GREAT RIBBLE 100 EVENT SHAME ABOUT OUR VAN THOUGH

A really good weekend at Morecambe although it was of course tinged with annoyance at the latest in a chain of breakdowns with the most unreliable Volkswagen van ever. As it has to go back to the meain dealer in Manchester and is presently at Kwik Fit in Northwich we'll have to get hold of the RAC to do the move on Tuesday as the dealership doesn't open other than standard working days, for those outside UK its a public holiday here on Monday. I managed to get the Stagecoach open day at Morecambe edited and ready to sell last night and managed to shift 66% of the stock made so we've a few left for the initial run of orders. The weather today was abysmal to start although yet again not a drop had fallen in our garden. We had set up the stand last night so after a quick brew it was outside to see the early bus arrivals including the unloading of the eldest exhibits.

The Morecambe Football Stadium was a superb venue and really worked well other than getting the stock up to the 1st floor in a tiny lift but they did us all proud with on urn ready all day for brewing up. It hurled it down and the wind howled, I managed to keep the cameras dry and got shots of most arrivals and then later in the day caught up with a couple I missed and then as the sun finally broke through in the afternoon got the company vehicles with commemorative liveries on the promenade and buses on the various free shuttle services.

The organisation was efficient without being heavy handed and over marshalled, just right. We met many old and new friends and bumped into folk we'd not seen for a while. Sales came out quite well by the end of the day, the new Ribble book from MDS next to us obviously soaked up a lot of peoples money at £38 a go. Anyway we managed to get packed up and bid the usual round of good byes, it was a bit of a blast from the past working from an ordinary family car, perhaps we've gone full round now. So other than the van lots of events coming up, we'll be at Gaydon for the vintage trucks in a couple of weeks time even if using the car again and attending the Kelsall event as a punter. The Kirkby running day is next Sunday which I hope to get to.

Plenty of editing to do, a nice long running DVD will come from today's coverage, still got the Folkestone film to do and Crawley. Anyway I'd better crack on, here are the first batch of shots from a wild, windy but friendly day celebrating 100 years of Ribble Motors at Morecambe. Here we go a double dollop as a treat!