For the first time ever (as far as I can remember) I went to a rally on the back of a scooter! To mark this occasion Lee put my standard seat onto his scooter and we dusted off the cheapo intercom that he’d bought at Lidl so that we could chat and listen to music during the journey. The seat was great, and combined with the backrest it felt like I was in an armchair.
The headphone and speakers were a bit of a nightmare as my helmet is so tight there’s hardly any spare room. They lasted until the first stop, when I gave up. I don’t think Lee was too impressed with my chit-chat, anyway! He was also totally unimpressed with the front part of my seat, and vowed to get a cushion for the way home. We got to Exmouth at teatime and headed straight for the Deer Leap for food and a pint.
Friday evening
I didn’t take my camera out on Friday night, which was probably just as well. After a couple of ciders I fancied a Wu Wu, which was really nice. However, combined with the various Smirnoff drinks that followed made me more than a little tipsy, which was great in that I had a fantastic dance and really enjoyed the punk covers band, but I really paid for it the next day…..
Saturday daytime
Saturday dawned, and I dragged myself downstairs, determined to make the most of the hotel’s breakfast. However, after one mouthful of poached egg on toast I returned to bed and didn’t get back up until mid afternoon! I’d missed the custom show, and most of the stalls were packing up by the time we got to the Pavilion. So it was back to the Deer Leap for a diet coke where Terry and Angie were also on the soft drinks. There was no sign of Champs, who’d apparently taken Denise on a coach trip somewhere!!!
Saturday evening
We nipped into town for some food, to the Heavitree, where there were an assortment of scooterists, cross dressers and people sticking cocktail sticks in their heads! Then onto the Deer Leap where a group of scooter girls on a hen night had some great airbrushed t-shirts and attracted a lot of attention from the blokes in dresses, one of whom did an unforgetful sparrow impression (don’t ask….)
The Pavilion was busier than last night and everyone seemed to enjoy Who’s Next, whose bass guitarist bore a scary resemblance to the Yorkshire Ripper!
Sunday
Before we left on Sunday morning (after a hearty breakfast this time!) we stopped at the beach shop for Lee to buy something to ease the pain of my seat. Having checked out the rubber rings and life jackets he settled on a camping pillow for a bargain £2.99!
It didn’t really work though, and we swapped over for the last part of the journey, with me riding and him on the back to give his sore backside a rest. It’s times like this when a little extra padding comes in handy – I’ll never moan about the size of my bottom again!
Gallery
Old Blue Vespa rally diaries
This is one of the rally diaries that appeared on my old website, BlueVespa.com, back in the 2000s.
I'm starting to put these on Diary Of A Detour so that everyone can take a wander down memory lane and relive the revival of my scooter club, the Midhurst Detours, and the fun we got up to back then.
Here's a handy link to them all, by year, for ease of reference!
(More years will be added soon!)
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