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.