VRA (UK)
Northern
WOBBLY from the North
Having finished work at 10 pm Friday evening, I didn’t get to bed until 12:45 am on Saturday, not the best preparation for a few hours on the motorway! Bike packed, we set off at around 9 am, getting through Lancaster without too much trouble and onto the M6. Weather was OK, but before long we started to see the dreaded signs – accident, long delays between J21 and J18. Soon we saw the start of the tailbacks and so began a fairly long stretch of filtering. Luckily there were about 5 other bikes, so we soon let them past (as we were widest!) and followed between the rows of cars, caravans & lorries. The usual mixture of drivers – some who see you and suddenly veer out of the way, some who never see you, some who do their best to get in the way (fortunately the latter type seem to be getting rarer) and just the odd one or two who actually look in their mirrors and leave room for bikes to pass!
Aside from the several miles filtering, the ride was pretty boring, being all motorway (M6 then M1), however we stopped at Coreley services to meet Twanny and sat in the sunshine with coffee and cakes, which broke the journey quite nicely. Then it was just short of 90 miles to Harrow Rugby Football Club. We managed the whole trip without a drop of rain and arrived early afternoon to put up the tent in the sunshine.
SEVRA were already there, Lord Sav & Ladybird having brought a tent the size of a
small village in their VN 3.5 Range Rover! Tiny, Zara & Scrubber arrived in another
VN 4x4 (Rav 4?) followed by T-
During the course of the afternoon more people arrived, both by bike & car, 44 (Meanstreak),
Baz & Pauline(1600 Classic), Pug(800 Classic) and some of Wombles’ family, then,
later in the afternoon, Chief & Lisa, Bulldog, Bob & Jen and Jon & Mandy rolled in
having ridden cross-
Soon it was time to get settled in the Rugby Club bar for a buffet, disco & more
liquid refreshment, although for most of the evening the main party seemed to be
taking place outside, there being a number of smokers (added to the fact that it
was nearly impossible to hold a conversation inside due to the disco). Things livened
up after 10 pm-
Waking early Sunday morning, we were greeted by blue sky and sunshine and managed to scrounge a cup of coffee from the kitchen. Then a short walk around the 3 large ponds next to the Rugby Club, followed by several short bursts of activity packing sleeping bags etc. The tent was left to dry as much as possible in the sun, while we chatted and had bacon buns. People were packing up and leaving from about 9:30 am, but we were among the last to leave, at about 10:30, leaving Womble & Sharon with what looked like quite a bit of work still to do!
Having only had a few hours sleep over the weekend, I was struggling a bit on the long and boring motorway ride home. Consequently, we stopped 3 times, twice for food and drink and once just to stretch our legs and make sure we were awake for the last 50 or so miles of the ride home. We finally arrived home at about 3:45 pm, tired but having had a great weekend as usual with our VRA pals. Back to work now for the next two weeks until the next one, the Northern VRA South Shropshire weekend, I can’t wait!
Nuke.