This will be our first Van Love Festival and we have been looking forward to it since we bought the tickets months ago! We didn't realise that it was happening on the same weekend as Andy's Grandsons 21st birthday Bar B Q so we decided that Sue would drive the van to the festival as planned and Andy would get the train on the Saturday morning, after the Bar B Q and meet Sue at the airfield.
We got the van ready and planned the route so that Sue could have a couple of comfort breaks on the way, stopping at Peterborough and Doncaster services and then finishing at the pre booked campsite at Melbourne grange CS, ///dodging.entitles.allows just south of the airfield at Elvington.
Wed 16th July
Sue set off with Andy waving goodbye from our lock-up promising to track her to make sure that all was well on the journey.
She was soon pulling into Peterborough for her first break and then Doncaster for her second and within a few hours of setting off on her first journey in the van alone she pulled into the campsite entrance where she switched the van engine off and went to look for the owners.
Unable to find anyone she decided to choose a pitch and turned the ignition key but nothing happened! No lights on the dashboard and no starter!
She phoned Andy who in turn phoned the campsite to see if anyone could help. The owner sent her husband and son out to help Sue and, long story short, they found a loose connection at the positive battery terminal. After tightening this the engine fired and Sue pitched up and relaxed after thanking the gentlemen profusely. So, another job for Andy! At least we know what the problem was and that makes it easy to fix if it happens again.
Sue wrote a nice review on Search4sites about the campsite and Andy spoke to the owners on the phone, thanking them for their help.
Of course, once she was settled on her pitch Sue got the wine and tonic out and sat next to the van watching the sunset and relaxing after a stressful few hours but elated that she had made it, another tick in a box of acheivments.
Thurs 17th July
Sue sat and relaxed for the day at the campite and just after lunch she drove to the airfield at Elvington to get in the queue for the festival. She got settled on 'The Pan' and had a wonder about checking the area out. Later she met Chris and Marianne from Tread the globe and sat with them chatting and drinking a wine or two.
Fri 18th July
Andy was at the Bar B Q in the afternoon celebrating his grandsons 21st birthday and Sue was getting ready for the entertainment for the evening, Ellie sax, but before that she went to listen to Chris and Marianne from Tread the globe.
Ellie sax was really good and the light show was brilliant.
Sat 19th July
Andy was up early and got the 08:05 train to York. He had reserved a space for his e-bike which he would use to get from York station to Elvington airfield, 40 minutes. The first train left the station a few minutes late due to rain, apparently so Andy missed his connection at the next station and that meant that all of the connections had been missed so now there was no reserved space for the bike on the next train!
After a long conversation with a platform official he was advised to go to Peterborough and ask there for a bike reservation. The train to Peterborough was nearly one hour away and that made his journey twice as long as it should have been, 3 and a half hours to nearly 7 hours. Also he had booked a window seat with table and phone charging port in a quiet carriage to York and now had a normal seat in a noisy (children screaming) carriage where the phone chargers didn't work!!!
However, he got off at York and thought that it couldn't get worse but as he exited the station the heavens opened and the rain was biblical and with only a thin shower proof coat he decided to wait it out for a while.
30 minutes later it did ease up a bit and he set off through York and out into the flooded country roads. By now he couldn't have got any wetter and he met Sue at the entrance to the airfield where she had his entry ticket.
Absolutely saturated!
We got into the van and put the heater on and Andy stripped off and tried to dry out. We sat there for an hour watching the rain wash the dust from the runway and chatting about our seperate adventures over the last few days.
Later, now dry and warmer, Andy felt willing to venture outside and we both went exploring, listening to the music from the stage and checking out the food stalls. We met a couple of van friends and went to watch a stand up comedian for half an hour and as we were leaving there we bumped into another friend who we call 'Nookie' who was one of the soldier stars of the TV program "Lads army" and "Bad lads army" and we had a chat about our life in the van and he told us that he now lives in his van. We first met at one of the military shows that we attended and we all spent a long, drunken evening which carried on into the early hours sitting outside our van drinking and reminiscing. It was great to see him again.
Back to the van and Sue got herself ready for the 'School disco' dressing up as a school girl, (no comment!) and Andy took the photo.
Chris Moyles, (radio one DJ) was the star performing tonight and, although we don't normally listen to radio one we really enjoyed the show and were in the 'mosh pit' dancing 'till the end. That was a great night all in all.
Sun 20th July
A quick wander on the bikes up and down the runway and a bite to eat and then get the van road ready as we are joining the 'survivors convoy' where we were all lined up in four rows along the runway and then set off in convoy with loud music playing us out, that was great to be involved in and Andy got some great videos using his new 'selfie stick'.
Now we are off to Caister to meet up with some friends, Julie and Aaron, but we will stop at Melbourne grange CS (where Sue stayed on her way up here) and spend a quiet night recovering!