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Friday afternoon myself and Kathleen set off from Hartlepool heading to Simon and Carol Curdens' place near Sheffield for now our usual pit stop, Simon was still at work, being really busy getting his new plumbing business off the ground, we had a quick brew with his strange next door neighbour then set off riding through the beautiful peek district, the scenery was amazing and really surprising being near so many big industrial cities, The ride was good with the wee Vespa running great as usual, around Manchester towards North Wales, On reaching the Welsh border we hit very heavy traffic although managed to negotiate the well loaded P200 through at least 20 miles worth of backed up traffic, on reaching Rhyl we searched for the rally site but couldn’t even see a single scooter, We headed west until two scooters passed us heading in the opposite direction, shit!! I quickly turned the Vespa round and tried to catch them up!! We eventfully caught them as they turned into a massive caravan park, Kathleen asked a guy that looked like he was from the organising club, where the camp site was, He just laughed and said “theirs no fecken camping here mate, only Caravans and chalets”, and as the reception was now closed we were well stuffed!! Shit!!

As fait would have it Jon from Wrexham SC overheard me and Kathleen discussing our dilemma, he said “hang on there a minute” and went into the venue for a few minutes and then returned “ no problem ya’s can kip in our chalet tonight”, magic!!! From people that had never met us before this was a brilliant gesture of friendship between scooterists!

We followed Jon and Mouse to their chalet, unpacked the bike had a quick shower then straight into the venue and into the separate Northern Soul room where we stayed the whole night, the music was absolutely fantastic!!! As I would expect with the main strong holds for Northern Soul being just across the border in England. We met up with Spence and Lucia from Cloud 9 SC (Birkenhead) and fellow AFSC members who on hearing our accommodation problem offered us a bed for the Saturday Night which was really nice of them.

Saturday was the usual, parts fair and a wee wonder around looking at the scooters, we bumped into Booty and Sally Ann while trawling the stalls, then latter while down town for some scoff bumped into Fozzy and family which was really great to see some AFSC shirts out and about.

Saturday we had a great laugh with the Cloud 9 lads as we stood around in their chalet kitchen, listening to some great stories being told with the usual scouse wit we have come to understand over the years, then as darkness fell we headed for the venue, for myself and Kathleen it was straight to the Northern room once again for yet another night of fantastic sounds!! We also met up with Joey that I hadn’t seen since the early 90’s and our Paderborn Cloud 9 days, great to see you again mate!!

Sunday morning it was up sparras for us, biked packed up and a ride back in the beautiful sunshine to Simons and Carols where we saved them from having a massive domestic as they were just about to kill each other as they assembled their new Kitchen, we had a few brews and laughs with them as Simon was on top form as usual, then a quick run up to Newcastle to visit Jimmy and Sharon from the Dogcatchers SC and AFSC (HFC) where Sharon and Jimmy made us the usual best curry to be had in all England!!

We would like to thank the following for making Rhyl another Brilliant weekend for us, Jon and Mouse (Ex forces) from Wrexham SC for giving two complete strangers a bed for the night on Friday, Brilliant!! You saved our weekend! And also to Spence and Lucia and the Cloud 9 lads for the bed on Saturday night, Simon and Carol for letting us stop off again and Jimmy and Sharon for keeping my Scooter and making us welcome as usual!!

Craig and Kathleen Ballantyne

Animal’s fae Nuboombu SC and AFSC (Scotland) (HFC)