This and That in May 2018

After spending £2000 on getting the Beetle back on the road the car passed its MOT on May 17th and I proceeded to have a lot of fun driving it around. I won't lie, it isn't an easy car to drive but I enjoyed it.

Pilgrim School 

 

Dave and a few other A602's members took their cars for a return trip to Pilgrim School for the little ones to have a look around and they got pretty excited about it. Top Gear presenter Rory Reid was there but showed absolutely no interest in the cars so he's obviously a TV presenter but not a petrol head. 

A602's chairman Grant Pinney with Rory Reid

                                                                                   

The electrification works on the Midland Mainline railway which runs near our house were due to commence in May and were expected to be very noisy with piling and what not. We decided to take ourselves away from it and went in the Astra to Wells-next-the-Sea. It was too cold to go in the Hot Rod. We stayed at the Quay B and B for a night which was very nice and enjoyed walking around the town and to the beach. (We were to discover later that this was just the start of two years worth of noise so obviously we couldn't run away every night they planned to work. Luckily we have been able to sleep through it- goodness know how!)

Main Event Spring Bank Holiday 25th - 28th May

Another mixed bag weather wise but at least we got this race meeting finished! Paul qualified in Number 7 spot from 42 and faced five rounds of tough racing to reach the final losing to his nemesis Keith Herbert. He also debuted in Super Pro ET smashing the dragster's PB with an 8.94 @147 mph qualifying 21st out of 48 and faced a round one exit with an extremely rare red light. Zoe and I missed the first few rounds as we were at the Sharnbrook hotel with SPeedz. After the weekend the dragster was suffering and need some TLC before the next meeting.

Pre-49 Weekend 4th – 7th May 2018

Beacon Hill

The Hot Rodding season got off to a very slow start. Hard to believe after the summer that followed - including a six week heatwave, that the spring was so wet we had no fancy for it. Dave did manage one breakfast meet with the A602’s and an Earl’s Barton evening but that was it until the pre 49 weekend. This has become our favourite event of the year. With approximately 20 cars, like–minded people who love driving their cars and having a good time, once again it was brilliantly organised by April and Bob Sheppard.  They even organised perfect weather for us for the whole weekend.

We drove cross country to a beautiful country house set in gorgeous grounds, Wroxhall Abbey in Warwickshire.  The hotel was lovely, the patio area overlooking the gardens where we regularly met up for pre-prandial drinks was ideal but unfortunately they were grossly understaffed and the hotel needs some TLC which took the edge off an otherwise perfect weekend.

As always, we arrived early and after check in, explored the hotel and grounds and then went for a drink and lunch at the Hatton Arms, a lovely pub overlooking the Grand Union Canal, followed by a stroll along the canal. The hotel’s position was perfect for our weekend’s exploration of the Black Country.

Saturday, the 40 mile cruise was through beautiful countryside via Beacon Hill (panoramic view over Birmingham to one side and countryside to the other) to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley was excellent as was the Museum itself. It is an open air museum of rebuilt historic buildings recreating the era of the 19^th century industrial revolution. We did our homework as I was determined we were going to win the quiz this year (not that I was bitter about our failure last year).
 

The evening passed quickly in the hotel’s “Vault” where we played games including skittles, did the quiz and some dressed up “40’s” style. We did win the quiz but it took a lot of effort so I can’t see us repeating that again.

Sunday saw us on a 30 mile drive to the Severn Valley Railway in Kidderminster and the opportunity to indulge another of our hobbies, a ride on a full sized steam train from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth, stopping off there for a  couple of hours and riding the Cliff Railway, the oldest and steepest railway in England. On the return journey we stopped off at Highley Station in Shropshire for a drink at the Ship Inn overlooking the river and a visit to The Engine House museum.

After checking out on Monday, most of us joined a short cruise to The Wythall Transport which was mostly buses and milk floats! We had a fantastic weekend and look forward to the next one.

We called in at the Sharnbrook Hotel on the way home where they were holding a charity car event. Paul and Zoe were there with SPeedZ . It was a really busy event on a beautiful day.

Festival of Power - Easter Weekend 29th March to April Fools Day

The weekend was full of issues starting with having to pull the trailer out of the mud with the Astra towing the Land Rover towing the trailer! After some upgrades to the dragster over the winter including new slicks and a brand new track, we had no data for the car so went along for the test day.  Paul was lucky to get 4 runs in but it didn't give us much help for data as there was a fuel issue. The weather was bad all weekend and Paul only got one run in which didn't go well. We were called down for eliminations but the race meeting was called off after the track was deemed unsafe to continue largely due to the lack of heat and rubber in the track. In fact Paul dodged a bullet as we discovered  the car was broken! On the plus side the new trailer is lovely. Finally we have somewhere comfortable to sit while it rains and proper cooking facilities too. We don't have to hide in an overgrown coffin when it rains anymore!


Photo by Sarah White

Astra trips Jan and Feb 2018

It’s the end of January 2019 as I begin my road trip blog for the whole of 2018! Worse still I have made very few notes and so am relying on my photos and Facebook postings to jog my memory. Note to self- must do better in 2019. We began the year with Dave having a bit of a set back with his knee which wasn’t bending as well as it should but with a bit of bashing about by the surgeon he soon improved and here we are a year later with a return to full health other than he can’t kneel on it.

Henley Weir

We started 2018 with a few road trips in the Astra starting on 7^th January with a lovely day out in beautiful Bucks, Oxfordshire and Berkshire along the Thames while the water was high and fast flowing.  It was a trip down memory lane for Dave seeking out his old training and canoe competition haunts in C2 with Dave Curle. We ended up with a nice lunch at Boulter's Riverside Brasserie.

Hambledon weir

We took a cheeky drive up to Cheshire on 12^th January for a Warner Breaks weekend to see an excellent “Adele” tribute and to explore the local area. We had an interesting visit to see the Anderton Boat lift, the world's oldest operational boat lift, built to allow boats to be transported from the River Weaver - raising boats 50 feet into the Trent and Mersey Canal using hydraulic power. The area was known for salt mining. We also visited The National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port Dock which was a fascinating couple of hours discovering the history of the canals and in particular the Manchester Ship canal and the Shropshire Union Canal.

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/places-to-visit/national-waterways-museum

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/anderton

Anderton Boat Lift

National Waterways Museum

OMC AGM

We were presented with this funny cartoon at Oakley Motorcycle’s AGM drawn by Derek Bye in recognition of our work to organise the curry evenings and the American Theme Nights.

 

In February we had a beautiful drive through the Purbeck Hills to the surprisingly lovely Minehead in Somerset. We had a great weekend with family at Butlin's for the Absolute 80's weekend. - Altered Images, Toyah, T'Pau, Katrina of the Waves, "Freddie Mercury," "Blondie," "Duran Duran" and best of all Doctor and the Medics. They may only have had one hit but they know how to put on an amazing show! Last but not least Del's victory over darts legend Chris Mason was awesome!

Minehead

Toyah