Dawn and myself had previously decided that we would travel up to Fleetwood on the Thursday afternoon as i was off work for the week and Dawn finished on Thursday. We collected Sophie from outside her school and then set off for Stoke to get on the M6. The traffic through Stoke was reasonable but as soon as we hit the M6 it was stop/start most of the way. One of the reasons we decided to go on Thursday was to avoid the Friday crawl up the M6 but it now seemed like it had backfired on us. Mind the steady falling of snow didn't help.
We eventually arrived at Cala Gran caravan park just after 7:30pm and arranged to meet Steve Foster, Johnny Bolland and Dave & Kerry Oakley in the bar so we could get our caravan key. At about 11pm we set of back to our caravans, ours was next to Steve, Dave & Kerrys and i was warned about my snoring, will i ever live down Prague. Dawn and myself went into our caravan so we could get Sophie settled down with the intention of going next door for a few more beers. Our caravan was colder than the Antartic so we quickly got the gas fire and the oven on to warm it up but disaster struck when the gas ran out after about 5 minutes, so we got sophie into bed with as many quilts as possible and went next door to their warm caravan for a few beers. When we did return we had the coldest nights sleep i can remember having.
Next morning i quickly got onto reception and got the gas bottle changed. We all then went for breakfast and to do some shopping down the road at Safeways. On our return Dawn & Sophie went for a swim and i went for a beer in the top bar. We then spent the rest of the afternoon meeting and greeting.
Friday night saw both myself & Dawn working as Dawn was on the front desk with Tracy taking the admission money and i was in the main room. Rick & Emma from Modrapheniacs arrived just after 9pm so i shot off to show Emma where the caravan was as they were to be our roomies for the weekend. The band tonight was the Mistakes who did an excellent session of ska covers from Madness, Specials, Bad Manners and company. About 3am we all retired back to the caravan and retired to bed not before Dawn, in trying to look at the photos i had taken, deleted the lot off my camera. I bit my lip and went to bed cursing under my breath.
Next morning, we just about had time for breakfast before going to the top bar as i was meeting the lads for Ryans Stag pub crawl in Blackpool, whilst Dawn & Sophie were going shopping in Blackpool. After a bus journey that seemed to last for ages we were in Brannigans having a few beers and watching 3 young ladies in several stages of undressing on the stage. We had been joined by the Ital lads who were out celebrating Nicks 40th birthday. After a couple more pubs i went off to meet Dawn & Sophie for another drink then returning to the caravan site to get ready for the nights festivities, only to find half the site in total darkness. Apparently so many people were trying to use electric heaters the system couldn't cope and kept tripping out.
Saturdays main band was Oasis'nt who were very enjoyable, even when joined on stage by a lad who was supposed to be working for V.F.M* that night, although to be honest he was quite good. Although i had been banished to the soul room (Mr Foster knows i hate northern soul) i spent the night drinking & talking to countless including a couple of girls from New York, one of which promised me a ride on the back of her scooter around New York in February when we are over there. We remained at the club until about 4am before calling it a night and going off to bed.
Sunday hardly saw us do a thing. We were awoken in the morning because Rick & Emma were leaving (we never did get that breakfast you promised Rick). We then had breakfast and settled down to watch a couple of DVDs as sophie went of swimming. We eventually surfaced about 8pm and went to the club to have a few beers and say our goodbyes for 2004.
Monday morning saw us packing away, having brekkie and leaving for home, a journey that took us just 2 hours and 20 minutes, a lot quicker than the journey up.
So that was it for another year and it certainly was ended in classic scooter style. Its still to be seen if we return to Cala Gran next year. The site is a good one but in my opinion it is extremely pricey, i mean nearly £3 for a pint of lager and £3:20 for a bottle is just too much. It would also have been nice to see more scooters there but i suppose the snow on Thursday made a lot of people think twice about it and after all cars have heaters in, and who am i to critisise after all we went by car.
This years scootering on the whole has been a good one with a few sad moments. The numbers where up quite considerably especially at the Isle Of Wight, and i can only hope next year will be just as good, so untill Whitby,
SAFE SCOOTERING
BIG ANDY