On the Road Again!

This weekend we went to Brighton. Staying at the Caravan Club's site at East Brighton.  The weather wasn't that good as we drove over from home on Sunday morning. This time we did the more roundabout route on the motorways. The coast route along the A259 from the back of our house takes way too long as we discovered the last time! In the end with a stop at Clacket Lane services on the M25 we arrived on site about 2.30pm. We chose pitch 117 as it seemed to have the least slope. Although we have the Milenco Triple ramps I was hoping not to use them. In the end we did!  Lunch was the Sheldon's Oven Bottom Muffins followed a little later by a Cornish Cream Tea. The rest of the day was spent reading as it rained as well as a few walks for Reggie. We had intended to get a meal from Cafe Phillipe who has a bar by the entrance.  it was open when  we went down but no sign of life. There were some  lovely cakes in the chiller....

With the trip in mind I dipped into Microsoft's AI generator to get a picture of Molly in Brighton. No matter how much info I typed in, getting a true representation of Molly didn't happen. We are there two nights. Last year we went for a weekend trip staying in the Caravan Club site just up from the Marina area. This year we return to the same site but not at the entire weekend as we have advanced a day in the calendar.  The chances of us getting to park outside the pier is very remote. So AI to the rescue. The van isn't quite a Malibu but is a Ducato! The second image is more fanciful but might almost turn into a partial reality in the Autumn. 😉  Once I have worked out where we are going to go on the Summer trip I'll start to look at the Autumn trip to Spain again.  Maybe we'll give Alcossebre and the timeshare another try. Earlier in the year, October 2024,  there were so many places still open that weren't when we stayed in November ...

Déja-vu! Back to Brighton. Last year for Claire's birthday in February we went to the Caravan Club site in Brighton.  The site is a bit out of the city itself but not far from the Marina. It's an easy enough walk from the site. Once by the Marina you can walk along the promenade alongside the little railway to the pier. Last year it was chilly and we only made it about a third of the way to the pier!! The marina area has restaurants and bars, plus shops and a McDonald's. We did go to Mac and gad a coffee only. We saw a recent vlog where they ordered burgers and bits from the city and it was delivered by scooter to the site entrance barrier. So a year to the date we are going there again. Report to follow.

What a start on Friday. After a week of pretty much Noah style rain across the south it was looking like a totally shite weekend weatherwise. Friday was raining all day. All morning. We managed to load the van between showers.  We set off around 11am. The satnav said a little over two hours. In reality it was more like 3.5 hours! Flooded roads. Crap roads through Hastings and Bexhill. Roadworks that were around 20 yards in length but two mile queues each side.... We eventually arrived at the Caravan Club site and checked in. We were blue pegs this time - hardstand no awning - we headed up to the quieter section and pitch 108. It seems many of the pitches need ramps. Backing in meant to get level that even the third level wasn't enough. Most Elddis vans are nose down anyway. Going in forwards and we are level, no ramps needed. We had a short walk between rain storms and booked our pitch with the site managers. The onsite caterer was closed and the site manager said that the guy was ...

It's a big one this year but we couldn't jet off to Florida this time.  For the last milestone we didn't have a dog at all. And now we have one,  he's 13 and too old to put in kennels. So, instead I have booked the weekend away in Molly! Reggie can come with us. It's in the van and so it's to the Caravan Club site at Brighton. It's only 75 miles or so from home, so we should get there easily enough.  The satnav suggests a long way around via the motorways rather than simply turning right by the house onto the A259 and following it to Brighton.  No tolls. No tunnels. Fingers crossed the weather is okay! Of course. If it looks really bad, we can cancel up to 14 days before and not lose the deposit I had to pay. More on this later.

There were just two of us from the Kent Centre on this run across to Brighton for the annual Pioneer Run. The plan was to stick to the A259 all the way, but that had to be aborted outside Hastings as the town centre and sea front was closed to traffic for their annual Half Marathon. We arrived in Brighton and parked up on the lower Madeira Drive with loads of other bikes. We spent a bit of time looking at the visitors bikes before moving onto the Veterans. Both Cal and I took a few photos and then after lunch of sausage and chips we had a wander back through the enclosure and then back to the bikes and the A259 run home. This time the marathon was over and we got the full seaside experience.