middlebrook – Page 9 – Graham and Ebay's World

13th April 2021

Journey Length 12.77ml

I woke early Tuesday morning and noticed I had gotten a message from Graham asking if I had any plans for today. I replied I would be free most of the day. He then told me he would be starting his new job with the AA on Wednesday and did I fancy an adventure today, well he didn’t have to ask me twice. Immediately I started to look for an area to explore, I soon found somewhere we hadn’t been to for a while and made arrangements to meet up at mine. Unfortunately, Graham had a personal issue that overran, this combined with my school pick up of my grandson didn’t really give us the time slot required for a full expedition but extreme bikers have to think quickly and adapt.

Whilst I waited for Graham I took a quick look at the Lever Arms pub that we used to frequent during the winter months, which sadly is now in a state of disrepair after closing in 2020.

Shortly Graham arrived and we set off over the viaduct towards Bolton. At the latter end of last year, some improvements were made to the junction of Trinity St and Newport St, incorporating a traffic light system for cyclists which we had to explore. The crossing has been nicknamed the “Cyclops Junction”. This was the first time Graham had seen it. We waited patiently at the cycle traffic lights, but Graham got so excited he actually went before the lights turned green. Seconds later I followed him after the lights went green. I caught up with him and chastised him for not waiting.

We rode around the rear of the University buildings on Deane Rd, Graham commented how much the area had changed since he was last there and indeed it had. As we rode along Ellsmere St we passed an old “G” reg Hyundai Stellar Graham said that he used to do PDIs on them back in the day, I replied oh I can’t drink Stella mate sends me doolally, as I chuckled to myself.

Soon we were on our way along the recently resurfaced Middle Brook trail, the tarmacked surface was a delight to ride on and we made great progress and were soon travelling through Regent Park Golf course where there were quite a lot of golfers, this being the first week since lockdown began that people were allowed to play. There was also a man on his own cutting some trees down. I pointed out to Graham there should be more of them, he said ” yes at least another one for health and safety reasons” my reply had him reeling “No there should be Tree Fellas “ hahaha. “Now I’ll have that put on your gravestone Tree Fellas, 3 Fellas,” Graham said, “obviously provided you go before me”, always one to state the obvious our Graham. I said people won’t get the joke , but he said they will if they’ve read our blogs pal.

Now with our rehashed adventure, we weren’t able to travel as far as we would have liked and therefore we headed up towards Chorley New Road to examine the new advanced cycle lane that had been recently made. At the junction, I mentioned to Graham that a mate of mine Billy who I worked with for 26 years lived just up the road from here and I should pay him a quick visit. We arrived outside his house and were greeted through an open window (Covid compliant) by his wife who told us he wasn’t in, he had gone doing his hobby, metal detecting. The ironic thing was, he was doing it in the place we would have been exploring if time would have permitted. Funny sometimes how life works.

Failing to see my mate Billy we rode off along Chorley New Rd , a posh part of Bolton with some very large houses on this road. As we continued down we made use of the new cycle lane that is now much wider. Whilst we enjoyed the benefits of this, we had to pull out to pass a bin lorry collecting recycle waste, just as we did there was the loud sound of breaking glass as the binman emptied one of the bins, I turned to Graham ” Sounds like there were a lot of empty wine bottles in that bin pal !!” As we headed down towards Bolton we came to the junction with Victoria Road where we wanted to take a little detour to the place where our mate Phil sadly lost his life, just to say hello and tell him he was always in our thoughts.

We returned down to Chorley New Rd after saying our taras to Phil. We then continued along past Bolton School where we saw 2 men cutting a tree down. “Ahh, there’s the other 2 fellas then”. Graham just looked at me and smiled.

I suggested we stop off in Queens Park for a brew and a chat, and that’s exactly what we did. Sat on a park bench I asked Graham if he wanted tea or coffee, “tea please” he replied, Sadly I was only joking , I only had a flask of coffee but Graham, probably being impressed that the time before I had brought coffee and biscuits really thought I had got both, never mind maybe next time.

After a long chat and catch up we set off home via Bolton Town centre, both of us remarked how busy it was after some of the lockdown restrictions had been lifted. It was a very strange but pleasant sight to behold seeing lots of people walking around so freely after such a long period of restrictions. We soon came to the end of our mini adventure and as Graham set off home he turned to say he’d text when he was home, which of course he certainly did.