Thursday, October 25, 2007

Wicked Camper Adventure to Edinburgh - Part 1

Weekend at Edinburgh

So do you like................ stuff?

One thing I definitely like is road trips and this one definitely did not disappoint.

The weekend got off to a mixed start. I managed to land my job at around 3pm and then had to rush off to pack my bags not just for the trip but also so I could move out of the place that I had been staying at.

30 minutes later and I was heading up to Colliers Wood to get on the tube out to Kilburn Park where we were picking up with Wicked Campers.

As I reached the front of the train station the gate was slammed in front of me, and the bellowing announcement that someone had jumped in front of the train came over the loud speakers.

As people poured out of the station there was a mixture of emotions. On one hand there were young children crying to their mothers, grown women crying over the phone to their significant other, while there were others that we're vocally shitty about the fact that this had slowed their progress home on a Friday afternoon.

I jumped in a minibus and headed for Stockwell station where I could still get to my destination. It takes about 10 minutes on the tube, but 25 minutes later we arrived and I was now running late.

Once I got on the tube one of the passengers rang the emergency bell which slowed us for another 10 minutes............ was I even supposed to go on this road trip? Was all this telling me that there was going to be a accident while we were away?

I got to the Wicked Camper offices just after 6 to find the Scoville's sitting on the couch waiting for the 7 other road trippers.

We all turned up in drips and drabs and after payment and paperwork we were ready to hit the road.

There were 9 of us on the road trip, Kita, Lana, Andy, Sam and myself in the Clockwork Orange van and Tod, Tyson, Toni-Louise and Michaela in the Marvin the Martian van.

It took us a little while to get out of London, but with Sam's trusty Tom Tom wedged into the back seat and the Ipod pumping tunes through the radio we had everything we needed to get just about anywhere.

The further we got into the night the easier the drive seemed to get. Both Tod and I nailed coffee's while everyone else nailed the beers, but thanks to some very weak bladders (Andy, I'm not naming any names) we got plenty of opportunities to stop along the way (and maybe "borrow" some salt, pepper, facewipes, milk, sugar and knives and forks).

Although we were able to make it we decided to pull up about 80 miles outside of Edinburgh in a small town. We thought it would be nice to camp in a field in the country before hitting another city.

Oh, and we were also both out of fuel and the station wasn't open until the next morning.

So there we were, 3am with rapidly dropping fuel gauges, pitch black country side and no idea where we were. We drove around a few back road farms until we came across a paddock with the gate open. ahhhhhh, bed for the night.

We unloaded the eskies, chairs, tents and guitars and sat around for a few hours while we soaked up the cold country lifestyle. Tyson and Tod strummed away at the guitars while Andy played solo on the bongo's (see the movie to find out just how solo it was).

One by one we faded off to the cars or the tents for some shut eye, and when we woke up in the morning........... well that's for part 2.

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