The 2017 "Holiday of a Lifetime"

We seem to have the "Holiday of a Lifetime" around every 10 years, usually coinciding with there being a 0 at the end of our ages. So this year was to be no exception. Several friends have asked for highlights and recommendations based on our trip, so rather than stick it all on Facebook, I'm going to do a stage by stage bit here.

In the Beginning

It all goes back a very long time. Not long after we were married, in a time BC (Before Children) we thought about a holiday to the USA, perhaps Arizona or California. This was long before I started travelling to the USA regularly for work. It never happened, but the thought always was there.

Late in 2015, I came across an advertisement for an organised road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, following the course of Route 66. It looked interesting, but a bit hectic, but the seed of an idea was sown. Rather than a rental car and hotels, why not an RV? A big, proper American RV... Where should we go? The lower left hand corner, taking in the Rockies, the Grand Canyon and a few of the National Parks looked interesting. And there are the two famous narrow gauge steam railways at Chama and Durango along the way. Ann wanted to see Mount Rushmore; it would add around 1000 miles to the trip, but why not?

And that was how it began.

RV options were researched; a route was planned (no more than 300 miles a day when travelling, ideally with stops of 3 days at each highlight) and possible RV Parks investigated. Either Denver or Phoenix were options for our starting point, but Denver had the advantage of direct flights and a slightly gentler climate. How would we get there?

Using the excuse of it being another "Holiday of a Lifetime", travelling at the front of the aircraft was justified. It wasn't, really - it never is - I detest flying having done so much for work over the years and Ann has only travelled Business Class of long haul flights, so has never experienced the sheer joy of being squeezed into Economy for ten hours or more. Research showed there were just 3 options - British Airways from Heathrow to Denver, Lufthansa from Frankfurt direct or from Munich direct. It so happens that there are flights from Southampton to Munich. Even with the cost of a hotel in Munich on both outward and return flights, the Lufthansa option saved us around £1000. Take into account the 10 minute journey from home to Southampton, rather than the 2 hours or worse to Heathrow and it becomes as they say, a "no-brainer".

What we didn't know at the time we booked the tickets was that we would be travelling over the same weekend that British Airways decided to pull the plug on their entire computer system worldwide... It may have been "the world's favourite airline" once, but not any longer.

Is it REALLY that long?

My reader must have thought that I had abandoned by blog. OK... I'll let you into a little secret - lots of things have changed in the past few years since I last posted something.

First, we moved house. Then we spent a good 18 months transforming the wreck of a house that we bought int something that we both liked. Why did we buy the house? POTENTIAL! And the price was right, considering the coast we were going to incur in getting it how we wanted. We thought that as long as the rooms are the right size and in the right place, we can put right 25 years of neglect.

One of the prerequisites for the new house was a double garage for the two classic cars.  So, not long after buying the house with the perfect large extra height integral  heated double garage, what did I do? I sold the two cars and defected to a modern sporty number, namely a Mercedes Benz SLK250. The diesel sports car that will still do around 150mph, I am told and gets to 60mph faster than the TR6 could ever do, but still does over 50 miles to the gallon. It makes sense to me...

There have been holidays and changes to what I loosely describe as "work". First big change is that both the magazine Editorships have been handed on and I am now a published author. And officially retired.

That sounds rather grand... A "published author"... Two titles last year and three new works in preparation. More on these in due course, I am sure.

We've just returned from a six week trip to the US. What started as a "route 66" idea turned into a longer trip around the southwest US in a monster RV. Over the next few days and weeks, I'll post some updates on our trip as I've been asked by many to do. Watch this space!

Time for a garage sort out

Some years ago, when I was suffering from delusions of adequacy, I bought this set of ramps to lift the cars up into the air a little to work on them.

Over the years, I have learned my limits and discovered it is cheaper to get all but the most basic of things done by professionals as it costs me less in the long term.  Coupled with the fact that we will be moving to a smaller house soon, it is a good time to sell the ramps.  They are really rather clever and you can see how they will work in the images. I've advertised them on various forums where I lurk and hope that they will go to a good caring home.

It was quite amazing how much more junk was hiding in the garage.  I think Ebay is going to come in useful over the next few days!

Do you fancy a job?

Some will know that I was lucky enough to escape form the world of the wage slave some years ago at a young age and fall into the less secure world of self employment and freelancing. The problem has always been that most of my freelance self employment is either voluntary or doesn't generate much in the way of income.

As well as editing two classic car magazines, one for the Triumph 2000 Register ("SIXappeal" - be careful how you spell it) and the other for the TR Register ("TR Action"), I've been involved with the bus museum in Portsmouth for many years as a volunteer doing restoration work (allegedly) and the odd spot of driving, being a master of the crash gearbox.

Time pressures being what they are and wishing to actually have some of the time to myself that people seem to think I have plenty of, I managed to offload the committee responsibilities from the bus museum by coming last in an election.  Planning one's exit is always the most difficult thing about these societies.

Anyway....  a few weeks ago, I received an email out of the blue from a news stand (ie paid for) magazine. From the editor, no less.  The gist of it being "would I be interested in becoming an occasional contributor for them?"

So if you read the classic car press, look out in the future as my stuff may be appearing

Y Viva Espana

Two posts in the same day!

Ann & I decided that we would clear off to Spain for February and rented a very nice apartment in Estepona, Costa del Sol. you can see details of it here Costa del Sol Apartment

We took the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao in the worst winter storms for some time. Cap Finistere is a great ship and the deluxe cabins are very comfortable - even in a Force 10 gale!

So we just had 4 weeks at the apartment travelling around and chilling out. Our route took us via Segovia, Toledo and Cordoba - a few "en route pictures" below:

 The Roman aqueduct in Segovia

Toledo

Cordoba

Cordoba

Estepona lies to the southwest of Marbella and is famous as being in the Costa del Golf.  Courses everywhere you look!  It was February when we were there, so rather quiet, but even so, there was still stuff happening and the place was still alive.  The weather was mostly good, too.  18 Celsius on average most days, although a few chilly days and a high of 23 degrees on the day we went to Gibraltar

The whole area lies in the region of the pueblos blancos - the white towns.  Traditional Andalusian villages dating back hundreds of years where life appears to go on in the same old way. Actually, not quite because many are modern "urbanisaciones" - they just blend in so well you wouldn't know...

This is the beach area at Marbella.  Developed with US funds in the 60's by Franco's Government, it features much of the worst of Spanish Costa over development. The old town is quite nice to walk around, once you actually find it!  Probably very different at night in high season!  And why did the US fund it? A deal put together to allow US forward bases to be located in Spain.

Much more traditional is Cadiz. Apparently  not much visited by tourists - probably because it isn't that easy to get to, the modern city, virtually just a single main road, is like driving through Manhatten. Suddenly you come across the old town, just as it would have been when Columbus sailed off in 1492 and home to the merchants who made their fortune from trade with the New World.  Interesting concept - "trade". I suppose it isn't good for the national ego to use a word like "plunder"??? Not that us English were any better, I hasten to add.

Then we have the famous little town of Ronda. Up in the mountains and cleft in two by a huge gorge that runs through the town.  We went there twice.  The first time was bitterly cold with snow threatening.  The second time, the sun was out as you can see.  This is the "new bridge", joining the new and old towns together across the gorge. Ronda is also the home to modern bullfighting and has a bullring that has a particular claim to fame.  We were impressed for such a small place, but then found everywhere has a bullring that has the largest / widest / tallest / smallest / oldest / newest something or other. All we know is that Birmingham's has the most shops

We couldn't be this close and not go to Gibraltar for a day trip. Entry is slow, as Gibraltar is not part of the EU and is a tax haven, passport and customs formalities are required at the border. And the road crosses over the main runway of the airport, so everything grinds to a halt whenever a plane arrives or takes off.  Other than the fact that we were still driving on the "wrong side" of the road, we could have been back in England.  Policemen in traditional uniform with tall hats, red phone boxes and English style street furniture 

And of course, lots of apes running about all over the place.  They are a thieving bunch, too. So don't leave anything around or they will pinch it. Coming down from the Rock, the main street is like any English High Street with plenty of familiar names.  Prices are good too - no duty and no VAT, so a bottle of brand name spirit is around £8. Pity you are limited to just one bottle to bring back...
The queue to get out wasn't quite as tedious, but still took maybe 45 minutes.

We had a weekend in Seville while we were there.  In my very humble opinion, Spain has three Premier "must see" cities; in order Barcelona, Seville and Madrid. There are plenty of others, but these are the ones to visit.  The guide book reckons in a week you can just about take in all of Seville - we managed the Alcazar, the Giralda (Cathedral) and a pony & trap ride and were there for 2 days. Fantastic city; well worth a long weekend!

And finally somewhere that people usually rush through en route to or from the airport - Malaga. Birthplace of Picasso, who is the subject of several museums and an amazing Roman castle / Moorish Alcazar, plus a modern shopping district and a green urban environment. Green as in lots of parks.

And that, as they say, is your lot for this time

We'll get back onto the subject of cars soon

Not been here for a while!

It has been a little while since the last post. So lets bring things up to date a little.  In September, we went to France in the TR for the "Circuit des Remparts" event at Angouleme, followed by a few days touring around the Dordogne. Here's the trusty little car parked outside our hotel close to Angouleme.   The event at Angouleme is based on a street circuit, with the vintage cars being the prime attraction - Bugattis, MGs and various others hairing around a tight street with not much more than straw bales for protection.  Here's a Riley... 

The event also includes a very well organised touring assembly. We caught these as they returned and snapped off a few (hundred) pictures.  Here's a few.  You can work out for yourselves what the cars are - they aren't difficult!

and finally to finish this section, a view of the city centre in Angouleme

  

The next few are around the Dordogne

Brilliant!

Simply Classics - another day at Beaulieu

Another excuse for a day at Beaulieu! This time, it didn't rain. We had arranged a large display of Triumph TRs at Beaulieu on August Bank Holiday Sunday as part of the "Simply Classics" event. The TR Register office very kindly allowed us the use of two significant cars - TS2, the first right hand drive TR to be built and the "Coke Car", one of 3 TR7s given away as prizes in the late 1970's. These cars were totally mad - fixed head 7s, repainted in Coca Cola red with white stripes and the interior refitted in blue denim in the style of a pair of Levi Jeans, complete with back pocket patches.  Originally fitted with air con and a fridge in the boot to keep your bottle of coke cool.

Anyway...  here's a picture of TS2 at Beaulieu

And the Coke car with me sat in the driving seat

There were a few other nice cars to be seen - thanks to everyone who came from all over the South-West of England (and Wales) to join us

First, we have a very good example of a TR6 - and a model close to the end of production

and then a couple of shots (above) of just a few of the cars on show