Ladies and gentlemen of the 'spill, I know it's been a while but it's been an odd few weeks, with very little access to the web along the way. It's been busy, too. We've been up and down the country, we've been gazumped and been fooled, we've been disappointed and been looking at lots of fairly depressing toss. BUT! At last! It happened! In bleedin' Bradford of all places (for DsD alone, that city and its suburbs has given us a lot...)! So here it is. Representing in full effect. The snadfrod wagon.
(Just to be clear, it's the two-tonne, left hand drive 'Hymer Camp 57' in the front you're looking at, not the mother-in-law's Nissan Micra behind. We're not touring Europe in that, that would be insane.)
So, to recap for those of you who might not (quite reasonably) have been following - Mrs Frod, Mini Frod and I have returned from Ireland, jobless, homeless and more than a little directionless. In response to this rather debilitating state of affairs we came up with a pretty jolly ruse. The gist of it is this: we buy a cheap motorhome, run away round Europe for the next six months and, um, that's it.
So yesterday we went to Bradford, having previously had almost everything go wrong on the search, and brought home the beast. There had been false hopes, there had been insurance refusals, there had been payment concerns and there had been, I'll be honest, tears. It was, I imagine, a lot like buying a house except for the fact that ours is a very cheap house and constitutes almost all our worldly finances, in cash. And when the world collapses around us, maybe that will be a good thing...
But anyway, I digress. Finally, yesterday, we got it. It's a '91 Hymer, which means it is German built, which means - basically - that it'll be warm, dry and run forever. It sleeps four in comfort, has cupboards to cobble dogs with and even (miracle of miracles) has a separate shower. Mini Frod, having been leery at first, now loves her big bed above the cab and I have successfully driven it twice now without crashing.
Above, Mini Frod can be seen demonstrating her new, massive den. Don't worry folks, there's loads of air up there. Also, note our new wild-animal livery. Not my choice, but arresting nevertheless.
The plan thus far is a bit sketchy. We reckon it'll be mostly UK up until christmas, with a tentative toe dipped into Northern Europe via a friend who lives in Maastricht. After that, though, in January it'll be a run to the sun and we wont be back until one of us has a job or Mini needs to be in school. Or, more likely, the cash runs out, but still...
Whatever happens, though, it means that the road is now our friend. And my other friend, as it goes, will be the ten CD auto changer that the van has had fitted. Bonus! And so we come to your bit. I would love it if each and every one of you, whom I love respect and need music off, could choose for me your number one driving album. I'm talking proper road trip music. You know the kind of thing, right?
I hereby promise to, ahem, get a copy of every nominated album to go with us in the van and hopefully appraise for you. It's going to be a long trip and we are hoping to blog it but, equally, it could also just end up being a long time without internet access. Either way, I would love to get suggestions from you all and can't wait to let you know how it goes. Pip pip!!
P.S. I would have a song for you, but this ain't my computer. Conor Oberst gave me the blog title, so just play his song Moab in your heads, ok? Ta.
