In June 2009 my dad passed away. The following year I decided I would spend one day in June doing something that was enjoyable, but also required a bit of physical effort. So on fathers day last year, I rode my bike 100 miles to visit his grave.
My son-in-law and my nephew accompanied me. We had a great day, and it was hugely therapeutic to spend the day doing something in my dad's memory.
This year, I decided to do the Yorkshire peaks. Shortly after that, Lee announced that he was going to do it. I decided not to say anything about my plans because Lee was doing it for charity and I thought everyone's attention should be on his effort.
On Saturday, my nephew Tracy and I drove the 150+ miles to Horton-in-Ribblesdale in the the Yorkshire Dales. On the way we stopped at a Morrisons supermarket on the way to buy provisions. I got a cooked meat feast pizza, two steak slices, two sealed packs of mixed fruit, two croissants, a tub of spicy chicken pasta, a roof-tile sized bar of chocolate, a bottle of water, a bottle of diet Coke, and a bottle of chocolate milk shake. Then we booked into a room in a village pub and tried to get some sleep.
Tracy went out like a light, but my mind, filled as it was with a whirling mix of memories of my dad and and anticipation of tomorrow, refused to switch off.
At 3:59am, I turned the alarm off before it rang and woke Tracy. We quickly did our ablutions, gathered up our bags and slipped away.
By 5:am we were sitting in my van on the car park at the starting point for the walk, listening to the rain hammering on the roof while eating croissants and meat feast pizza.
At 6am (Our deadline for starting out) we got changed into our walking clothes. Miraculously, the rain stopped while we did so. After that, it didn't stop again for 12 hours.
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