Well we finally did it! We got our long awaited Motorhome / RV or as she is now called 'Dolly'. She is a cracker and mighty luxurious. Dolly is an Auto-Trail Frontier Delaware with all mod cons, not brand spanking new but only 18 months old and still has the 'as new' smell. Infact she has only been used for one trip to St Tropez by her previous owner which we met.
We took her for her first outing so we could read all the instructions manuals and get used to how she rolls. We went to a very nice small campsite in Leicestershire, a Caravan Club CL site called Rockingham CL .We were here for 2 nights and as our mind was very much on getting to grips with our new hotel on wheels, we didn't have that much time for concentrating on cooking. To plan ahead we had called a local Chinese restaurant the night before and asked if they would deliver to us on the campsite if we paid in advance. Great news they would- we gave the postcode, paid and felt pleased with ourselves that everything was going to be easy (or was it?).
We had agreed 8pm to meet the driver. It was 7.50pm so we thought we would stroll down and wait for him in case he came early. It was bitterly cold outside as well as icy gusty winds. We didn't want to be out here for too long. The plan was to collect our food order from the security gate and keep the food warm in our motorhome oven while we then had a well deserved pre-dinner drink and nibbled on some prawn crackers before eating our chinese food and having a glass of wine.
It was pitch black standing at the gate, there was a security light that came on when movement was detected so we kept moving around so the driver would be able to see us from the country lane. We were starving, not long now as it was two minutes to eight.
Ten past eight and no chinese food. Perhaps they were running late. We can just about manage another 5 minutes in the cold, the icicles were not too hard to snap off from under your nose if you bounced around a little for the benefit of the security light and the delivery driver. 5 minutes passed and still nothing. Hmmmm. Had they forgotten? Was the driver lost? Had he driven past and not seen us? We had no choice but to ring the restaurant.
It's difficult making a phone call on your mobile when you have (almost) cyclonic warp speed winds dancing through your ears with intermittent phone signals. I'm trying to dial the number with my frozen chip fingers while Richard is flapping his arms around like a serial killer seagull to keep warm and keep the light lit. I get through to the restaurant and I've been told that the driver had already left some time ago but should be with us any minute now. Just as I've disconnected the call, Richards phone rings (it was on vibrate) or else we wouldn't have heard it. It was the driver.
The driver, a polish chap spoke very little english but could manage to translate 'lost' and 'where is house' in a very stressed out tone. Oh god this was going to be fun. Here we are, two frozen and starving nutters, standing at a gate in a field in the dark countryside trying to give directions to a very nice but very stressed out foreign delivery driver. Although we had given the postcode, he wasn't using SatNav. He had been driving around for the last 30 minutes looking for a house. Richard did a grand job (with bucket loads of patience) trying to talk-navigate the driver whilst having climbed the fence and run down the lane waving a torch, hoping the driver whom we had assumed was at the bottom of the hill would see us. We saw a very, very distant car headlight and both yelped with excitement. It would soon be here. Half an hour late but it would be here.
While we were waiting for the car to approach we heard the loudest cough even above the whistling wind that made both of us jump out of our skin. What the.......? There was a man in the next field, the farmers field in the dark, coughing. Coughing his guts up! What if he was an axe murderer. Oh my god we are doomed! My life was flashing past my eyes.....oh wait a minute that was Richard shining the torch over to the field. We gripped hands tightly - what would we see? Sheep! Loads of bloody sheep, only a few yards from us. As cute as they are they scared the hell out of us. Seriously - a sheep with a cough sounds just like a human. I think a few of life's strange noises and horror stories are based on a sheep with a cold. Not so scary now huh!
Just as we let out a sigh of relief the car headlights were just around the bend - Richard ran back into position frantically waving his torch while I did the happy dance. Then the car slowed down and very very quickly accelerated again and went off. It wasn't the polish driver with the chinese. Just someone else that caught a glimpse of us acting odd and got away as quick as possible. Damn!
After a few more frantic phone calls and us with blue skin the driver finally found us. Richard and the driver were so happy to see each other they exchanged hugs and a large tip. What a relief. We bid the driver and the sheep good night and retreated quickly to Dolly.
Forty-five minutes later than expected we got our pre-dinner drink, ripped open the bag of prawn crackers (stuff any fancy finesse tonight) and had a good laugh about it all. Surreal.
Our Crispy Mongolian Lamb and House Special Fried Rice went down a treat. Phew.
We had a great time despite our chinese fiasco and got well aquainted with Dolly as well as a couple more friends below.
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