I did the first half of the pootle; since the lunch stop was only five miles from home, and I had quit a lot of things going on over the weekend, I opted to bail out there, rather than head back to the brewery.
It was a rather pleasant pootle - at least, for me. The problem is that one person's pootling pace is another's 'JFC, HOW fast?' I liked the route; I have done quite a lot of riding around that area, and Ken found some lanes I'd never done before. Not much traffic, not much cow poo to avoid, very little mileage on anything like main roads. Not to mention glorious weather, and an excellent pub for lunch.
Regards,
Martin