The Isle of Wight

We were late leaving for the Isle of Wight but still made the ferry terminal on time and even got loaded onto an earlier one. That should tell you that the roads were clear all the way, even though we had to use the MI, M25 and M3 rather than the A43 and A34. The A43 was closed to through traffic because of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The reason we were late leaving? Chris can sleep through a hurricane. I spoke to him several times trying to wake him. He even had two phone conversations but has no recollection of any of that. When he did eventually wake up it was all systems go, arriving at Northampton a hour late to load Cozy's drums.
Depending on the turnout, Tracy had asked Cozy to bring his full drum kit and his lights so that he could play his feature solo, so we had extra drums and boxes, plus a huge gong and stand to load in the van.
As I mentioned, the journey was uneventful and the crossing was very flat.

Once we had disembarked we drove the short distance to where Nicki and Tracy were staying and enjoyed a cup of tea and freshly picked strawberries before heading off to the venue, a Community Hall and Sports Centre in Cowes. We crossed the river from East Cowes by chain ferry and arrived at the venue in plenty of time to set up.

The evening was a joint promotion and a fundraiser for the local scouts, who were hoping to raise funds for a trip to Sweden. Nicki and Bob (who'd caught a nasty cold) had been on the BBC Radio Solent to publicise it, and it had been widely publicised. Nicki's friends and Tracy's friends and family had all played their part in publicising the event, so it was a real dissapointment that the turnout was lower than anticipated.
Was it the weather? The football? The economic climate? Who knows.
However, the show must go on and the show we played was a run through of our set for Americana, plus some extra goodies.

One of our friends rang a photographer for the local paper who came and took pictures of Nicki during the interval. As luck would have it, all the media attention was focussed on a possible woman overboard on the Cowes- Southampton ferry. Just our luck.

Chris and I stayed with members of Tracy's family. We sat out on the patio drinking tea (in my case) and a cool lager for Chris until it was time to turn in. We had an early ferry to catch, and a long run up to Newark for the Americana Festival.