Whilst Matt and Tim were sat in the Copper Kettle cafe at Weston having their breakfast, they mused over this year's carnivals and remarked on how few technical problem we'd had that year.....
Well we set off back to Westonzoyland at about 11:00am, fortunately the traffic in town wasn't too bad and again most drivers were friendly and co-operative. We steamed out of Weston up to just before Highbridge when Gary comes over the radio "The tractor's died.. it just stopped!", Gary was towing the generator trailer at the back of the convoy escorted by Budgie, Tim and Matt in the club van. It was soon obvious the tractor wasn't going to start due to a flat battery (the batteries had only been replaced 3 days ago, at a cost of £200). We managed to unhitch the cart from AJ's tractor and hitch it up to the decorated tractor, then sent AJ back to tow Gary into a lay-by and hitch up to the Generator trailer. Once this was done we waved good-bye to a very unhappy Gary sat in his tractor and pulled away heading for the weigh-bridge at Dunball.
To comply with the road traffic act all vehicles (including carnival carts) need to be within proper weight limits (and height!) and it's only in their decorated state that we can get a true idea of that weight, hence the stop at Dunball. Now the weigh-bridge at Dunball is designed for articulated lorries not decorated carnival carts and as we had lost Gary's tractor, Steve had to get the decorated tractor and cart onto the weigh-bridge himself. Unfortunately despite his best efforts it would not fit, so we unhitched the decorated tractor and weighed that, then un-hitched AJ from the genny trailer and hitched him to the the cart so that we could weight that, and finally unhitched AJ from the cart and back on the genny trailer so that we could weigh the genny trailer (plus generator) and hitch the cart back onto the decorated tractor (I hope you are following all this?).
Once this was done, we headed off back into Bridgwater. The idea was for the decorated tractor to go straight home and then AJ would take the genny trailer with the van as an escort in to drop off the generator before coming home.
The journey through Bridgwater went sweetly, thank-you to all those drivers who waited patiently, sadly you always get one who won't wait, ours was at the top of St. John Street... Nuff said!
Once we got back to the village we found our passage blocked by a parked car, in fact it was the car of one of our members! So if you are ever in the Sedgemoor Inn and you see Bev, ask her how her car is. Once we had moved Bev's car we came down Cheer Lane to the Community Centre. Now our Shed is behind the Community Centre and we need to go through the car-park. Unfortunately there was a meeting in the Community Centre and the car park was FULL of cars. Those involved in the meeting were not happy at being asked to move their cars, and the bus drivers stuck in the road waiting for them to be moved weren't too happy either.
Pulling the cart through the car-park is fairly straightforward with a normal tractor, but with one that's fully decorated it's a different matter! After about half an hour and some encouragement from Charlie, we just managed to get the cart round the tight hair-pin bend and into the car park, just as the cavalry arrived in the form of Gary and his tractor. A local engineering firm Hawkins Boobyer Ltd had fitted a new alternator at the side of the road and got him going. From then on it was plain sailing to get the cart round the Community Centre and backed into the shed. It was the first time Gary had backed the cart in and it went in on the second attempt.
While this was going on at the shed there was trouble in town; Apparently the crane required to lift the generator out of the trailer had broken down, so there was a long wait to fix it. Once it was ready there was another delay while a big enough hammer was found to loosen the retaining clamps, but the guys finally arrived at the shed about 4:30pm just as it was starting to get dark and cold.
It took another half an hour to sort out the van, get the shed doors closed and try to work out why there were so many wet coats in the back of the van?
And that was it, another carnival season completed, next year will be our 50th season in carnival so watch out...
Finally a big thanks to all those in the village of Westonzoyland and surrounding areas for you support this year, especially Andy and Lisa at the Sedgmoor Inn and the Community Centre Committee.
See you next year.
