Women Drivers Social Club

 

Saturday the 17th was my first meet up with the club. I had learned of it's existence when I had posted a picture of my car on the Morris Minor Owners Club Facebook page.

The trans flag grille had got mostly positive comments, but a few negative ones that people challenged on my behalf.

Anyway the largely positive reception had given me confidence to join the Facebook page for the WDSC, and I received a nice welcome on there to my introductory post.

There was a southern meeting of the group, which involved camping and a bit of a drive around to some motoring attractions earlier in the year, but I had already made plans for that weekend.

So when a northern event was planned I made sure to book tickets for that one.  The itinerary was
officially a Saturday/Sunday event, but it seems that quite a few people turned up the day earlier - so I did miss out on one evening.  

The meeting point for the Saturday was the NY500 café near Pickering ( https://ny500.co.uk )

I had been packing the day before, so was mostly ready to get going, just needing to gather up my makeup and mirror and wash bag.

I didn't have any breakfast, as the plan was to eat brunch there.  The drive over was pretty uneventful,  I did video snippets of it, in case I wanted to do a video later.

NY500

I arrive bang on the 10:30am meeting time, to find I was the 1st there - there were plenty of bikers
around, I got a nice comment on the car.  I decided to have a sausage sandwich and a tea while I waited.

I think it was around 10:45 before everyone else turned up, they were in convoy as had come from the camp site.  They had clearly seen the car, I had parked right out the front, and when they parked up they had left a gap for me to move mine into, so we had them all arranged in a line, which was nice.

They were quite a friendly bunch, and I did manage to talk to most of them.  I sat with a number of them while they ate their breakfasts indoors.  Another group sat outside, it was quite a nice morning so was still pleasant out there. 

One of the girls was trans, which I had known about before I came, and was nice that there was
someone else there - although I didn't really want to get talking to her about that aspect, as I didn't want to throw up a divide between ourselves and the rest of the group as such,

The café itself doubles as a showroom for a small number of classics, and also a bit of a museum. There are chopper bicycles arranged around the upper walls of one part.  It was quite a nice place, and friendly staff too.

We were intending on leaving the café for a drive around the moors, towards Goathland, where we were supposed to go for a wander and more refreshment.  However one of the attendees had not yet arrived, and there was news they were limping in to the café shortly.

The straggler was in a Hillman Imp, which had a potentially disastrous petrol leak.  After it arrived and promptly died in the middle of the car park, it was pushed into a space, and the ladies got to work on disassembling and re-assembling the carburettor.  Other than spotting and picking up a gasket that had made an escape attempt, I didn't do much to help.

A lot of them were very much more experienced than me, some doing it for a living. They eventually stopped it pouring petrol in the ground, and converted it back from an external combustion engine to an internal one :)  , and it was able to start.

Saturday Drive Out

We headed out in convey shortly afterwards.  The drive was fun, lovely scenery, the roads were a bit
more vertical than I remembered, we did some 30% hills, both up and down.  There were a few fords, but unfortunately dry so no fun with the water.

Unfortunately there was a village fair at Goathland, which meant the place was packed and nowhere to park. So the refreshments and village tour was skipped, and we drove on continuing the senic route. We stopped for some photo's briefly.  

The route took us back to the NY500 café, where we re-grouped, as had got a bit fragmented in traffic on the way back.  We got a few more photo's then headed for the camp site.

Camping

We were staying here:  https://www.valeofpickering.co.uk  which was a really nice place.  It had it's own café and shop, and really good toilet blocks.  Would definitely go back again.

After checking in, and setting up my tent , I joined the others who had gone to the fish and chip van which visited the site on certain evenings.  Ended up holding a place for a lady who needed to get her toddler back to her caravan, we had a short but nice conversation - everyone seemed very friendly.

We gathered our camping chairs around and ate the food together, and then we sat around with what alcohol we had all brought along and talked.  

The organiser Becca had brought a friendship bracelet kit, and was sat making one, didn't realise everyone had one, and she was making one for me :)  - I was most touched
by this !

It was getting a bit cold , so I was eventually sat with leggings, a dress, a hoodie and a jacket on by the end of the night :) - was also quite tired.

I think it was about 11pm when I said goodnight, I wasn't the first one to head off, and I don't think they stayed up much longer.

Sunday 

I didn't sleep too well, I was quite cold, had a thick nightie on, and my hoodie in the sleeping bag.

I ended up needing the loo at 1am, which didn't help.  Did manage to sleep a bit at least.

The on-site café opened for breakfast at 9am, so I had got up around 8am to get ready - made a cup of tea on my camping stove and did a cold shave in the tent, and put on my makeup.

The breakfast was really quite good, high quality ingredients - I had a full English of course.  I had made sure to be there as soon as it opened, as it didn't have many tables, so was served pretty quickly.  Most of the other ladies seemed to join us over the next hour or so.

Had a nice chat with a few of them over breakfast as well.

Those that were heading home that day , myself included packed up our tents as best we could and got them in the cars.

Group Photo

Before we set out on the days drive to the coast, we were going to do a group photo with all the cars arranged in a bit of a semi-circle, and us all stood around. I lent the nominated photographer one of my 3 meter selfie sticks to help with this. They turned out pretty good !

Coastal Drive

We were going to Filey , then back inland to stop at Thorton-le-Dale to explore and visit the famous Mathewsons Auctions - ( from Bangers and Cash TV show) , and get some food.

The drive to the coast was nothing special , the one the day before was a lot more fun - but it was still good to be in convoy and enjoying the cars.  We pulled up on double yellows along the seafront for a cheeky photo, and then drove back out of there - which was a shame, I thought we would get an ice-cream at the least :)

At Thorton-le-Dale we did the same illegal park to get a picture of us outside the auction house, and then found a car park.  

We had a look around some trinket shops, and a chocolate shop, and then onwards to the gift shop at the auction house. I got a mug for my dad who is a fan of the show :)

There was a nice picture of us with our friendship bracelets outside there too.

I had only put an hour on my ticket which had expired by the time we had left there, and was quite
tired. So instead of heading with them to a tea room, I decided to call it a day and start the drive home. It was only 1hr 30 mins away, but I also needed to find E5 petrol, as I had heard rumours the local garages only had E10, and I don't want that muck in her !

I had popped back into the chocolate shop to get gifts for my wife and kids first, was worried they might melt on the way home, but was assured if I kept them out of sunlight they would be fine.

I got back just after 4pm, feeling very tired indeed.

In Summary

 A really fab experience, and so lovely to be accepted as one of the group, it felt so nice. So glad I joined, and made the effort to go !  

There is another meetup in September although don't think there will be camping at this one. I am looking forward to going to this too.