On the Road Again... Again

Failed!  It was a clean sweep. Gas all works and is safe. Electrics all safe. Heating on gas works, water heater too. The check costs £269 and the engineer comes to the house. So what did it fail on. TAPS! Taps (or faucets) all failed.  Each of them leaking. We had drained the water out of the boiler and both fresh and waste water tanks back in early December. But the engineer said that the problem was most likely to have been caused by frost damage. So ARC are looking for compatible taps for two sinks and the shower. Then we can book it in. Apart from when I was hospitalised we have been taking the van out regularly to keep the batteries charged. The picture created on ChatGPT as a YouTube vlog thumbnail merging two photos and manipulating my picture to fit the "angry" look.

When you have too much time on your hands and easy access to the MyRouteApp app on the phone and on the laptop! By the time we are in Spain, we should have the full "off grid" system up and working. This will enable us to choose sites and aires that won't need electrical hook-up (EHU) for overnights. We can truly be free to stop where we like, when we like, the law permitting. So I have been using MyRouteApp  and a couple of apps on the phone, Search4Sites, Park4Night and TripStop, to plan a different route back. One with fewer miles and fewer stops but for longer each time. I have removed the Douro section and have built into a loop taking in Roman and Moorish sites across Spain before heading north. 

A date! It took a few days for the bank to clear our deposit and the date has been set for April 27th.  I didn't want it any later as we will need time for any teething problems to arise and get fixed before we go to Spain in late May. It will be a solo trip. Apart from drives to the dealer's and the MoT garage, both in Canterbury, and to and from storage, I haven't had a solo trip. What will I do without my co-driver to give advice on the road?  Gulp.

I have been looking for an awning light for the van for some time.  Both the motorhomes had one built in that could be switched on from inside the van. It means at night, stepping out, whether the roll-out awning was deployed or not, was into a lighted space. With a van's large opening and sliding door it doesn't leave many places to fit one.  I didn't want anymore holes drilled! Holes in the bodywork lead eventually to leaks! I concentrated on magnetic fixing, eventually finding this one on Amazon. It was £18. It fits snuggly above the driver's door and can be angled down. It comes with a remote control. The little dome at the bottom is where the remote has to be pointed. So far I have only managed to get it to turn on and off. The sensor bit has eluded me!

This morning we picked up Edmond from the foster home to take bin the the Vets for Pets surgery in the Pets at Home store in Whitfield near Dover. He had been there in the week to have his "bits" removed.  It's essential that when rehoming dogs their ability to breed is removed. In the end once he got over the initial excitement in meeting us, mainly Claire, as I met and fed him and played with him on Thursday, he was quiet as a mouse in the car. We had a few minutes to hang around as on a Sunday stores don't open until 10am. We were in and out in a short time. The vet happy with his progress. Needs to stay on the pain killers and not lick the wound... Once out the vet's room the receptionists both made a fuss of him. The run back to the foster home was very quiet. He is very well behaved in the car.  He will make a very good dog for the right owners.  Kent Greyhound Rescue

Things have moved on a little since the last post.  I went through the invoice for the job and then googled all the parts and what they are for. Still have no idea what I would do with them. We decided to go ahead and I transferred the £500 deposit across via bank transfer to get the date set in concrete. As mentioned before it will be a solo trip as Claire doesn't want to drive three hours across country.  We will have had to find something to do on the day they do the work, and with an ageing dog, it was a challenge.  Currently, the estimated time for the job is a full day. I can stay overnight the night before onsite rather than find a campsite or pub stop. Once the company comes back to confirm the job is booked I can say who it is. In the meantime Claire has thought about some extra power points being fitted. Malibu were a little tight/stingy on the points around the van.  It's almost as if Cathargo had a socket shortage! Only one above the hob/sink and another ...

It's something I have been thinking about for a while; off grid or wild camping abity. Currently Molly is fitted with a single 100 watt solar panel on the roof between the front window and the first (and largest) roof light. It's connected up so that it can charge the leisure battery and contribute to the engine battery.  After a few weeks of non use both were showing on the battery levels at around 12 volts. The sun came out for a few days and the leisure battery went up to the max on the Malibu display, equating to about 13.5 volts. The engine battery pretty much unchanged. The problem we find is, that even with the power banks, we simply don't have enough power to stay in aires that don't have access to electricity for more than a day or two. We have just about managed when away on rallies with our motor caravanners' club. All the full time vanlifers have gone over to lithium batteries and far more solar. Plus the addition of an inverter to make 240 volts from th...

Should we have used this one for our decal to swap with other vanlifers?

Anyone else find themselves ordering and speaking like Delboy Trotter?