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THE
HEARTBEAT RUN :: 23 MARCH 2003
There was no
denying that this was a MINI
Adventure and then some...
The fun started
on the Saturday night with the
quiet meal that turned into
the feeding of the 5000. Two
tables, a slap up meal and quite
a few beers later we had put
faces to quite a few names from
MINI2 and made some great new
friends. Andy, Laura, DinkaDonka,
Chris, M2....great meeting you
all.
The next morning
we were not so bright eyed and
definitely not bushy tailed
but once we'd managed to wedge
Shirls and Abbie into the back
of Mo we were off!
The sight that greeted us in
Thirsk was fantastic. A sea
of MINIs occupied one whole
side of the square. When we
finally got parked and extracted
Shirls and Abbie from the back
seats again we met up with Martin
for registration and stickers.
Finding the Scottish contingent
didn't take long with the saltires
fluttering from the car aerials.
Alan promptly announced he had
a surprise for us. I initially
though he was going to get a
round in then he produced the
C-U-Jimmy hats (see pic).The
most worrying factor here is
that Willie and Alan actually
suited them!
Due to the shear
numbers of cars involved it
was decided to spilt the run
into two groups. Alan and me
were in group one, Linda and
Willie in group two. At 10am,
Tim sounded his horn and we
were off to a chorus of horns
and people waving. I think we
made it round the corner before
we ground to a halt for the
first of many stops... roadworks!
False start! It didn't take
long before we were moving again
and were soon speeding down
the narrow lanes of the North
Yorkshire Moors National Park.
It was an incredible sight to
see a line of Minis coming down
one side of the valley and snaking
up the other side, Minis as
far as the eye could see. We
traveled through half a dozen
quaint little hamlets, had one
stop to wait on a group who'd
gone the wrong way then into
Helmsley for another stop to
regroup.
We then headed up onto the moors
again and up and down the roads
around Hutton-le-Hole. This
is where poor Martin's stress
levels went into the red. Unfortunately
it was about this point in proceedings
that we had a couple of 'incidents'.
Laura skidded of the road into
the moor and bent her suspension
which sadly meant the end of
the run for her and Stu, some
plank drove into the side of
DinkaDonka's S and the two groups
converged on the wee hamlet
of Hutton-le-Hole at the same
time! Chaos!
Hats off
to Martin, Jane and Carl we
soon got sorted out and on our
way for a much needed break
and lunch at the Postgate. After
a very welcome feed and refreshing
drink it was time to relax and
enjoy the unseasonably good
weather, take a few piccys and
wait for group two to arrive
before we set off again.
It wasn't long before we were
driving through a scene that
would be all too familiar to
the fans of Heartbeat. I'm not
so it was all new to me. Goatland
was very picturesque and appeared
to be populated by sheep and
tourists. Anyway, it was at
about this time that the first
signs of unrest were coming
from the back seat. Shirls who
had been asleep for half the
day anyway was threatening to
sue me for her impending attack
of DVT and Abbie wanted her
tea so I knew the end was nigh
as far as our participation
in the run was concerned.
So when everyone
else headed south for Pickering
we tooted the horn, gave one
last wave and went north to
Whitby and back to Thirsk.
By all accounts the cruise in
Scarbourgh was quite a spectical
and even brought out the local
boy racers. Did anyone get a
picture of the BMW with blue
neon underlights?
Big thanks to the organisers
and all our new friends from
south of the border.
Monsta Mo Mini
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