Counting down to Winter - Wednesday 9th to Sunday 20th September 2015

The poor weather at the start of September made it look like summer was over but as sure as eggs is eggs, the children went back to school and the sun came out to give us some pretty good driving opportunities.

The first Wednesday of the month usually sees the Earl's Barton Classic Car Meet but this was postponed until the following Wednesday giving me my first (and last) trip out there this season. There was a pretty good turn out, an eclectic mix of cars including rather a lot of modern cars but if it gets people off the settee and out in their cars who cares? If someone wants to show off their pride and and joy on a Wednesday evening in a farmers field, then why not? My favourite vehicle for the evening was an immaculately restored VW splitty of which the owner was rightly proud. To be honest it made a change but for me, I won't be in a hurry to go again. Wednesday evening is usually my "night in" when Dave goes out and I really rather like that me time.

The weather forecast for the next day was superb so a trip out to Hunstanton for fish and chips was in order, £10 for fish and chips and £50 for petrol for the 180 mile round trip! The tide was out when we arrived so we were able to set up camp on the beach before fetching our lunch from the Shoreside Fish and Chip shop, the best we've had in Sunny Hunny so far. We walked it off with a long walk along the beach almost to  Heacham and back along the promenade, past the mostly unoccupied holiday homes which overlook the sea. For once, we could have worn "we are the youngest" T shirts until after 3pm when the families started to arrive with their children still in school uniform. What a lovely way to end the school day! As always, the public gardens were colourful and beautifully laid out, a credit to the town. Driving home, we were accompanied by the setting sun, an event in itself. North Norfolk is beautiful, especially driving through the wooded pines of the Sandringham Estate. Then you enter Cambridgeshire, which must be the most boring county in the country landscape wise; flat, arable land, yet still attractive in its own way. Then we drove into Northamptonshire, a much underrated county, through the beautiful Nene River Valley and its quintessentially English villages. Finally we were back in Bedfordshire, pretty as always but currently stinking of goodness knows what from the Biogen plant I presume.

Friday evening, we popped to Jack's Hill Cafe again this time via Stoke Bruernewhcih is at the opposite end of the Blisworth Tunnel and has much more to offer tourists with it's multiple locks, pubs, reataurants and museum. They were setting up for a WW2 re-enactment which would have been interesting to visit had we not been busy already this weekend.

We set off early on the following Sunday, enjoying the chilly but sunny morning air which the Hot Rod is so fond of, driving through a different part of Northants into Warwickshire and then left into the old Roman road Fosse Way, a dead straight road identifying the Roman influence. We took our usual cross country route to Shakespeare County Raceway in Long Marsden. It was a much more pleasant experience than with the usual bunpy ride in the Land Rover, towing the trailer and dragster. The annual NSRA Hot Rod Drags were in progress, an event we haven't been to for about 10 years, since Paul finished Tot Rodding. It was absolutely rammed with campers, tents and Hot Rods, proof that this event has gone from strength to strength.

The line of Hot Rods and race cars waiting to race was none too shabby either. It was interesting to see so many cars that don't usually come to race meetings. These are people who don't want to take their racing seriously and don't want to or can't afford to pay to be an MSA and race club member, keep their car, helmet and seat belts tagged and so on but still get the chance to have that racing buzz. We had a nice day chilling in the bleachers with Paul and Zoe on her birthday (They came in the mini) and the Stapletons watching the cars go down the track.


Afterwards, we headed up to our hotel at Walton Hall, parked up, covered the car and there it stayed for the next day and a half.  I'd booked it with Secret Escapes and for £190 for 2 nights including breakfast, one evening meal, a bottle of wine, posh afternoon tea in beautiful surroundings, it was excellent value for money and a nice way to spend Dave's birthday.
 This is my review on Trip Advisor:-
 “Lovely surroundings, excellent staff”

We stayed for two nights in the hotel requesting a quiet room which we were given. The room was comfortable and had a lovely view over the grounds. The decor is a little tired in places but the linen and the things that actually count were spot on. The design of the hotel is a bit odd as you have to go outside to get to the bar/ restaurant/ reception and the signage when you arrive is poor, directing you to the back car park which involves dragging your cases through the bar and upstairs unless you follow our mantra and never get your cases out until you have checked into a hotel! Every single member of staff was friendly, polite, professional and efficient, a credit to the company they work for. They struggled a little to cope in peak hours due to slight understaffing but maintained a professional and calm air throughout. We had one little problem that we brought to the staff's attention and they handled it quickly and efficiently to our satisfaction. (TIP: don't wait until you get home to complain about things on Trip Advisor- problems can generally be resolved at the time if only you tell people.)
It is important to realise that if you book a standard room you will be in the hotel. If you want to stay in the Hall you need to book a deluxe room. (My son and his girlfriend had a deluxe room the previous evening and thought it was fabulous.) The breakfast was very good both in terms of quantity and quality. The evening meals were nice but not special. The complimentary tea and coffee in the leisure centre and bar area was a nice touch. The pizza on the bar menu was very Italian and very good too.  I would recommend this hotel for anyone wanting to get away from it all for a couple of days and as a base for visiting Stratford upon Avon or the surrounding area. We spent the whole time just relaxing in the hotel, using the leisure facilities, walking the grounds and wandering up to the Hall to read the good selection of newspapers they had in the impressive and comfortable drawing room.

Tuesday morning, after packing up the car and posing it around the Estate for a photo shoot, we followed Paul and Zoe's advice and went to find Wellesbourne Mountfield airfield where there is a Vulcan on display. We got permission to drive the car underneath it for another photo opportunity. It looked really small underneath those giant wings, so imagine how tiny the mini looked when Paul and Zoe did the same on the Saturday.  After that it was just another couple of miles into Stratford upon Avon, a bit of power parking in the High Street, much to the delight of the snap happy tourists. How may photos are there of this car in the world? I wonder how many people have seen it in more than one place. Unfortunately we'd missed the window of opportunity to park the car outside Shakespeare's birthplace for a photo so I made do with a shot of the house  from inside the Christmas shop opposite. It tried to rain on and off on the way home. I was tired and confess I didn't enjoy the journey home. I was starting to get that end of season jaded feeling I think.

For the first time in five years we missed a race meeting at Santa Pod this weekend. We didn't feel the need to spectate at the National Finals, especially as the World Canoeing Championships were on at Lee Valley White Water Park in Waltham Abbey. We had a fantastic day watching the world's best male C2 canoeists and female K1 kayakers. It was exciting to watch and reminiscent of our previous visit at the 2012 Olympics, except this team GB didn't pick up any individual medals. We sat in the stands with a big group of French who had plenty to celebrate about  and Slovakians who didn't but made lots of noise any way.

GB were more successful in the team events, picking up a silver in the Women's kayak and a bronze in the men's C2 event. It was quite an art watching three boats at a time "dancing" in sequence through the gates, trying to get down in the fastest time without crashing into the gates or each other. The individual performances were encouraging and bode well for Rio next year. I'm glad we went in the Astra and not the Hot Rod as the queue to get out afterwards was crazy, so much so that we abandoned the car and walked into Waltham Abbey and had a couple of drinks before going home.

To complete an eventful weekend, we were up early again the next morning to enjoy another glorious day. Cruising down the deserted Clapham bypass we spotted a yellow mini coming in the opposite direction, not any old yellow mini but THE mini with Zoe, Paul and Rachel Harrison in it, a surreal moment which made my day. It's great to see them enjoying their car as much as we enjoy ours. Taking the scenic route once again and in honour of our destination we joined the A602 in Hitchin (Hertfordshire)  and followed it through Stevenage until we reached The A602 Car Club Autorama, an annual event held at Fairlands Park in Stevenage. It was a good turnout with over 400 cars, quite a few trade stands, music and a couple of live bands to keep us entertained.

Whilst I'm all in favour of diversity even I question the mindset of someone thinking that anyone wants to look at their 63 plate BMW people carrier on the showground! Happily, the majority of cars were Hot Rods, Americans or Classics. We had a nice day chilling by the car, chatting to friends and wandering around the showground. Janet and Andy were there with their car club, the Peterborough Pushrods and Pistons  club and the the Stapletons too, who joined us on a two car cruise back to Bedford, along the beautiful Embankment to Oakley Club where we met up with Zoe and Paul for a nice drink before coming home. A very satisfactory end to yet another good weekend.