Essex Air Ambulance Run '08

[Silverflame]

Well bit of a wet start and some there & back but that didnt stop the fun. This was my first ride out in numbers and had a blast, kept up front mainly and not too crowded, must say the display at Dunton was good never seen anyone weely a V rod before
Skorch think i saw your bike but not you sorry to have missed you.
SF

[sKorch]

Hi Ho Silver,
Sorry I missed you on the day, but I am sure I saw you.
It was one of those days where everything I did was a messup.
I got up nice and early and sat in my dressing gown supping my coffee and smoking my fag looking at the weather outside.
It was raining.....
Since I had pre-booked, I had a good excuse not to go but the look from the wife when she got up and saw the rain was my incentive. SHE WAS LAUGHING.
she thought I was going to wimp out....

No way, Not me, The great sKorch.....

I got washed and changed and then the fun began.

First of all I tried to put on my newly bought rainsuit.
Now all the rainsuits i had before had before had a zip down the middle of the body so it was easy to put on at the roadside.Just open zip- right leg to right of zip- left leg to left of zip and Hey Presto- you'r in.

Naw.. not this one.

It had a zip coming from the left thigh up to the middle of the throat.
My first attempt ended with the suit on backwards and the wife chortling and spilling her coffe over her jimjams..(that made me larf)
finally got the suit on and on my way by 10:00

Next problem -
PETROL...
I had 70 miles gone on the tank and normally refill after 100-120 miles.
Got to the place where I filled up last year and it was a Building site..
Luckily just down the road was another petrol station who must have thought Christmas had come early.

Got to the joining point and just had just enough time to grab a coffee (but at £1.50 a cup I refused to pay and got it for £1)

Now time to make a smoke and wander around looking for you.
There were lots of bikes in the pre-book area and they hadn't parked in neat rows to make inspection easy.
So no luck in my search for you.

I got away in the third group of the pre-bookers, but it was terribly organised.
Some people went slow to wait for their mates who hadn't pre-booked, others shot ahead to try to catch the group in front.
Result, Bikes all strung out along the route.

Ho-Hum says I
(well I had to 'cos I had used,for the first time, the earplugs supplied with the pre-book pack and couldn't hear anything else around me..)

I decided to try to see if I could catch the group in front so I could ride in a group.
I was making good progress when, at Colchester, the next problem occurred..

I TOOK THE WRONG TURNING....

For some reason I naturally headed for Clacton instead of Harwich..
I went to the next roundabout and headed back to the A12 only to find there was no slip road to go to Harwich, just back to Colchester..

well a 10 mile detour later and I was back in action.
On the detour I spotted a large group of bikes (looked like H-Ds) travelling in formation so I thought I would catch them and arrive as a group.
Well catching them was no problem, they were travelling SO SLOWLY.
I tried to check their patches and after about 5 miles got to draw alongside the group.
It was Vulcans..

I quickly overtook and arrived in Harwich on my own.
I parked up at my normal place, went to get some food and hung around the Black Bear tent, sussing out the punters.

The guys at Black Bear were giving me a funny look until i realised I had taken out my front teeth to eat the burger ( I didn't want a repeat of the Southend shake down of a few years back)
Anyway, Black Bear were selling off their old T's at £5 per throw but none appealed to me.
Next move was to find a beer and then a television to watch the F1 GP.

Well after 3 bars and no TV I went back to the bike.
I had left my lid on the bike to try to show you were I was, but there were so many guys with H-D T's I didn't have a clue who was who.

So I went for a wander to try to find your bike.
After an hour of searching, I gave up and went for another brew and what do you think happened.

I SAW YOU...

Well not you, but a bike going past that suddenly fitted the bill of what I was looking for.
You see, I was looking for a H-D with a SILVER-FRAME...........not a Silver Flame..

Anyway you shot off through the crowds, so I settled for another brew and decided to head off home.
The time was now approx 15:45 and storm clouds were approaching..
Putting my beer next to me on the pavement, I struggled into my rainsuit( made it on the second attempt) much to the amusment of the people outside the pub.
Leaving Harwich, I had got no further than 1 mile before the heavens opened up.
Thinking I could outrun the storm, I pushed on for a few more miles before deciding I would sit out the rain at the Parkeston Quay filling station.
I parked up under the canopy next to the office and waited.

After about 10 mins things started to ease and the wind started to dry the road.
I decided to let the rain go far enough in front of me so that I didn't bump into it again, so made a smoke.
Old Johny-foreigner in the office then started to bang on the window and waving his arms about..
WTF, I'm not stupid mate, I WAS going to walk away from under the canopy to light up.

Finally I got on my way, dead easy ride back home (to the pub) looking forward to regaling the locals of my tales of daring do, but I was the only customer..

DOH...Sunday 5pm nobody about.

Got home at 6pm, ate my Sunday meal and waited to see the hightlights of the days Belgian F1 GP.
Why it was on so late I'll never know, don't the beeb realise it's work in the morning???

So that was my day..

and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Catch ya soon
sKorch

[Silverflame]

Hi sKorch,
Grief, what a day you had! funny how the women in our lives make us do these things by challenging or resolve!!!!

In hindsight i should have let you know the old girls paint work is the same as the avitar, we waited by one Harley as you described with a red helmet on it but was too intimidated by the 6"+ bloke standing by talking to another couple to ask " are you sKortch" - would of felt a bit of a pratt if he said no

Thanks for sharing you story i'm sure others will have chuckled as well
Regards
Silver