Day 7

433 miles completed and today we're in The Yorkshire Dales. Our last full day in England.
70 miles today, which is almost starting to feel normal. It was pretty flat and with a tail wind for most of the trip and the absence of the rain that Sian Lloyd had promised on the telly this morning we were home by 6.30.
A day of two halfs for me. The first, an ugly trawl through the built up areas of Warrington, Wigan and Preston where the exhaust fumes cancel out the smell of chip fat and acne (that is if acne has a smell, which I think it should). And the traffic lights only show green for 3 minutes a day. For cyclists amongst you who find themselves in a similar urban dilemma try traffic light snooker. You have to go though a red light to get on to a colour and to be honest that's when the game falls down a bit as we only had yellow and green to chose from!
Things brightened up a bit when Eddie fell off his bike in to a nettle bush and bashed his leg a bit on the pedals. The nettle bush was fine though so we carried on regardless and met Big El and Graham as scheduled in Preston before Els Great North Swim in the evening ( he finished the 2hrs in 1hr and 14 mins and managed to evade Japanese whaling boats throughout! Well done El. We are very proud of you!) Thanks also to Graham who cycled with us a little way. Great to meet you and thanks for the support.
We arrived at Chris's mums to find that his Daughter Lexie and wife Clare had turned up to surprise him. Balloons and bunting covered the house and it was a lovely northern welcome. Chris's mum, Dot, had laid on a lovely spread for us and Eddie even left us a bit!
The trip above Preston in to Lancaster and eventually in to the Moors was beautiful. In the shadow of Pen-Y-Ghent we arrived at our B&B for a well earned rest before tomorrows mammoth push up the dreaded Shap Fell to Gretna and Scotland where we'll meet Eddie's family.
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