Skeg Vegas Layby Flyby Baby!

In spite of an exhausting 10-hour return journey from the Scottish Highlands last Sunday, we were excited to be heading back on the road to our first ever Skeg Vegas VW Show just 5 days later.  In that time, we caught up on online orders and enquiries, unpacked the van from holiday and re-packed it for business, caught up with family, made a trophy for the show and shine and generally had a manic few days.

Loughborough Town Centre, Friday

Bright and early (ish) on Friday, we embarked upon what should have been a 3-hour trip to Revesby in Lincolnshire.  Unfortunately, it became apparent when directed to a dead end road in the middle of a wet and windswept Loughborough, that the sat nav needed a map update.  Our tech savvy son took over and allegedly found a much quicker route.  This ended in disaster when we took a short cut down the ominously named “Whale Bone Lane,” officially the most pot holed road in Britain (trust us, we’ve travelled over a fair few of them).  I’ll spare you the details, but the resulting flat tyre meant that we arrived on site at 5.30 pm – two and a half hours later than the set-up deadline.  Thankfully, the staff seemed friendly and laid back and we did not seem to be the only late arrivals.

Revesby Hall, Lincolnshire

Our arrival was equally as dramatic as our journey.  I literally stepped out of the van to stretch my ailing back and was greeted by a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder and it was back in the van to sit out the ensuing torrential downpour.  I must say, I found this all very fitting given our surroundings.  We were in the grounds of Revesby Hall, which was built in the mid nineteenth century in “Jacobethan” style (a fusion of Jacobean and Elizabethan styles of architecture) near the site of an old Cistercian Monastery.  It’s an incredible building and was the childhood home of Sir Joseph Banks, the famous botanist, who travelled with Captain Cook on his famous voyage of discovery to Australia.  It is now in some state of disrepair but is being gradually restored and unsurprisingly, given its long history, plays host to numerous paranormal nights.  The hall was perfectly visible – flanked by trees – in the neighbouring field complete with “Beware of the bull” signs. 

Eventually, the rain (and hail) subsided and we were able to set up without any further drama, unless you count the Monty Python knights, who interrupted their hunt for the Holy Grail to try on our handmade steam punk top hats for size!  

In search of the Holy Grail

Knight on horseback does Steam Punk

Old Ladies

Gumbys

We rarely embrace the fancy dress themes at shows – we’re time poor in the run-up to shows and it’s not really practical to erect gazebos and hang up clothing whilst dressed as a mermaid or Native American Indian.  However, by sheer coincidence, we realised that Caleb had inadvertently embraced the theme and was in fact dressed as a lumberjack!  

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay

We then headed for the entertainment tent and whiled away a couple of hours listening to the covers band, who had an interesting set list, including Electric Six’s “Gay Bar.” 

Saturday brought it’s own challenge – high winds.  These persisted for much of the day.  By midday, word from the Skeg Vegas merchandise stall was that a hurricane was about to hit Bedfordshire.  This was disconcerting for two reasons.  Firstly, the weather for our location continued to show “light winds” which was clearly nonsense as I spent the best part of 2 hours with one foot on our totem hat stand, arms outstretched, holding onto the gazebos.  Secondly, if the weather was already so far out, was the hurricane heading our way?  

Sidewalk Carve Longboards - made to order

We had agreed to display some beautiful, hand crafted long boards for Sidewalk Carve Longboards on our stand and so Caleb was tasked with ensuring they at least stayed upright and didn’t fly away across the Lincolnshire flat lands, never to be seen again.  We relied on passing trade and other stallholders to retrieve our hats, caps and assorted bits and pieces taken by the wind.

Splitty

Regardless of the adversity, we had a blast.  The relaxed pace of trade meant that we were able to take it in turns to have a wander, check out the stunning vehicle displays... 

Gertie Bob's gorgeous Bedford camper

VW Brazilian

...(including one of my favourites – Hayburner Vic’s Brazilian), chat to old friends and new, witness a modified wheelie bin challenge, listen to music and eat a little more leisurely than the usual bursts of mouth cramming. 

Cool Flo's Ant, struggling to keep control of our rat bike

We even managed to celebrate Cool Flo Ant’s birthday on Saturday night.  In fact Anthony modestly drew our attention to the fact that one of our weekend’s highlights was that we got to see him!  Another unexpected bonus was the night sky; layer upon layer of stars – a scene worthy of dark sky status.

Voodoo Street's winner

Sunday gave us the weather respite we needed - wall-to-wall sunshine, little in the way of breeze and brisk trade.  Gaz awarded our trophy to this ratty T25 and added our own rat bike to an impressive line-up of retro bicycles.  People were still buying off us as we were packing away and just as the last few boxes were being put into the van, we were treated to a Spitfire fly by.

Bicycle show 'n' shine

Lee and his partner in crime - nice cap!

After saying our goodbyes, we headed back towards the village of Old Somerby (the scene of our wheel change) to be reunited with our broken wheel, having now managed to free up space for the damn thing.  Again, a big thank-you to Sally.  If you ever read this blog, we hope that you are met with the same kindness you showed to us, in your hour of need. 

The weather gave us one last kicking and the motorway driving conditions were vile on the way home, so in a repeat of the previous Sunday’s experience, we arrived home late, knackered but buzzing and once again ignored the fatigue, had a couple of drinks and watched the late movie before hitting the sack. 

Going with the Flo at Malvern

It took two trips to Malvern to fully set up for this year's Busfest thanks, in part, to our rat bike (a large, ungainly, American Schwinn Stingray, the size of a motorbike and weighing about the same as an African Elephant), which made its debut appearance on our stand. 

The Rat Bike

Our neighbour's van - including 2.1 litre race engine

Lucky to have survived our run in with the Busfest bosses last year (ironically over our “Busfest Survivor” tees and stickers), we were under scrutiny this time around, but still wanted to deliver some kind of show souvenir, as is now expected of us.  We fielded umpteen requests for this year’s show tee, instead offering up a Malvern Zombie Camping Permit sticker in keeping with 2016's zombie apocalypse theme.  Coupled with a Union Jack tax disc holder, these tax disc replacements for campers amongst the living dead, seemed to go down a storm!

Camping Permit Sticker 

Arriving at 6 pm on Friday, I was relegated to the visitors’ car park.  While Gaz and Caleb enjoyed a trip around the showground in our mates Lisa and Anthony’s (Coolflo) splitty, I unloaded the car, making god knows how many trips on foot, back and forth to our stand.

Splitty Shenanigans

Bags and bedding safely in our van, we were asked to move our vehicles outside so that the organisers could lock up for the evening.  By this time, we were all ready to kick back and relax – the calm before the storm.  I was ready for a beverage and soon found myself holding a can of warm Mojito cocktail in a car park at the rear of an aircraft-hangar-size cowshed.  Living the dream.

Our friends were camping for the weekend and so we met for a quick mooch around site and a visit to the fairground, which was all we could muster on Friday night before hitting the sack. 

We treated ourselves to this 1960s ice box

That said, Friday night was one of the worst night’s sleep I’ve had.  Anticipating cool autumn nights and scarred by our Camper Jam experience when we both failed to take any bedding, this time I was over-prepared.  Let me tell you, sleeping in a onesie inside a sleeping bag beneath a Tog 300(!) duvet with a security light shining directly into your eyes, does not make for quality sleep.  So you can forgive me for thinking that I was still dreaming when I found myself lying down in the back of a van in motion, with the theme tune from Lawrence of Arabia filling my ears.  

It was Saturday morning and Gaz was moving the van into the trading area.  The music, I discovered, was emanating from the stand of a couple who had penned a book about their 1970s campervan road trip around the Middle East. Very surreal.  In no time at all, the buzz of Busfest visitors forced me into action and I emerged, bleary eyed, ready(ish) for action.

The T4, possibly with me still asleep inside!

A very rainy Saturday passed in a blur of coffee and conversation with fellow traders and customers who had travelled far and wide.  For once we didn’t have to worry about staying dry and we’ll admit to feeling something akin to smugness for much of the day. 

We met familiar faces in our little corner of Busfest, including the talented Anna of iSea Surfwear, an independent brand designed and screen printed by the lady herself.  I love her eco friendly ethos, offering recycling incentives.

iSea Surfwear - handcrafted, screen printed surfwear, made in Wales

The guys from Brutebox showed up at the stand, bringing beer and cider, Bob the dog and new canine addition, the very handsome Dexter, with his newly engraved Voodoo Street key chain/collar charm.

Bob and Dexter

Baz and Issy (Brutebox)

Gaz rocked a bandana in his back pocket and I wore one of our extended tees over leggings.  Newsflash:  They also make super cool and comfortable tunics/dresses ladies!

Busfest Threads

By Saturday evening, we were all more than a little jaded and not wanting to pay through the nose for festival food, opted to order takeaway pizzas.  Who knew Dominos delivered to the gates of the Three Counties Showground?

Fed and watered and entertained by the variety of zombies lumbering around, we decided to catch at least a couple of tracks from Doctor and the Medics.  

Three tracks in and they still hadn’t performed “Spirit in the Sky”.  We had been leered and lunged at by the zombies hired by the organisers to patrol the mosh pit and were frankly running on empty. Just as I had a great photo set up of the Doctor in his red flares, hair flowing behind him, a zombie in the foreground, my phone gave out.  Stepping out of the zombie zone into the chilled night air, we were promptly “decontaminated” with a generous squirt of water directly to the face, before heading to the comfort of the van.

Sunday passed by with healthy sales and sunshine.  I was allowed to go wandering for a time to take photos and fund Caleb’s growing skateboard collection.  

Malvern in sunshine

Sk8ter Boi(s)

His crew were out in force and they had huge fun skating and making vlogs, one of which showed off superior editing skills to my own and may even make it to our much neglected YouTube channel. 

The return home was complicated as ever.  I headed off early in our VW Golf, which exactly one year ago only just made it through the gates of Busfest before the clutch gave out, but is still going on its original clutch (repaired by Gaz), having clocked up over 240,000 miles.

@miss_tommyguns

Gaz however, had to dismantle the rat biked in order to shoehorn everything into the van and so eventually rolled up at 9 pm on Sunday evening.  Still, I got to check out some customer photos on social media. Here's @miss_tommyguns (Instagram moniker) in her new favourite black Urban Army Cap and Matthew Pinker wearing his new burgundy Trucker Cap and matching Voodoo Street Logo Tee.  There are certainly worse ways to spend a weekend!

Mr Pinker

 As I type (Tuesday 13th), it's reportedly the hottest September day since 1911.  Don't know about that, but there is the mother of all thunder storms raging outside and the lights are flickering. So time to sign off and take cover.

Next up, it’s VDubs in the Valley and we’re praying for an Indian Summer!  See you there!

Weather Bombed!

It was not a great start to the weekend.  All geared up for Bus Types, the forecast was grim on Friday morning.  Periods of grey, wet nothingness, punctuated by biblical downpours and snow.  We took a view to pack the van and head off first thing Saturday morning, as the forecast for the rest of the weekend was good.

At 10.30 pm, just as Gaz packed the last box into the van, I took a call from Sophie, a Bus Types rep. 

“Have you set off yet?” she asked, “cos if you haven’t, I would recommend you don’t come.” 

With tales of traders being towed on site and off again, due to waterlogged ground, which would require days of blazing sunshine to recover, we reluctantly admitted defeat.  To top it all off, I developed a sudden and extremely painful toothache.  With a sense of foreboding that only a trip to an emergency dentist can bring, I topped my glass up and hoped for the best.  Hard liquor might just see it off.

The view that greeted us - bleary eyed - early on Saturday morning, was enough to cause snow blindness!  The weather was definitely living up to the apocalyptic warnings.  On the plus side, the toothache had subsided to a more manageable level.

At a loose end on Saturday with a van full to the brim of Voodoo Street stock which should have been unleashed on the unsuspecting revellers at Bus Types, we felt a little jaded.  This wasn’t helped by photos emerging on social media, with blue-sky backdrops, of a pretty good turn out in spite of the adverse ground conditions.  One point to note is be very careful how you search for “Bus Types” images on Google.  One small slip with the keys and some pretty alternative images pop up!

Time to count our blessings and make the most of some time off. 

Last week we sold one of our beloved barrel boards.  Never intended for retail, they were made with love and always draw attention on the VW circuit, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before we caved and agreed to sell one. 

This vintage oak beauty is on its way to a discerning customer as I write.

I also had some time to engage with cyber friends on social media.  Working so closely with Gaz from home, it’s easy to become detached from the big wide world.  Sometimes that’s a good thing, but it can be quite insular at times.  The awesome thing about Instagram is the immediate connection you can make with other creative, like-minded nutters!  Social media is like a virtual office to me, so I had an exchange with the lovely @Janie_evo, randomly, about sphinx cats and wiled away some time googling these fascinating creatures.

I managed to squeeze in an hour's shopping at a local emporium I've recently fallen in love with, which is like stepping back into a way cooler era.  On Saturday it was bursting at the seams with the usual suspects, pineapple ice buckets and vinyl collections, but I also spotted rolls of Flash Gordon wall paper circa 1981 and these playing cards, which I bagged for our road trips.

An impromptu basketball session in glorious sunshine finished off our Saturday and then we kicked back with pizza, a movie and a few jars.

Sunday we took a little road trip into the Shropshire countryside and admired the gleaming scooters grouped in Ludlow Market Square.  This one caught my eye, as it payed homage to one of my favourite TV series, Life on Mars.

Later on when we lamented our lost weekend in Oswestry, one of our mates sent us this photo, which kind of says it all really. 

  

We’ve put it behind us now and are crossing everything for a smooth run at Derbyshire Dubs in a few weeks’ time.