For the last few years after ride the lights we've spent the rest of the week in Blackpool, we head home drop the bikes off and then go back on Wednesday morning. We've stayed in the Boulevard hotel next to the pleasure beach, they've usually got a deal on where if you stay for 3 nights you get free park tickets. Blackpool on Wednesday, park on Thursday, Blackpool on Friday, lights switch on Friday night & then home on Saturday. This year my brother was taking his truck to the Lancashire Steam & Vintage Festival for the weekend. So rather than heading home on Saturday afternoon, we went to Wharles, about 15 minutes outside of Preston.
Show
The show is pretty small when you compare it to the Great Eccleston show or similar, but it's still fun. They've got the usual stuff on display, agricultural machines, tractor pulling, vintage cars, food & drink stalls, an arena with a stunt show & parades of vehicles, stationary engines etc.My brother was camping over with his bull nose Scania truck so we got to join him in the cab during the commercial vehicle parade, it was epic! The show was pretty busy until the rain came, and when it came, it came for a good few hours! We got a decent haul of swag from the show, some fudge, a hi viz soft shell hoodie and some overalls for Mitch, a counrty style fleece for Fin, a bumper haul of veggies for us all and some chicken & lamb kebabs (for dinner, which were ace).
Driving in along the country road we could see Hotdogs' truck over the hedge, so when we got in we headed straight over to see him. The kids jumped straight in the truck and spent most of the day in the cab with H telling people about it and honking the air horns! The old girl shines up well. They arrived on Friday evening and spent a couple of hours buffing the paint and blacking the tyres.
The highlight of the show for me was the tractor pulling. As I've said, it's a small show, so everything is a bit more fun, as well as the normal tractors, one of the traction engines hooked up to the trailer and had a pull! A 7hp John Fowler black beast managed a full pull.
Hotdogs, do your stuff.
Thoughts
We had a great day at the show, it was a shame the rain came and didn't leave. Lots of interesting things to see. Good selection of stalls and stores. There's a cell tower in the corner of the field too, so despite the rural location (right next to the M55 motorway, the mobile coverage was great!
