Hopggin' the hayfields
Hoggin The Hayfields
To those of you who helped make this such a fun weekend Thank you very much and to those who were unable to attend you missed a really great Rally.
We started off early Friday morning from Wamsad and rode to Chievely for a coffee and second pick-up before the beginning the journey for real.
Earlier in the month Fred and Richard did a trial run to scout for an interesting route and came up with a real gem. In a bid to avoid using the A4 and A303 they found some great roads and a good pub to stop at for lunch. At this point our assistant director (being keen to keep his trim physique) attempted to set the tone of the weekend by ordering a healthy Salad, we all followed that example of course and promptly ordered 9 plates of Ham, Egg and Chips and then proceeded to fight over them as they were brought out one by one ?
We arrived at the Hayfields at 2pm without incident (hats off to Kathy on her Trike as She kept up with the ride with ease and proved that Trikes can be as nimble as 2 wheels when they want to be :-). By 3pm the tents were all up and somehow we found ourselves being drawn kicking and screaming into the bar.
At this point, the so far seamless planning began to slide away from us a bit! A number of the guys discovered a drink (which I can only describe as a glass of fluorescent orange diesel) and having had 6 or 7 pints some began to start speaking in a new language which only they could understand. At this point the barmaid then became a little concerned and remembered a little too late that “one should have no more than 4 pints of this stuff, max” ?
Then things got serious for a while when we entered our own Table Football “it’s a knockout contest” the biggest test being trying to get the coins into the slot to start the game, having blurred vision and crossed eyes didn’t help much either.
Needless to say none of us managed to summon up the energy for the Saturday morning ride-out to Wells, it was a little too early for us really. Those that did attend said it was a good ride, covered about 80 miles and they had an hour or so free time in Wells to explore or shop in the market.
We did manage to form our own ride-out though, all be it only 5 or 6 miles total?
There was fun and games Saturday afternoon with various Chapter challenges going on in the main field, but as usual Thames Valley held their own chapter challenges which usually took place in the dead of night and involved rearranging various items of garden equipment and furnishings. The poor grounds man is probably still standing scratching his head wondering where his wheelbarrows went.
15 members from Thames Valley attended at the final count, some were there ahead of us having driven down in their camper, one rode all the way from his holiday in France to attend and a couple arrived early Saturday morning.
The Hayfield itself was a high class Rugby ground with great facilities, plenty of hot showers and reasonably clean toilets, a good club house with 2 bars and 2 dance floors. It had a good kitchen area which served up pretty good food and the camping area itself was flat and well sheltered and plenty of room for us all to spread out.
On Sunday morning our group split into 3, with each group choosing different departure times and routes home and so no-one was under pressure to rush or hang about needlessly and that worked out great.
The weather was kind to us for the most part with just a bit of rain Saturday evening and early Sunday morning, it didn’t spoil anything and just added to the atmosphere really.
We’d all like to thank great Weston Chapter for a great event, they have worked hard to create a friendly atmosphere and keep the rally small and yet managed to pack a lot into those 3 days and also chose some really good bands to entertain us with.
Thank you Fred, Richard and Don for all your efforts and thank you again to all who attended from our Chapter, we are really having a great summer of activities this year and I’ looking forward to more to come.
YSL, Paul.