Country: England
Distance travelled: drove from Irlam to Bradford then to York
Weather: overcast, windy, raining

Today we went and picked up our brand-new-to-us motorhome. We had partially packed the night before so we were up and out of bed with some enthusiasm, showered and had a quick breakfast and off on the drive to Bradford. Mark had arranged to meet Stephen the owner there at 11am so when our enthusiasm had us at the sales yard by 10.30am we ended up sitting in the waiting room enjoying the obligatory cup of tea. Stephen arrived on time and took us on a tour explaining the finer details of 3 way fridges and how to get hot water on tap and a few other technicalities.

Then it was off on a trip down to the local service station fill her up with diesel (note to self, there is an overflow on the fuel intake) and to learn how to fill up our 2 huge gas tanks which should allow us much more leeway in finding a campsite since we won’t require electric hookup all the time.

We headed back to the sales yard to chuck all the stuff we felt we couldn’t live without into the van, no order here, everything was jammed in wherever it fit and wherever seemed safe for now. We handed the keys to the Rav4 over for safekeeping and set the gps to York!

Since this was our first trip out in the van and we were unsure of many things, we chose a ‘camp site’ which had everything. The Lysander Arms has a small area set aside which takes no more than 15 motorhomes or touring caravans and has everything you could want. Each paved pitch has electric hookup, fresh water, grey and black water dumping points and each parking space is separated by a hedge. All arrayed around a very nice a little amenities block with a separate shower and loo for men and women. Also available is a washing machine and dryer. We parked up, hooked up the electric and diligently switched the fridge over to the leisure battery then trotted off to the local Tesco in the rain to forage for food.

Back in the van, we were sorting out how to store our provisions when calamity struck. Mark was sitting at the dinette when he suddenly realized that the water on the floor wasn’t from us traipsing in and out with wet shoes but was actually seeping out from under the dinette seat where the freshwater tank is stored.

We disassembled the seat as much as we could and found that there appeared to be a slowish ooze coming from under the tank. It couldn’t be blamed on condensation nor was it coming from any of the many connections on the top of the tank, definitely from under. We tried all sorts of things but ended up with a wall of newly bought tea towels and sponges which we were regularly wringing out.

Dinner of Tesco chicken with salad and fresh chips from the pub was scoffed, dishes were washed and then we drained the fresh water tank. Lucky for us, the amenities block is so nice.

Mark had spent some time on the phone with Stephen from Dick Lane and it was decided that since their mechanic wouldn’t be able to look at it before Monday, and since we were pretty comfortable where we were, we would stay in York another night then make our way back to Bradford on Sunday where Stephen would kindly let us park on the handstand at his house and we would head back to the yard and the mechanic on Monday morning.

We snuggled up in bed, watched some tv and then drifted off to sleep to the sound of rain in the roof.