Jobs for the New Year

Where has the year gone? I've been visiting the van and taking it for a run up the A1 to keep it in good condition. As soon as I get some free time I need to get some jobs done though...

• Get a heater so I can go away for the weekend in January. - done
• Investigate leisure battery charging.
• Put the radio code in again. - done
• Buy a steadies handle - done
• Waterproofing the canvas. - got the proofing spray, just need dry canvas!
• Give it a wash. - done
• Check the tyres and maybe replace with ones with better grip.
• Pitch marker - done
• Measure the kitchen cupboard and get boxes to fit.
• Crook lock for steering wheel. - done

Viva Las Grassington!

November continues mild, so I popped up to the CC site just outside Grassington for a night. Lovely pootle round the shops on Saturday, and Christmas shopping took place.







I went to the pub next door in the evening, and was a bit taken aback to be sharing it with an Elvis convention. Who knew that night life in the Dales was so exciting?

Elvis has left the building

Down to Skipton on Saturday to meet Sue and get a reviving bacon sarnie.

Autumn in the Lakes

A quick run up to Hawkshead for the weekend. Unspeakably beautiful scenery, there really is nowhere else like it when there's blue sky and golden trees.

Stott Park Bobbin Mill

A lovely drive up, via a bobbin factory - well actually it was pretty good really (NORTHERN HUMOUR).

Pitched up on the site, only 2 others there, and then walked in to the village across a couple of fields.

Hawkshead itself was rather weird and a bit depressing, a Disney version all pedestrianised and whitewashed, full of tourist shops, with a huge car park and campsite right on the edge of the village.

Duloc?

Best ready meal chilli ever!

Cooked a chilli in the van (well heated up a ready meal) and did lots of Wordsearch puzzles and played music through the super Bose SoundLink mini. Very chilly night, anything not under the Duvelay turned quite blue, but still slept in til 9.30.

The next day reminded me why I don't come to the Lakes more often! Mist, fog, rain, solid traffic, coaches and expensive car parks. I had planned a boat trip but the weather was against it so drove down the length of Windermere and then set off home in to the sun.

Note to self: try places nearer home like Gisburn, Settle, Ingleton for out of season weekends.

Stripped the van of almost everything, as I won't be using it again for several weeks, and parked up at the farm.

And I will drive 500 miles, and I will drive 500 more

During the drive to Moreton in Marsh to the Great Autumn Rally with SMHF, we passed the 500-mile mark.The rally drew 14 vans and over 30 people and was a great weekend. Lovely people, very relaxing and a pretty spot.

This was my farthest trip - I stopped over halfway down at my first Britstop, in Great Haywood. Walked along the canal and found a gem of a place near Shugborough Hall. 

Once down at the rally, spent 2 days lolling about - mainly at a BEER FESTIVAL! Lovely sunny day, good company, Jim and Hilda, Brian and Liz.

Take good care of my babeee...

Hugh and Sharon borrowed the van for a break at Robin Hood's bay, and we all agree it is a lovely camper (as long as the weather is good!). I felt quite emotional leaving it on someone else's driveway, I can't believe I was contemplating selling it at the end of the season. Hopefully they can use it a couple of times a year which keeps it in good condition. They brought me back a notebook with vans on the cover, which was very cute and will be put to good use.

Also Karen rang and let me know of a storage slot at the farm that they use for their caravan, which is great news so I will ring them up quickly and bags a place for overwintering. It will be good to free up the driveway.

Blowy Barnie

Sneaked in a couple of days at Barnard Castle. Highlights in brief were rabbit stew, Bowes Museum, the lateness of taxi drivers, the B6276.

Slightly dull site, as you can see

The site was a very posh Caravan Club one with every facility you could think of, but I didn't have any pegs for hard-standing so couldn't use the awning. Which was just as well as we were in the tail of hurricane Martha and so it was VERY WINDY!

I walked down in to the town and went to the Old Well Inn for tea - rabbit and black pudding stew with mashed potatoes, cor!

Searched in vain for a taxi at the rank, but the chap in the Turk's Head gave me a number to call. Taxi couldn't be there for over an hour - oh darn it, looks like another pint then. Watched Indiana Jones on the big telly and listened to heavy metal including Metallica and Black Sabbath, so I presume it was the barman's iPod rather than a jukebox. Excellent evening all round.




Next day I walked over to Bowes Museum, via the castle and river. The purpose of the trip was to see the silver swan automaton, which was duly wound up at 2pm and dipped its lovely head for the silver fishies in a glass river, so beautiful. See a video here:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOXqCuqDOiI.
Also collections of costume through the ages, funny Hockney prints, and far far too much porcelain for any sane person.

Got the bus back to the site with tea from the deli and had a quiet night in.

Returned home via the road to Brough, very lovely.

At last, it all comes good

Van all fixed, stayed at Hebden Bridge site (bring your own loo - tends to keep the crowds down). Walked up to a pub for pork sarnie and chips, plus gravy! how odd. The on Saturday got the train in to HB where the temperature hit 27 degrees... oh lord too much. Bought the King Creosote CD and a skirt, flopped about feebly in the heat, watching the metro cool hep cats swanning about in the ex mill town. 

Nice chat with two ladies on the bus from Huddersfield, who told me the new bus service that went over the tops was worth a trip. And when I drove over I could see what they meant! It is the longest single ascent in England  - full of Tour de France bunting, over 12000 metres - a world record.

More trials and tribs in July

Went to pick David up from Uni in the van, good Lord - I could barely see out of the back. I suspect we were somewhat overloaded.

Then, 16 days later, (pause for dramatic effect) the van was broken again! I couldn't drive it away from the house. A re-occurrence of the occasional problems pulling away, but this time totally stuck. Richard Baldwin to the rescue again, cannot fault them for effort. They despatched a lovely young man to come and batter seven shades out of my wheels. Apparently the handbrakes rust up if you leave them on - I have to leave it in gear and chock it. Which is FAB because now when I set off I can legitimately shout 'Chocks away!'

The Small Motorhome Forum were great during all this, lots of lovely people offering advice and it was very sensible i.e. get someone expert in to look at it. I think asking for help over the web on such things is asking too much, and that is pretty much what they said, very politely :-)

Anyway, have booked in to Hebden Bridge Caravan Club site for this weekend, after 3 weekends confined to Harrogate due to TdeF, Lions stuff, other commitments. And of course the beautiful weather is due to break just as I can get away.

Willowman! 20th-22nd June

After a panicky moment, and a rescue by AA Home Start, made it up to Knayton in time to see Hope & Social. (The flat battery this time was caused by the courtesy light being left on. I deny all knowledge.)

Fabulously hot weather! First try out of the new Khyam self-erecting, driveaway Tailgate XL awning and.... the dreaded PortaPotti. Both were a boon at a festival, ah the bliss of your own loo at 6.30am.

All the vans were together, and I had 2 people wanting a look around. Great little village feel.

And the music... top choices were Blockheads and Mountain of Love. I am dancing to them in the pic, and enjoying myself much more that it looks! Trying to avoid the kn*bheads posing for the camera and getting in my way.

Me ------------------------------------->

East Yorks Coast - 7th, 8th June

Booked in at a CL site behind an ice-cream parlour, so on Saturday morning I headed off in pouring rain over to the coast. I checked in at Mr Moo's (by now it was glorious sunshine) then drove down to Spurn Point. A hell of a drive down. The young lady on the gate sold me a ticket, then explained the point was closed to vehicles. And there was no where to park. After an awkward silence, she admitted maybe she shouldn't have taken my money and gave it back! I did see the sea, but frankly it was a bit of a disappointing visit. 

On the way back I went for a walk through a bird reserve to see a sound mirror.

These large concrete, concave structures point out over the coast and were used from WWI onwards to give early warning of Zeppelin/plane attacks, before RADAR.

Went for a pizza at a very posh Italian restaurant near Bridlington, who were not at all pleased to see me, which made me linger even longer just to annoy them.

 Brilliant night's sleep - yay for Duvelay!

Mr Moo's 'cows' - they imply this is where the milk comes from, --->                                                                                                           (wot - no udders??) Lovely site, 1 other van, lots of rabbits.

Went for a peaceful walk before breakfast, down to the beach again, they have lined the route with oaks and crab roses. Picked up a stone which I hope has a fossil in it, but I have yet to give it a wallop. 

Popped in to Mr Moo's cafe for breakfast, and it would have been churlish not to try the ice-cream! So I had mint choc chip and lemon surprise. The lemon surprise tasted of lemon, sadly.

Then set off for Flamborough Head, baking hot day so the traffic was heavy, but it was worth the journey - I saw PUFFINS!! And had chips outside, watching the trippers and catching some sun.

Finished the day off with trip to Burton Agnes gardens, via a monolith at Rudstone. 

The gardens were having a Garden Sale so full of stalls and plants. Beautiful walled gardens, and interesting sculptures tucked away, would recommend and probably go back. 

What a fantastic trip!

Ups and downs, but no further down the road

Well the van finally died, the battery totally flattened. So I couldn't take it to BAMfest :-( and had to drive there and back each day - NOT GOOD.

While I was there, I got this made
<-------------------------

by a man with a bicycle-powered jig saw. Cool!

Today they came out to sort the van, and it took all day - two trips to the parts shop, an oil spill and a day's holiday for me - before finally it fired up. The chief suspect is the fridge wiring which could have been draining the battery, so that has been disabled for now, and I will take it down to be sorted another day.

So tomorrow - we drive! Hopefully to Spurn Point, maybe also Burton Agnes gardens via Beverley. Nowhere to stay as yet, but I have the Caravan Club book and a phone so should be able to get somewhere. AND I bought a Duvalay - yay! So will be road testing that.

Fingers crossed....

Oh my God!

The rain has just poured in through the top of the back door! About a pint came in during a massive downpour, soaked two tea towels and most of a kitchen roll which I used to try and block the flow. The only way I could stop it coming down off the roof and through the seal was to open the door and let it fall past the van like a waterfall.

This answers the question about the damp carpet...

The ultimate solution was to turn the van so the cab was lower than the back door, so the water ran over the windscreen.

And as I type, here comes the rain again...

And we're off!

Set off to Killinghall on my maiden voyage, despite a dodgy alternator. Eventually I will be unable to start the engine if it isn't fixed so am discussing with the dealer, hopefully I can get it done locally under guarantee.

Terrible weather, and a good job I had a practise as a few lessons learned.

Karen and Ian came up to see me, bearing Toblerone and a sleeping bag (yes, I had left my bedding at home, I have the brains of a nematode).

Home at last

Picked up the van and got safely home. All the manuals and handbooks were there, so spent much of the evening trying to digest those. Showed her off to several friends and Karen rang up to see how I was getting on. The van seems OK (just lousy brakes) but I have a few niggles:

• Battery light is permanently on - is this normal?
• Air bag light shows that this is switched off - need to switch back on
• A scratch on the rear near-side, which I don't recall seeing at the garage
• The table seems to have gone AWOL
• Can't remember what position the switches should be when I am not using it!

At the moment it's on the drive as I am too nervous to attempt getting it in the garage without someone checking I am not going to scrape the roof.

A bit of retail therepy

I only popped in for a water carrier....

Spent a happy hour or so in Go Outdoors in Pudsey, a bit of a trek out there so might stick to on-line in future. I bought lots of dinky things, plus a CO alarm and this great LED rechargable lamp - you can wind it up to charge it, and the LEDs shine on to a curved reflector to increase the spread of light.

Annoyingly all the decent crockery seemed to be in 4-person box sets so I have a dispiriting plastic plate and bowl at the moment.

No reply from my campsite lady, maybe she is waiting to see if she gets a better booking as it is near the Bank Holiday.

Back on track

The van is now ready, and so I will pick it up next week. I have joined the Caravan Club, and got my insurance sorted.

I am going to book a night at a local site in Killinghall as a practise. Then I can nip home for things I have inevitably forgotten.