Back on the road again :-)

First of all, an apology. You know that Icelandic volcano? It was my fault. Yup, all mine.

Thanks to the amazing weather we had after Easter, I washed and waxed the Airstream. And then the volcano blew, sending ash to the UK to do its best to dirty my efforts. Oh, and affect a few hundred thousand stranded air travellers.

After a quiet period in Kent, it was time to go further afield, and an important stop in the itinerary was to hook up with fellow Airstreamers Pete and Tracey, who are fulltiming in their 684.

I went over to their trailer about three times a day, and every time they just happened to be cooking... breakfast, brunch, afternoon tea... my timing was impeccable. I was fed for three days.

One evening I returned the favour with a curry at mine. It was lovely to spend a couple of days relaxing and unwinding with good friends.

And now the proper touring season commences. HURRAH!

Ensconsed

Thanks for the well-wishes. My telephone persistence paid off and I managed to get a cancellation on a CC Site... and in the nick of time, too, as another local CC site has had to close due to flooding. I think there will be a lot of disappointed caravanners this weekend. A bottle of vino for the nice warden I think.

Luckily I'm not one of the disappointed ones. Chilling around the firepit in the countryside may have to wait a few more weeks, but right now I am simply enjoying being in my Airstream and all is well with the world...

Homeless but hopeful

Plans for an Airstreaming Easter at a secluded CL have just been dashed. The owner has phoned me and cancelled my booking because the ground is too wet... as it is in all the CLs in the area.

So here I am, 24 hours to go until the big Easter exodus hits the roads, and I have nowhere to park my Airstream in the locality that I need to be in. All the sites with hardstandings are fully booked, so all I do now is sit and spend all day on the phone hoping that someone, somewhere, cancels their booking...

The Airstream Song

Easter can't come soon enough. Despite having heaps to do, I keep rattling around the house, staring out of the window, and dreaming... on the road to the next adventure with my Airstream in tow... kitesurfing on a remote beach... sitting around the fire pit outside the Airstream sharing a bottle of wine with friends as the sun goes down... Bring it on!

In the meantime I've found the Airstream song on YouTube.

The Airstream Song


Live the dream! :-)

Oh, blast and botheration!

This time last year I took the plunge and bought my dream truck, a 2007 Nissan Navara Outlaw. In silver, naturally. It had 14,000 miles on the clock and I got it for a good price.

It's a fab car and I really like it. But I kind of now wish I'd gone for the Aventura with the leather seats and SatNav and a decent stereo.

But. Those horrid people at Nissan have just announced a facelifted Navara with a 3.0 v6 engine, delivering 238bhp compared to the weedy 175 I get from my Nav. AND it manages lower emissions.

Slight technical problem is that I can't afford it.

But I NEED it! :-)

Challenge Pegasus

OK, it's not an Airstream. But it's a fun adventure had in a trailer, so it almost counts.

In December, Bailey Caravans asked me to take one of their Pegasus caravans to the coldest site I could manage. The Pegasus has Grade 3 insulation (superior to most other) so I took both it and my parents to Camping Gravas in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, which is a campsite at an altitude of 5000ft.

You can see the video about it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXRE6rkt1MQ

Itchy tyres

I've been without my Airstream for a while, having agreed to allow it to be shown at the NEC show in February. Any excuse for a valet...

Keeping the trailer as light as possible is a priority for me, and because I move on so much I like to be as unencumbered as possible. As such, my large cupboard in the buffet is normally empty.

Over the summer, my wonderful neighbours, who own a woodland, gave me some wood for the fire pit. Where did I store it? Yup, in the empty cupboard. It made a great log store and kept the wood dry.

Boy oh boy did I get a 'telling off' from the guys at Airstream Europe! ;-) MH was horrified that I had abused my trailer so, and politely suggested that maybe I should use a proper receptacle to hold the wood.

Suitably ashamed, and keen to keep the newly-scrubbed cupboards looking at their best, I bought some of that rubbery liner stuff, and upon getting my trailer back spent a while lining everything before re-packing.

It was so lovely to move back into my trailer. But I'm away working now doing live-in reviews for the magazine, so the Airstream awaits Easter and the beginning of another six months on the road.

I seriously can't wait!