Getting to Know Vince

A few days before we were due to collect Vince, our dealer called to ask if we could collect him a day earlier than planned as our lovely Sales Manager George had to attend a training course and wanted to do the handover personally.  After some hasty rearranging, we dashed over to Shrewsbury straight after Ken completed a driving test with one of his learners (he passed!)

We were given a very detailed handover – SO much to remember – which took an hour and a half or so, then we had to do the painful bit, i.e. hand over more cash than we paid for our first house eek!  We were offered the option of filming the handover so we could go back over it on YouTube if we forgot anything.  We chose not to (and regretted it) as we felt that we’d concentrate more on filming it than listening to what was said.  In the end we had to resort to the manuals many times over the following days 🙁

Salop Leisure have their own caravan site behind their showroom, and we were most impressed that they more or less insist buyers stay a couple of nights there free of charge, to get to know their new accommodation.  We wanted to get a bit of driving in first so we took Vince home to Telford to load up with food & clothes for the next couple of days.  Driving him was not as scary as we first thought it would be, but it took time to get used to the weight and length of the vehicle and the lack of an interior mirror.

Back at the site we realised we were the only residents which was just as well considering the number of attempts we had at lining Vince up with the services and getting him on the level!  We found that there was a seal missing from the fresh water hose so Ken got a soaking, oops!

Our first meal was a bit ambitious but reasonably successful pasta in a freshly made tomato & chilli sauce, with grilled peppers & mozzarella on top yum!  There’s not a lot of space in a motorhome kitchen… We could have auditioned for Strictly the way we danced around each other – although Ken still managed almost to sever a finger in the process.

Best of all was the weather – we were tucked up cosy and warm by 10.30pm listening to the howling wind and pelting rain. Lovely.

We felt quite rightly that this stay was all about learning the basics – setting up on arrival, heating, hot water, filling up with fresh water and emptying the waste water, emptying the loo and packing up for departure.  We decided the next step should be to go away again soon having learned from our mistakes and enjoy the destination as our main focus, whilst still improving our understanding of how the whole motorhome thing works.  We’ll let you know where we decide to go soon 🙂