Wherever Vince Lays His Hat

It’s been a long hard winter. Poor old Vince had icicles on his bottom!

Five months. Five looooong months living in a motorhome over the worst winter in years. We really picked a good time to be homeless, didn’t we?!

Sorry it’s been a while since I tickled the keyboard; we normally just write about our travelling adventures, but our recent travels have been limited to family’s driveways and spare rooms while we find somewhere to live. Last time we spoke the plan was to buy a plot of land and build our own place – and just for once our plans haven’t changed! We’ve encountered a few problems with the quality of the land as it’s in an area where tons of rubble was dumped when the builders dug out the road to the development. We can still build on it but we need to be sure that we choose the correct foundations if the house isn’t going to sail off down the hill. We’re in the middle of discussions with the structural engineer, the architect and the (hopefully not for much longer) owner of the land.

Vince’s new home

So what have we been up to outside of our build project? I guess the headline news is that we are now in a house – yes a real house with heating and everything! We’ve rented a bungalow in Newton Stewart, a market town in Dumfries & Galloway. It’s a handy base while we build our new home as it’s about half an hour from the plot. Newton Stewart has all we need in the way of shops and pubs, it has easy access to the beautiful Galloway hills and beaches, and most importantly the bungalow has room on the drive for Vince to have a well-deserved rest. I’ve been having a bit of a well-deserved rest myself after working hard for my brother & sister-in-law on their house renovation. Partly out of guilt as my brother-in-law slipped on the ice getting out of his Land-Rover and broke his arm. Why do I feel guilty? Well he was er… rescuing us from a snowdrift where I’d ahem… buried our car 🙁 Gill was not impressed with my snow driving skills; even 4WD cars have their limits it seems.

My new job comes with a company car!

We’re just starting to get ourselves established in an area where we know nobody – Gill has an interview next week for a supply teaching role so we hope she’ll get a few days’ work here and there, while I wrote a cheeky email to our local caravan park looking for seasonal work – and found some! I had my first day there last Friday, zipping around in the golf buggy emptying bins, cleaning windows and generally making myself useful. If you fancy a beachside lodge or want to park your caravan or motorhome right by the sea just click here and tell them Ken sent you! And if you want to buy me a coffee and swap stories that’s even better.

Today’s jobs include filling up Vince’s fresh water, plugging him in to charge up his batteries and turning on the fridge – yes, despite the long winter we just can’t wait to get exploring again so we’re off for a couple of nights at the end of this week. I wanted to check you’re not all in hibernation so you can join us. It wouldn’t be the same if you didn’t come along 🙂

Chat soon xxx

Stunning local scenery in the Galloway Forest
From the harbour at the Isle of Whithorn. We made a note to bring Vince here for a stopover soon

The biking roads here are excellent!
Renovations proceeding apace at Gill’s sister’s house
A freezing Clatteringshaw Loch in Galloway’s Dark Sky Park
…and I couldn’t finish without a Scottish sunset!
About Ken Tomlinson 217 Articles
Semi-retired biker, blogger and world’s best grandad. Doesn’t take life too seriously. Discovered motorhoming in 2015, sold up and downsized to fund more travels. Now with added Yorkshire.

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