Tewkesbury & District M.C.C.
"Lash at the Loade" rally.
9th - 11th May. 2003.
Following a 150 mile run from York Dragway, I swapped the trike
for the " little green Guzzi " - which now sports a
rather nifty ( read * rather cheap * ) set of panniers and a
large carrier. In true British fashion, as soon as I loaded
the bike up, down came the rain. Good job my waterproofs
work. Once again, I decided to resort to using the
motorway, and managed to make good progress by slipstreaming one
of Sainsbury's finest 36 tonners. I found the rally site
easily enough seeing as I had been there in the dim and distant
past for the "Dry Stone Wall " rally.
The site was well packed, but there was a
nice little gap down the far end amongst the other Moonshiners
who had arrived from Porlock a day or so earlier. Once
again, in true British fashion, as soon as the tent was up - down
came the rain. Whilst I was putting the " finishing
touches " to the tent, Kella had put the kettle on, which
proved to be excellent timing as the rest of the Moonshiners
arrived back from the town. We sat under the shelter of
Roy's awning, drinking and generally putting the world to rights.
Once the rain had eased off, we took a walk
around the site - there were some very well made trikes and bikes
on show, nice to see that folks use 'em even in the rain.
The pub proved to be a tad packed, but that
didn't stop us from spending a most enjoyable evening in
there. I even met up with a few folks I hadn't seen for
years.
I was awakened early, very early, like
about 06:30 on Sunday morning by a rather irate sounding person
who kept exclaiming -
"I can't get me boat out - I don't believe it" - or
words to that effect. Seems no one had told this hapless
sailor that there was a rally on this weekend. The fellow
was informed that it would not be a good idea to wake folks
up. Let sleeping bikers lie, I say. . . .
. . . and lie they did, well at least until the smell of
cooking wafted around the campsite. One of the simpler, but
no less enjoyable things in life is breakfast, especially when
cooked outdoors. According to master chef Cainy, it tasted
( and smelt ) as good as it looked. I couldn't resist the
thought of food, but being an idle git I started the bike up and
headed for the cafe at Bridgnorth, which although not exactly on
the way home, was close enough.
Thanks to the lads and lasses of the T.D.M.C.C - a most enjoyable weekend. We must do it again, sometime.
Cheers.
^..^
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