As with most organisations, especially those involving outside activities, the Membership can normally be described as a mixture of personalities, usually divided into 2 types.
In the case of WSVMCC, an active motorcycle club, the split is quite clear- whimps & heros.
This particular Sunday, Baird was up to his usual historic best- organising the weather so it was peeing when we joined up & continued, off & on, for the rest of the day. Ergo only heros turned up. The rest remained sweating in their pits
Nevertheless, an interesting day- meeting at Milton & breakfasting at the splendid Ardarden Tea Room, just short of Helensburgh.
Thereafter via the challenging road alongside Loch Long to Arrochar & finally to the very new Argarten Hotel, about 3 miles North of Arrochar.
I didn’t know it existed, and it’s absolutely MASSIVE. It probably enjoys one of the most attractive locations of any hotel, with huge windows overlooking Loch Long.
My personal feeling is that it’s too large and as a consequence lacked atmosphere. The food likewise was quite basic & unimaginative. “Must try harder”.
Since we were close by- we decided to examine the recent works undertaken on The Rest and be Thankful road, old and new. The new one experiences regular landslides and when that happens a detour of some 50 plus miles is involved. So the old road has been resurrected seemingly with no less than 3 layers of tarmac and a slight widening of the final bend.
It appears that fire engines, buses and articulated lorries have driven up recently & managed the turns, including the final one. Willie McG, who was brought up around Cairndow, remembers travelling the old road by bus, when he was a wean. Strong arms required by the drivers- nae power steering then!
And so- three hungry souls stopped at our favourite Tarbet Tea Room for an uplift, pleasingly to find that a lot of customers had taken away our recruitment leaflets- “cast your bread on the waters—”
Thanks to the Bairds- maintaining a proud tradition, started by the sorely missed Willie Baird.