This was one Run that I was really looking forward to, as I did the SuperNats 2yrs ago with my mate Puddz, when it was at Knebworth. I had told my misses this is the Posh version if the Nats *smile*. This was to be part of our annual holidays, so we set off on our little jaunt on the Tuesday, with a fully loaded and I mean fully loaded caravan and one less passenger in the 34, as my daughter's friend had cancelled coming with us, the night before Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr so we had one very sulky, moody R'sed 15yr old girl to contend with Great I thought, good start, ya know what them teenage girls are like full of hormones if they aint happy nobody is :>)
My good Mate Puddz and his wife Sue with twin daughters Abby and Ruth were to accompany us on this Holiday, using our air conditioned Terrano 4x4 to tow their caravan, as Puddz only transport would of been his work Transit which would of been no fun if you drew the short straw and had to sit in the back on this sweltering Hot week!! The Friday before this trip I was at the Preston Cruise and Pete Whiteside was there in his 36 Ford, he same as me had gotten his newly built 302ci Ford powered car on the road and nipped a piston because of overheating causing a second rebuild Terrrrrr! So ya can understand why he was now paranoid about overheating again. He asked me if I had any heating problems now I had my new Rad, of course I replied "no" and he also enquired if I had any water blowing out of my overflow, which of course I hadnt, as all was Hunky Dory in my car wasn't it!!! Well with this still ringing in my ears as I stopped for the first time on our outward journey with yep you guessed it overheating problems Grrrrrrrrrrrrr what is going on? has anyone any ideas why this happens?? You praise your vehicle and it kicks ya in the teeth!!!....To cut a long story short it was traced to a crap Rad cap err wasn't it Pudzz :>) Puddz said straight off, "its ya Rad cap" I said "how the Bl**dy Hell can it be me Rad cap Grrrrrr" Well I bow to his superior knowledge and I promise to believe him next time..... it made it a long journey having to stop and let it cool down all the time as yes you guessed why would a motorway service station ever need to sell Rad caps......... I asked at one services that has a Halfords there "do you sell Rad caps" I enquired? " No Sorry" was the reply.............. er "do you sell air fresheners" I further asked?? "Yes sir! we sell air fresheners" was the jolly reply....... "I thought ya might..." I said sarcastically as I could " err No thanks" I added and left muttering to myself & spitting :>)
Friday on my mind!
We eventually made it to Northampton and found ourselves in the thick of traffic in the town center trying to spot road signs... Now I am in a chopped 34, I am sweltering like a pig on a spit, I am having to concentrate on the traffic caravan and also read the road signs and map?? Yeah real fun!! all while Puddz and family will only follow not lead, in the big windowed air-conditioned 4x4.. also it's a 7 seater with only 4 in it, loads a room.......Mates eh! I eventually threw a wobbler as the traffic seemed to be closing me in more and more and I just stopped on the pavement Sod em all I thought!! I pulled the hood checked the water and let the 34 cool as I tried to work out where to head for with the map in my hand..... within minutes several people offered assistance and they say its us Northerners who are the friendly ones, I'll tell ya what they don't come any friendlier than the people we met in Northampton that for sure!! Cheers who ever ya were... we were soon on our way with one guy making sure we got onto the right road as he drove with us until he was happy we were heading in the right direction. But would Puddz lead would he shyte!! It was still me leading & struggling in this heat to stay Happy ;>)
Our destination was a caravan site with outdoor pool by the Worldsend Pub which happens to be the destination pub for the Billing Cruise. The weather was skin burning hot and the few days we were to spend there, before the Supernats was spent in the outdoor pool and supping Cool larger ahhhhhh heaven well almost we needed better scenery, namely some Rods.. Never mind it will soon be Friday morning and we shall be heading for Old Warden then and Rodding heaven..
It was a fairly early start Friday, loaded with as much ice as we could fit in the cool boxes (the fridge had stopped working) we set off on the final leg of our trip down through Bedford.. Man was it bl**dy Hot, so hot it was getting unpleasant sitting in the Rod..... We arrived at the NSRA arrivals tent mid morning and got our Goody bag, and proceeded to strike camp with out old mates Paul & Sam Nichols and their sprogs... They had made a make shift uk-hotrods banner so hopefully anyone who use's the e-mail group would join us, Steve (Langy) Lang & Sue is other half were to join us along with his old mate and respected Rodder Brian Lucas & wife. Also Dusty & Deb Laugher, Paul (TooTall) Dorrington & Family also camped with us and Mark with his Camaro so we had a small tribe, but a jolly happy one, and once I had sweated off about 6stone by setting up camp it was Cool beer time ahhhhhhh now I am in heaven I thought! Steve Enright also had just arrived in his 302 powered sleeper Pop doing the run from North Cumbria in one hike, he said his hello's then ventured on to the Northern camp... I watched Maurice Takoor be towed up to the camp near us behind the NSRA van and I couldn't get my camera out and focused quick enough it would of made a great photo. I got it just as he was getting the tow rope un hitched *damn*
People were arriving all day long
Puddz wasted no time and got TooTall Paul to do some stripping art on his caravan as we replaced lost fluids, it was just getting hotter and hotter... Steve Lang had dropped off his F100 and Caravan and promptly went back for his partners A highboy and his Kookie T... Now we had some rods in our Camp Cool eh!... The day was spent chatting and people from other parts of the camp site kept coming over and introducing them self's, some we had met before some were new faces that we had spoken to on the e-mail group. It was great to finally meet Russ from Scotland and Langy was real chuffed that Jon Denton had come over which was kinda satisfying that the group had made it possible......... I felt all warm....nope change that I felt Fuggin Red Hot time for more cool beer!!!
This 59 Mercury Estate of Ian Landon was cruising the field with the kids
shouting "faster faster" but Ian said "we don't do
faster" the kids were loving it, especially when he lowered the airbag
suspension. Just see in the background my drive home choice a beautiful 56 F100
and ya know I never got a talk to the owner or a look at the truck??? I thought
owww I'll see it tomorrow on the cruise and have a proper look or Sunday on the
show field and get some good photos... nope not a one what a numpty eh!
This 34 cruised past most of the weekend owned by Ian Mockett of Autopower and one of my most favourite Rods of
the meet was this Green 34? Pickup..
People were just kicking back and having the crack.
As I had really only had a very small amount of beer by now, as they were only liddle diddy bottles. I thought now would be a good time to have a drive round the camp site... and see who I could spot! Paul Nichols joined me and my still smiling Daughter jumped in the back. I soon found the Northern Camp, many of which I have gotten to know well and love being in their company, Dave told me his name was Damien so I have now to remember that :>) After a bit of a crack, we ventured on, and the site had some fantastic cars dotted about. With us often stopping, dribbling and gawping.. We eventually found our self's down the far end of the camp site and I met Frank Carroll for the first time ever (e-mail group member) I have admired his simply stunning 34 since it was debuted at Doncaster. I love the all Red theme, it was shear genius and from once looking over the roped area at a show as an outsider...... I was now talking to him WoW!!!! Hard not to be a bit gob smacked but he was a great guy to get on with and we were soon joined by Dan Donnatti (not sure of spelling) I could a p*ssed me self easy I reckon :>) Ya know the stories that some of the Top Rodders are up themselves and will not talk to you...... well this wasn't the case for us. Dan is apparently building another awesome Rod which will no doubt blow us all away as the 34 sedan did...We had a right old chin wag, my daughter loved Franks car but we gassed for so long she was getting irritable now so we sadly had to say goodbye, I would of loved to have stopped and sat down and had a beer with these guys but it wasn't to be...
It was shower time as it often was over the weekend and I can honestly say they were absolutely fantastic and without them I don't know what we would of done they made a welcome break from the sticky sweaty feeling we were to feel almost all weekend. Nice one who ever it was that booked them.
Mike Key and his wife cruise the Camp Site
Saw this cool A sedan (The ex Rod Shop promo vehicle) for sale £7,500 which seemed cheap did it sell? Did
you buy it? Update it was sold and now is living up in Barnsley Yorkshire.
The day was really just spent doing that, meeting Rodders having the crack, sitting, sipping beer, showering and enjoying the many Rods cruising the camp site. I was promised a ride in the wild A40 Van of Dave Browns but I only ever saw it driving way down the other end of the field or parked up by the stately home so it wasn't to be *shame* I have been told it drives beautifully!............Paul and Dusty were like the two old tw*ts off the Muppets who sit in the theatre box, every now and again when certain Cars that shall remain nameless drove by :>) .....Sitting, looking and listening to the Rods driving past was just a great way to spend the day, Nige from Dover came by in his Dooster Highboy or should that be Highboyo (he's Welsh ya see).... Nige let people drive his Rod, I let Dusty and Paul drive mine and Langy took a few out in his T. There seemed to be something going on all the time. I peed everyone off as I had the loudest stereo and I was the only one who liked my music...Soon it was the obligatory Barbecue time and was I getting hungry... yea I was! Suitably fed, we just sat round and chatted some more, with people dropping by and having a crack. All the Time rods would burble by... Some then decided to go to the beer tent, we decided to have a look over the show field were there was a fair toodling away... We got us a beer from the Showfield Tent, while the kids went on the fast looking Bumper cars.. Me and Puddz thought we would show em all how our years of Boxing training had given us frighteningly hard punches on the fair ground punch bag!!! We made it sing doodle doodle doodle ooo with the lights flashing which made us big kids smile and the little kids go oooohhh :>) It is when you do something like that that you realise how pissed you really are, as I swore it moved.
We then
ventured into the entertainment Marquee, now remembering I am mega Peeshed by
now, the place looked pretty empty to me? We got served straight away, I sat
with Pete Whiteside and told him how he should never of asked me if my car
chucked water out of its overflow... I looked over at the table next to us that
my daughter, misses and Mate Puddz and family where sat on and I could see my
daughter was not impressed... she loves Drayton with it lively atmosphere and
music playing oh and lots of lads her age!! but she was sat there with a face
like a slapped arse and I knew then we were in for trouble..... So I had to say
my goodbyes and we looked into the music/entertainment marquee... I cant
remember much but I do remember walking passed Toad who was stood with Adam Sayers
who I really did want to meet, but I knew if I had stopped with my daughter in I
am gonna fug up everyone's night mode I would of only made things worse..
Well they walked in the Marquee were the music was coming from and walked
straight back out again all I could do was follow/wobble behind.... I could see
a most fantastic day coming to a very unhappy ending!! I looked at her miserable
face and blew my top which only got me more hassle from the wife so that was the
end of the night for us........................... It was don't touch me in bed
time, so everytime my feet touched the wife's she would move further away until
she was snuggled on about 5" of bed and I could sprawl out on the rest of
it :>) Seeya in the Morning eh!