Friday
After strapping on, taking off and rearranging my gear a couple of times, I set off to the Help Me Thro', to find Phill already there and Tony arrived not long after. My 1st rally and longest ride I'd done was ahead of me and was hoping it would be an easy journey....how bloody niave was I!!
got going down through Bolton and on to the East Lancs, stopping at Haydock for petrol after a bit of a detour after realising we were heading for the motorway that Tony and I cant go on. Tonys scoot had trouble re-starting so after a while we got going again and headed for Liverpool as we were going to go through the Birkenhead Tunnel. Traffic was usual Friday afternoon madness and we had a bit of a weave about and got to near Everton FC. There were some lights up ahead and it looked like we were going to get through, the fellas were up in front and I maintained my speed to see that Tony had in fact stopped, Phil had anchored on and all I could hear was my brakes screeching, my tyres skidding and a voice in my head saying 'ohhhhh fuck'........I aimed for the gap between them, banged into Phill, fell on to Tony..what a nightmare, all the middle of the traffic, god knows what it looked like to anyone watching!!! we managed to pick ourselves up and limp over to a crossing island where we blocked it up for a few minutes while we got sorted, thankfully we were all ok and no damages apart from my indicator cover. So if it was on CCTV, who knows, it might be on Police Camera Action :D Tony assures me he was laughing about it as we set back off and Phill said I need a red target and a tally chart of the scooters I've wiped out, to go with me new nickname .... Kamikaze Cara haha.
just as we were settling down, I had a blow out near Queensferry, wasnt going too fast thankfully and managed to lug scooter up a grass verge and get it on the stand best I could. Tyre socket Id been given was neither use nor ornament (have since found it it was for a bloody La%br*t!a grrrr) so was stuck to say the least, had some sympathetic looks from passers by and after a while, Phill turned up having turned round and then not long after, two blokes from Stoke stopped who were fully prepared and changed my tyre in no time, was a bit awkward at the side of the road but we could lean the scooter over and we were off again, a good few hours since we'd set off and Tony mentioned kissing the tarmac of Llandudno when we got there
had another few detours down back streets and side roads but we got there in the end, it was nearly 8pm by the time we'd pitched up so we had a walk into town and then decided to conserve our energy for the Saturday night do so we had a few drinks back at the campsite, had a rambling Scottish bloke talk to us for a while (who was in the brilliantly named Cider Circle SC) and we were tucked up in bed by about 1am ..... then we had the wake up call of Tony bloody Blackburn over the tannoy at 8am, would have been a bit pissed off if I’d still been asleep :D
Saturday..
( Woody is doing this bit but today involved a wander round the parts fair, a trip up the road to the steam engine show thing?? not sure what it was called, Phill was in 7th heaven, wasnt my thing but got a decent brew from the coffee stall. Woody turned up and then Polly a bit later. Not wanting to miss out, Woody had the treat of going to the steam thing and Polly and I went for a wander into town, coming back to find the fellas on the beer (well Tony on the rose wine!!!) and after a couple of drinks on site, we then hit the town and then the night do. We drank and danced and drank and chatted and drank and mingled and drank ... Damon fell asleep, Pollys feet were hurting, some Scottish bloke wanted me to have a Pernod with him, Woody marvelled at my social butterflyness and Ste Jolly gave some of us lucky, lucky people a flash !!! ended up messing about with the good folks of Pogue Mahones before staggering back to the campsite .... most excellent night had by all )
Woody's bit...... I set off about 09.45 on Saturday morning, beautiful weather, the scooter purred like a pussy all the way via Chester, performed on the M56 and all the while I had quality sounds in my ears from the MP3 player. Overtook all the other Italian shopping bikes and dilly dallied into Lllandudno before twelve. Can't see what all the fuss is about, Scootering is a piece of piss!
After a look round, returned to the campsight, let the others put my tent up and later on had some deep and meaningful conversation over a bevvy or four.
I spent the majority of the night in the Northern room as is my want.
A good night.
Sunday...
After finding the cider fairies had stolen all my money, I thought I'd somehow woken up at work as Polly was doing a great impression of a corpse. Short of embalming her, I had to wake her up and see what she wanted to do about going home as Tony and Phill were nearly ready for off. After a feeble phone call to her hubby Rob, it was decided that he was going to come down and meet us, giving us a while to wake up, pack up and tank up on coffee. So we arranged to meet him at the train station at around 11am and this is where it all went a bit wrong...ok a lot.....
'move your scooters' 'cant park here' ' move along NOW' .... these phrases were all from a ignorant tw*t of a council jobsworth who was marshalling a Victorian parade that was conveniently starting just as we were waiting for Rob. Polly moved on and by the time Id started up, a traffic cop had let her through but stopped me, sending me down another road. Tried to go round the block but everywhere was closed/diverted/gridlocked...tried to ring Polly, no answer, rang Rob who said he was stuck so we arranged to meet near the conference centre. Pollys mobile had gone flat so we were bloody stuck, wondering how the hell we'd find her, when Robs mobile rang..Polly had stopped a passer by and cadged their phone, rang home and then one of the kids rang him...she was on the front so I said Id nip down and get her and so we could finally get going. Rode down into the path of a stroppy WPC who was stopping traffic, diverting me on to the side streets, I grovelled a bit asking if I could be let down the road, then got a bit irate but it fell on deaf ears and yet again I was cruising the glamorous backstreets of Llandudno. Couldnt get back on the front for love, money or fluttering eyelashes at coppers so reluctantly gave it up as a bad job and went back to meet Rob, luckily Polly had rung again and we eventually regrouped. After a fag, bump start of Pollys scoot and discussion of the route, we said we'd go on the coast road and stop in Rhyl or Prestatyn as Rob was going to treat us to our dinner after our stressful morning, fresh start we said, lets get off and have a nice ride back....(hmmmm spoke too soon)
Polly was in front and went over a roundabout, couldnt see her by the time Id hit it so wondered where she'd gone, to see that she'd had to pull in as scooter was playing up and not for restarting..so we called breakdown and waited, in the meantime Polly and Robs dog nipped a passer by's heel!! who was pissed off to say the least but thankfully went on his way. Rob said he'd try and start it 'one last time' and of course it kicked over, 5 mins later the recovery bloke came and was sent away again. Nice one I thought, at last we can get going, had a good run up the A55 despite the crap weather and sitting at 45mph behind Polly :D outrider Rob was in danger for being done for kerb crawling and eventually we got into Chester, to fuel up and then find Pollys scoot wasnt playing again
so we waited again for breakdown, who had recommended that they take Pollys scoot home, we all decided to wait together and then there was another set back as the trailer that they sent wouldnt safely support a scooter..so they said they had to send another. There was a request for them to send something that would take my scooter too but it wasnt definite, the heavens opened, I was tired and it was bloody hours since we'd set off, had a text off a mate who said it had taken him 2hrs to get home and I really didnt fancy riding home. Rob was sent to Spar for emergency pop and chocolate and thank feck the 2nd recovery vehicle was a flat bed that took both our scooters, so after a bit of faffing and securing and me telling them off for calling my scooter a Lambretta, we finally got going, me in the cab and we were going great guns til we started slowing down and then stopped at Whitefield, motorway had been shut and we had a bit of a detour to finally FINALLY get home, just after 10pm...11 hrs after we set off but wouldnt change a thing, had a brilliant weekend and I think I lost my rally virginity in style!!!
Woody's bit.... Woke up at daft o clock on Sunday and went for a poo. Unfortunately there was no toilet roll and not even so much as a bidet...tsk. So I did what any self respecting bloke would do. I pulled my trollies up and went back to bed for a couple of hours.
Eventually, I got up and resolved to rid myself of the uncomfortable tagnuts by visiting the shower. Refreshed I struck the tent and set off with Tony and Phil leaving Cara with Polly for there <snigger> saunter home.
Before leaving the outskirts of Llandudno I was on reserve and so detoured into Conwy for some petrol.
Me and Tony pressed on towards Queensferry with Phil catching up periodically, but not before Tony started to experience problems with his Vespa. After a stop and a fiddle with his plug in a layby (we're not gay or owt) we set off only for his piston to perforate itself about a mile further up the road. Initally, I didn't realise it was serious and told Phil we'd catch up and so he resumed. It was only then that we realised that Tony's scoot wasnt going anywhere. (Sorry Phil!!!
)
To cut a long story short we stuffed Tony's scoot in a bush at the side of the A55 and resumed on mine.
That was a surreal journey to say the least, very awkward at low speeds. In Liverpool a passing car passenger was pointing frantically at my scooter. I looked down to see my panel hanging off
The sheer weight of us both had caused the lug on the panel to shear off so Tony had to carry it all the way back for me. At around two we made it back to my gaff, dumped the scooter(which hasn't moved since, cos I've been busy with work
and stuff.)
I dropped Tony off at home for him to relish a trip all the way back to North Wales to get his scooter. Buy him a pint and I'm sure he'll tell you all about his intepid adventure.
We'll laugh about it all one......er now.
All in all a toppermost toppest week end.
All in all
