Day 3 on the 'Follow the Blue Dot' Tour

** Route Plan

START: 7:30am - Skegness - Royal Hotel, Drummond Rd PE25 3EH

FUEL: Barton-upon-Humber - ESSO, Forkedale DN18 5TB

MEET: Milton - AF Rayspeed, Five Acres, Malton YO17 8EN (30-45 mins)

PHOTOS/MEET: Scarborough - Oasis Cafe, Royal Albert Drive YO12 7TY (30-45 mins)

FUEL: Scarborough - Scalby Mills Services, Burniston Rd, YO12 6QX

FUEL: Redcar - BP, Trunk Rd, TS10 5BW

PHOTOS/MEET: Majuba Rd Car Park,  1 Majuba Rd TS10 5BJ

FUEL: North Shields - Shell, Beach Rd NE30 2TU

PHOTOS: Whitley Bay - Spanish City Plaza, NE26 1BG

MEET: 7pm - Whitley Bay - The Fire Station (Weatherspoons), 18 York Road, NE26 1AB

STOP: Whitley Bay - The Windsor Hotel, South Parade, NE26 2RF

** Here we go - Day 3

Henry & Dave riding - Skegness to AF Rayspeed to Scarborough to Redcar to Whitley Bay

After 2 solid days of grey overcast weather and walking back from the pub in a bit of drizzle, it was lovely to come out of the hotel to a glorious morning and we spent a few minutes faffing around unlocking the scooters and getting ready for the day.  Knowing about the do the night before and the slight chance of an adult beverage, we had planned to set off a bit later than both previous days; we also knew that we had planned for a relatively 'easy' day of about 200 miles riding ... and that's where Henry decided that months and months of careful planning could be put to one side when he noticed on a map that with only a short detour, we could go to AF Rayspeed 'on the way' to the first destination of Scarborough.  Needless to say, there was no arguing from 2 other members of the team - so that's where we went.  On the way, we went over the Humber Bridge (a first for me) and then rode/drove through increasingly beautiful countryside as we headed to East Heslerton and scootering heaven! By a very bizarre (and somewhat suspicious) coincidence, Darren Scott aka Scottie was waiting for us and had arranged for a bit of a behind the scenes tour by Ben Kemp and although Henry's distribution and logistics heart nearly stopped beating, the cornucopia of Lambretta delights in this Aladdin's Cave made up for it. Unfortunately, due to a slight prang in his van, Beef missed our stop at Rayspeed completely and he set up his Sat Nag to head straight to our next location at Scarborough. 

Scarborough hosted national rallies in 1981-'83 and '86-'88 and while these 6 rallies were spread around several locations, 3 of them were based around Marine Drive; during planning we had decided to take photos at the Teapot Cafe, East Pier but parking was absolutely horrendous, Luckily, we weren't due to meet anyone in Scarborough so purely because we found some (possibly illegal, definitely dodgy) parking, we modified the plan (on the fly) and stopped at the Oasis Cafe instead - quickly taking some pictures before getting straight back on the road.  

Scottie took the lead away from Henry and although his route was somewhat off our planned one, his local knowledge lead us through some of the most amazing roads I think I have ever driven on. It was just a shame that I was throwing a 2 tonne, 4-wheeled, metal box around corners that were obviously designed for 2 wheels. There were definitely a couple of hairy moments though; one particularly where a campervan had lost it's clutch on a steep hill, on a blind bend and just been abandoned partially across the road. Emergency manoeuvres in the aforementioned box on wheels were slightly interesting and prayers to all sorts of gods were said, in thanks that nothing was coming the other way!  We made it to Redcar!

Redcar hosted one national rally in October 1985 and I think it is safe to say that it was a bit of a nightmare. A whole bunch of us had travelled up in a van from North West Kent, leaving after work on Friday (a most unpleasant experience that I have never repeated). We arrived late, so it was decided that it was too late  (and dark) to put tents up and that rather than give up valuable drinking and dancing time, we would go straight to the do and all then sleep in the van (oh no, No, NO - in fact Hell NO! I've never done that again either)! It's just as well we didn't actually get to see the state of the Warrenby campsite on the Friday, as we might have been tempted to go home ... it was definitely more than shocking. Saturday daytime was a bit standard but the evening was anything but - with running battles along the Sea Front; thankfully that involved locals rather than scooterists but it definitely put a bit of a damper on the weekend.  [In the course of writing this, I did a long overdue search and found this 2014 'nostalgia' article about that rally: https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/nostalgia/remember-3000-mods-redcar-scooter-6950809] Moving forward 39 years, we rode / drove along the Esplanade looking for our chosen landmark and I was flagged down by a couple of ladies standing by a green P-Range. I abandoned (sort of parked) the van nearby and was soon joined by the scooters and the other van.  The ladies turned out to be from Frontline SC who had (with clubmates) organised that infamous rally and they were absolutely bloody lovely. We stood, chatted and reminisced about the rally until they had to leave, then Scottie buggered off to head home, with us leaving shortly afterwards - heading towards our last stop of the day. 

There is only 50 odd miles between Redcar and Whitley Bay but that 50 miles included  Scottie's home town, a very familiar stretch of road that is only a hop skip and a jump away from the home of British Scooter Endurance Club racing in Middlesborough and of course the River Tyne. We went through the Tyne Tunnel but coming out the other side, Henry had a bit of a fuel issue in probably the second worst place ever i.e.exiting the tunnel (the worst place being in the tunnel itself); after a little bit of petrol tap jiggery pokery however, he was back on the road and by the power of the blue dot, we were met shortly afterwards by a couple of scooters waiting in a bus stop by the Silverlink Roundabout. The guys escorted us into Whitley Bay - the host town for rallies in 1982 and '89 (neither of which Henry or I went to) - taking us firstly to a car park on the outskirts of town where some other scooterists were waiting; we then took to the road again for the few miles to Spanish City and after a bit more dodgy van parking and a whole lot of scooter pushing, we lined up the scooters again for more pictures. It was soon time to head for the evening's hotel - thankfully with a great receptionist / manager who even offered to put our scooters in the hotel! He also recommended an Italian restaurant - The Glasshouse I think - and, as it was in walking distance, we decided to head there for dinner.  It was without a doubt, some of the best Italian food I've had in for a very long time. We finished off the day with a drink with David Tompkins and a few other local scooterists in yet another 'Spoons.  What a great day!