BOGGED DOWN

Good Friday was as good a day for a ride out in Marjorie as ever there would be and Jacquie was happy to fill the co-pilots seat. So happy in fact that she took several photos from that position.

There was a compromise, naturally, we needed to stop at a local Sainsburys supermarket and then a garden centre before the ride proper could start, fair enough.

However when I went to start Marjorie after visiting the garden centre, she wouldn't until I pulled the choke out, then she roared into life at full throttle. I immediately turned off the ignition and after a little head scratching realised the left carburetter barrel was jammed fully opened, releasing the slotted nuts at the top of the carb with the screw driver blade of my Swiss Army knife allowed the barrel to spring into the closed position and then the car started normally with a steady tickover. I can only think that whilst we were both in the garden centre, somebody had climbed aboard and rammed his foot down on the throttle thus jamming the left carb open, who knows!

Of course by now we had collected a small crowd of interested onlookers, and as we set off we waved goodbye. All was fine now for the next ten miles or so until we reached a stretch of dual carriageway which allowed me to overtake a coach I had been following for a while. Kids waved from the window of the coach as we whizzed by, the only problem was that when I pulled back into the nearside lane and took my foot of the throttle, we just kept going, the left throttle had obviously stuck open again.

I had to pull of the road just before a roundabout, unfortunately onto gravel and I knew this would be problematic, but I had no choice. The carb was sorted in a moment, but when I tried to drive away, we were going nowhere, the back end had sunk down into the gravel, level with the body of the car. I called my breakdown service who said they would organise a truck, but I would have to pay them directly as I wasn't covered for bog down only breakdown.

Fortunately a good Samaritan motor cyclist stopped and was insistent that we would be able to bounce her out. We did, first to the left an inch at a time, until we could fill the hole that Marjorie had dug and then to the right until the back wheel was on the tarmac and I could reverse back on the carriageway. Thank you to the White Knight on the Bike and happily Jacquie was not discouraged by this incident.

The carburetter problem has been resolved and we drove out yesterday to meet some friends at a pub in Reigate, with Duggie this time. We thought we should properly equip him with a pair of goggles as  he loves to have his head out in the airflow as he sits on Jacquie's lap.. I had an in expensive pair of goggles, Jacquie shortened the straps and with one strap under his chin and the other behind his ears they were obviously a very comfortable fit as he didn't try to remove them and very fetching he looks too.