Go West Young Man! (Wales mini road trip)

[akku]

I bought a set of slot mags off the fella some of y'all will recall as Kev From Wales. Who lives in Wales. In West Wales. About as west as you can get without getting into the sea. So I thought of trying to Pony Express them over, or use a courier, but in the end I decided to drive over, and stay somewhere in a B&B, then see the Anglesey Transport Museum (Tacla Taid, in Anglesey) and the Cloverlands Model Car Museum which is near Welshpool. And anything else I spot on the way. I decided to take the 1969 Country Squire. All of this was planned well before the heatwave of the apocalypse hit the UK.... And while the Country Squire has AC, of course it doesn't work.

So I set off on Monday and took a cross country route to enjoy the scenerey of the West of England and of Wales. I did have a good run with no bother other than my phone crapping out in the heat and I ended up on the North Wales Expressway which I'd been trying to avoid. But all was well as I found an American Style Diner for lunch.













Suitably replete, I carried on to Rhyl and met up with Mr FromWales and picked up the wheels and so on.

The first of many "quite narrow" streets...



Had a good old natter with Kev and enjoyed the delights of his unit






More wheels, which are for sale, enquire within...

Got loaded and ready for the off...



I found an American Circus, so had to stop for photos. The guys erecting the thing were really into the car.















And then on to Llandudno!

[akku]

So I headed down the coast to Llandudno

I found a guy still using a Morris Minor pickup as his work truck for a scafold business








And then found a spot to park on the seafront so I could walk down the promenade and get an icecream.
















I got me an icecream and walked up on the pier, which is a very nice preserved pier of the traditional type.




Then got some photos overlooking the pier before heading on down to Anglesey







More of this later.

[Davey]

Very good, watching with interest.

[akku]

I was having problems with my phone which was overheating, and the cig lighter in the Country Squire doesn't operate as a charger point, this was all causing some frustration, I popped into ASDA to cool off in the air conditioned space there and bought an additional power bank to recharge my phone, I think my other had succumbed to heat.

I drove on, its a nice drive, I enjoyed the scenery as I went. I crossed onto Anglesey and then headed for my B&B which is an old pub in the middle of nowhere. Its called The Ring and it is lovely. The driving roads are quite "Welsh" out there. There were some corkers. These are not roads designed for a full size American car and vise-versa.








Unfortunately the pub I stayed at had no evening meals on, so I went out to a place they recommended which is apparenly the most northern hotel in Wales. The view was lovely, and the food was very nice.












Near my hotel was a guy who is evidently the island's Volvo collector. There were a fair few there but these 2 seemed the most "photogenic"

[mylittletony]

Jul 20, 2022 13:32:53 GMT akku said:

Near my hotel was a guy who is evidently the island's Volvo collector. There were a fair few there but these 2 seemed the most "photogenic"

You may have stumbled across either Dai off-of ClassicSwede or his brother.

[akku]

So fully refreshed on the Tuesday morning I set off for my first museum visit. Tacla Taid, The Anglesey Transport Museum & Tea Rooms.

This is what happens when you are in Wales and you ask Google Maps for a "Route That Avoids Motorways"




I had great hopes for Tacla Taid and I was NOT disappointed. I pulled up in the car park and 3 chaps who work there (one was the owner) engaged me in great conversation about the Country Squire, about cars in the collection, about car-life in general. What top chaps!

So then I took a tour of the museum, which is brilliant. Just great. So many cool old cars, and all very "relatable" too. they have a section of bikes, tractors and military vehicles as well. I also took a stroll into their workshop areas where they were doing some this and that on a couple of the exhibits and also repainting an old fashioned plough (I presume for one of the tractors)

Here's a few pics to give you an idea. Go see the place for yourself....







































The tea room is also very good!

Before I left they asked me to park the Country Squire in front of their "plane and train" so they could take some photos of it, which I see on their Facebook page now I took a few too...







Following on from there, and taking thier recommendation as to where I should go to fill up with E5 petrol, I headed off across Central Wales to find Cloverlands Model Car Museum

Its not the Pacific Coast Highway but the North Wales Expressway has some great charm. No photos sorry, I was driving, but the stretch from Bangor south to Conwy is really nice, a great road with plenty of great scenery and some nice twists and turns and a few tunnels too.

Go check it out on your way back from Tacla Taid

[akku]

The drive down to Montgomery was nice. It was also a bit too "A road". I took a diversion onto a scenic route somewhere at Mold and found a lovely antique centre with a cafe / restaurant. So I had a late lunch here.









From there I pressed on, enjoying some spirited country roads






I'm amazed at the number of houses just left to return to nature in our land of high property values







I arrived at Montgomery and its a lovely town with a castle (like most Welsh towns). Unfortunately also "like most Welsh towns" what it does not have is a model car museum. I asked about and was told that it had moved about a year ago to the Llanfair Narrow Gauge Steam Railway the other side of Welshpool. So I checked Google and it confirmed that the steam railway was open to 5pm today, and that I would arrive before 4. Plenty of time to see a model car museum, so of I went...

This leg of the journey was the one most akin to tarmac rally! Lots of very exciting roads! I arrived at the steam railway ahead of Google's estimation but found that the place was shut. Not recently either. So goddamnit to both these folks for not keeping their Google entries up to date.

So I had a mooch round Welshpool, most of which was also shut, and a stroll in the lovely deer park at Powys Castle (you'd be amazed to hear the Castle was also shut, actually about shutting, when I got there. Oh well.















Met a lovely chap at the petrol station who really loved the Country Squire. I tell you, KFW said "you'll be blowing minds all over with that thing out here mate" and I really was. people didn't have any of the usual stupid / small minded things they say when I am out and about in England with it/other yanks.

Headed home after that.

2 days 470 miles. 15.1 mpg. Nothing fell off. Car ran great in the heat. All good.

[Paul Y]

I used to drive through Welshpool on my way to visit #1 son at Aberystwyth Uni, the shot of the town did bring back some memories!

There was a used car show room in Welshpool that we drove past that always seemed to have interesting stuff in, predominately rally based but on one occasion there was a rather nice Ford F1 pick up in there.

3 hours to travel the 200 miles to Telford and then 3 hours to travel the 70 miles to Aber.....

P.

[astranaut]

Up my neck of the woods, picked a cracking few days for it, thought I recognised the car on Tacla Taids Facebook, kids love going there. Kev is also a top chap Anglesey is a lovely place to visit, and yes anything yank up here is gazed at in wonderment

[pedalcarjoe]

Great pics and write up, thanks for sharing them with us

the diner is not too far from me and we've had a few visits over the years




Llandudno is not a bad place to be and we are on the outskirts in Penrhyn Bay





the kettle is usually on here if anyone is making the trip

[slackerTHEpinstriper]

We regularly (pre covid) travelled to Anglesey for holidays, we're going back in 2 weeks actually.

Love the place and the motor museum will be getting another visit.

The colour of the water in some of the secluded coves is like being in the Mediterranean

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

Cool little road trip, love the Country Squire!