Day 5 of the ride

The day dawned bright and early in Church Stretton ready for day 5, the half way point in time when I get home tonight. Top breakfast at the B&B and got my first donation after breakfast, before we had even left.
The tandem was looking resplendent with various essential items taped to the frame, sun cream, after sun, puncture repair foam, spare zip ties, etc. The pole for the pirate flag was not long enough so the first stop was at Dobbies Garden World outside Shrewsbury, see the photo.
Headed for Wem but is was shut, a bit of a ghost town on a Sunday, carried on towards Whitchurch and found a cafe, petrol station, bar, farm shop, coffee lounge, petting zoo and barbers all combined (made the last 2 up, but this place had something for everyone).
Thought we would attract all the attention as we arrived, it's not every day you see an end to end rider accompanied by a tandem flying the skull and crossbones but it wasn't to be. There parked outside was a gleaming tandem trike.....the proud owners sitting outside taking coffee and cake.
Heard from Steve and Kev, who are tackling the end to end from 10th June who had ridden south to meet us and we met up a bit later at Tarporley. We made quite a group. Two end to enders on a tandem. Me, an end to, well the middle and two would be end to enders from 10th June.
Made another cake stop at a nice garden centre somewhere in rural Cheshire, very nice, very expensive, very polite but everything kept arriving in the wrong order, too many staff involved, various things duplicated. But in true end to end spirit, it really doesn't matter.
Headed back through Warrington and I was starting to feel excited about getting home. Hit some familiar roads from Newton and lost my outriders at Long Lane as we went our separate ways. Thanks to all the guys for riding with me today, very surreal group, great fun, another smiley day.
Made home 15 minutes later, very exciting to be back although i am sure it will feel odd tomorrow leaving for another 5 days riding.
Todays totals,93m, 16.9average, 2800ft of climbing (flattest day so far), 5hr 35 riding. Another top day and apparently it gets better from the lakes into Scotland!