13/06/2026
Meet Luke 👋🏼
Luke has had a week. Not a bad week. Just the kind of week where you've been firefighting since Monday morning, answering emails before you've had your first coffee, making decisions you didn't have enough information to make, and smiling through it all like everything is absolutely fine because that's the job isn't it. One of the kids has a virus, snot everywhere, zero sleep.
It is not fine. Luke is not fine. Luke needs to get on his bike, it's his reset place, his mental health therapy, the place that aside from his family fills his soul and of late it has taken a back seat.
His wife knows. She always knows. She took one look at him on Thursday evening, the slightly vacant expression, the way he was staring at the wall like it owed him money, and told him to go.
Weekend. Bike. Go.
And then, because she is the kind of woman who plays a long game beautifully, she smiled and said "you owe me one."
Luke knows this. Luke is completely at peace with this. He is aware that "one" will at some point become a spa weekend, a new kitchen appliance she's had her eye on, or at minimum a very nice meal where he is fully present and not mentally composing work emails.
He will pay it back twofold and he will do it gladly because she is, genuinely, the best wife. He will be telling her this on Sunday evening when he gets back and is once again a functioning human being. He will mean every word of it.
The alternative this weekend was the play park, two loads of washing and the zillionth fifth birthday party of the year with a bouncy castle, party bags and forty five minutes of pass the parcel and overexcited sugar high 5 year olds. Luke loves his kids. Luke loves his life. Luke does not have the emotional reserves for this.
He texts Cameron. Cameron is single and does not require permission, a diary check, or a gentle conversation about whose turn it is to deal with the weekend. Cameron replies in four seconds. Obviously.
They're doing the Round the Island route. Luke found it on a cycling Facebook group and someone mentioned this little campsite in Godshill right near the route that sounds perfect! Bike lock points. Charging hut. Firepit to hire. A pub fifteen minutes on foot, 2 mins if they take the bikes! Ferry discount that is, by Luke's calculation, exactly two more beers.
He doesn't need much. A field. A fire. Somewhere to lock the bike and charge the phone. A cold one with his mate talking absolute nonsense about today's ride, Cameron's frankly suspicious Strava times, the footie, and whatever else needs to be said when nobody is asking you to do anything or be anywhere.
By Saturday night he'll have mud on his calves, a beer in his hand and whatever was sitting behind his eyes all week will be completely gone.
Cameron will claim he did the climb faster. Luke will dispute this firmly. Neither of them will check.
His wife will screenshot this post and send it to her group chat with absolutely no further comment. They'll all know exactly what that means.
She deserves a medal. Luke knows it. We all know it.
We'll have the firepit ready Luke. 🚴🐝
Are you a Luke? Tag your Cameron and get planning. The Round the Island route is practically on our doorstep (3.5k) from the Whitwell Junction, clockwise or anticlockwise the choice is yours!
£15 a night. 60 days a year. No frills. No fuss. Just fun.
rustymeadow.co.uk/bikeandcamp | WhatsApp 07822 010712
