Back on line after a great holiday. So I thought I'd pen a little something
to the list. Anyone who wants to use it in magazines etc can do so.
Betty Boop (1943 Dodge WC51) made it home yesterday after a fantastic
holiday trip. My girlfriend and I started by driving from Skive, in the
northern part of Jutland, to Esbjerg, where we caught the ferry to Harwich.
>From Harwich to Bury St. Edmunds, to take part in the Wings and Wheels
Rally, which we thoroughly enjoyed by the way - so many thanks to the MVT
lads from Suffolk. By the way lads, my girlfriend didn't make good her
promise to demand an expensive pressy for taking part in an MV rally on her
birthday...:-)
From Bury St. Edmunds, north to the Sunderland/South Shields area, where
we spent two weeks driving about, seeing my family for the first time in 5
years.
After that, back to Harwich, over the Cheviot Hills and the North
Yorkshire Moors - which look great at this time of year. You have time to
look, too, when you can only do 15 m.p.h. on the steep inclines.
I dropped my girlfriend off at the ferry to Denmark in Harwich as she was
to start work again the following Monday. From there, Betty and I went west
to Birmingham to visit a very distant relation who was a major on Crete at
the end of the war. Then back to Harwich, where we caught the fast ferry to
Hoek Van Holland. The ferry really is fast too, 90 km/hr. Betty Boop has
never travelled that fast before!
At Hoek Van Holland, I met up with another member of FMKB who had taken
the train down from Skive, to come along for the ride north. Monday,Tuesday
and Wednesday we spent driving around in Holland, visiting some of the
people that collect and restore military vehicles - people I normally only
talk to on the phone. Thursday morning we crossed the border into Germany
and headed for Hamburg, then Kiel, where I visited an old "accomplice" in
the military vehicle business. We stayed overnight, then
Friday morning crossed the border into Denmark, arriving home in the middle
of the afternoon.
It really has been a marvellous trip, with only one regret - despite a very
intense search for clover-leaf military tyres, I turned up nothing. Well,
that's not exactly true - there were 4 in Bristol, but the guy who had them
would not send them by freight company to Sunderland. He said I would have
to come and collect them myself - which I found a bit strange, since I had
nothing at all against paying for the freight, and could have transferred
the money to his bank account immediately from my english bank... Ah well,
the search continues...!
Trip Statistics? Here they are.
Miles driven: 2444
Litres Petrol used: 903 (unleaded)
Litres engine oil (SAE30) used: 15
Litres gearbox oil (SAE90) used: 8
Parts changed on the road:
3 brake cylinders
3 brake shoes
1 rear right wheel outer oil seal
1 fan belt
For those of you who are interested, this now brings the total of miles
driven on unleaded petrol by Betty Boop since September 1993 to 17,444. The
engine sounded as sweet when Betty finally came home to roost as it did to
the lads at Bury St. Edmunds four weeks ago.
Thats it for now. Regards to all.
Gerry Davison
Chairman, FMKB (Societly for Military Vehicle Preservation) Denmark.
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