Weeks 7 to 9 - Big Do’s And Little Do’s

Sunday 30th August 2015.
We must have been looking tired when we reached Bardsea Leisure Park this afternoon as when we arrived at reception Terry, the “guvnor”, said “it’s tight up there, as we are so busy, so unhitch and I’ll pull your van up and put it on the pitch with a tractor”. Using one of their mini tractors Terry whisked the caravan to the pitch and reversed it in, hardly pausing for breath. He was certainly right about it being full we had the very last empty pitch.

Wednesday 2nd September 2015.
Up early this morning we had to deposit the caravan keys at the workshop by 9.00am. Fortunately we did not have to take the van down there, they collect it, serviced it and put it back on the pitch.

Now we had offloaded the caravan for the day we headed to Booths Supermarket for a top notch breakfast, not as cheap as Tesco but far better quality ingredients.

We always (try) to visit pals Carol and David when we are in this area so after our brekky we set of for Millom where we spent the day in their beautiful home overlooking the Dudden Estuary. That evening we went to a restaurant so new it has yet to get its alcohol license. It was superb. Unfortunately, despite not drinking (I was designated driver), I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the restaurant or where it was - it’s an age thing, now what was I talking about??.

Thursday 3rd - Sunday 6th September 2015.
We’ve gone west to just outside Halifax, where Sue’s niece and family live to visit for a few days. We walked, we visited the Keighley Agricultural Show, we ate at the local pub. A very pleasant visit and a pleasant site

Monday 7th - Sunday 27th September 2015
We are back in Little Henham Hall Farm CS visiting relatives, getting the car MOT’d and doing the many other things that need doing before heading off to spend six months or so in the sun.

One of the major items was beefing up the rear suspension, last year the car failed it’s very  first MOT at just 2.1/2 years old with shot rear springs, a consequence, I assume, of dragging 1.8 tonnes of caravan around Europe they were replaced and this year they passed the MOT. After considerable research I settled on MAD-Suspension Progressive units which fit inside the existing units making little or no difference but helping when the suspension comes under load. These were purchased for just £132.46 and fitted by the garage that did the MOT for £60.00. It seemed a lot initially as there seemed to be no change to the drive at all, that is until the caravan was hitched up. From the outset the caravan has always towed nose down while the car has always dipped its rear end a little it was now totally level. Twin axle caravans are noted for their stability and ours was no exception - except when overtaken by white van man, a huge articulated lorry or a double decker bus had no effect but a transit van had it skittering all over the road. Since the MAD-Suspension units were fitted it is as steady as a rock, nothing moves it and as an added bonus the car seems less stressed when towing, our cruising speed when towing has gone up from 55 mph to 60 mph although I cannot yet say whether it has had any effect on fuel consumption.

Last update - Thursday 3rd December 2015.                                  © S W Ghost 2015