Forest of Dean meet

[spikematthews]

Is that a Barby or what. What a size Wow.

[mr mince]

Originally Posted by SNAKEYES

Yep another Mince moment. So thats one each way but i will let him post his moment on the way to the meet.

Caravan was fine as far as we could see.

Sat nav threw a wobbly on the way to our Thursday stopover luckily I'd been there a couple of times with my mum when I was younger.

Then there was deciding (not long after passing the last services I would see on the motorway) I might need diesel so I set the Sat nav for the nearest petrol station that wouldn't divert us off course, looked at the gauge and thought this is going to be close.
A few miles down the road and the bus spluttered to a halt, just managed to get into a farmers driveway with the last breath.
Sure enough Sat nav took us to a petrol station but it was closed, we were just a few minutes from the site so we went and scrounged some veg from Paul9 and all was well with the world, The bus even ran on 100%veg for the first time ever, it wasn't too keen towing while running 100% and had a few scary moments on the way home but nowt that a few quid of petrol didn't fix.
I went into town the next day and cleared out Lidl of all it's veg only to find later that the co-op was cheaper.

Originally Posted by SNAKEYES

We did the same with Mince's sat nav. Was interesting with him towing the caravan. We stopped once as we thought we had gone wrong way but then all of a sudden there was a slip road onto the M50.

Yep just as it seemed sat nav was about to finally go out the window in frustration the M50 appeared
Tom-tom's disadvantage is that it'll take 4 tiny lanes to save a few yards on an A road

The blow out was scary but oddly enough less scary than the trailer tent's blow outs.
3 wrecked tyres in 5 outings I must be doing something wrong

Sat nav pulled one last wobbly when we first decided that the site at Teabay services looked a bit expensive and would be noisy (being next to the M6).
I set it to take us to the next one which was only a few miles up the road, it then took me round 10 miles of country lanes only to bring me back to the same site at a different gate. Thankfully it was relatively cheap and considering the motorway was right behind us it was quiet too and I picked up an aquaroll from one of the long term caravanners there for only a tenner

Rest of journey was uneventful other than me losing my nerve with the fuel gauge and filling up before it hit the bottom this time

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend, looking forward to the next one

The look on Bob's face when I told him how I'd been driving on the way down was priceless. I think it said "another new head on it's way"
Instead of slowing down for hills I was cranking up the heater to full power and giving the car a bit of welly making it kickdown, very effective at keeping the temp down not so sure it's good for the bus.

[paul9]

glad you made it home ok,your driving technicke is the same as mine,heater on full going up the hills and foot down,i had a scare just a few miles after leaving site,i followed martin to the M50,we went down some narrow lanes and steep hills before we got there,on one of the hills i dropped into 2nd gear and put my foot down,engine management light came on and i crawled up the hill in limp mode,had just put 35 litres of veg in,with a little help from ethan
every time i turned my back he had shut my petrol flap
did you notice a little had dripped down his face
got up the hill and then onto M50,light went off afte i stopped at a junction for a few seconds,anyway just cruised up the M50 at 60mph behind martin and all was well on the way home.

[mr mince]

Originally Posted by paul9

glad you made it home ok,your driving technicke is the same as mine,heater on full going up the hills and foot down,i had a scare just a few miles after leaving site,i followed martin to the M50,we went down some narrow lanes and steep hills before we got there,on one of the hills i dropped into 2nd gear and put my foot down,engine management light came on and i crawled up the hill in limp mode,had just put 35 litres of veg in,with a little help from ethan
every time i turned my back he had shut my petrol flap
did you notice a little had dripped down his face
got up the hill and then onto M50,light went off afte i stopped at a junction for a few seconds,anyway just cruised up the M50 at 60mph behind martin and all was well on the way home.

I reckon you went the same way as I did then, that would be where I had the first stutter too, never got the light this time, I have a feeling the bulb has gone
I was fine on most of the M50 but my foot was getting further and further down just to stop it from stuttering to a halt, finally gave in and added petrol at the M5 services, after a few scary moments mostly where the hard shoulder had gone too

Ethan's great at filling the bus, that's why I do it when he's asleep my funnel is almost cracked beyond use thanks to him trying to shut the flap on it

You've just reminded me my Sat nav's other wobbly, when it missed Makro by about a mile then sent me 5 miles up a dual carridgeway in the wrong direction trying to correct itself. I could have made it all the way to the meet if I hadn't done that.
Got to it no problem on the way home though

Good to hear another is driving the same way and surviving

[Martin]

Originally Posted by paul9

glad you made it home ok,your driving technicke is the same as mine,heater on full going up the hills and foot down,i had a scare just a few miles after leaving site,i followed martin to the M50,we went down some narrow lanes and steep hills before we got there,on one of the hills i dropped into 2nd gear and put my foot down,engine management light came on and i crawled up the hill in limp mode,had just put 35 litres of veg in,with a little help from ethan
every time i turned my back he had shut my petrol flap
did you notice a little had dripped down his face
got up the hill and then onto M50,light went off afte i stopped at a junction for a few seconds,anyway just cruised up the M50 at 60mph behind martin and all was well on the way home.

I thought you had suddenly dropped back and slowed down myself until you appeared in the mirror again.
The sat navs take you around in circles and I hate it when you realise you needn't have gone five miles out your way just to end up a mile further down the A road you wanted in the first place