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, 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!