On the Road Again!

Day 1 We left a little later than we had anticipated. An early morning visit to Slimming World and the long way round drive to bypass the road closure right by the turn into our road can be blamed. It was around 1120 when we left home. First stop would be Sainsbury's at Ashford to fill with diesel. With the range showing 160 miles (all that was left of our last French fuel) we wanted to be full.  Just over £107 later we set off for the M20/M26/M25/M3 and A303 journey. Next stop at Cobham Services for coffee and Reggie to stretch his legs. McCafe the choice as their coffee is actually good and cheaper than other outlets. The road was oddly quite clear. None of the jams we usually have between Cobham and the exit motorway.   Even the A303 past Stonehenge was free running! That was our next stop. It was planned as lunch but it was getting on for 1430 when we parked up. This time we parked with other vans in the car park rather than the marked spaces round in the coach parkin...

Today we have been been getting the van packed up ready to leave straight after fat club tomorrow. I checked the oil and topped that back to the top mark on the dipstick. The one in the engine not me..... I got the VonHaus pump out to check the front tyres first. We were told to run them at 75psi and so I set the gauge to 76psi to allow for some leakage when I undo the Schrader valve.... PSST! Front left showed 69psi and when the pressure approached 76psi the pipe blew off the pump leaving the valve at the wheel end open. By the time I could get the pipe off we were down to 46psi! The air would have turned blue but a neighbour was coming over for a chat. I got that one back to 70psi before the battery ran out! Three hours later I finished the job after recharging the battery on the pump. Both front wheels should be right now. The wall plus shows green when the battery is full. So no need to call into the local garage to use their air line tomorrow. We will need diesel though as we hav...

It's day 3 of this trip and we have been across the county border from Dorset into Wiltshire. With the Salisbury site not open for check-in until 1pm we had some time to kill.  Firstly I planned to head up from the coast and do a recce where the church is for tomorrow's funeral, and check out some parking.  The former easy. There is no street parking for non-residents on the street near the church.  It's almost opposite Salisbury Cathedral. As an aside the Cathedral was allegedly the reason why two KGB operatives came to Salisbury...... Not to spread a chemical weapon around to kill a Russian dissident. How lucky they were not to have arrived in  a campervan over 2.1m as they would have found Salisbury to be pretty unfriendly for motorhomes. Even the park and rides have height barriers!!! Maybe they make money from all the coach parties... No wait... One coach park... Anyway we checked out one parking. It's £8 a day. No shorter periods available. Within walking distance...