A fairground Life (THERE AND BACK AGAIN "R's" Tale)

Campbeltown

5:30am and the alarm goes off, at this point I am already regretting the trip to Campbeltown, I dragged myself out of bed and picked up my bag I packed the night before. It was a short trip to the house to pick up showman and then off to pick up a good friend of mine who would be making the trip with me "RM", from there we headed out to the Mall where the Drop zone was waiting for us. On arrival RM quickly put the bags in the cab of the lorry while I set about starting it and building the air up, but this was a no go as the lorry turned over once and then died, so it was out with the battery charger and on with the generator. Within five minutes the charger had the lorry roaring to life and the air was coming up nicely. Another ten minutes passed as I had a last look round and we where on our way. Showman followed us in the pick up to the junction for the M8 and from there he headed back home. I think that was the point at which it really dawned on me that I would be doing this not so much alone but without guidance. Campbeltown is run by another showman we call "Shiney shows" (on account of how clean he keeps his equipment) but for easy writing i'll just call him SS. The plan was for us to leave together but he ended up leaving half an hour behind me by the time he picked up his wee brother KS this meant I got to go in front. For weeks people have told me that the road to Campbeltown is one of the worst they have driven and one person even told Showman that if he wanted the ride back in one piece he would need to drive it there and back himself ( Thank you for the vote of confidence ! ). I will admit that it is the most dangerous road I have ever driven, narrow with blind corners and verges that are anything but forgiving. I will say that I did have a few "hairy" moments on the 140 mile journey, one being a Loch gate that you cross just the other side of Lochgilphead, there are no lights or signs to tell you that you are approaching the bridge ( that can be open or closed ) and as you turn the 90 degree blind corner you have less than 100 yards to swerve away from on coming traffic as the road goes from two way to single track for crossing the bridge itself ! I admit I was lucky that there was no coming traffic or I would have been in trouble. After the bridge at Lochgilphead the journey was less eventful as I'd had the s@&ts put up me and I drove with much more consideration! We arrived at Campbeltown around 11 am and I phoned SS to see where he was at, he had stopped in Tarbert ( 35 miles away ) to book the B&B for us that night and would soon be on his way again. I took this opportunity to park the drop zone on the sea front and have a look at the ground. The site itself was a small car park between three buildings with access via a narrow side road that opened onto the high street, a tight get in to say the least and to make things just that bit harder there were cars parked everywhere. There was a sign up at the entrance to the car park stating that it would be "closed at 1pm" and a 12:30pm SS turned up with KS and we set about stopping cars from entering. Within half an hour we had decided that enough cars had left to try and get the drop zone in, we were WRONG. SS and I went back to the parked ride to bring it in, but alas the bad battery had not taken a charge on the long journey. Luckily SS had a booster pack that we put on and that got the lorry started ( I could see this was going to be an on going problem ). First off I tried to go up the high street and swing right into the narrow road leading to the car park, but it was too tight so it was decide to take a drive round the town and come down the High street and swing left. I got half way round the town when I turned right to go down one of the small streets and I got stuck! A van driver had parked and I could not get passed plus the drop zone was still blocking the road I had just turned off of. It was mayhem! Again luck struck and the driver was only talking across the road, he saw the commotion and quickly shifted. Eventually I had come full circle and was making the left turn into the side street leading to the car park, again this was lined with cars and very narrow, my drivers wing mirror was brushing the wall of a building and I was clearing the cars on my left by mere inches. From this point on it took us an hour and a half just to get off the side street and into the car park, we tried reversing in but parked cars would not let the lorry follow the truck so we straightened up and reversed back down the street we had just driven up and drove into the car park but this meant the ride's tower would be the wrong way and could not swing, so we spent another 30 minutes jack-knifing the truck around with only a few feet to spare. I have to say that without SS, KS and RM there is no way I would have got into that car park, especially KS who has a real knack for guiding using every inch available to get me in ( Thank you ). After that the build up was easy. RM and I threw the drop zone up and grabbed a quick bite to eat, while we waited on darkness falling and the people coming out. About 5 pm folks started to arrive and we stayed open till 9pm. Business was steady but we were just a bit too far from the main event ( a parade down the high street ) and this did hinder us. The pull down was uneventful and I had put the battery charger on the lorry while we were open so it started no problem, by half ten we where back on the road heading towards Tarbert for their light up the next night. The road at night was a lot quieter and I was following SS who knew it better than I, so it was easy driving as I was only following a set of tail lights. We arrived at Tarbert about midnight and drove right onto the plot as it had been coned off for our arrival, I uncoupled the drop zone and parked the lorry behind it while there were no cars in the way as the main street was quiet. After that I walked across the street and checked into the Tarbert Hotel. A strange experience to say the least as I have never stayed in a hotel between light ups, as we usually just head home but I guess this time we were just a bit far out for that.

Tarbert

The next day RM and I slept through breakfast and right on till noon! Unlike SS and KS who have never been known to miss a meal (lol). We got up had quick showers and set about building up the drop zone which again was uneventful apart for a brief 30 seconds where we had to stop traffic so we could swing the tower across the main road. RM and I where all done for 2pm and headed back into the hotel for a quick wash and to check out. SS and KS took us to a cafe that they frequent during the summer (when they are opened here for three weeks) and introduced us to the owner, from there we went to the art shop where SS showed me photos and paintings of the fairground during the summer and one of his 50 foot wagon on the quay side in the middle of the town by itself. Then we went to the ruins of the castle to see the town from a high vantage point and collected some branches for the owner of the cafe to paint silver and decorate the cafe windows with for the coming festivities. I have to admit the four of us looked somewhat peculiar walking through the town with arms full of sticks! KS cracked a few jokes about pagan rituals and we had a good laugh, this earned us a free meal when we stopped by the cafe again just before opening so it was worth it ! We opened at 5pm and the parade came down the high street and stopped right in front of the drop zone while the local councilor said a few words from the balcony of the hotel, it looked like we where going to get something as we had a few runs after the speech ( In which the councilor thanked SS for putting on the fair and congratulated him on his new drop zone ride ! ) but the weather beat us and the rain came down hard clearing the street, at 8:30pm RM and I started pulling down and by 10pm we were on our way back to Glasgow. I followed SS to Lochgilphead where he stopped for fuel while I carried on. It was plain sailing all the way to the Erskine bridge where I stopped for fuel in preparation for Alloa the next morning. After that it was a quick hop over the bridge where I caught up with SS again just as he was cutting off the M8. From there I went to the layby where showman was waiting to pick us up and take RM home. That was the end of our little adventure, 280 miles 2 fairs 2 days and a guided tour of Tarbert ! I have to say I earned more in experience than I did in cash and travelling with SS, KS and RM was without a doubt the highlight of the whole thing, we had a good laugh, but I was glad to be home!