We've done our first ever caravan weekend!!!! :)
Oh how we laughed, well it started with a row before we even left the house, the stress of getting away on a Friday night for the long 2 mile, yes 2 mile commute to Cirencester Park Club, where our Big Bertha, 28ft Hobby Prestige was on a secure pitch. We
arrived at 5.30, the car packed to the roof with duvets, pillows, dogs, food, DIY tools, manuals, wellies, slippers, walking boots and by the time we had sorted out getting the caravan onto the tow bar, for some reason it wasn't dropping on, and quite a lot
of under breath cursing and with me, helpful wife, making suggestions we eventually got it out of the security storage at 6.15pm driving round the site with cheshire cat grins across our faces as we felt so proud of our old 2004 Hobby! We were so excited we
were like kids! We managed the whole distance to the pitch of 700 yards, the only one available that you could drive over as the van is German and all the doors had to be facing to the right and some of the pitches had hills of grass behind them, we arrived!
We got out and stretched after our loooong journey, very aware we were the centre now of the entertainment! Hubby running round with the long bar thing that winds down the legs, I will learn the name but being a canal boat enthusiast I want to call everything
metal a windlass! We didn't get the hang of levelling off and a marble would have travelled from one end of Big Bertha to the other at great speed but after 24 hours we managed to flatten her out so that when we got into bed, the blood didn't race to our feet.
Problems we encountered:
Not twisting the electric cable socket to the right, once attached, to operate the electric, took us an hour to work that out!
Not bringing anything soft and non slip to go on the laminate floor, I think 3 hours of sleep first night after yelling in a whisper, 'in your beds' to the dogs who were still exploring. Claws on laminate at night is like chinese water torture!
Trying to work out why our water system was different to everyone else's, everyone had a pump but we had a cyphon tube that I had to hold while hubby poured the water into the tank.
Why the microwave wasn't working. Took a torch and some unusual stretching to locate the plug!
Why the gas cooker wouldn't light? We turned everything on apart from the gas bottle ;o)
At least 45 minutes spent trying to work out how the bathroom handle worked, highly comical when hubby went in it and the handle came off in his hand and I could hear a quiet knocking with "I can't get out"....
All in all, we finally settled after arriving at 5.30pm, at 8.30pm and that's without putting the awning up! We have trialed and errored, including trying to pull off the pitch at the end of the weekend with the caravan handbrake still on, much to the campers
delight next door! There has been lot's of laughing, quite a lot of hugging and don't worry it will be alright, much wine drinking, at one point Elvis escaped, so much searching but he came back when I yelled in a whisper the word "Sausage", much instruction
manual reading, much to my amusement, men just don't read manuals ;o) much contemplating, have we done the right thing!?
The good news is, it was the funniest and loveliest weekend ever, if not the most exhausting, I feel like I have been on a caravan course. We can't wait to go again in two weeks time for the weekend as everything is now in place, all cupboards have been allocated
contents, we know how the water, gas, and electric work and it now feels like home!
As I was laughing at myself while waving hubby back with the caravan, one lovely retired gentleman summed it all up, he said "My dear, the good thing about making large mistakes, is that you don't make them again!" How true! 