Last weekend saw the Morris Minor owner's club national rally - the 60th anniversary of the marque no less, so we decided to pop along. Now it was being held this year at Stanford Hall which is 350 miles from our home in Scotland.
So off we set - I couldn't get the day off work (big user meeting you see) so we began our big journey at 6:15 on the friday night. Our initial destination was my mum's house just outside Burton - on - Trent.
Our second stop (still in Scotland!) was at a services near the border. We found a really nice pair of vans, a mk1 Transit camper complete with graffiti/murals and a nice little splitty. One of which had a duff alternator and they were busily changing the batteries over.
Classic vans out in force
I discovered that the best technique for comfort, fuel consumption and my nerves was to find a lorry (with plenty to read on the back) and to sit behind it, all very good until....
... the lights went out. Or more correctly the little red light on the dashboard came on, then all the lights went out. We found ourselves at Charnock Richard services on the M6 at 11pm in the dark. A very nice man came, went and came back again to tow us to our destination.
So off we set - I couldn't get the day off work (big user meeting you see) so we began our big journey at 6:15 on the friday night. Our initial destination was my mum's house just outside Burton - on - Trent.
Our second stop (still in Scotland!) was at a services near the border. We found a really nice pair of vans, a mk1 Transit camper complete with graffiti/murals and a nice little splitty. One of which had a duff alternator and they were busily changing the batteries over.
Classic vans out in forceI discovered that the best technique for comfort, fuel consumption and my nerves was to find a lorry (with plenty to read on the back) and to sit behind it, all very good until....
... the lights went out. Or more correctly the little red light on the dashboard came on, then all the lights went out. We found ourselves at Charnock Richard services on the M6 at 11pm in the dark. A very nice man came, went and came back again to tow us to our destination.
Megan waits for the AA man
Dig that rake!
So as the sun came up, Jessica was unloaded and it was time for bed - at 4 am.
Early morning delivery
The next morning saw a frantic search for an alternator and thanks to the guys on CommerVanFan, lateral thinking and a big dollop of luck, we ended up with a new alternator (from Halfords of all places!).
By saturday afternoon we had completed the short hop to the rally - mission successful!
All worth it in the end
Saturday night saw the big celebration party lots of baloons and booze and a good time had by all!
Understandably we were rather tired so hit the sack tired and happy. Not before meeting up the MMOC webforum guys who seemed to be having a top time in Rodger_Rust's trailer tentSunday morning gave us just enough time for a quick trot round the cars, there was a very good turnout with some really interesting cars.
The kids enjoyed the very funny RapideBrothers whilst I had a quick autojumble.
... then back in the van for the return epic journey.3 stops, too many gallons of petrol and we were finally home! A fun weekend all in all - very tired, but we'll give ourselves a bit longer next time!
1 comment:
It should have brought back memories for your good lady Im sure she will recall the same thing happening to us coincidently a friday night about midnight heading south out of Paris and the lights on the laser capri started to go dimmer and dimmer ,we just made the first services and you should be familiar with the rest of the story as you've just been through it.
your good ladies memory may be slightly hazy as she was only 18 months old at the time :)
Well now the camper van has been well and truly tested Rupert ,nice one.
Richard
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