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This was Angie's first trip out on the new (very thin and hard) pillion seat, and would be a trial for the ride down to the VSOC Welsh rally the weekend after. It seems that it's going to be a stop every 10 miles or so unless I can remodel my old pillion seat for long journeys and carry the show seat with us. Oh well, that's the price you pay for good looking bikes eh?
It seems that the show is getting harder to put on each year, with licensing laws getting tougher, no excessive noise after midnight and no live bands after 11.55pm. It doesn't help matters when one of the cars cruising round knocks over a young girl. We all hope she's OK.
Sunday had the judging of the cars and bikes. I'd entered Midnight Thunder as there was a class for Best Non American. As we wandered down to see how the bike judging was getting on, we saw a ticket saying to be by Stage 2 at 2.30pm for the prize giving. Oops we're 5 minutes late. Oh good so was everyone else... even the trophies. The Harley awards were given out first, so we all sat back and had a chat with some of the other bike owners, when KKL11 was read out. My registration!! It's amazing how hard a show winning bike is to start when 100 people are watching you. Cool, I thought, I'm well chuffed - but those Harley awards went quickly didn't they? I had no idea that Midnight Thunder had been judged to be the Best Dressed Harley!! Ha Ha Ha, finally fooled the judges. Even another show winner came up to me and said that he'd never really looked at Victory Motorcycles before he'd seen mine. You should have seen him step backwards when I told him it was a Yamaha. Now I haven't told the judges - wouldn't want to cause any embarrassment - you can keep a secret can't you? After all the doings of the day we watched Limehouse Lizzy perform and then went back to pack up the tent and go home for a lot of rest. These weekends away are really starting to become a great way to chill out. I can so recommend it. Post event update (11th July). Just been to MFN in Derbyshire and met one of the judges. It seems that they awarded the trophy 'cos my bike deserved an award and there wasn't a class for it. When I pointed out the Non American class he said " Oh they must have thrown that one in there.." I just don't know anymore.. Also, news about the young girl knocked over on Friday night. She was a 6 year old girl, riding a quad bike who fell off. A car then ran into her. The driver then pulled her out from under the car and drove off!!! Don't worry, she's absolutely fine after a quick check up at the hospital. The driver, on the other hand, was a trader with more than a skinfull of booze. He has been "advised" of his actions and I'm sure his broken nose will be better soon....
Off to the Welsh VSOC rally. I've cut about my old pillion seat, so Angie can have a much more comfortable ride down this time. |
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5th to 8th July. Held in the Showground at Newark in Notts. This is the 21st Anniversary Event.
Anyway, the forecast was to be overcast with a few small showers. How right they all were - it's always nice to arrive for a camping holiday already wet. Most of the weekend was very warm and sticky (fnah, fnah) with just a couple of long spells of rain on Saturday. As we set up camp, our new neighbours started to look over the Midnight Thunder and remarked very nicely about it. They were so surprised when they found out it was a Yamaha... (tee hee this would be the theme for the weekend...). We walked around to get our bearings and looked over some of the Harleys encamped around us. It seems many of the older Harley riders used to have a Virago or Dragstar before being lured onto the bigger stuff! Saw some of the bikes from previous shows and had a chat about putting mine into the show this year - just for a laugh.
As we moved around the site, we started to see loads of different costumes, Cowboys, Indians, Sheriffs, Rockabillys, but where were all the cowgirls? There some great cars and trucks too. My favourite car has still got to be the '59 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, and there were some beautiful ones on show. I can't get one though - my drive is shorter than the car and possibly not wide enough either! If you did want to buy a car, there were loads up for sale from £1500 to POA. Massive RV's were on display, very plush inside but for £120,000 with a V10 engine under the hood, I think I'll be staying in my 3 up 2 down semi thank you very much.
Now the whole weekend is about sampling the American way. Custom Car and Bike shows, Vintage and Historic and Classic cars, numerous burger bars, weak beer, leather stalls and there was even a huge horse ridden around by one of the HA. 5 stages were set up with over 30 bands to play.
Country and Western music on the main stage, with acts such as the Bellamy Brothers, George Hamilton IV and V (two for the price of one?) and The Smokey Mountain Boys (Yeeha).
The Harley Bar had Glasshouse (our mates Julian, Jane, Shane and Ian) playing on Friday and Saturday nights, with up to date chart covers as well as older rock favourites. Great response from the audience.
Becky was on the sidelines selling the T-Shirts and caps, and these guys and gals were just having the best time...
There was line dancing and jive tuition in the Cedric Ford Pavillion and the outside stage showed off Limehouse Lizzy (a Thin Lizzy tribute band), BadAxe (starring Looney Chris) performing their alternative gospel on Sunday morning - (very dodgy if you ask me - wait until you see him sitting on a bucket!) and a good few Rock & Roll bands.
Quill were there for the 3rd year in a row, proving they've still got what it takes. They are a Birmingham based cover band who can only be described as playing very happy music - lots of jumping up and down, violins, feathered caps and boots, Celtic/Mike Oldfield/Scotish/Irish music all rolled into one.
Parties obviously happened during the night and we joined in just the same. Luckily the Sumo wrestling kit had been put away along with the pugil sticks and bungee ropes.