Where's Bertie? He's settled into the very same pitch he's been on a few times before at the commercial Aire at Neufchâtel-en-Bray in France. He spent the last two nights outside of Campirama in Belgium.
Weather: Generally cold and foggy from when we rolled off the Chunnel on Monday until within 20km of Neufchâtel this afternoon, when we suddenly rolled out from the cloudy murk and into sunshine, whereupon the temperature clambered all the way up to 4 degrees.
A stop to see friends in Crawley broke up our journey to the Channel Tunnel, through which we crossed on Monday afternoon. An hour and a half's drive, in the dark, had us pulling into our usual spot outside Bertie's motorhome dealer in Belgium, ready for his appointment on Tuesday.
Apparently I have still not learnt the lesson that when visiting in Campirama it's always wise to take provisions for the entire day. The list of work was so small (two warranty issues, one annual water ingress test - surely two hours at most) I was convinced that they couldn't stretch it out for more than four hours. Thus, I took elevenses and a small lunch in with us. On the plus side, they have improved their hospitality over all of our previous visits: this time we were offered coffee twice and although we declined (we had travel mugs, a large flask and a bottle of water with us) we saw they served others in proper cups and saucers, rather than the tiny plastic cups they used to use. On the downside, their progress updates are still lacking and we have no idea why we sat there until gone 5pm before we were reunited with Bertie, by which time I was ready to eat a scabby dog*.
Spreading ourselves out as we set about keeping ourselves entertained for the day. My first task with the knitting visible in the picture was to rip back the five rounds I'd knitted the night before, having concluded that the pattern was wrong. A quick visit to Ravelry.com confirmed that I'd overlooked the erratum correcting the missing stitch instruction (just one stitch, but a critical one to make the pattern look right.)
There was a slight silver lining at the delay: it justified a second night in the free (electricity included) parking outside of the dealership.
Today it was the turn of Bertie's engine to be fettled and we duly arrived at the Fiat garage twenty minutes before his appointment time for his first major service (the credit card winced in anticipation).
"But your appointment was last week" was not what we wanted to hear from the receptionist. She remembered making the appointment and even went and got last year's diary to show us. Then Mick reminded her that, although that was the original date, he had phoned and moved it by one week. We suspect her memory was jogged as she had no problem fitting us in, provided we didn't mind waiting. Happily, we had a comfortable living room with us and put it to good use until the workshop was ready for Bertie.
By noon we were free and via two petrol stations (one for LPG, another just 100m up the road for diesel cheaper than at the LPG-selling station) we crossed the border into France.
The plan for the next few days is to repeat exactly what we did the last twice we travelled down to Spain, hence tonight we are at Neufchâtel, tomorrow we intend to be at Villedômer, then Cubzenais, then Spain on Saturday afternoon. Then all we need to do is drive far enough south for some warm weather, hoping that the snow that is currently affecting the middle/east of the country has cleared and that the storm that has just battered and flooded the area to which we're heading is not repeated!
(*There are shops within a five minute walk, but as my hunger increased it became more likely that Bertie would be returned to us at any moment and we knew that there was a visiting Hymer chap who wanted to talk to us at some point too, so we stayed put. As it went, the Hymer chap never did come to see us. No idea why he didn't nor exactly what the purpose was of the proposed meeting.)
Weather: Generally cold and foggy from when we rolled off the Chunnel on Monday until within 20km of Neufchâtel this afternoon, when we suddenly rolled out from the cloudy murk and into sunshine, whereupon the temperature clambered all the way up to 4 degrees.
A stop to see friends in Crawley broke up our journey to the Channel Tunnel, through which we crossed on Monday afternoon. An hour and a half's drive, in the dark, had us pulling into our usual spot outside Bertie's motorhome dealer in Belgium, ready for his appointment on Tuesday.
Apparently I have still not learnt the lesson that when visiting in Campirama it's always wise to take provisions for the entire day. The list of work was so small (two warranty issues, one annual water ingress test - surely two hours at most) I was convinced that they couldn't stretch it out for more than four hours. Thus, I took elevenses and a small lunch in with us. On the plus side, they have improved their hospitality over all of our previous visits: this time we were offered coffee twice and although we declined (we had travel mugs, a large flask and a bottle of water with us) we saw they served others in proper cups and saucers, rather than the tiny plastic cups they used to use. On the downside, their progress updates are still lacking and we have no idea why we sat there until gone 5pm before we were reunited with Bertie, by which time I was ready to eat a scabby dog*.
Spreading ourselves out as we set about keeping ourselves entertained for the day. My first task with the knitting visible in the picture was to rip back the five rounds I'd knitted the night before, having concluded that the pattern was wrong. A quick visit to Ravelry.com confirmed that I'd overlooked the erratum correcting the missing stitch instruction (just one stitch, but a critical one to make the pattern look right.)
There was a slight silver lining at the delay: it justified a second night in the free (electricity included) parking outside of the dealership.
Today it was the turn of Bertie's engine to be fettled and we duly arrived at the Fiat garage twenty minutes before his appointment time for his first major service (the credit card winced in anticipation).
"But your appointment was last week" was not what we wanted to hear from the receptionist. She remembered making the appointment and even went and got last year's diary to show us. Then Mick reminded her that, although that was the original date, he had phoned and moved it by one week. We suspect her memory was jogged as she had no problem fitting us in, provided we didn't mind waiting. Happily, we had a comfortable living room with us and put it to good use until the workshop was ready for Bertie.
By noon we were free and via two petrol stations (one for LPG, another just 100m up the road for diesel cheaper than at the LPG-selling station) we crossed the border into France.
The plan for the next few days is to repeat exactly what we did the last twice we travelled down to Spain, hence tonight we are at Neufchâtel, tomorrow we intend to be at Villedômer, then Cubzenais, then Spain on Saturday afternoon. Then all we need to do is drive far enough south for some warm weather, hoping that the snow that is currently affecting the middle/east of the country has cleared and that the storm that has just battered and flooded the area to which we're heading is not repeated!
(*There are shops within a five minute walk, but as my hunger increased it became more likely that Bertie would be returned to us at any moment and we knew that there was a visiting Hymer chap who wanted to talk to us at some point too, so we stayed put. As it went, the Hymer chap never did come to see us. No idea why he didn't nor exactly what the purpose was of the proposed meeting.)
Well, this is very wonderful! That's my early-morning reading sorted. Me and Feisty Fig Terrier (not a Scabby Dog, oh no...) can't wait, won't wait for more. Wagons roll!!
ReplyDeleteWe've rolled a lot this week. We might even hit the SE coast of Spain tomorrow, whereupon Bertie can have a rest from these long distances.
Delete