Heavy Chevy, Europe in a campervan!

Heavy Chevy. Europe by campervan.

I think everyday society might have a short of magical inertia, like the heavy Chevy I now drive, once it's chugging you need to work hard to stop. I'm sure it's a good thing for us all to travel and change our lifestyle too, but I'm struggling with the last of the “break out” we have got rid of almost enough stuff, the van is almost ready, I've almost worked out the taxes and insurances… almost, almost, almost...more bits of everyday society keep coming up… “Oh! We will need to do something about that too!”

I'm calling this Heavy Chevy because I seem to have spent all week driving around garages being told my van is too heavy for their ramps! Luckily the Chevy (Chevrolet G20 Day Van) is in good condition, but it's stalling in reverse sometimes and needs a service and oil change. I booked her into a garage, when I turned up they went “How heavy is that? It won't go on our ramp!” So I drove around looking at the ramps! The next garage was doubtful “I better not put it on my ramp” they recommended a garage “We have a four ton ramp but we can't get parts for that! What is it?”

So I called the campervan garage, “Sure we can service it, sure we can get parts, oh! The ramp is no problem, we don't have one, we will just jack it up! What is it seven tonnes? Only one and a half, no problem!” Just goes to show it's attitude and experience not tools that count!

On the people who bought my previous van, the police advised us that they have no legal leg to stand on and we can ignore it unless they threaten violence, in which case it becomes a police matter.

Hopefully they realise their only options are to fix the van and sell it, to one of the many people who want old motorhomes, and are prepared to do work on them, or fix it and keep it. I made her so nice, sweeping her out and checking everything was spotless the night before she went, even though I already had the money, it is crazy to be accused of some sort of fault.

Anyway my husband has started telling people we are leaving before Halloween! So I guess we are. We can't really do a leaving party, (shame on you if you didn't come to my 40th while I still had the big house for parties!) it's getting on for winter and I don't want to drive right across France in snow so it's going to be like the end of “Good Will Hunting” one day you will call round for us and find us gone! When you do, make sure you do that huge Ben Affleck smile! They made it!

The pictures are the “All the aires” books. Aires are little parking spots for campervans only (no tents or caravans) that cost nothing or only a few euros. Tim’s mum got us the books - thank you. Whenever I am feeling like I'm never getting out of here I play “Who can find the prettiest Aire?” With Tim! These are Aires for campervans, don't mix them up with truck stops which are also called Aire - something or other and are not always safe.

Garages may quail when they see her but I'm getting to love my Chevy, “Sparkle” as my daughter named her. She's built for big American rednecks, or A team members, and I sit on, not one, but two cushions so I can see out to drive. All old vehicles have eccentricities, when you dove my last van over 40 MPH the wing mirror went flat against the side!!! It was open the window and hold it out to change lane (I super glued it!) With Sparkle, the driver side window packs in if it rains! You have to leave it down till it dries out, think before you wind it down? Will it rain? Do I need my van secure?

Bye bye Winter, Europe in a campervan

Europe by Campervan:

I'm lying on an air mattress surrounded by so much stuff. How can we still have so much when I've been giving it away every day single day for a month? It's been sneaking off and multiplying clearly. After 22 hours of intensive cleaning, and I know not how many sorting and giving away stuff I've given back my house keys, we are rent and council tax free and homeless, on my mum's floor.

So the news is good, we have sold our previous camper "Winter Dolphin Magic" (I have a romantic streak as wide as the Nile and a nine year old) and got a fair price for her! Few! Turns out I could have got more if I was an arse. The whole thing was a roller coaster of raw emotion.

She was no good to us because the law has changed and you can't add rear seatbelts any more (I'm a researcher but I tripped up here, I can't stress enough, don't just do research, do ACCURATE research!) but the list of jobs was getting a bit daunting too - she needs some love.

Well we listed her and got a storm of interest, cool surfer dude turns up first, I pull up at the same time as him and the radiator starts leaking down the street!!! Cool surfer dude heard me swear, those who know me will know I hardly ever swear! So we get a quote to fix it, bring down the price, get a temporary fix and edit all the listings to include the new problem.

The camper garage told me it's worth £5,000 but I get a series of calls saying it's worth nothing from chancers, and offers for £900. I start to freak out, I've spent a lot of Tim's money on it and then my step dad got it serviced and four new tyres, what if I've wasted their hard earned money. Just when I've taken to waking at 4 in the morning and making contingency plans, we get a good offer and say yes. Then I get lots more interest! Several people say "I'll give you the asking price and come get it today." I told them I had to keep my word. I'm happy it's defiantly worth what I've sold it for. I phone the people who have bought it, they are coming in a few days. They are perfect because they are a couple (no seatbelt problem) and he was once a mechanics apprentice, he's still friends with them and can get her fixed up, I'm very straight with him about what needs doing and what's good too. I tell him I'm getting higher offers now, but I'm keeping my word. We get on. After the phone chat he put the rest of the money in Tim's account!!! They don't have any van, paper or keys!! They just trusted me! Goes to show - you get the treatment you dish out!

Now what? Well I've fallen in love with an American Beast that Jasmine wants to call "Sparkle!!"

It has four seat belts (built with four). I say beast as it's a 5L engine, my pervious camper was a 2L engine for a two ton vehicle, this is smiler and more than double, it beasts along!

Remember the A Team? It's their van but longer. In fact it's the one used in the new movie but not the original series. Now we have to re-edit our stuff to fit a smaller van, oh! Help!

However, we will be able to get closer in to cities, cover more ground faster, it's not so high top, so it's less rock-like-a-boat to drive. It's also totally un-rusted and apart from a service sound enough to take on a two or three thousand mile trip tomorrow. Oh and it's right hand drive? Left hand drive? Europe way around!!

I have a question, so you have heard of a learning curve right? Why is it all my life I seem to set myself up to go up the learning CLIFF, straight up? Please can someone point out my comfort zone on the horizon so I can at least head that way one day? In the meantime, wish me luck driving a wrong way round van all the way home on Friday! :)

Europe by motorhome, we may need a different van!

I'm gutted, My motorhome has to go. We called her “Winter” after the dolphin that still swims eagerly with a prosthetic tail. Becuse it's got 16 dolphin stickers on it! You can watch Winter the dolphin live on webcam cam here:

https://www.seewinter.com/animals/webcams/winter-zone-cam-1/

Turns out the tail is a little too prosthetic for us! It has some rotten wood at the back which needs replacing and it's too much work for us as we need to go soon, before real winter comes and finds us homeless!

Fortunately the camper garage experts also say she's worth £5,000 even needing a little work, so I have definitely not wasted Tim’s money.

But we put heart and soul into her and we have now to find a newer van and get that all checked out! Also it's two weeks till we are homeless so we are probably going to have to camp on my mum's floor while we van shop! I keep going back and forth on sell or not to sell.

Also it turns out that the law has changed, and despite what you will read on line you cannot add seatbelts or seatbelted seats to a vehicle built without them and then get a UK MOT. I have it straight from the camper garage, so we have to get a van which was built with four seatbelts. Winter will be wonderful for a couple who can both be in the front.

So I need to;

Empty and clean my house by the 9th!

Sell Winter (the motorhome).

Find and buy a newer motorhome (automatic with four seatbelts).

Continue to parent a 9 year old and a 2 year old.

Move out and live on the floor!

So it's all pretty glamorous here at the moment.

"Classic" motorhome. Europe by motorhome.

"Classic" motorhome.

So I've done some research and it turns out that while "vintage" is quite specifically defined "classic" gets applied to anything the owner deems cute over 20, or so, years old, hence fourth my best-up, rusty, loud, tank-o-camper shall be referred to as a "classic motorhome" and I'm coming for you in two tons of roaring steel if you gainsay me!

It seems it's impossible to own a "classic motorhome" without becoming a total nerd! In order to find out how tons of stuff, I don't have instructions for, work I have had to join the Auto Trail owners facebook group, and you can see me, to find out about, rust removal and silicone sealants, this reached an all time high when I got very excited about a very compact 10 meter hose I found for filling our water tanks, so excited I very nearly took a photo of it to send my mum! Then I suddenly realised that hoses are the second most boring thing in the universe (after politicians talking), nerd! Super nerd! 40 year old hose nerd!

I have now driven 100 miles in my "classic motorhome" and I'm learning about it, for example, don't leave a side window open and drive off! I did and the van attacked some trees and green stuff. When I got home I found it had chopped off a lot of tree which was all over, including an explosion of blackberries in a post atomic bomb splatter pattern, all over the top bed space, and no less than TWO surprisingly chilled out shield beetles! However driving the big vehicle is not as hard as I thought it would be, you have to give yourself time to stop, but from up high you see things coming a long way. Also people hang back and give you room. You know that thing where you have people up your bum being pushy because you won't jump out into a gap half the size of your car? That doesn't seem to happen when you are driving a three meter high, two ton tank, with a massive steel bar on the back. I think it's for one of these reasons:

1. They realise you can't fit in those gaps, nor accelerate enough to make it.

2. They realise it's in their interest not to mess with you.

3. They are going nuts back there but I can't see out the back too well!

  

We have now given notice on our house and I'm getting rid of our stuff for real. I've worked so so hard renovating the van and cleaning and packing and shifting furniture out.

Every now and then I am hit with sudden waves of mini fridge panic! I stroll into the kitchen and casually get some milk from the huge fridge, bigger than me, then I'm sized by the thought, "How can I feed a family of four out a fridge the size of four shoeboxes (at best)!" I've told my daughter we must all eat mini food now! She thought that was really funny, then we went to a cafe and they gave us mini honey pots with our porridge! It made her day, but I'm still telling myself "even if we live on chocolate spread, don't back out for a fridge!" I imagine being old and telling my grand kids, "I nearly had cool stories to tell you, I wanted to go to Seville, but I couldn't go without chilled orange juice!"

Nonsense for my kids:

The worlds going to go past this door dears, the world will go past this door.

Mountains, lakes, rivers and supermarket car parks. Slices of glittering ocean and dull little towns in the rain.

Places the kids speak Arabic, places it's Portuguese, don't worry you go armed with a couple of frisbees.

Long ago I sold my flute and it took me as far as Berlin, long ago an impulse "yes" took me to Poland and back.

I've never regretted those days dears, I've never wished for them back.

So let's bring you some big open skies dears, and some really good ice cream!

Campervan: doing things I didn't know I could!

My current art form: campervan, or doing things I didn't know I could!

So we bought a motorhome (29 year old Mercedes) to travel Europe for a couple of years.

I've been weeping on poor Tim because I attacked all the damp wood with a claw hammer and then found the mess a bit overwhelming (classic Kirsteen, if I'm honest, throw yourself off to see if it's too high). Also my wonderful step dad paid for a service, but they were so disparaging about the rust, oil leak, tyres, pipes… that I've been going around expecting a wheel to fall off ever since! But we borrowed our neighbor's ladder and Tim helped me and I attacked the front of the van with a serious amount of sealant. It now looks like it lost a snowball fight with a mad artist but it's raining hard out there and my VAN IS NOT LEAKING!!! YAY!!!

Also I took out the great big seats myself, they are no good in a crash (which I won't be having) so we want to replace them with proper bus seats with seatbelts! I thought it was a job for a garage, but Tim sat on one and we ran over a bump and it collapsed! Yay! 30 minutes with a screwdriver and they are on the drive under a tarp!

Tim is referring to the camper as “My current art form” because any time Dylan sleeps and Jasmine is at a friend's house, I race out there and put new locks on cupboards, fix light fittings, lay flooring… but I think I've figured out what my current art form is, it's doing things I didn't know I could! Like driving it, let's hope that applies to driving it onto the ferry and down through France, Spain and another ferry to Morocco! You see we have a plan now, so it has an oil leak, so it's got so much rust it might not pass another MOT, well we are going to take it to Morocco and get LOTS of work done cheap! I'm calling it Moroccan Motorhome Makeover! Perhaps if their is money left we can have exotic carpets, curtains…

Here are some pictures of the huge seats I took out, and the huge can I drove, looking better!

Storage plan for campervan.

I'm creating a drawing a day, just for the art of it.
The last few days I've really stretched the definition of drawing.
Here is my storage plan for trying to work out how to fit everything a family of four needs to live in a van 2 X 6 meters!

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https://www.youtube.com/user/UNOHCHR

I should have put the mattress back down and sold it!

What a mess and it needs four new tyres too!
We bought a motorhome to live in and tour Europe.
So one thing at a time. At least my kids love it...

Dylan opened his eyes this morning and picked up a screwdriver he was keeping in our bedroom and persuaded Jasmine to take him out to the "big car" as he calls the camper to fix it! Poor Jasmine was dragged to the door in her pajamas and directed to put his shoes on for him and help him into the van. I found her wrapped in a blanket, yawning and saying "good fixing Dylan" in a sleepy voice every now and then, as Dylan tore around the van with his screwdriver pocking things!

I have the best friends and family ever, I keep reading advice in people's blogs and facebook groups, mostly it's, where to park for the night or how to deal with the language barrier, but there is also a lot about how to drop out of the machinery without upsetting your family and friends too much, how to deal with backlash, "you shouldn't be doing this because..." "you are irresponsible because..." So I'd like to thank all my amazing friends and family as I have not had ANY of that from ANYONE!!! Everyone has said "what a good idea it is to follow my dreams and would I like some money?" Or "I saw something on freecycle you could use.." Thank you all my friends and family, so much. Xxxxx

Europe by motorhome: Driving around in my house!

So we bought a beat up motorhome and we are planning to take it to Portugal this winter, (leaving in September) via France and Spain. We will come back in April and see family and friends, then take off again before it gets cold... perhaps the Adriatic coast...

So I drove it about two miles! Woo hoo! Sainsbury's car park and back, and we dropped my daughter's friend home, rock on! I normally drive a smooth, fast, car with good acceleration etc. the van is different, you really are driving around in your house! Everything rattles, it lumbers along and is as nippy in the gaps as a narrow boat! And, as my husband put it "stoping distaaaaaaance!" Momentum is a serious force, don't piss that chick off when you weigh two tons! However I did two miles of a 2000 mile adventure.

Thinking about getting rid of stuff verses really getting rid of it. Thinking about getting rid of stuff goes like this "oh! My things, my treasures, that jacket, that handbag...how will I do it, will I regret it?"

Really getting rid of stuff goes like this: Wheee! Off goes all the cr*p I usually have to tidy up, over the big drop at the dump, or off to charity to help someone! Feeling lighter by the minute, gifting that favorite jacket to one of my friends who it actually fits!! Feeling generous and unencumbered!!! Weeee!

My daughter is also enjoying giving lavish presents of toys to every friend who comes to play! I've discovered that lighter load = lighter heart! I think I knew this long ago before I had kids and a husband but it got beaten out of me by the cruel and ruthless forward march of Christmas!

Europe in a motorhome. "You better drive it or you're in big trouble."

So we bought a motorhome to tour Europe for a year or so.

"You better drive it or you're in big trouble!" So says my daughter. She's loyal, clever, creative, kind and loving but I'd sooner be in the bad books of a mountain lion! I'd better drive it! It's 6 meters long (plus bike rack) and over two meters wide, no problem really, it's reversing I'm scared of!

I've been cleaning till my legs are jelly, and doing small jobs I can do myself like new floor in the kitchen and fixing broken locks, hinges, cupboards, etc. I have actually had dreams that I'm fixing the camper, twice!

This week we had a storm in the night, it woke both my kids and dumped water on South East England, I was busy with my kids in the night but I woke at six with one thought "Is the van dry?" I went racing out to the street in my night dress to feel the carpets next to doors and windows etc. Few! Big plus, it's dry and does not leak. I got back to the house to find a text from my mum 6:10 in the morning: "Is the van dry?"

Later that day I got in my car and found is soaking!! What??! Oh! The kids left two windows open.

I'm setting brutal quotas about stuff, 10 books each and 10 for Tim's tutoring business is already 50 books! Brutal quotas. Suddenly I realise I have to get rid of more or less everything! But at 40 I now own my own "home" outright with no payments to go, plus my "car" outright!

If anyone wants any stuff, just come get it!

Lists, lists of repairs, lists of kit to take, lists of days left to get it done, lists of house cleaning and change of address jobs...

But I'm also high! I wake in the morning and look at the huge map of Europe on my wall and think, "Yes!" I have energy to work from six in the morning to eight at night, it's a big world and I'm so brave I'm going to explore this tiny corner of it called Europe!

Europe in a motorhome, campervan, van! The van has worms!

I'm coining a new emotion, I have joy-terror! It's the emotion you get when you propose to take your young children, and husband to Portugal in a beat up van.

Even the van itself is giving me joy-terror! I cleaned it from top to bottom, the kids in the street (who have played in it 47/7 since it arrived, mostly because it wouldn't lock) all joined in, they had buckets and mops and a hose and everyone got soaked, my tow year old didn't quit get the game and sat down in a bucket! That's the joy part!

In the process of cleaning I found damp and strange worms under the kids mattress, I'm not sure what sort of worms they were but whatever they were they didn't like the mold killer, so ex-worms. So it needs some work, we knew that... breathe!!! It needs a worm pill, like a pet, pets are nice... breathe!!!

However it looks better.

Another joy moment was going into a charity shop and looking through the box of maps and guides, "I'm going there, and there, and there, not that one, and there..." I've drooled over travel guides my whole life, I've never bought 14 in one sitting, with full confidence I need them! Joy!

Yesterday's drawing, traffic and dashboard

I'm creating a drawing a day.
This is yesterday's.
Traffic and dashboard.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights

Europe in a motorhome, oh help, and drawing.

Europe in a motorhome, oh! What have I done? I've bought a beat up van!

It's a Mercedes, it's literally two tons of wishes made into metal. I've been wishing and planning and researching Europe by motorhome for months, but now I've spent £2300 of my husband's hard earned money (while he stayed home with the kids) I'm thinking I've had some sort of mid life crisis and run mad!

The engine has purred all the way from the north of back-of-beyond to Sussex so at least it runs, the millage is only 38,000, it's not damp and it's, got only superficial rust on the van it's self, but the good news ends there. Inside it looks like a refugee camp on laundry day. I'm pretty sure there is a stove back there but it's too rusted to be sure, the water tank is empty and the battery for internal stuff is flat, so I had to buy it without testing anything (that it's worth the money even if nothing works is not in doubt, there was a cat fight for this 29 year old treasure-horror!

Perhaps I should explain, my husband and I plan to take our two year old son and our nine year old daughter and drive down through France and Spain to southern Portugal this winter. We currently rent a big house (shared) in Sussex we can't afford, we owe taxes, credit cards and family, because of not keeping up, and bad judgment, we want out of debt, we also want to see life. We could move into a smaller place, it would have to be a room to be cheaper than our house, we could move out of, richer-than-you-are-or-more-in-debt, middle class Sussex, or I could put my daughter in school (we homeschool) my son in a full time nursery and work full time too.

Non of that sounds fun, so we are getting rid of everything and heading for blue ocean, with a plan to work on the way, but right now we are still paying rent, I have a car (for sale as of now) and now a truck load of 1980’s interior decorating, oh, I mean a motorhome!

I'm not even driving it! My mum is! It's HUGE, it's got to be a full time home to a family of four, so it's huge, and my husband can't drive so it's all me!!! I've never driven a big vehicle (a few days in a big long car in Australia) that they call a Ute (Utility vehicle, six meters). I have also never driven on the other side of the road, I'm having kittens! Not actually in the van, I'm not having pets to deal with as well, nor do I want to mess up the couch, oh wait, that's been done.

We got flashed! I'm in some sort of vintage, Mercedes, van-home club! A matching one flashed us coming the other way, clearly more than one has lasted 29 years!

So why have I done this, bought a van I'm too chicken to drive? Well wishes and dreams have to be made to come true, there is never going to be a day when we have digitised the last CD from our collection, paid the last debt and sorted every toy, and now we are ready, we would be older than the cast iron heater or possibly black box, or alien DNA canister in the back there! You have to go out and get your wishes, you have to bring them down the motorway and go, here, it's done! It's real! Two tons of metal says that what was conceived as a light and joyful thought, is now really here, and really happening, line up world, I mean this, or failing that get your mum to do it for you!

There is more to this plan than escaping the high cost of living an hour from London, this is a van to take our children to meet the world in. Start them on a path through other places, cultures and lifestyles, if they grow up and do what we everyone else does, then that will be because it's an informed choice, not something they slid into without noticing. In the meantime they will learn, languages, art, navigation, finance, science and much more by, doing and seeing, not listening and writing down to forget later (when the teacher shuts up and they have time for forgetting)!

So we have to, sell the car, clear out and give back our house, build the Skype tutoring business, and continue to build my textile design business, and get the van traveling fit simultaneously, wish us luck, or come sand some rust for me!

I'm going to keep blogging about this adventure, assume that it’s an adventure for now.

Love, Kirsteen

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http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

Europe in a motorhome, kit list!

I'm creating a drawing a day, so far for 551 days!
I've started sharing a human rights organisation or resource too.
Today's drawing is my list of stuff I need to tour Europe in a motorhome drawing with my family.
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#createadrawingadayforhumanrights

Human rights organisation:
https://www.business-humanrights.org