Change of plan.

Yesterday I  was told by Andy on Nb Khayamanzi that the Leamington and Warwick Model Railway Society were having their annual exhibition this week-end at Stoneleigh Park. Thinking this might be more interesting than what was on offer at Barby I spent some considerable time on the computer sorting out if it was possible to get there by bus. It turned out that it was with 3 buses, #3 from Hillmorton to Rugby, #86 from Rugby to Coventry and then a #539 from Coventry to Stoneleigh Park.

This morning I was up bright and early with the idea of catching the 9 o'clock bus but I managed to catch an earlier service which meant the next bus was also an earlier service. Upon arrival in Coventry I had an hour to kill so as I was right outside the Transport Museum what better place to spend it. This museum is free and a must see for any visitor to Coventry.

I was back at the bus stop in plenty of time for the last bus but at the due time there was already 2 other services on the stand as the #539 came up the street. Before I had a chance to get out and flag him down he just drove straight past and didn't appear to have any intention of stopping. This was annoying considering it was only a 2 hourly service.

I then spent the next 2 hours wandering around and I found the next stop along the route where there was less congestion and I would be able to hail him more easily. I eventually reached my destination but it only gave me 40 minutes before my next intended  bus was due to return home. The next bus after this was 3 hours later and that was the last bus for the day. There was only one thing for it but to wait for the last bus which meant I wouldn't get back to the boat until about 7pm.

As for the exhibition I thought that it wasn't really what I had expected as it was rumoured to have up to 50 layout's on display. The truth of the matter was that there was only about a dozen layout's, half of which were only in the construction stage and the trade stall's outnumbered the layout's by about 3 to 1. It was good to see what's new on the market but I was not on a spending spree. I did pick up a few idea's on layout construction for exhibition layout's that I will take back to NZ with me for future use.

The bus trip home more than made up for the fiasco this morning because the #86 upon arrival in Rugby became the #3 to Hillmorton so I didn't have to change buses again. I had no sooner got back on board when the wind started to increase along with the rain.