| DUXFORD SEPT 2004 |
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DUXFORD, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM INTER-COUNTY MEET SUNDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER
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Martin (Piddy) and John decided to arrange an inter-county RHOCaR/SG7s meeting at the museum on 19th September 2004. Invites were extended to all areas of RHOCaR, the gathering was posted on the RHOCaR site. In the end East Anglia, Herts, Oxford and SG7s joined in.
John arranged to meet at the Baldock Services to depart at 0930 (7 cars + 1 tintop), and then to pick up at the Little Chef at Royston (2 cars), just time for a quick photo.
My car decided to have a good old cough and splutter and nearly died on me when I was accellerating off from the Little Chef roundabout but after backing off the gas, she picked up again and off we went. Thank you to the very gallant drivers who realised something was wrong and waited for me to sort things out! Very much appreciated. General opinion is dirt in the carb or possibly needs new spark plugs, a job for my super mechanic next week! What would I do without him, learn myself I guess, oh joy!
Anyway, had a good drive up to Duxford, about 30 miles from Stevenage. The East Anglian convoy had already arrived and settled in. Martin filled in a group booking form, since there were over 20 of us we qualified for a £2 reduction in entrance fee from £10 to £8. We were expecting the Oxford guys to arrive so waited a while for them but they didn't. Apparently, they arrived at 1115, we had waited until 1100 and then decided to go in. Having not been to the museum since 1991, we noticed a very big change in the facilities/hangars. So much to see, if we were to stop and read every information point we would still be there now, a great deal of very interesting information in every hangar. Concorde used to be parked outside but now is in one of the hangars, some of the airplanes are open to walk through including Concorde not a lot of room inside, Sandie managed to bump her head, not something she does very often apparently, (she is not very tall). I remember when Concorde landed at Duxford. Once she was there, they dug up the runway and pushed the M11 through so she would never be able to leave, by air anyway.
If you have £29 to spare, pleasure flights take you a couple of times round the airfield and back. Not something we could tempt John into doing. He has never flown before and was NOT going to start at Duxford! We even suggested we club together to all pay a little towards sending him up. NO WAY!! His feet stayed firmly on the ground. I would have been tempted had it been a helicopter, that is something I do want to do.....
If anyone wants a better look at what there is on offer at the Museum, check out the web site on:
There is a road train that travels the whole length of the complex, easy to hop on and off to save the legs a bit, and amazingly, at no extra cost! Value for money is definitely what you get from the museum.
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A selection of photographs taken by us
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Some photos in the car park
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 Mike Shearing's 2B
John Peach's 2B 
 Pete Ray's 2B
 John and Mal
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Oxford Area - an apology!
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A big sorry to John and Christine Peach and Pete Ray for missing them, as I have already explained we waited outside in the car park until 11.00. They arrived at 11.15 and we never met up. They did apparently bump into Richard Sumner. We left the car park at about 4pm, the last to leave apart from John and Pete!
John sent us this e-mail:
Hi John
We were a bit late, arrived about 11.15, it was over 80 miles and I hadn't allowed enough time. We traversed the site in number order, i.e. hanger 1 then 2 etc. We thought we would easily pick out other hoodies when we saw you, but guess what ? a hoodie without his hood looks just like other normal people !!!
Saw Richard Sumner who I recognised, but that was it.
A very nice display of cars, well done to your two areas for such good support. The cars were pulling in lots of admirers when we arrived, I am the red one B2 RHE and the blue one is Pete Ray from Bicester.
I just don't know how we didn't get a good soaking on the way home, but we went under some awful weather yet saw no rain all the way home to Reading.
It was a good day out, thanks for inviting us, Christine and I really enjoyed it, and thanks for waiting for us , twice. I'm sorry we missed you.
Perhaps one day we will manage to meet! I at least now have John's telephone number so we should find getting together slightly easier...
Glad that they didn't get wet going home, we thought we were going to get a shower but were lucky not to, very threatening and dark at times. Helen has just reminded me to do a weather report for the day. The forecast had been good and sure enough it was sunny, fresh and breezy at times, very nice.
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A great day was had by all, thanks to everyone for making the effort to come.
Attendees:
SG7s/Herts
Sandie, Derek and Simon - Dax Rush
John - Cobra
John, Helen, Richard and Caroline, Griff, Stephen, Chris Brown, - Hoodies
Mal - Westfield
David - Caterham
Lesley and son - tintop
Anglia
Mike Shearing,(2b) Bob Rowell,(S7)Gerry Kemp,(2b) Neil Brown,(S7) Martin & Danny Pidd,(2b) Linda & Andy Petrie,(2b) Yvonne & Peter Blackmore,(2b)
Debbie & Ryan Pidd, (Mondeo).
Oxford
John and Christine Peach, Pete Ray
We are looking forward to the next joint meeting, suggestions welcome for next year please....
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