Two Virgins step out into the light.

This story happened on: 17/06/2021

No no no, this is not a risqué story just because I used a suggestive title. Rather it’s just a prelude to our first trip consisting 3 specific sites. The first trip I will write about later.  I’m sure everyone who reads this will identify with their first time, whether last month, last year or many moons ago.  After a scary and sudden Cancer struck my wife down in 2020, we both realised that life really was unpredictable and that putting something off until tomorrow may result in tomorrow never coming! 
To take away the doom and gloom if this story, I’m happy to say that my wife is well on the mend now, and building confidence in her mobility. 
We are both retired and we don’t have family financial burdens, that is to say, the adult children are now all well established in their own right.  So with a little spare cash, the impact of COVID and the lack of interest to get in a metal tube with all the hassle just for a bit more sunshine, we decided to take to the road in this country.  My wife’s mobility was another factor of course and the freedom of the road in our own unit became very attractive.   So started the discussion/debate.  Motor home or Caravan? Maybe for many of you the decision would be a no-brainer, and equally for many you may understand the thought processes we went through as well.  But without boring this story with that detail we ended up with a 2021 brand new Swift Sprite Major 4 SB.  Many of you in this industry will know of the upsurge in sales of new and pre-owned Caravans and in many respects we were lucky that we got the last one available at the dealership, although we still had to wait about 4 weeks as the handover list at the dealers was pretty busy.   
The day came to collect and a good friend came with me to help out and after the impressive handover , where the service manager was incredibly helpful, I was hooked up and towed a unit for the very first time in my life.  Not strictly true, I had completed a weekend manoeuvring course run by CAMC which was very valuable but restricted to a large car park of a school. We parked the caravan on the drive at home and then discovered that our property deeds forbade this, so we had to move out to a Cassoa storage facility about 20 miles from home.  This was a great move and the associated site was lovely.  More about that in part 2 which will follow shortly.  Please tell free to comment, criticise, or even encourage my writing ramblings.  As my wife will attest, I have plenty to say! Cheers. 

Bakers2 commented on 12/07/2021 08:39

Commented on 12/07/2021 08:39

Hello and welcome. Yes life can and does chuck curved balls, live it while you can! Wishing you both all the best.

Looking forward to reading about your trips and as JVB says there's plenty of advice/assistance/informaion/knowledge among CT contributors. There's often more than one way of doing things and it's interesting to read the variations

Woman sitting in camping chair by Wastwater in the Lake District with her two dogs and picnic blanket

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