did. The French trip was undertaken in Claire's Corsa and very economical it was too. It was booked in Caffyns at Ashford a few weeks later and they did the list of repairs including both rear springs to keep them matched and the mud flap and wheel arch liner. With some trepidation I went to collect it, expecting a bill nearing four figures and found myself relieved that the bill was just, I say just, £475!  Still a lot of money but way less than I was expecting especially after they called me to say the problem I was having with the electronic hand (parking) brake was due to pads almost to the metal.  So fingers crossed.

The Ring of Red ride to attempt to get enough bikers wearing red to complete a ring of the M25 orbital motorway, and the M60 ring of Manchester, will be on November 8th. I'm hoping the weather is good this year so that rider's turn out. I have a massive t-shirt that fits over my riding gear. I advertised it on the Meldrews Facebook page to see how many can make it. Although the M25 is 112 miles around, most riders do one or two sections. So I'll go up to Dartford or across to the service area at Thurrock and join them for a ride around to the next area in Surrey.

Looking at 2016. The chance to go to Norway fell through and so we have booked another trip to the US for earlier in the year, The way the timeshare "trading value" works means that after booking the US week, it leaves (hopefully) enough in the bank for another week. So I am looking at Spain later in the year , 2016. We like the Malaga area. It's where we have been before in October. It's warm, sunny and it's easy to chill. Let's see what RCI can offer. At the moment there a very few resorts showing their availability for October 2016. I will keep checking back over the next few weeks and months.

The Meldrews squad from the last two years have saddled up again for the trip in 2016. Added to the group for 2016 are Ian and Paul, both Laguna Ashford RAT members. This year is the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme and across the battlefield there are commemorations to mark the occasion. So far only the main event at Thiepval has published details and a ballot to attend the ceremony. We have all entered  and wait now until late November before we know if any of us has been successful. As the others come online we need to apply for those as well. I emailed the hotel with a list of members and asked for the same rooms again. Hopefully this year Claire will accompany me.

The problem with planning a trip some seven months before you go is that you start to build in more and more, make changes and discard some things.... My plan is to spend the second week "On the Road" with two night stops in Williams AZ for the Grand Canyon Railway and again at Lake Havasu to chill out before flying home are sealed in concrete. But that leaves a couple of other nights. Photo by Neill DeVall ( http://dmd66.blogspot.co.uk/ ) My brother recently stayed in the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook AZ and although he sait it was quite noisy due to the trains that pass in the night, I decided the experience isn't to be missed. He booked us in for the first night after we leave the timeshare in Scottsdale, so that's one overnight ticked off. We'll take earplugs! A bit of re-jigging and I have created another night to allow us to drive north of I40/R66 to the Navajo lands to Monument Valley. The loop from Holbrook via Kayenta to Flagstaff needs an overnight up there. ...