Working on The Dream

The dream is still alive ... we are living it, we are just changing tack and overcoming a few obstacles along the way.

On Monday we were going to Newark to test drive the motorhome, but the weather was atrocious, and as they say never buy a car (motorhome) in the rain, we rearranged for a test drive on the Wednesday.

On Tuesday we had a few chores to do, but our reward for shopping at Aldi was to meet Ray and Diane from NB Ferndale for an 'early doors' drink down at the Swan.  Diane presented Elaine with a 'happy hat' which she bought in  Paris ... Elaine is now very happy!

Back on board the good ship I slaved away on the laptop whilst Geoffrey slept by the fire.  Elaine had a kip in the chair with Jaffa asleep on top.  Sammie slept upside down in the other chair.  It's all go on this boat.

Wednesday was test drive day but Elaine felt very crook so we cancelled again but after a few phone calls to the ever helpful NHS we were off in the car to Macclesfield.  She was sorted very quickly and felt a lot better so we rang the dealer in Newark and said we would be there in about 2.5 hours.  The dealer by the way is 'Brownhills of Newark'.  It was a lovely drive through the Peak District on the way there.  We arrived at the dealer, which is the largest motorhome dealer in the UK, and were greeted at the door by a chappie with a clipboard in his hand ... 'Mr Macey I presume' ... Christ they must have have been tracking us!  He was the the handover technician and spent the next two hours showing us how everything worked on the van.  The van is second hand so I didn't know really what to expect, but it was fantastic, and in as new condition.  We were stoked.  Elaine's favourite bit is the electric step!

I forgot to take the u-beaut camera to the dealership so the photos are from the phone.

The salesman stayed out of the way until Mr Handover was finished, by now it was 17.30 well past their home time.  Mr Salesman came along and asked us if we liked it.  'Love it' was our reply. 'OK then I need a bit more of a deposit from you then we will get it ready to pick up next week'.  'No probs', says I, 'apart from the fact that I haven't driven it yet and I am not buying it till we go for a spin......'

Autotrail Delaware

'No worries', he says and off we went.  It drove like a car, and with the optional big motor pulled really well.  The handover guy came with us, he reckons they are good for over 85mph.... woohoo white van man in the outside lane of the M1 here I come!  When we got back it was a quick chat with Mr Finance to sort out the bigger deposit.  We finally left the dealership at 18.30 and had another long drive back to Stone ... we grabbed fish and chips from the local chippy and crashed out on the boat knackered.

I had done a fair bit of reading about Brownhills and they didn't have a particularly good name, but most of the reports seem to be a few years old.  We couldn't have been treated better, although 'to be fair' the test of the dealer is usually down to how he treats warranty problems, which hopefully we will not have any of.

Watch out we are coming through

Thursday was a nice sunny day so it was a good day to do some work on the boat.  I touched a few small paint chips, then it was out with the electric buff that I had borrowed from brother Russell ... what a great bit of time saving kit, I managed to get one side done - the swans came to have a look and were impressed.

Not bad for a 2008 boat , check out the reflection.....facing the bow....

....and the stern.

I was just about finished polishing and was getting ready to knock back a beer or two when Elaine informed me she was having a relapse and was feeling very unwell, so we were back on the phone.  Ten mins later we were back in the car and heading off up to Macc ... even with rush hour traffic we made the appointment with 10 mins to spare.  The mighty C3 Citroen performed faultlessly, we are so glad we bought a car when we took a berth on the marina, it would have been a nightmare without a car.

By the time Elaine was sorted it was getting late so we stayed the night at El's dads house.  We had 3 big fat Pizzas for dinner whilst me and Burtie polished off a nice bottle of red ... I also had a swift one down the pub whilst waiting for the Pizzas. 

We woke to a rather dreary day in Macc ... these two old dears walked past dressed in their full wet weather gear.  Elaine and I looked at each other.....Spain is looking good!

Back on board the boat today, I carried on polishing other bits whilst Elaine made soup, biccies, juices and prepared to start making up a new batch of soap.

Tomorrow we are back up to Macc for the weekend to meet up with friends.  We should be picking up the motorhome next week sometime, just got to find some readies ...