[SEL] Portland and Buckley Reflections

[Listerdiesel]

Having had a decent bit of sleep and a chance to reflect on the
previous two weeks' activities, I thought about a few notes for future
trips.

Travelling was fine with no major problems, fuel was reasonably priced
(for us) and our hire car was quite up to the job. Our only real
problems were at Heathrow on our return.

Buckley was a very good show from any perspective. There was much more
variety than we were used to, and much more in the way of alternative
interests on show, such as the steam shed, the oilfield engine shed,
the woodworking shop, the sawmill and the Prony Brake. As the club
owns all the land it is much easier for them to have fixed exhibits
than the shows that use other facilities.

There were also places to sit and rest, without buying something. Most
important for us old 'uns that need to take it a little more easily
than before! The lack of seats or benches at Portland has always been
something we have commented on.

Travelling down south between the shows we had a look at the USS
Silversides submarine at Muskegon, and we were able to reflect how
well the USA does its visitor attractions, and this goes for the USS
Pampanito in SFO as well.

Portland was everything it ever was, and we found more engines that we
hadn't seen before. Being almost 'regulars' now, we were able to talk
with many people who we had seen before and catch up with most of the
ATIS gang. We didn't seem to have as much time on our hands this year
for some reason, possibly because of the  extra pictures and videos
that we took while walking round.

The Charity Auction was fun, and thanks to everyone who was involved,
we always look forward to the dinner and auction as part of the whole
Portland show.

One comment we would like to make, is that the arrangement with the
separate back room that we had last year worked better in our view
than having it in the main room. This is more obvious when you look at
the videos, the background noise from the other diners is too high,
and masks out a lot of what is being said in the auction area. We are
editing the videos as I write, and we should be able to start posting
them soon.

This isn't a criticism per se, just an observation. We both felt that
items might have sold better/higher priced if the descriptions had
been clearer to those watching. Dick did a good job as auctioneer in
our view.

We almost called back Saturday morning as we had missed our good byes
on Friday, but in the end we decided to carry on with our arrangements
as we still had quite a few things left to do before we went home.

Guns and Brits don't often mix, but we had a real blast with Jim & Jan
Dunmyer on the Monday. Jim had bought a new handgun, a Ruger LCP,
which he had to wait for as there was an order backlog. We went with
Jim to Cabelas huge store at Dundee MI to collect the gun, and saw for
ourselves the paperwork and checks that he had to go through before he
could actually pay for the gun. Then he had to take it to the
Sheriff's office to have it safety checked as well!

Back at Jim's place we had an impromptu shooting session with the new
gun, plus three others including a .45 (with reduced charges in the
bullets)  Very interesting!  Then Jim asked Rita if she wanted a go,
and she did.... very surprised indeed!  Rita also shot them
single-handedly while I had both hands on the gun when I fired.

I think Rita was less concerned than I was at actually shooting the
guns, and she tried three out of four if I remember correctly. The .45
was easiest to handle for me, as it had a full-sized handgrip and
being heavier than Jim's carry guns it absorbed more of the recoil
than the little ones. One of the guns was a real animal, it had a very
light frame and kicked quite viciously, didn't like that at all.

All too soon it was airport time and we were at Detroit checking our
luggage and hire car. We had bought a load of stuff, including a
cylinder head for the Onan W3S, a 4" thick Kohler manual set and other
stuff including tools and presents. Fortunately Northwest's check-in
didn't look at the weights of the bags.

Flight home was quicker than scheduled, we landed at 06.46am, but we
hit delays and problems at Heathrow. Our son was in the locality on
time and we were out of the airport and on the way home in the morning
rush hour by 08.05am. Home just before 10.30am and after a quick visit
to the factory, we both crawled into bed, we had been awake for just
on 24 hours continuously, apart from a catnap on the plane.

Thanks to everyone for the great hospitality, especially Jim & Jan,
and for making our trip so enjoyable, of the five trips we have made
to Portland, this one was the best!

Peter & Rita
-- 
Peter A Forbes
Email: listerdiesel at gmail.com
http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel
http://stationary-engine.co.uk
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