Dutch hotrod show 16 -17 November '13

[Manky Monkey]

We may have been invited to display it, yes. 

[Bus Boy]

International fame.......one step closer to taking over the world!, as Pinky said to The Brain!!!!

[Olds]

Nice. Well done Andy and Marcus. All that hard work really shows.

[scannerzer]

good job Andy ,looks good on show

[panthershaun]

all I can say is Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk!!!!! what a cool time was had by all...

[hunter]

Sounds like ou enjoyed yourselves.Well done Andy.

[Manky Monkey]

I think the Brain said it to Pinky didn't he?

"You are from Eengland? Und you droves it heere? You guysh are crazshy".

[BikerGran]

Crazy?  Nonsense, it's a car isn't it?  That's what you do with cars, drive 'em!

[Manky Monkey]

Already planning on taking the Pop, the T bucket & a pick-up full of XS650s next year.

[Manky Monkey]

So. Where do we start?
I'd psyched myself up for the trip & was going, no matter what, but as we pulled out of the workshop yard in the Pop late on Wednesday night, Mr Loon wasn't feelin' it quite so much.
"You up for this? There's still time to turn back".
"Nope. Let's do this thing".

The trip could've ended before we even left Basingstoke. We stopped at the local all night petrol station to fill up & the automated pump wouldn't recognise my debit card & wouldn't let me have it back. A few minutes of mild panic ensued until I managed to wrestle it free & try again. Accepted. Phew.
Midnight. It's 150 miles to Harwich. We've got 2 full tanks of gas, half a pack of chewing gum, it's dark & we haven't got a SatNav. Or paint. Or opening windows. Or a heater.
Hit it! 

[Manky Monkey]

We didn't have to be at the ferry port till 8am for our crossing at 9, but we figured that once we were packed, gassed up & ready, we might as well get under way. After the hiccup at the filling station & a slow patch of roadworks on the M25, we rolled into Harwich terminal at about 3.30 in the morning. It was dark, cold & raining. Ahh well, better try & get some sleep for a couple of hours.
Although Loony had welded up the worst gaps in the roof the day before, there were still enough holes left for the rain to soon start dripping in on us as we huddled in the cold metal cab. Seems that while we're moving, the water's pushed away to the back of the roof, but when we're parked up it runs down towards the front -& drips through, onto the 2 muppets sat inside. After half an hour, we admitted defeat & drove across the terminal to a Morrisons petrol station. I parked up alongside one of the pumps under the canopy & we settled down for a long wait.
6am & we were woken from our fitful slumber by 2 women opening up the station. They were annoyingly chirpy, but then they hadn't spent the night in a motorised tin can. Suffering from a massive cramp in my leg from sleeping with my foot jammed under the brake pedal, I fell out of the cab & took the opportunity to refill the main tank.
We rumbled back to the carpark & an hour or so later PantherShaun arrived. He'd come up from Kent in his daily driver & was riding with Dale in his '47 Ford coupe when he showed up.
We adjourned to the departure waiting lounge -a soulless, empty building, but it was warm, dry & had a coffee machine & a loo. 8.0.clock came & went & there was no sign of the rest of our intrepid travellers. Other cars were arriving & boarding & the staff from the loading area told us the gates would be locked at 8.30. C'mon guys!
Eventually we heard a distant rumble & 3 motors pulled up outside. Dale in his newly acquired bright red '47 Ford, Beanie & Ian in a pale yellow F100 pick-up, (the shop truck for Beanie's business, Buckland Automotive -his model T roadster pick-up had broken down the night before), plus Russ & Tim in Russ's killer 450bhp green model A sedan. Intros made, we hustled round to the ferry & up the ramp.
This is it -we're on our way.

[merv]

I'm gripped 

[Manky Monkey]

Sorry. Doing other stuff between posts. Settle down, dear reader, & I'll tell you more of our adventures in the land of clogs.

What do you do on a ferry for 6 hours? It was very comfortable, but there's only so many times you can wander around the traveller's lounge before it gets boring. We chatted, we had breakfast in the restaurant, we bought a drink at the bar, we leafed through the magazine selection, we stared out of the window. We fell asleep. Some of us snored.
Finally, we arrived at the Hook of Holland terminal. We headed down to the car deck & fired up our respective rods. Here we go then. First time driving on foreign soil.
With an hour's time difference, by the time we'd stopped at a petrol station & got underway, we hit Rotterdam's motorway system in the dark, in the rain, in the middle of the evening rush hour. It was all a bit ...intense. Peering through the Pop's chopped screen, I gripped the wheel & prayed we didn't lose sight of the guys in front. It wasn't till we were separated from them by half a dozen huge lorries that we realised we had no idea where we were going. We had no map, no SatNav & no phone signal. Ooh, bugger. The road opened up into 4 lanes, all going in different directions. Which way did they go? If we picked the wrong one we'd never find them again & would be adrift on our own in a country where we couldn't speak a word of the language. All we could do was keep going straight on. Bugger, bugger, bugger. No sign of our compadres. This is not good. We anxiously scanned the sea of tail lights ahead of us, all the while probably heading in completely the wrong direction ....Aha! Just as we were starting to panic, we spotted Beanie's yellow truck up ahead -follow that Ford!
A few miles further on, we re-grouped in a motorway filling station. 3 vehicles. Russ & Tim had been behind us but had disappeared in the traffic & rain spray, last seen heading for Belgium I think. We waited. Half an hour later we were still waiting. Beanie's phone rang. With commendable calm, they'd headed for a McDonalds, where they could use the free wi-fi to get their bearings on a Smart Phone. They'd meet us at Eindhoven. So, already one car down, we set off into the Dutch darkness once more.     

[BikerGran]

Watching with bated breath!

[Manky Monkey]

 
So it was full steam ahead for Eindhoven. Dale had booked us a 12 person lodge for the weekend, but we couldn't have it till Friday. So the plan was to spend Thursday night at a small hotel, then travel on in the morning. The motorway drive had been pretty hectic, but it wasn't till we got off it & onto the A roads that I got my first real taste of driving on the "wrong" side of the road. With the recently fitted door glass not actually winding up & down, I couldn't adjust the mirrors while we were driving. The rear cab window's very scratched & cloudy, so trying to change lanes on a fast moving motorway became a matter of indicating, then waiting for Mr Loon to crane his head round, check the way was clear & shout Go! above the din of the V8. Dale's coupe didn't have mirrors or indicators, so as we followed him, he'd suddenly switch lanes without warning. Interesting.
Wrong side driving wasn't actually as bad as I'd feared, although I had no idea which side of the bollards I had to be at junctions. Fortunately I just had to blindly follow the car in front. Not sure how I'd fare if I was looking for road numbers at the same time though. Some of the guys had been to previous Jumpin' Jalopys shows & knew lots of the local hotrodders. Our hotel was right in the middle of town, so they'd arranged for us to park the cars overnight at the clubhouse of local crew, The Flake Kings. Their place was tucked away down a cobbled side street, behind an electric roller shutter door. Wow, what a workshop! These guys were organised. The 'shop was stuffed full of interesting motors & cool automobilia. They had a bar, sofas, washroom -I could move into this place. The Kings turned out to be the nicest bunch of chaps you could hope to meet. Like all Dutch, they spoke better English than we did & were so welcoming. Very cool. They really did treat us like Kings.
Our last travelling companion joined us while we were there. "Clumsy" Kate makes & sells hotrod clothing & jewellery & was trading at the show. She'd flown in from Britain. Lovely lady & great company. That made 9 of us. We had 3 more to go as Miles & Andy of Jackhammer hotrod shop in Farnborough & Simon, (Nefarious Pinstriping), were driving up through the Eurotunnel in a hire van & meeting us at the lodge.