The new and improved alternative Boinger Bash 2020

[VALE BOY]

Aye Tony, that was a shame you were unable to manage down to Dave and Verity’s in sunny Norfolk and I hope you’re on the mend with your ticker.

I’m rather cream crackered tonight, after tutoring an outdoor Photography walk locally this afternoon and the accumulative distance involved, 1067 miles on my 2020 Bash Odyssey, via Central Scotland down through Dumfries and Galloway, then down the M6 past Stoke to Long Eaton, near your neck of the woods, then down M1 past Leicester then left across the A14 past Huntingdon to join the A13-A47 to almost Great Yarmouth - where I went on holiday in 1971, resulting in (amongst other things) me drinking Guinness for the first time (with a jab of cider, poor man’s Black Velvet, as the Watneys Keg Red Barrel was so bad you’d be better off pouring it doon the shunkie and cutting oot the middle man - and watching a pub rock band with a great Bass Player in the ‘Crows Nest’ pub which definitely inspired me to play Bass Guitar... an instrument I really enjoy playing.
So after being down at the Bash from Friday to Monday, I headed up 20 miles or so to near Cromer till Thursday and the weather was glorious, most of the time, camping at a Airgun BBS friend’s smallholding, including an adjacent orchard and lovely veg garden and a couple of ponies in the adjacent field... an absolute blissful paradise!

On Thursday I made my way up through the excellent roads of Norfolk and Lincolnshire over the majestic Humber Bridge for the first time (with the Sat Nav taking me by the ‘scenic’ route!) then over to Spurn Head to collect a massive 12kw Multifuel/ Woodburner stove, courtesy of another BBS friend (‘Vulpinehunter’) a very talented engineer, who informed me today (Sunday) that he’d machined a replacement breech pivot/ cocking lever stepped shank screw to replace the one I lost a few days ago at the Bash from my 1922 Haenel MK VIII ( see previous post 425 above) and somehow shoehorning it into my wee motor for the Friday journey home.. the Stove, no’ the Haenel! ;>) ....up through rural Yorkshire onto the A1 near Knaresborough with a stop over at Scotch Corner ... somehow managing an overnight kip in the motor ( nice and warm wi the stove in the car!) and on enquiring at the Hotel reception early Saturday morning if they still had the Offenbach Grand Piano (in need of a serious repair when I’d last seen and played it a few years previously, as one of the legs was hanging off it) in the Dining Lounge, the receptionist then escorted me to where a few folk nearby were having breakfast to show me the now repaired piano and said it was okay for me to play it if nobody minded me tinkling the ivories at 8 o’clock in the morning.
Not only was it okay to do so, but half an hour later, Paula the receptionist presented me with a £10 note, courtesy of an appreciative diner and graciously informed me that breakfast was ‘on the house’! No’ bad for rattling out Loch Lomond, Skye Boat Song, some Beatles’ tunes, 12 bar blues and a few of my own compositions.... I never realised back in the day as a schoolboy going to piano lessons, when all I wanted to do was play football for Rangers and Scotland, that it could lead to this.
The full English Breakfast was excellent btw... Anybody driving around Scotch Corner In their travels should consider this place for a stopover or a break as it’s a beautiful hotel, an absolute Oasis, newly refurbished Art Deco style and the facilities are available to non- residents including Breakfast served 6am-10am weekdays and 7am-10am weekends. No guarantee of a freebie though unless you can knock out a few tunes on the Old Joanna..... I mean magnificent Offenbach Grand!

So the final leg (no pun intended) was a Saturday morning jaunt over the A66 to Penrith (greatly improved in recent years) though still a bit of a nightmare for overnight driving with the number of lorries and blinding headlights that are normally encountered at that time, late night/ early morning.
A break at Longtown near Gretna on the Border is almost always a compulsory stop now for me on my travels as it has the best Bakers, Butchers, Newsagents, Ironmongers, Outdoor Clothing Outfitters and Fish and Chip Shop in the country... no kiddin’ ...That wee Toon could show the way home to any High Street or Retail Park.

So there we have it...another episode in my attempt to drive/ride along every piece of tarmac in the British Isles and Ireland.
Hope to see you right as rain at a Bash sometime next year AGW.
A’ the Best, Graeme