how was your gathering?

I was on a UK tour for a week and the RRG was the middlepoint of my tour. Me and my wife arrived on Saturday in the late afternoon, very tired from the 5 hrs trip avoiding the motorways. At arrival the RR staf was very helpfull and friendly! At camp Holland was the BBQ already smoking, so I could get something to eat, paint a Volvo 240 in stupid colours in the meantime. Had a drink, had some chats, had some walk-arounds and had a lot of laughs.

The Saturday night was quite rubbish thanks to people who thinks it's cool to ignore one of the very few rules by still blasting the music way too loud, way too late. Come on, you're not the only one on the field and if you don't give a (...) about that, why did you camp there? To be an ? And ignoring the campsite security is really a no-go IMHO. Have fun, but grow up! Because of that I am thinking of putting my tent up somewhere far away from the campsite activity, or even sort out a B&B for next year. I do like a laugh, I do like a drink, but at least I know when to stop!

The Sunday show was great! Loved the diffrence in cars and the best thing is the hill climb. I get fairly quick bored at static car shows, but with some track action, you can see and hear cars running instead of looking at a static car. I really don't care if it's a berg cup Golf screaming, or a airplane without wings firing some cannons or a standard 80's family saloon zooming up the hill.. They are a dying breed in the motoring world, so let's enjoy them while they are still running!

Maybe an idea for next year: Less runs, more cars up the hill? 3 runs max per car?

I'll be there next year! Camping, B&B-ing or sleeping at the edge of the camping at the family side! See you next year and again, big thanks for the organisers and the fellow RR's who made it a brilliant weekend!

How was my Gathering?

Well, my gauge of how good an event it turns out to be is always based on how long it takes me to recover. In this case, I'm still (nearly a week later) tired and only just able to start putting my thoughts down via a keyboard! Monday was a day spent pretty much sleeping and dozing, looking at all the cool pics and undable to do much more.

The rest of the week I've gradually been able to re-enter normal society, but still with the overwhelming feeling that I'd rather be back in a field in Gloucestershire somewhere having the time of my life chilling with friends and meeting lots of new ones too. It really doesn't get much better than that!

Even when walking the dog over the park, I heard the noise of a small petrol powered engine and half expected 2002Gimp/Nutter81/BiAS to come chugging around the corner on a ratty ATC hybrid or a Hello Kitty trike or a chopper moped. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be some tree surgeons chopping back some foliage. For me, the Gathering continues in my mind for a good while after the event has finished. I still chuckle at some of the antics and conversations.

So, in summary, it was chuffing amazing!

I can't even begin to summarise how brilliant the weekend was....there is simply so much to tell you about, so much that happened and so many stories to recall, so many people to thanks, so many cars to rave about....but it'd take me many, many posts to do it all.

In short, thank you everyone for making it the best weekend of the year by a country mile. Thank you to all the organisers and event crew for making it run so well. Thank you to everyone who looked after me, feeding me, making me laugh, passing me booze etc...Thank you to all those friends that 'made' the weekend. Thank you to everyone for bringing such a cool and diverse range of cars....

As well as having a brilliant time with old friends, good friends, I made lots of new friends and I look forward to catching up with and meeting them more over the forthcoming year.

My year is not based around a calender year starting on New Years Day...no, it is based around The Gathering. So here's to the best one yet and also, here's to the next year and the 51 week lead up to it. I look forward to it already and also the adventures and stories that will happen along the way before we all find ourselves in that field again having the time of our lives again.

If I had any complaints, they were immediately washed away in the sea of awesome stuff that happens at the Gathering. Mere pindrops in an ocean of win. I LOVE RRG!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Every year's the same.

Every year I go to The Gathering I love it so much, that when I get home on a Sunday evening, I unpack my gear, fill the washing machine with beer-soaked clothing, then I go out into the garden with a big mug of coffee and a cigarette, sit in my favourite spot,.....

....and shed a tear.

No really. I'm knocking a hole in fifty years on this planet, so I'm big enough, ugly enough and life-experienced enough to be completely at home with my emotions.

It's beyond cars for me. It's all about friendship. Those of us lucky enough to be long-timers here on Retro-Rides have formed bonds that no amount of EU legislation will ever tear asunder. For 95% of the time those friendships are conducted via telephone wires, satellites, text messages and wireless signals. Granted there are various events/meets held throughout the season when some of us can get together for a day or two of car/alcohol-related fun. But for one glorious weekend in August, we can all gather in a field under a summer sun, throw aside the sturm und drang of everyday living and become a proper living, breathing community.


So I'd just like to thank everyone on the organising team for their sterling efforts this year. You people are incredible.

And I'd like to thank everyone I high-fived, hugged, shared a drink and shared deep, meaningful conversation ('stratospherically philosophical' as Bruce put it ;D ) and unprintable drunken jokes and conversation with.

I had the best time. The BEST time.

RRG13. 357 sleeps away.

Brian

Everything that has been said - all the negatives are just washed away by the collective awesomness that was RRG '12. I cannot wait until next year.

Thanks organisers, thank you fellow RR'ers and everyone in between who all make it the only event of the year that year upon year i never miss, and never will.

p.s. -



You get to wean yourself off the camping in a field awesomness with BH2N! That's like a mini RRG but with german stuff and the 'ring.