Southampton FC

The New Forest looks beautiful today with a few autumn leaves shining in the sunlight. I passed though Lyndhurst and soon arrived at Southampton. The signs for the stadium were sparse but after a couple of wrong turns and asking pedestrians the way, I arrived at 12.30. Ahead of schedule, I circle the ground and took some photos. With no official to greet me an old friend was an able replacement. Martin Stephens arrived soon after. Martin was originally from Carey and his father still lives there. We greeted one another. Martin said that Marjorie and their son Andrew were on the way after church. He had a picnic prepared of hot chocolate and tomato soup to follow. I greeted Marjorie and Andrew and we all sat in the car and caught up with each other. Soon an hour had passed and I needed to move on. As I got kitted up again Marjorie noticed my rear wheel was slack. I pumped it up and it seemed ok so we said farewell and off I went. After a couple of miles I checked the tyre and it was soft again! I pumped it up again and went another mile before it was evident I could go no further. Stopping at a garage I unloaded all the kit and removed the rear wheel. I put in the tube I bought yesterday but it wouldn't inflate at all. The valve didn't work! I put the old tube back in and went into the garage where I had seen a canister of emergency car tyre foam. The connection was wrong but I cut that off and rammed the plastic hose over the cycle valve. Turning the knob it inflated the tyre but the tyre hadn't seated properly in the rim around the valve. So I deflated it and tried again. This time it was much better and seemed to hold although I didn't dare blow it up as hard as before. Reloading, I made a dash for it to try and beat the gathering gloom. But with 17 miles still to go I was soon in the dark. Without GPS it took a while to find my digs in Waverley Road, Southsea but I arrived about 5.45. The weather is deteriorating but it’s not far to Fratton Park in the morning.