Saddle sore, IPA style, not quite how the west was won.

Been a busy few days, working at the Mercat Grill,  however, today I had a day off  !!  Not a rest as I headed out on the "steed of steel", with my like minded friends, members of the IPA No. Region Motorcycle touring section.
Left home at 9 a.m.,  met  Big Tom at Hermiston Gait and headed off to Greenock,  passed a couple of cruise liners berthed there with convoys of coaches taking the tourists into Glasgow.   Met up with more of the team at Tesco's for breakfast then onwards to the ferry at Gourock for Dunoon -   spied the paddle steamer  "The Waverly  heading down the Clyde ".

Back on Terra firma it was off northwards by Lock Eck, and eventually ended up at Inveraray for a stop beside the quayside where the well known puffer  "The Vital Spark" was tied up, having been moved there from its previous berth at Crinin basin.

From Inveraray we headed to Minard where we were joined  by another two of our team, and headed through Lochgilphead, and stopped off at Dunadd Fort,  where the ancient Kings of Scotland were crowned.    very strange to see the locals playing cricket within site of this ancient monument.

Next stop was the museum and churchyard at  Kilmartin,   another cuppa,  but service was very slow -  however it saved us from one of the extremely heavy showers which were  sweeping across the country.   Onwards to Oban - more rain -  so a fish supper was the order of the day -  just not the weather for the burgers on the BBQ.      Then  it was home wards, with a couple of stops en route - via Dalmally, Loch Awe,  Crianlarich,  Lochearnhead, Stirling -     kind of stiff and sore by the time I got home, at 9.20 p.m.  and 315 miles in the saddle.