a fairground life(stranraer conclusion)

Saturday
I was up at 10am. Since I was moving tonight I picked up the loose items (Q hand rail, ladders,spare main) around the miami and packed them for the road. The lorry had sat for 3 weeks so I checked the water, oil and fuel levels. I then went to start the lorry to thaw it out. What do you know! it started A ok, I wouldn't have been surprised if I had to attach the battery charger. Since all systems were go for tonight and we would not be opening until 2pm, my wife and I went for lunch at Portpatrick. This is a small village on the coast about 7 miles from Stranraer. As the name suggests it is a small port. The setting is quite lovely and if you are ever passing it is worth a visit. After a fine lunch we returned to Stranraer in time for opening. The afternoon was very very quiet. I closed for tea at 4:20pm and did not open again until 6pm. At 9:20pm I closed. Unknown to me at the time, the top end of the fair had closed at 9pm as a bit of trouble had erupted at the Tagada ride. I don't know the full story, but seemingly four youths had pounced on the operator and other showmen had to pull them off. At 11pm I was ready for the road but still could not get out of the fair because of other rides and vehicles blocking the way. This was only due to the narrowness of the location. One good thing about most rides being trailer mounted is that it relieves the need for a vehicle to pack it into. Take for instance my old upright paratrooper, that was awkward to erect and pack up. I had to stand the pole up, then take the lorry off and move it to the opposite side. This was in the middle of the fair, erect the top of the ride then move the lorry again in behind the ride before finishing it off. That was three times to move the lorry and at least one of those times I was hindering someone else from erecting their centre plot equipment. Of course it was another three times in reverse to pull the ride down at at least one of those times the centre plot I mentioned was hindering me now. Multiply that by every large ride on the fair (chair o planes, dive bomber, octopus,dodgem, big wheel, skid etc all needed the lorries moved into position) and that's a lot of traffic! With trailer mounted rides, if there is a passage through the fair it pretty much is always clear ( except when it is tracking laid on a soft field, then showmen see it as a good place to park their vehicles, which defeats the purpose of having it, as you can't drive along it to exit the fair!!!!!). Eventually just before midnight I did get out onto the main road. We coupled the touring caravan to the jeep and reversed it along the pier onto the road. I let my wife go first while I followed so that if there was a problem with the jeep, I would be coming up behind her. At 2:20 am we arrived at the next fair. I pulled the machine on its plot and headed for the yard with the trailer. By the time we got there and got set it was 3am, time for bed.
Sunday
8am and the alarm goes off. I give "r" a knock and just before 9am we set off to build the miami up. It is a quick easy machine to erect and by 11am we are ready for opening at noon. The rain started just as we opened, so it is quiet, plenty of time to write this blog! 6pm arrived and closing time. As we switched the power off at each ride "r" discovered that the DZ plug was melting. On closer inspection we found it was one pin of the plug. So that will be tomorrows job.