On the Road Again!

Details have been published and confirmed that the Ring will take place at the four main service areas on the M25 around London. These are South Mimms, Thurrock, Clacket Lane and Cobham. Riders are asked to leave the services at 1330 and keep to around 50mph and keep an even gap between the bike in front hand behind. Wear Something red as well. The event is free but donations are collected at the start end end points if you choose to end at one of the services.  Usually by the time I have arrived at Thurrock and got around clockwise to Clacket lane I have had enough. From there I have about 65 miles to home.  The entire day is about 145 miles. I tend to fill the tank at Cobham Services in Kent and offer to meet any other Meldrews there but we'll see if anyone turns up this year to join me. By extending the turn around to Cobham Services in Surrey it goes up to about 175 miles for the day. More information on  https://www.therideofrespect.co.uk/ring-of-red-m25

Only four days since I last posted about the Ring of Red and on checking the website -  https://www.therideofrespect.co.uk/ring-of-red-m25 - it looks like we are all systems go, or nearly all systems go. The date looks to be the Sunday 14th November.   In the UK we like our remembrance to be at a weekend so that it can be a vicar's day out and not affect the company's shareholders and profits by having another day off work! Armistice Day is the 11th November. Not any other day!

The war memorial in Hythe.  We had a walk down there after all the services had finished. As well as the large wreaths from local organisations as diverse as the Police to the 1st Bn Gurkha Rifles were those of the Scouts and Guides, plus the personal poppy crosses. The flowers in the bottom right of the picture were laid by the visitors from one of Hythe's twin town, Berck sur Mer..

It's only a few days to go to to the first 11-11-11 since the end of the First World War, and it made me think how lucky my generation have been. We have fought many mini-wars, police actions and the current actions in Afghanistan, where our soldiers are still giving their lives, but no whole scale war.  In facr, we have not had a full scale conflict involving conscripted forces since 1945.  And that has to be seen as a measure of how lucky we have been. Despite the trend in the late Victorian period for large families, and despite the infant mortality rate being high amongst the inner city working class, my family were generally lucky with only two young men killed on the battlefields of the Western Front. My father' side of the family were even luckier in WW2 when we had uncles galore in the services, from the RAF to the Army to the Navy, not one was even injured. On my mother's side it was much the same picture, although a small family, there wer...