                                  Glasson across the mud flats.
I manage to make my routine cycle ride to Glasson a little different this time.
*
I find myself driving into Lancaster on a hot afternoon. Thankfully it’s a Sunday. I normally avoid Lancaster City’s roads wherever possible, they are a nightmare of one way streets and I’m always in the wrong lane at the next junction. I’ve come from Halton on the north side of the Lune and I need to get to Glasson Dock on the south side of the Lune. Any mistake in Lancaster will send me all the way around again, possibly to be repeated ad nauseam. My worst nightmare. There are too many choices and everyone else knows where they are going. Today I can’t read the signs clearly, there is a reason for this that will become obvious shortly.
I don’t have time to admire the magnificent city centre Victorian architecture as I queue at traffic lights. A bit of lane drifting and I think I’m on the right way near the hospital, but no I’m heading for Aldcliffe which I had cycled through earlier today. At least I’m south of the Lune. I stop to look at my map, I don’t have satnav, and yes a left turn will take me to the A588, the main road to Glasson.
*
The day had started with a drive up the motorway to park up as usual at Halton ‘station’. It was very busy and I just about squeezed in on a verge. I unloaded my bike and realised I had forgotten my helmet. Even though I was going to be off road all day I felt very vulnerable with just a peaked cap. My worst cycling accident happened on Blackpool Prom when a collision with another cyclist sent me head first into the tram lines. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet that day. Hence my apprehension now. 
Not having been on my bike since February, surely not that long – it has been very wet, I was looking for a straightforward ride. Well it was, I arrived in Glasson on a high from all the fragrant May blossom lining the route. I had cast a clout now that May was out and I was glad of it as the temperature soared. The tide was well out exposing acres of mudflats. I smiled cycling down that slight dip in the old rail track at how on a couple of occasions I’ve nearly come to grief in the floods that can cover the way, all was bone dry today. The motorcyclists were out in full force.
My usual haunt, the village shop across the harbour had undergone a change, a wider door straight into the bakery section. I usually order one of their cheese and onion slices. Is this the only reason I cycle to Glasson? But what had happened to their really quite good coffee machine? It had gone but you could get one from the Smoke House shop next door. Have they missed a trick there?  I was going to call in there anyhow for some smoked mackerel for Sir Hugh whom I hoped to visit later in the day. I got my coffee and sat outside the shop enjoying my slice whilst chatting to a fellow cyclist who had come down from Hest Bank. It was a great day to be out. Before leaving I returned to buy the mackerel and enjoy a bit of banter with the lady shop assistant who was struggling to unpack crisp packets for an instore display. For a full selection of their products – The Port of Lancaster Smokehouse
Refuelled I set off back with renewed energy. Whizzing along the old railway line past Ashton Hall golf course and taking the side route to Aldcliffe to join the canal, which stays surprisingly rural, for a last burst through Lancaster to the Lune Aqueduct. It was only then I became aware that I wasn’t wearing my glasses, I hardly need them hence the delay in realisation. A furtive search in my handlebar bag failed to find them. You know more or less straight away where you have probably left them. In the shop where you were balancing mackerels, glasses, phone and credit card. 
So once back at the car I set off to navigate to Glasson.
My glasses had been handed in at the shop, the lady assistant was still battling with the crisps. So all was fine. Well almost, in my fluster about the glasses I’d forgotten I was nearly out of fuel – where is the nearest garage?
Sir Hugh never received his mackerel and in any case he was taking advantage of the good weather and wandering in the Eden Valley once more. I hope he has enjoyed a more relaxing day than mine. I await his report at conradwalks.
