Three weeks! Are you sure? I'd been waiting 14 long months for the Motorhome to arrive, there had been many false dawns along the way as promised delivery dates came and faded into the distance. Then at the beginning of August our dealer called to say the MoHo had arrived. Well the joy lasted for about 30 seconds as he then went on to say, we just need to wait for the paperwork to arrive and then we can register the vehicle and you can collect it. Ok, so how long do you expect that to take? I asked, well usually about three weeks. My protestations appeared to drift over the salesman's head, as he said yes three weeks is really good, during the Covid lockdown it was taking up to three months! Then of course the next penny dropped as I realised where we were heading, it was pointless to collect the van a week before we could register it on a 72 plate on 1st September. So three weeks became 4. It was as though Christmas had arrived, the presents were sitting under the tree but I had to wait until the end of January to open them. Despite the swirl of emotions going round my head, pragmatism took over and we agreed on a collection date of 1st September. We did though arrange to have a sneaky peak at the big shiny present a couple of weeks before we collected it, just to make sure it was as we remembered it after all this time.
Well Christmas arrived and I wasn't disappointed, the van was everything I thought it would be when we ordered it. A Goldilicks van, not too big, not too small, but most importantly, the bed is big enough to accomodate my 6'2" frame, just perfect. We named the van Marleen, a blend of our mum's names Margaret and Eileen.
The considered view in MoHo world is not to travel too far from home for your first few trips. A MoHo is a complex piece of kit, a house on wheels, with an oven, microwave, fridge, gas, running water etc, so some things will go wrong, or won't work as expected. Your first adventures are more about getting familiar with the van and giving it a good shake and seeing what drops off. Heeding that advice we travelled about 30 mins from home to Rutland Water, arriving a bit like two kids on the first day at school, just hoping that we didn't make a complete fool of ourselves. We really didn't need to worry and I guess the first practical thing I learned about MoHo life is that it's really not as complicated as I thought it was. I'd had far too much thinking time waiting for the van to arrive, reading magazines, joining Facebook groups etc, but of course everyone is at different levels of experience and have different needs depending on how they intend to use their MoHo. Over time you can add more and more stuff which will lead to more complexity and questions, but for now the thing just works as it is. The biggest disaster we have had so far was not having any brown sauce for our bacon sandwiches nor vinegar for the fish and chips!
We did a couple more local adventures, and sure enough some things did literally drop off, so the van went back to the dealers to be restored to full health. Having built up some confidence and with the knowledge that visiting, Greetham, Doddington and Staveley, although very nice campsites, didn't really fit the the dream destinations criteria we'd thought about when we bought the MoHo, we decided we were ready to move on to our first big adventure.
Choosing between the extremes of travelling to Scotland or Spain might appear a bit bizarre, we'd both said we'd love to do the N500 route around northern Scotland, but at the same time a dose of winter Spanish sunshine really appealed. The problem was Oscar the Dog, did we have enough time to secure his health certificate and as his epilepsy medicine was a controlled drug, would the vet prescribe 6 weeks of tablets. The answer to both those questions was a yes. So Spain via France it was, but it left things quite late in the day to get ourselves organised.
Mrs Riley is, to be quite frank, sick and tired of hearing me prattle on about gas bottles. It's been a bit of a hang up for me from well before buying the MoHo. What type, how big, refillable or not,which of course all depends on how you plan to use the van. Then to make matters worse, once I'd decided on 6kg propane bottles, I realised they were like hens teeth. The first question you get asked if you ring a stockist up is, are you bringing one back? If the answer to that question is no, which clearly it was for us, then in a nutshell you will not be getting a cylinder.
With the pending trip to Europe I was starting to get concerned about how much gas we needed for 6 weeks and where we would get the gas from. There is no definitive guide because it depends on where you stop over, if there is electricity, how cold it is and so it goes on. If you run out of gas on the continent then you'd have to buy the French or Spanish equivalent of Calor or Flogas, all with contracts and different gas fittings etc. I really didn't want that hassle. So on the week we were due to start our adventure I decided the safest and best solution was to have a refillable gas system fitted. This meant that if we ran out of gas on our trip all I had to do was find a Petrol Station with an LPG pump and Bob's your uncle.
It was the week of the National Motorhome and Caravan show at the NEC, I mean what a week for me to make a last minute decision to have this done. I threw myself on the mercy of Out & About Motorhome and Caravan Services, a local company. In today's day and age where most companies' starting position is what they can't do, what a refreshing change this family run business was. Despite having a stand at the NEC and work booked in for the week, they said they would get it done before we left on Friday, and true to their word, the job was done at 5:30 Thursday evening. Absolute stars. It's quite an investment to make in Marleen, but I think Mrs Riley just decided if it stops him talking about gas bottles I really don't care what it costs, just get on with it.
So here we go, the van is sorted,we have gas, outward Le Shuttle is booked, we have a destination site in Spain booked and our first night in France booked, apart from that the plan is to go with the flow. So watch this space and see how we get on as the intrepid three start our first adventure in Marleen the MoHo.
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