With a little bit of apprehension we packed everything we could think of and set off to collect the Caravan, or “Lenny” as he is now known.
The storage facility is literally 15 mins away form our house and we arrived at 11am to pack the clothes, stow the food and make sure that everything was in the correct place for towing.
The weather itself was a pretty grey day with showers sporadically casting their way into the storage yard. We connected up and did the lights check, the torque on the wheels and of course I measured the nose weight.
As the road was wet the front of the van quickly got covered in all sorts of muddy water, mud splats from the tyres and general muck from all other traffic. But as our first destination was Cirencester – the travel time with caravan to site was only 15 mins itself. So we arrived at 12 noon on the button.
This was the moment I was dreading. The setting up – in front of everyone. We paid – remembered we forgot all the fridge food and set off around Cirencester Park Caravan Site and began the process of choosing the pitch.
We found one. “This is it” I proclaimed to the car. Everyone was now feeling the tension that I had been keeping to myself. Angela got out the car and stood by the marker that I was attempting to align with. I remembered everything that YouTube had taught me placed the car into reverse and began my fateful reversing attempt.
And what was I worried about ? well as it turned out – nothing. With 1 move not only was the van aligned with the post – but perfectly straight too. So handbrake on, unhitch, level up & kettle on.
In truth the 1st break wasn’t actually a holiday – it was an attempt to see if everything worked, if we would be Okay in the van, learn how things worked and figure out the etiquette and the unwritten rules that would surround us.
As it turned out – setting up was smooth, and well planned. We had accounted for everything it seemed and we each had a set list of jobs to do. For our 1st time we were set up in 2 hours. We were settled in and loving it.
Chloe found new friends within minutes of arriving, Tom shuffled around like a teenager does and even the dog was finding the whole experience fun yet relaxing.
Each day we did something new and we spent much of the time exploring the Cotswolds. We spent a lovely day in Bourton-On-The-Water (see pics below) and an excellent time just walking through Cirencester town centre. Even though the town in less than 20 minutes away from out house, it really did feel like we had travelled somewhere far and exotic.
