An eye-witness account...
We went straight to the Witney tour. Then John and Arnoud
drove down to Braishfield while i drove back to Gaydon to take
part in the discussion organised in the Museum there by the main
men of the Heritage Trust. Then when it was time for me to leave,
i found that my indicators were not working!
It was pissing down with rain, and after about one hour of
searching to find the problem ( dismantling the dashboard,
fusebox, inline fuses, steering column, and indicator unit etc )
i aventually gave up (along with several other miniacs who made
suggestions, exchanged flasher units etc) and called the AA
breakdown service. When he came and saw the things i had checked,
he said " Nought i can do more than you have already
done.", and needed a lot of coaxing ( it was really pissing
down, and i was soaked to the skin,my shoes had decided to fill
with water and "Stimpy" was also rather full of warter!
) he had a look at all the things i had been doing, before
deciding "can't help yer, but I can call an auto electrishen
mate o' mine who lives up t' road and he'll do it right for yer
termorrer'.
I was not amused! I said so! I was suppossed to have been in
Braishfield by now setting up camp for the night!
I 've still got 2 1/2 hours driving and he wants me to stay here!
So i asked politely for his can of contact spray to get some of
the varnish off the fuses in the fusebox (though they weren't the
problem) and after doing most of the things i already had done
before again, I found ANOTHER HIDDEN inline fuse! on the same
circuit! gave that a clean and hey presto! indicators work
again!.
Checked everything was back in place ( except the flasher unit
which is still hanging out from behing$d the dash for easier
future access) only to find that all the messing around had
confused the alarm system completely, and when running the car
the alarm thinks it is on, but doesn't do anything, and when not
driving the alarm stays stubbornly off!.
I started out from Gaydon at about 18:30 and had just joined
the A40 when i heard on the radio that the road was blocked
completely due to a Tea/coffee caravan stopping for a rest and
lay-down in the middle of the road! Another hour later the
traffic cleared as had trhe rain,and I dashed down to Braishfield
( great fun on the last bit of winding roads! Met a
RangeRover coming round the bend on my side and we are both going
just a little bit fast, we both made a swing to our left up the
grass bank and must have missed scraping roof's by a few
centimetres! (I didn't stop to see what the other person thought
about that as they were just as much in the wrong as I was.)
Finally reached Braishfield camp to be met by Arnoud,John,and
Yvonne who very kindly had kept some of their supper for me or
anyone else arriving late ( big thanks Yvonne for the food and
Arnoud for the coffee!) After setting up tent just before it got
dark i settled down for supper and coffee with them.
A little while later MTB turned up and we all helped to get their
caravan and awning/tent setup in the dark. handy thing that
generator and spotlight they had! Watched a few shooting stars
and flashbombs (on some nearby military ground) in the skies and
then all went for an evening at the pub! (the camp was next to
the pub).