As I'd got a bit of a do to go to in Lincolnshire, for which I'd already booked the Travelodge for the Saturday night, I decided to book a site for the Friday as a bit of a shakedown. This nearly didn't happen when I had a call on my way home from work on Thursday (which proved the hands free on the new radio works). The grass pitches at the Caravan Club Stamford site were extremely wet and the warden asked if I'd mind canceling my booking. Obviously I said yes, he doesn't want his pitches being damaged and I didn't want to get stuck!
A quick search on the website as soon as I got home turned up an affiliated site very near to where the party was, a quick phone call and I was booked in. Having pasted this on Facebook I discovered friends would also be on site.
After leaving work I was on site in just over an hour and, after some faffing about, I was sat with a cold beer 15 minutes later! With practice I'll get that down to under 10 minutes I reckon. I decided to investigate the local pubs for beer and dinner but got delayed when I met my friends, had a beer in their lovely caravan and then we all headed off to the pub. A lovely meal followed and the drinks flowed.
Once back I set up the bed, sorted myself out and tried to sleep. I did manage but as I expected the curtains don't keep any light out. The thermal blinds on the front worked fine though and I will stock to the planned arrangement, with new blackout curtains to be ordered.
Cooking breakfast, making coffee, etc. all worked as it should, it gets very warm with the burners going but there's a zip in the back panel of the elevating roof so getting ventilation in is easy enough. Packing up only took a few minutes and I headed off to Grantham for a while before picking another friend up at the station and going to the Travelodge to get checked in. The advantage of being car sized and under 2m high proved useful as I got parked easily on the edge of Grantham centre. I can recommend the museum there, if only for the large cup of fresh filter coffee for £1.
Sunday I drove down to the friends who'd hosted the party for breakfast and, inevitably, had to show a few people over Dai. After we'd spent the morning talking, eating croissant with bacon and drinking coffee I dropped Carol back of in Grantham and headed up to Brownhills Motorhomes near Newark. There were two aims there, look at awnings and perhaps buy some bits. Both were achieved! Awning wise I've all but decided on the Vango Airbeam. The quality looks very good and they're easy to erect for one person. I'll probably wait until early in the new year when the 2014 ones are in the sales.
I was just firing up to leave there when a couple in a Nissan people carrier flagged me down. They'd just bought the vehicle with a view to doing a DIY conversion and had noticed Dai in the car park. I was happy to give them a quick look over and hopefully it will give them some ideas - I think this may happen a lot!
Ultimate conclusions are that Dai will do what I want. I've got a few things to sort out but nothing major, curtains being the most urgent probably as they'll make sleeping so much better. Everybody who looks over her (all machines are female even if they have male names) is impressed by the quality of, and thought that's gone into, the conversion.
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