Yea, Clubbing - well with the Caravan Club – some of you will know when we came home in April we rented a motorhome to travel the country and catch up with family and friends and it worked really well, we both enjoyed it. It was a real change for me as Suzanne did all the driving and I was able to look at the countryside.

Our plan though, is to have a base we can use, initially up near Oxford, where work and family are close by and we felt the motorhome restricted us from leaving the site in the evening, as we were worried about coming back late to find a cuckoo in our nest. The motorhome has some advantages, it’s much easier to manoeuvre and there’s no need to stop to use the toilet (not sure what it says in the handbook about that when you’re racing up the motorway). Some of you will remember that Suzanne had a couple of caravans in her previous life and we had often discussed buying a motorhome or caravan, as Tony and Lyn on Sea Horse do on our old pontoon at Royal Clarence Marina, especially if sailing got too hard for us.

Anyway this weekend after some research we have bought our new toy and take delivery in 2 weeks, we went for a new one in the end as the second-hand Baileys are not much cheaper and we get the full 10 year warranty. So the tow bar goes on the Lexus RX on Monday, then we have a remote control Power Touch caravan mover being fitted – if you get bored watch the video with the speakers on – it is so funny, just like sailing. The bloke is shouting at his wife all the time with useful comments like “What have you done now!!”  as they push it manually onto their drive.

http://www.powrwheel.com/Video-Powrtouch.asp

So that’s it, a base anywhere we want without resurrecting one of our rental properties in Oxford. A six berth caravan with all the bells and whistles and it means Suzanne and I can go off in different directions for the day and then rendezvous in the evening. Suzanne can do the Grandma thing during the school holidays without us constantly driving up and down the motorway staying in hotels.  Unfortunately we won’t be able to do the French/ Spanish trip with our sailing friends but of course we did come back to England to spend time with friends and family the UK, but we think this will be a great solution. We have also invested in an Awning which doubles the living space and hopefully when weather will improves we can sit outside.

So the next thing to do is provision and furbish land Suzie Too, so more shopping, Go Outdoors and Towsure etc .  We have booked the site in Oxford for a  very reasonable £ 9.35 per person per night after discount from the Caravan Club, compared with the marina prices it’s a bargain. 

Our rental motorhome