Due to a mix up over times, the road crew arrived at Weston in drips and drabs. Most had had a very late night the night before and were hungry for breakfast. It had been a cold start to the day but as we moved off from Weston the sun was out and it was a beautiful day.
The journey back went really well until we got to Bridgwater, Gary and Tim broke off with the generator trailer as we went through Bridgwater to unload the generator and they'd join us later. As we came up to the roundabout at the Clink, Steve suddenly came over the radio saying he'd lost drive, after a couple of minutes playing around he finally found 1st gear and managed to crawl off.
Once we got through Bridgwater, Matt, AJ and I took the cart on to the shed and Budgie and Steve crawled behind us in 1st gear.
We got back to the shed quickly to find Phil was already there and had already opened the cart shed doors. Normally the Cart ggoes in the shed quite easily, but oday it just didn't want to go in. The shed is very narrow and the 60' cart must be reversed down a slope into the shed with just 3" clearance on both sides. After many attempts Budgie called to say they were waiting outside the village in a lay-by so Matt and AJ left to tow Steve in the decorated tractor.
Once they were back at the shed we tried again to get the cart into the shed. During this attempt Steve, nicknamed 'Skippy' managed to skip over some steel and fell to the ground twisting his ankle leaving him in some pain. Obviously we gave him all the support good friends should and once we'd stopped laughing we call for an ambulance.
Tim and Gary arrived back with the genni trailer closely followed by Biff the paramedics. By this time Steve's pain had eased off and after a quick check over he was able to stand a little. Once we'd got Steve off the floor, we were able to get the decorated tractor and genni trailer into the shed and close the doors.
Suddenly there was a shout from the front of the shed and we ran out to find Tim with the rea doors of his van opened and big tub of paint spilling out all over the floor! There was a sudden rush for as many bucket of water as we could find to flush out the back of his van. Fortunately the van was white, the same colour as the paint.
Once we'd cleared up the mess we could finally slide the doors shut and lock them up. Another year in carnival was open, now to get home and finish all those DIY jobs!
The procession started at 7.30pm, but we didn't cross the start line until after 9.30pm. The crowd were again very appreciative with plenty of applause and encouragement coming our way. The procession went well with no incident, apart from the cart and genni having a small kiss as we negotiated a particularly tight turn.
