I enjoyed the loveliest cycle this afternoon with these wonderful ladies.
We started with a coffee stop at The Knead Bakery at Elkstone, sitting outdoors in the sunshine, while we waited for everyone to arrive. It has been a long time since we all cycled together and we could easily have simply sat and chatted over coffee and cake all afternoon. However, there was training to be done and Chris had planned a beautiful route for us all.
The sun shone, the route was beautiful, our Gloucestershire countryside was bathed in warm sunshine and the roads were quiet and Chris had arranged for us to reach The Dragonfly Cafe, exactly half way through our 33 mile ride. The Dragonfly Cafe sits on the Lower Moor nature reserve overlooking Cottage Lake and serves the loveliest range of fresh cakes, provides indoor and outdoor seating in a stunning location and service with a smile which puts it right up there in our top ten best coffee stops in the county. Credit where credit is due- I suspect there is not a coffee stop within Gloucestershire and all its neighbouring counties that we have not tried and tested a number of times, so reaching our top ten is no easy ask! .
There was lots of excited chatter about our forthcoming adventure. . Caroline is of course cycling across America with us while Julia and Paula are joining us for ten days around Yellowstone and surrounding areas approximately four weeks into our adventure. Chris, a very seasoned cyclist will follow our adventures via messages and this blog.
Despite the lack of photographic evidence, we did actually cycle, we didn’t just sit and chat all afternoon! And what a perfect afternoon it was.
Challenging Times 
A perfect afternoon ❤️
That sounds like a lovely ride! Let’s hope they have plenty of decent coffee stops in the USA 😉