coast2coast

[oioi]

forwarded on from Roy:

Got back home after 828 brilliant miles in the Se7en on the Coast to

Coast trip.  We had glorious sunshine from when I left Fleet at

lunchtime on Friday until I got to Toddington services on the M1, then

it was fairly light and didn't dampen my spirits.

The trip started for me on Friday with a drive up to my Sister's house

in Horwich where I was staying on Friday night, the M6 lived up to its

reputation and the journey took 5 hours but I wasn't stressed by it.

Decided to get an early night and catch up on sleep, so I was in bed by

9:45 and dozing nicely when I got a text message from Si saying that

there would be two Westies to meed up with at Forton services on the M6,

OK no problem, back to sleep, what seemed like 5 minutes later the

mobile rang, WORK :-( they'd been trying to sort out a problem that I'd

been looking at on Friday Morning and wanted to know whether I thought

things were OK, so I grunted a few times and went back to sleep.  Got up

early next morning (knackered), but once I got in the car all was fine.

Arrived at Forton services to find one Westield Twin Cam there already

and another one arrived shortly after, this was Paul Hurdsfield (?),

Hurdsy to his friends.  We set of at a sedate pace up to the motorway so

that the Twink could keep up, and had an uneventful time until we turned

off the main coast road round the lakes to take a 'short cut' through

Ulpha, well an hour and a half later after driving down some lovely

single track roads, going over the Harknott pass, getting stuck behind a

pickfords lorry and a coach, we finally got back on the coast road and

arrived at St Bees, 'a tad late'.

The car park was full of Westfields already, including Mike Dixon's

immaculate cream and blue car which was beautifully finished both inside

and out.

We set off at Eleven and had a really enjoyable drive to Grasmere for a

great pub lunch at The Swan.  We set of fairly late in the afternoon for

the drive through Ambleside and Windermere and then through the Lyth

valley out of the lakes.  Just after the M6 we came off a roundabout

straight into a patch of road which had just been completely

regravelled, it was like piling through the Kitty Litter, the respray

bill is in the post Si :-)

The drive over to Layburn through Hawes is one of the best roads I've

driven and we had a virtually clear run, except for the bikers who are

truly mad, until we got near Hawes, when we got stuck behind a queue of

cars behind an aastra doing 30, (more of Astras later).

That night we all got together outside the pub to talk about cars and

the days events and then an excellent meal in the restaurant.

The following morning I took Si for a quick blat in the c******m so he

could experience how the other half live, he now wants brakes (not sure

what he has at the moment) and comfy seats.  We headed off dead on time,

the Autocom intercom working brilliantly playing Chris Rea's 'Road to

####'.

We picked up loads more Westfields, including a few 'Gas Guzzler' V8s

and a striker on the A1.  I gave them a brief donut demo which left

them, impressed NOT.  It's obviously a c******m thing.

Sunday's drive was a shortish 80 miles with only one planned stop at the

top of Sutton Bank, where we encountered Astra Man again, this time in a

blue astravan doing 15 miles an hour up a 1 in 4 hill, It really ruined

my run.  Just before the run over the Moors to Castleton Mike spotted

Mark in a pub car park and the convoy, which mike and I had been leading

stopped dead, but eventually we got going again.  The blast across the

moors into Castleton was brilliant, if a little slow at times due to a

number of Westies having underslung exhuasts which were grounding.

After Castleton we proceeded to, er Lost, finally we ended up in Egton,

as opposed to Egton Bridge where we were supposed to be.  The

instructions then said 'take Local road left' , oh the joys of autoroute

:-))  After much apathy from everyone in the group with a passenger I

set off to lead the final 10 miles or so to Robin Hoods Bay.

Unfortunately the K series starter was living up to its reputation and

not working, so I had a push start, but then the engine stopped so I

self started myself by pushing the car down hill and then jumping in

while it was rolling.  The directions meanwhile had exited out the back

of the car so I had to do the last bit from memory while reading the

map.

We got to Robin Hoods Bay and Squeezed in the car park, but waited ages

for the other to arrive, in fact Mike, Si and some others were just

arriving as I was leaving for the long drive home.

As I was driving out of robin Hoods Bay, I saw Mike and Mark screaming

the other way and Mark almost losing it round a bend, then it was onto

the A169 down to Pickering for the worlds longest traffic jam, how DO

people drive so slowly on roads like that.  I worked my way past loads

of cars and a caravan, keeping up with a bike who was doing the same

thing.  Then we got to pickering and the real fun started, it was

crawling time, all the way through Pickering and out the other side.  I

got fed up of this and started queue hopping, which worked quite well,

people left spaces and I filled them and then moved on, until I could

see the cause of the jam, a tractor with hay spreader on the back, what

a ******, he'd driven miles with a huge queue behind him and never once

pulled in.  The traffic behind the tractor was taking ages to get past,

I was about 20 cars back and decided to move up, there was a green

Esprit 2 cars infront with a gap in front of him, so I pulled out and

there was oncoming traffic so I went to pull in in front of the Esprit,

and he got well p******** off with me, honking his horn and shaking his

fist.  Then I couldn't get any further due to white lines and traffic so

I sat ther all the way to the A64 roundsbout, where the tractor turned

the same way as I did and held up the cars on the slip road, at the end

of the slip road I thought I'd get away from the ****** in the Esprit,

so I floored it, 7,000 revs in every gear and he was right up my A***

all the way, total ****** !!  Then he backed off and I got past some

cars and left him way behind.  The rest of the journey home was

uneventful if a tad slow, with light rain from Toddington to the M25.

HUGE traffic jams going the other way on the M25.  I got home on

virtually dry tanks after filling up at the start of the M1.

It was a brilliant weekend.  The weather was perfect, the organisation

was excellent, Si and Carla worked really hard and deserve a big Thank

You.  Well done.  Hopefully I'll be back next year.

Roy

[Buzz Billsberry]

I only did the second day but was so impressed with the efforts that Si and Mrs Si put in plus some ground rules to make a cross country run not the Cannon Ball Run

If the event is done next year I will definately do both days it was so enjoyable and met loads of new people which made the day.

There was only on bad point  and that was down to two or three poeple who thought I would be 'really good' to boot it at full throttle thro Hemsel village at break  neck speed.

U muppets know who U R      people like to look at the cars and not see a large penis driving them at high speed thro a village which was packed with tourists at the time.Save it for the country roads.

Anyway a top day,fantastic tan,great poeple and a belly full of flies... really must start driving with the side screens on

Buzz

[Megablade Paul]

Well said Buzz, there's always 1 or 2 that try really hard to give the rest a bad name. If we know who they are don't invite em again. T*ss*rs

[Peter Cox]

There was only on bad point  and that was down to two or three poeple who thought I would be 'really good' to boot it at full throttle thro Hemsel village at break  neck speed.

U muppets know who U R      people like to look at the cars and not see a large penis driving them at high speed thro a village which was packed with tourists at the time.Save it for the country roads.

Well said Buzz.

Speed is for the open road or the track, keep it slow in town.

[adhawkins]

Couldn't agree more here.

One thing that really annoys me is someone who potters around in a national speed limit area at 45 or so. You then come into a 30 zone, and the carry on doing 45!

I tend to always respect 30 and 40 limits (they're generally there for a reason, so I have no problem with that) and it's really infuriating having to catch them up as you leave the slower limit, only to be stuck behind them again.

It's worse in a Westy, as you have to stick to the slower limits, cos if plod are gonna pull anyone in a line of cars doing 35 in a 30, you can guarantee it'll be the flash git in the sports car

Andy