Happy anniversary… but sad Harvey

Anita says it’s all my fault.  Our initial title for this blog was ‘Travels with Harvey’ however this author felt that the word adventure more accurately described our plans, and so the blog was named.  Anita now tells me that she would prefer more travelling and fewer adventures which I understand and agree with.  We would both like a few more of them to include Harvey!

First an update on the old chap.  He’s still not well, the fixit man spent pretty much all of Thursday morning doing his best troubleshooting and ruling out several potential issues.  The problem is that these 'yank tanks' aren’t particularly common over here so there’s not a great deal of familiarity with them amongst the motorhome fixit fraternity.  And those few that do know their onions are in high demand and difficult to tie down.  The usual diagnostic equipment that motor mechanics use appears to have software pertaining to European diesel engines rather than large American gas guzzlers (although most of them in this part of the world have been converted to LPG).

So as we sit here I have a very nice motorhome tech called Jason who (despite initially telling me he was booked up for a month) has agreed to try and stop by on his way back from a job in Somerset on Monday afternoon.  He has the diagnostic equipment to hopefully figure out what is wrong, we can then order parts, and the lads here at MTB can hopefully take care of the repair. There’s a lot of hopefullys in one sentence!

Having said all of that, the lack of a Harvey hasn’t materially affected our trip so far.  Last night was an absolute treat for our 10^th wedding anniversary, staying at New Hall in Sutton Coldfield just north of Birmingham.  The building has been there since at least 1200AD and probably up to 150 years prior to that.  It has a moat and extensive gardens and is a place steeped in 1000 odd years of history.  With no Harvey we arranged a rental car from a company with a branch around a mile down the road, the call centre told me “No worries, we’ll have a compact there ready for you by 2pm”.  About 10 minutes after the booking the local office phoned me and said they had no vehicles available until 5pm – which was quite unsatisfactory given we had a 3pm check in and around an hour’s drive to get there.  “We could give you a van?” she helpfully offered… so (with a little storm cloud over my head and a wife who thought it was funny) we made our way to our 10^th wedding anniversary dinner in a Vauxhall diesel delivery van.  And just when I thought my days of van driving were over!!!

Tonight we are back in Harvey although this will probably be the last night until he is fixed.  Although we are still adjacent to the motorhome fixit place and have a power hook up, LPG is our limiting factor.  We need it for cooking but, much more importantly, heat – it’s still very cold here at the moment!  Harvey has an excellent furnace however by the time we’re done overnight tonight, there likely won’t be enough for another cold night and, unlike gasoline, we can’t put LPG in a can and bring it here.

Not to worry, we have plans that won’t cramp our style too much.  The Vauxhall van has been exchanged for a Vauxhall Corsa (I’m not sure which is worse) and tomorrow we’re heading down to South Wales to catch up with a friend of Anita’s for a couple of nights.  We’ll come back Monday afternoon to (hopefully) meet Jason and figure out a fix for Harvey.  In the ‘isn’t the world a small place’ category, some friends of ours in Russell happen to be the owners of a pub in Warwick and have very kindly offered to put us up there for a few nights next week.  All of which means we’re sorted for somewhere to stay for the next week or so… for which we are extremely grateful!

Anita says that, despite my responsibility for Harvey’s woes, it’s been a great 10 year adventure so far and she’s looking forward to many more.  Phew, I thought I was in real trouble!

So that’s the update from the travelling Woodies – thanks again for your comments and likes, it’s wonderful to have so many friends keeping us company on our travels!

Adventures with Harvey over and out.