Having collected our motorhome on the 2nd August, it was straight in the fast lane. I had dreamt of owning one for a number of years and convincing my husband that we should go for it was another matter. But with lockdowns and living seeming just a little more urgent, we took the plunge and I can honestly say we are enjoying the ride - Apologies for all the intended puns! In a past life, I taught secondary school English and it's a little hard to drop it completely.
We had bought 'Bertie Bailey' (as he has affectionally become known) as a business with the intention of working towards our own retirement and then hitting the road ourselves. That meant learning everything I could about driving, maintaining, insuring and understanding the operations of Bertie quicker than most. Having spent years camping in tents with our now grown-up girls, everything was completely new to me.
Now, I love driving vans, having moved ourselves a number of times over the years, but when you have invested your life-savings so far into this amazing home on wheels, the thought of clipping it or knocking out the wing mirrors filled me with dread. It's 8 foot wide and 8 metres long! So having reversed it successfully onto a very tight drive with 2 foot to spare either side, I was feeling extremely chuffed with myself. Stupid move! Not 2 hours later, whilst moving forwards off the drive, I clipped the coping stone on the low wall as the back end swung out taking me by surprise. Our little jaunt up onto the Wolds with admiring parents in tow knocked me down a peg or two and helped me appreciate that manoeuvring such a beast required just a little bit more finesse and concentration. My once immaculate, showroom condition motorhome, our pride and joy, now had some deep scrapes along the bumper. Hence, when hiring out Bertie, I am the first to warn them against the perils of the kick-out when going forwards.
And I may have failed to mention that during our weekend away, getting to know Bertie better, we learnt a few more schoolboy errors - never put the awning up in rain! Oops!
So as we head to the end of what has been a pretty successful first Summer and the Winter months are now upon us, those that have hired the Motorhome have loved it. We have gone that extra mile and added all the luxuries we would want if we were venturing off on holiday in it. The response has been great and I may have gone overboard a little on some of the items but who doesn't want champagne glasses, cotton wool and a bottle of Prosecco. Girls just wanna have fun after all! #motorhome #Baileymotorhome #motorhomenewbies #homeonwheels
