Reunion, and bad flag day!

A fairly early start, although I have had earlier when going out for a biking day.
Set off at 07:55 and got to Strensham Services, on the M5, at 08:20. Found my RBL Rider friends but there were so many bikes there, I would guess at around 500+ that we were split in different rows. Not to worry, we are going as a group, yes, all 500+ of us, or maybe not as it turned out!
I was travelling along at around 75/80mph when I noticed my flagpoles had slipped and were trailing at around 45 degrees. Something was going wrong so, although I was on the motorway, I pulled over to the hard shoulder to see what the problem was. I didn't want the metal poles falling out on the motorway, bit of a danger to other road users.
Obviously, the wind was too much for my set-up so I removed the flags and secured the poles with bungee.
"You need a stronger arrangement" said Dave Thomas who had been behind me and stopped to help if it was needed. 
Off we went again with me following him. About 5 miles later one of his flagpoles snapped totally in half, didn't fall off but it was hanging by a steel thread!
I flashed him and we pulled off at the Bromsgrove junction so he could do the same as me.
All ok, got to the National Memorial Arboretum after stopping at a garage a mile or so before it to pick up Tony, who I was with on the Route 66 trip. We were meeting another Dave who was with us on the trip and he turned up about half an hour after we arrived.
It was a good day, and even found my other friends amongst the thousands of people milling around. We had multiple flyovers, barrel rolls, victory rolls, from a spitfire and then a Lancaster flew over 3 times. See Extra collages.
In one of the collages you can also see, what I consider to be, one of the most impressive sculptures in the Arboretum, although it's a pretty tough competition and a matter of personal choice of course. The one in the pictures is the Parachute Regiment Airborne Forces.
The one with the bikes is a tiny portion of the 7,000, maybe more. It's where Tony and I parked our Harley's.
UPDATE estimate from the organisers is that there were 15,000 bikes in attendance today
So, on the way back, on my own, I got down to just north of Worcester when I noticed that I could not see my flagpoles in my mirror. Yep, they'd come adrift even more and were hanging down, this time, at about 45 degrees - minus the stainless-steel poles, which are each 1m long. They are lying somewhere along the M5 I'm afraid, but I obviously have no idea where.
Stopped at Strensham to secure what was left, found the length of the bolts had sheared but the nuts were still intact so the top box was secure.
So a great day in some respects, not so good in others. But - The weather was brilliant all day!