a fairground life(millport)

We left for 9 am on Wednesday morning. High tide would be around 10am at Largs and this would assist us in getting the loads onto the ferry without grounding (too much). Blakey was convoy leader and lead the way. He took us the Kilbirnie road. It was about 6 mile shorter, but was tight,twisiting, had a low bridge and massive down hill S bend 1:10 at the end! Any how I wasnt sure how high the DZ was so when we approached the low bridge(13'9") I called my wife and told her to hang back a bit incase the top sodium light got knocked off. It didn't though. On the down hill S bend I decided to knock the twin splitter down a gear. I had my foot on the brakes at the time so I could not give the engine a burst of revs and it went into neutral instead!!!! Luckily the brakes were upto the job and we managed down the 10% gradient ok. The ferry port is small in Largs and when we all pulled in to it we nearly blocked the town. The ferry came in and as we boarded I raised the air suspension. Without any problems (or so I thought) we drove on. At the other end we were quickly off and drove the short distance to the new site of the fairground. "j" (organiser) was there to meet us and show us the layout. Almost at once a local lady came out from her house and in no uncertain terms made it clear she was not happy about the placement of the small fair, directly across the main road in front of her house. My wife did her best to appease her while we got on with the job in hand. We set the touring caravans first on the narrow grassy site. It took a while to arrange the layout of the equipment due to a park bench in the middle of the site. Then I noticed it was not fastened down and we just lifted it out the way! Next onsite was the DZ. We put down a couple of planks to protect the kerb while I drove up onto the grassy area. The DZ got on site and only had o reverse about 50ft onto is plot. It would not move-stuck. I tried to pull it back with the jeep by hooking a chain onto the chassis, nope! Next we tried Blakey's lorry-no go. "j" and I got into his jeep and we went to get the help of the local farmer and his biggest tractor. While we were waiting for him to come down to the fair site my wife managed to lock us out of the Hobby caravan. Luckily she had opened the roof skylight and I climbed through it. Shortly afterwards the tractor arrived. After two attempts the DZ was set. I guided Blakey onto his position next to me then noticed he was blocking the tower path and had to move him back again. Give him his due though, Blakey give me a hand to get the DZ up (thanks). So for Wednesday night all the fair was set up ready for building control the next morning.During this time I noticed that during the entry/exit of the ferry I had grounded the tail of the DZ and tore out every single wire of the tailboard, bent the mounting bracket and almost ripped the whole thing off. Thursday was a lazy day for me. After the site inspection I repaired the wiring and raised the tailboard then hung a couple of extra flags around the ride to theme it more to the Country & Western weekend. The whole town makes an effort with the shop front made up with fake cowboy fronts, bales of hay and barrels. The front is lined with stars n stripes, confederate and Texan flags. There is quite a lot to see and do over the 2 days, Harley Davidsons, Mack truck, stage show, line dancing, Large parade along the front, 4 horse stage coach, Country singers and everyone in Western fancy dress. That early evening we went to the nearest pub. It was managed by an old friend of mine. (Lucky or what) , it was only 50 yards from the fair. Good job as I staggered it back that night. Friday-I enjoyed a 10 mile cycle around the island on a hired bike. It had been about 30 years since I had rode one and my body ached all the next day. "j" met up with me and told me that environmental had been on the phone to say that they had received complaints about the noise of the fair last night. That's funny he told them, it doesn't open until tonight! We opened at 6pm that night and fiddled until 9:30pm then closed. Saturday- opened sharp at 12noon and watched the busses role into town. It was not busy by any means but we slowly pegged away until 10pm. I noticed the time and told my wife to call last ride as the license was only until 10pm and I didn't want to provide any extra ammunitions for the NIMBYs. Sunday was wet, very wet. We opened at 12:30pm and closed at 2:30pm. We were all back at the ferry for 6pm. Again thanks to j and c from the skyliner crew who helped me pulldown and get off site. The DZ managed it fine but the skyliner needed towed off by fatso's 6 wheeler. The picts show the ferry crossing, parade and the fair at Largs as we crossed to Millport.