:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

FANTASTIC :D One word that just about sums up the weekend :D

Big BIG thanks to CharlieWhiskey for the route - it was great, some cool roads and even cooler scenery :) However, I shall forever be cautious of crests now ;) (Bump - me, "wow we nearly took off there" looks in mirror, "jeez james just did" :D:D:D Truely was a WRC Makkinen moment :D) Sorry I didn't thank you CW - I thought you were coming back in the evening, otherwise I'd have said something before we left the pub.

Also a big thanks to ChrisB. Really appreciate your efforts in arranging hotel and being a tour guide for us (when we eventually found our way and stopped following the Nottingham lot ;) :rolleyes: That place seems a good location for when we do it again next year...... :D

To ditto Markus's comments, a great day on Sat - mostly dry with a little rain at the end of the day but didn't spoil anything we did. Nice one too to Bev (Thunderbird555) who did what can only be described as a superb job of keeping up with us nutters in her Sport - very well done and very impressed :D Quote for that day was "I've hit the rev limiter more today than in my entire time owning the car! I've done it about twice since I bought the car a year or so ago and hit it about 7 or 8 times so far today trying to keep up with you lot" :eek: :D:D:D:D:D:D

Great meal to be had in the evening - the food and the company was great and much beer to be drunk :rolleyes: Had a totally clear head Sunday morning so bring on AT :)

So, Sunday, wake up, pull back curtains - its peeing down :( Oh well. Head to AT and the suns out :D Turns out its going to stay like that ALL day :D and only rains right at the end!!
What a great day there we had too - AIR once, NEMESIS 3 :eek: times, OBLIVION twice, Hexx, Submission, Log Flume, River Rapids - twice, Corkscrew, Ripsaw(but I didn't do, wanted to stay dry at the end of the day - then it rained anyway :rolleyes: )

SUPERB - great weather and hardly any queues - whoever said an August weekend is the wrong time to go has obviously never been there at that time - two years running now we've never had any problems!!! :D:D:D:D:D

But those Damn wasps!!! Seen 2 all year where I live - they have definately all decided to move and take up residence at AT :(

Was great to meet up with Chuck and Nikki too :D But he just had to park the 22 next to the entrance so everyone on the Skyride could oggle it ;) :p :D:D

So headed home and lost Markus and Bev :( (no worrys - thought thats what happened, was all a bit manic getting out of AT!!!)

Headed to the M1, signs said of an accident at 13 but we carried on only to find out after doing 7 miles in about 1.5 hours they'd closed the motorway at jnc 14 and 12 northbound :( Left AT at about 7:30pm - got home about 12:30-12:45am :(:(:(:(:( Came off at Milton Keynes to go down the A5, but so did everyone else!

Fortunately a quick shufty at the map and we darted across country and headed down into Hemel Hempstead for the M25 instead, which was lovely and clear!! :D Sorry James if you wondered where on earth I was taking you but the A5 looked jammed and I'd seen the other route so thought to go for it - hope it was ok?!!!

Anyway - not to let that ruin it - the weekend was just GREAT!!

Thanks to everyone involved and who came, I had a superb time :D

Roll on next year :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[Edited by ScoobyJawa - 8/5/2002 11:47:49 AM]

lol @ do not stand in the boat :D:D:D Flipping woosies those blokes were!!!!

Agree though at the £2 to park - talk about milking it for all its worth - how long before Chessington and Thorpe do the same thing :( images/smilies/mad.gif

TIIIIIIIMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHH :D:D:D:D

Still coming down off the weekends high!!!!!!

[Edited by ScoobyJawa - 8/5/2002 4:34:09 PM]

The meal in the Toby was nice! :D

I wish i could have stayed to come to At but i had other commitments Sunday morning, back in Surrey

[Edited by IanW - 8/5/2002 7:03:04 PM]

Hi Guys & Gals, a pleasure to see you all make the effort to come so far & glad you enjoyed some of my favourite 'local' roads:D

Sorry I couldnt stop around for the evening but I had to help a mate flit as well over the weekend so now I'm well b*gg*red!;)

We didn't actaully do the whole route on the Sunday after sorting 'chelle out we just did the highlights before running off in search of the local 'facilities' :o ;)

I really wanted to go to AT as well this year but it was not to be:(

Oh well, there's always next year (for some of us ;))

P.s. I nominate the Whalley Bridge - Buxton road and the later 'Mooridge' road as two of the best in the country! Hope the weather was nice when you did them as the views from up there can be awesome :D

[Edited by CharlieWhiskey - 8/5/2002 8:57:13 PM]

Firstly,
Soz for disappearing last night people, Think I should have turned left instead of right out of the park, then it started to really chuck it down, so thought I'd go home, hmm, not good, was stuck on M1 for 2 hours :( Hope no-one thought i was being a git and buggering off. Was not intended to offend.

Right, onto the meat.

Well, the drive was awesome! thanks to CW for the route, Very nice, so glad I had my nice new clutch and my new found overboost problem! Lots of nice things to look at, and some mad sheepies! (as the original shark would say :D). The pub was great, good food and even better company, well, apart from the 'fake' shark comments made by someone, who shall remain nameless ;)

The drive from the pub to the hotel was nothing short of awesome. Especially one particular bit, where someone had a bit of a Tommi moment! Class!

Evening nosh was great, not that I remember much of it, methinks the shark needs to brush up on his boozing skils. Ah, sorry Lozza for droping your phone in your drink, just remembered about that! (hides in corner awaiting the wrath of Lozza :D:D)

So, onto the Sunday. Well, got up, my usual bright and bouncy self, bit of a headache, but not much of one, and the coffee helped. Hmm, rain, not good, but oh well, we're gonna have fun anyway.

So after a lesuirley breakfast, mainly discussing the nights entertainment provided by people in another room, we departed, and the weather was looking a bit brighter.

So, we get to AT.

First ride, Air, well it had to be. What can I say, it looked awesome and it was. Front row seats as well. Could be a bit quicker, but a rush nonetheless. BRING IT ON! :D (queue time 60 mins)

Met up with Chuck and Nikki, which was cool, so even more mad people to have fun with!

Next up was, umm, I *think* Nemisis, OMG!!!! Rush-a-thon or what! deffo the best ride there! (queue time 25 mins)

Think we then proceeded to have some nosh, and get harassed by the wasps, which all seem to have migrated to AT! :D

Next up was, i think, the water rides, as the weather was bright and sunny. Got a bit damp on the log flume, and a bit more wet on the raipids, but was worth it.

Then we popped over to Oblivion, due to it stating a 5 min queue time, which was bang on! Awesome ride! As Q was so short we went back for another go. YEAH BABY! love it!

Then did submission, which was ok.

Next up was Hex, which is mad, but cool

Then we popped over to UG land for the corkscrew, which was ok, you can certainly see how things have progrssed since it was built.

Some flying swing antics were had as well! lots of fun!

Then back over to Nemisis, which, has 15 min Q time, so we did it twice! YEAH BABY!!!! I love that ride!

We then decided to finish the day off with the rapids, and then the sky opened, so we got drenched! *shudder* just remembered about the speedos ;) *shudder* hehehe

Anyway, all in all a top, top, top weekend. Good to put faces to names, and good to see those I did not expect to see, and always good to see some of the gang.

Thanks in no order, to ScoobyJawa, ChrisB, and CharlieWhiskey for sorting out a top weekend.

In the words of us lot:

"Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !!!!!!!!"
:D

:(:(:(

You know what really pi$$es me off is that I was trying to find money for this & when I come into work today they give me a £4k pay rise images/smilies/mad.gif Wnakers!!!!

But on the plus side...I'm in the money, i'm in the money :D

Glad you all had a fab time without me :) but:(

Oh & glad to see you kept Timmy alive from last year :D

Timmmmmmyyyyy was very much alive from last year mate.

And added to the cries were: "YEAH BABY!" and "BRING IT ON!"

Plus lots of manic laughing! :D:D

MAFFA, you will be pleased to hear that I restrained myself from any close calls this year ;)

Sorry I didn't make it to the Sunday as I was in way too much pain to cope with a lot of walking and fun fair rides!!!!

Markus I think the person who said the *fake* shark remarks should be hung, wouldn't catch me saying that :o ;) :p :D

Sorry I didn't stay long on saturday wither, but great to meet new peeps and old faces :D (not literally old mind you :p :D)

Michelle.

Maffa, we'd also like to 'advise you not to STAND!' on the log flume LOL
Glad we met up folks. Amazed it wasn't busy..by 11am Nicki and I had ridden Air, Nemisis, the Haunted House, log flume, Black hole and Oblivion. *phew*
See ya next year (for the whole weekend :rolleyes: )
Chuck
PS Advance tickets rock! LOL So did our parking space :D :D

Chelle, you are so right about hanging em up. I'll arrange that the next time I meet them ;) :D:D:D Will make sure I have a metal ruler to hand as well ;) :D

Chuck, ya big showoff! parking where we could all see the car from the monorail! :D:D Was good to see you and Nikki again.

Top day out, but £2 for parking? that takes the pee!

Well, what can I add to this - still grinning now :D:D

Thanks to everyone involved in organising this. If every weekend could be like this one was, I'd be a very happy person :).

Drive was fantastic :D:D. I was happy to get the chance to see what I could get the car to do and was very happy not to hold the rest of you up :D.

Nice hotel, nice meal, great company. Less said about the occupants of a certain room the better ;). Never mind, still managed to wake up early on Sunday, despite the best efforts of said occupants to keep me awake until the early hours.

Alton Towers, excellent as ever (especially Air, Nemesis, Oblivion) except for the wasps :rolleyes: who were desperately trying to bully us into surrendering our food and drinks to them images/smilies/mad.gif

Like Markus, got held up at the exit barriers. Had a much better journey home than most of you I think, despite the fact I promised myself I would be sedate ;):D. I heard about the jams down south, so diverted off at the A14 and across to the A1 which was very empty :). By 9.30 I was at home, in front of the telly with a beer :D.

All that remains to say is - when's the next one??? :D

Cheers

Deb :D:D:D:D

Was a pleasure having you folks up here again :)

Yet another CW Special for the run, he just keeps amazing me with the roads he finds.

I think Saturday night was a better success than last year, more beer time with staying and eating at the hotel :D Great meal and plenty of laughs to go with it.

My first time at Towers for five or six years, despite living about 15 miles from it :rolleyes: Air was good, but for me Nemesis and Oblivion are a bigger rush.

Hex messes with your head without any danger to your lunch. Ripsaw is a right laugh as you think you've missed the water jets just before it goes up your nose and down your neck :D

Minimal queues, great weather for 95% of the day - luck maybe? Who cares, a top weekend in my book. :D

Now then, anyone interested in doing the Fireworks at Towers come November? :D

ooh, fireworks, now we are talking. I might be well up for some of that. providing of course some of the rides are in the dark. Air, nem and O in the dark would be awesome! :D:D

Still got the ol adreneline pupming through me at the mo

Oh, and one comment to put the fear of god into everyone:

Speedos! :D:D:D:D:D

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

other phrase of the weekend: "Be rude not to" ;) :) :D

Very true Neil! forgot that one. And sooooo true when the Nem Q was so short.

And to think it was meant to be mental with 2 - 3 hour Q's for all the rides :p :D:D

..... Flies well though doesn't she :D

Top drive, twisty roads, great views, interesting crests, nice ehoey village streets :rolleyes: I really must do something about that exhaust volume ;) Nice one CW http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/images/icons/icon14.gif

AT? Well it'd be rude not to :cool:

Good weather, no queues :p. Ride of the day, Nemesis... Yeah, although standing in the dry whilst you lot got soaked on the rapids was fun :)

Journey home? Sh1te.... But nice one Niel for finding that alternative route :)

Till next time then....

James.

PS, Anyine take a camera?? Dont remember seeing one :(

lol @ the Markus and James re the queues ;) what queues indeed :D :p :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Thought you might like a nice little country drive to finish off with ;) I did take a camera, but only took pics at the Shardlow services - didn't want to lug it all the way round AT in the end.........

I have to apologise to, for all my saying that I would come, and pestering Markus for a lift ;) I was just way too tired on Sunday to come, I also thought about txting Chris B to say hi from me to all you guys, but didn't think about it till late, and assumed u would prolly have all gone your seperate ways :(

Anyway I am sure I will see u all some time :D