Month: February 2013

It’s been a while since I posted and with good reason. I had a major setback last November  in the form of a low bridge. Lost the will to ride and much else for that matter.

You wouldn’t believe how sickening it is to hear it crunch into thebridge,reversing out to inspect the damage was just the start of things to come.

Not too bad at first glance you might say but these toys are expensive and expensive to repair.

Once we had got our bearings back at the storage, it was then time to take it to Flintshire Caravans to asses the damage, they kindly sealed it from the elements while I was there and took me around the workshop and spraybooth.
The insurance assessor was there within a day of the quote getting to them, which meant another trip.

I must give a mention to Malcolms Motorhomes , he was the the only one that  bothered to quote Flintshire Caravans for the parts needed for the repair. Parts have to be ordered from a franchised dealer. Most were unhelpful which doesn’t say much for the dealers. This was not to me but fellow traders, which is worse.

We took a trip down to Malcolms Motorhomes to see if anything could be done to speed things up, we couldn’t. Optomistic 2-3 week delivery times in reality turned out to be 5-6 weeks. This is just for the parts.

Nothing starts until all the parts are on site or the repair will just clog up the system, it was a hard pill to swallow.

In the mean time it was a chance to decorate the living room. This meant a mad rush to wallpaper and then clear downstairs ready for the new carpet. In the process we (I) lost the new tax disc for the motorhome. After spending  about 3 days ripping everything to bits I went to the DVLA and got a replacement for £7. Another lesson learn’t the hard way.

Progress trips to Flintshire Caravans had a bit of a setback when we learn’t that we wouldn’t get the van back for Christmas. The only consolation was the house was looking good with new wallpaper and carpet. I had planned a trip to Crystal Palace for my Wedding Anniversary but it was not to be.

Finally we got the van back but were suffering other problems alongside it, like the central heating packing in, in a cold spell.

Our SECOND shake down run was to the Caravan Club site at Chirk.
Great site, but I had the most terrifying experience of crossing the River Dee bridge in a high wind. It’s not something I want to do again.

Other things of note: Lance Armstrong confesses to cheating and we have the wettest year end on record.

Wonky photographs are what you get when using a smartphone.
The bike did get used but not for what I was expecting.

When I booked in to the Chirk Carravan Club site the last of the snow was just melting and on arrival it was blowing a gale. Parking up after deciding parking under swaying trees was not a good idea, we discovered a water leak on the sink waste. This had been sealed on an earlier trip but the root cause had not been sorted.
Walking down into Chirk we discovered a small hardware store  Korkys Cabin where a tube of  silicone sealant and caulking gun was purchased for the reasonable price of £7.20. It even has a tap on the nozzle to prevent the silicone hardening.

Tried to access the internet through the site WiFi to no avail that evening only to find out in the morning that it was down until Tuesday. Time to get the bike out and head up the A5 to Llangollen. Too narrow and too many double white lines for my liking even midweek. Quarry trucks pass ok but it’s nerve wracking at best.

Calling in at the Visitor Center/ Library for internet access only to find it closed on a Thursday. Probably the victim of Council cuts. I was directed to the internet Cafe across the road where tea and a nice scone is £1.90 but half an hour of internet access is £2. I was not in a position to argue. The google search I put in came up with Horizon Motorhomes of Chirk, finding them on an Edge 800  proved to be quite difficult.
My search of a couple of housing estates proved fruitless but did reveal the carved tree. I was about a mile off course and just missed them when I ventured past the Bridge Inn, deciding to head back via the canal towpath. 

 

Interesting  how the Cadbury factory is at the centre of the carving. If the wind is in the right direction it is inobtrussive. If not the drone of the place carries along with the smell of Cadburys drinking chocolate. It may look out of place now but Chirk was part of the Industrial Revolution with the Aquaduct and later the rail bridge. 

More later, managed to break the screen on my laptop, Central heating boiler packed up in the recent freeze. Took 2 attempts to repair the thing.
The repair to the above took months and wasn’t completed till January. More pictures to follow and more.