Lincoln Steam Fair

Friday 191h to Sunday 21st August 2005

We arrived at 10pm on the Friday night after a four hour tow through heavy traffic and pouring rain most of the way from Kent. This, on top of the 16 hour delay we had had the previous day on our flight back from our holiday in Rhodes. You have to ask yourself is it worth it? Of course it is. Because of the rush Chris could not find the rally book with the entry instructions but after a phone call to Ian, we were directed to the right entrance; he met us at the gate and guided us to the rally site by jogging alongside the car. We were met by Helena and Jane and as we the last to arrive had the pick of the last remaining pitch. The hot dogs and cups of tea they gave us were very welcome; unfortunately we missed the cakes.

The Saturday dawned bright and sunny and everyone disappeared towards the showground There was the smell of coal smoke everywhere and we spent an enjoyable day watching steam engines of every size in the parade ring. All were lovingly maintained and the owners seemed to spend most of their time cleaning and polishing them to keep the coal dust off but most of all to keep them looking immaculate. There were vintage cars and classic cars, motorcycles and tractors to view; Chris said it was always worrying when some of the classic cars were younger than him.

The rally was very free and easy and we were impressed the way the marshals had arranged for the Red Arrows display team to fly over again and again and again but never when Chris had his camera to hand. In the evening we went to the fair and Diane went back to her childhood by riding on the Carousel horses.

At Flag on Sunday in bright sunshine, Nigel Needham represented the club members in thanking all the marshals for organising and running the rally and presented them with their mugs and plaques .We were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary the following Tuesday and we found out that Peter and Helena were celebrating their 30th on the same day but that they had 30 minutes seniority. Helena was also celebrating her birthday the next day and was given a birthday card. Both couples were presented with anniversary cards but ours was a Silver Wedding one. We would not normally mention this mistake but it is not often you can get revenge for getting the write up. (The card looks good with +5 written on it)

The Children's competition of guess the number of sweets in the jar was won by Leanne. The winning number was 53 and the prize was the jar of sweets.

It was good to meet up with old friends and to make new ones. We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend and the bonus was the extra night free. R started to rain heavily whilst we were packing up on the Monday but that failed to ruin what was a great rally.

Thank you lan, Jane & Amy; Peter Helena,Nicola, Christopher, Tim, Katrina & Rachel

Chris and Diane M