Last Day of the First Trip

Charlie and the Twinnies were perfect first guests. All 3 of them squeezed onto the made up dinette bed. They slept right through until 8 am and awoke with a ferocious appetite. Within a few minutes the bed was turned back to its original purpose and they consumed 2 bowls of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes each. Grandma foresaking her one bowl so they could have their two - that’s Grandma love for you?

It’s Father’s Day today so after George (my son-in-law)  picked the kids up we headed home for a bath and a rather splendid fry up. We picked up my mum and dad and bought them over to meet Brunnehilda. Kim prepared , with some help from Mr Marks and Mr Spencer, a high tea that The Ritz would have been proud of. Grandad (my dad) was suitable impressed with the tea, the view and, of course, Brunnehilda. My son Bobby joined us as well to make it a great Father’s Day treat for me too.

Brunnehilda has now been introduced to 7 members of the family and from aged 4 to aged 90 all have given her the thumbs up.

After taking the oldies home and some dog walking duties, Kim and I headed back to the site at Kilsby. The site is great, the views are fantastic and the owner really friendly. It wasn’t a great first pitch for me though - with quite a steep slope to contend with I failed to get her totally level which made us just that little bit uncomfortable throughout. Being novices we had horrible thoughts of her rolling down the hill and the Twinnies were under strict instructions, like the monkey's in the nursery rhyme, “ no more jumping on the bed!”

We sat outside when we returned with our coats on, watching the light turn to grey and having a very welcome Pims and strawberries whilst listening to the Virgin trains thundering through the Kilsby tunnel en-route to London.

So no blog tomorrow as that just involves us tucking Brunnehilda up for a few days at Whilton Marina https://whiltoncaravanstorage.co.uk/before we hit the road with her again on Friday.

Sleep tight Brunnehilda and thanks for a memorable first (of many) trip.

The First Journey

It was certainly a “high noon” at Blackmore Vale Leisure! We headed out at 12 o’clock after I had expertly followed the clear instructions to de-rig. I do love a well written  process so all went well and I was like a pig in s***.

Then Mark turned up to help us motor move Brunnehilda into place. I know we can put a man on the moon and make cars that drive themselves but to see her turn on a sixpence like a remote control car was still jaw dropping! I was very paranoid about Brunnehilda’s nose weight - not sure why- but the BMV guys calmed my nerves and told me all would be ok!

As you would expect with our flaming British June, it rained most of the way home. No real incident apart from me going wrong and heading through the centre of Warminster. As it turns out, it was a good day to lose my caravan touring virginity - dual carriageway nearly all the way and very few lorries! The Volvo XC60 found Brunnehilda’s weight to its liking and, apart from an 10mpg drop in consumption, she hardly raised a sweat.

We arrived back in Northamptonshire at 5 and rocked up at a beautiful little site at Kilsby (about 5 miles from home) - bookings@shireviewkilsby.co.uk
The fabulous view was due to it being on the side of a hill which meant the van needed to be very high at the front and low at the back. The motor mover earned its crust again and I had a first go at driving up a ramp on one wheel to even Brunnehilda up. Apart from tripping over a Dutch couples tent guy ropes and breaking my key in a lock ( and the lock!) all went well.

We picked up Bobby (our youngest son) and the 3 grandchildren and took them to meet Brunnehilda. A walk and a cup of coffee later and Bobby headed home. The Twinnies and Charlie watched a DVD and settled down to bed - 5 of us in a 3/4 berth? But to be fair, two of them are only little.

This could be a long night ?!