First caravan tow with our new car and some pretty flowers

You might remember, back in Spain last winter, we gave ourselves a scare when I clouted

Thanks for the flowers, Kim 

Bailey's motor mover on a high kerb and we were stranded at the roadside. In the interests of keeping stress to a minimum (a la Douglas Adams) I can reveal we weren't stranded for long thanks to a kindly German man with expertise and more-or-less the right tools. However, since we've been back in the UK, said motor mover has repeatedly failed to fire up. So on Saturday we set off from the storage place to John's Cross in order that they might take a look.
I was actually a bit nervous about it because I haven't towed since March and have hardly driven the new car at all. My 'bad feeling' was nearly justified too! We couldn't get the hitch thing to go over the ball of the new tow bar. The ball was too big! We struggled for a few minutes envisaging the hassle of rebooking the caravan service and waiting ages to get yet another tow bar. Then inspiration hit. If you find yourself in the same predicament, please note that it is vitally important to Lift The Black Lever. FFS!! How many times had we successfully hitched up over the winter?

We'll not forget again in a hurry.

Hopefully!

We should learn what needs to happen to repair the motor mover tomorrow and fingers crossed can collect Bailey again at the weekend.

Towing Bailey with the new car was a breeze. Based purely on that half hour journey, I would highly recommend a Ford Mondeo Estate as a good towing car for a Bailey Orion. There's probably different types - get the dark blue one. There was a nasty twisty uphill, several narrow village roads, and some tricky corners, but it didn't miss a beat. The extra horsepower compared to the Berlingo made a world of difference. Plus the automatic gearbox makes slow speed manouevering so much easier. Great choice Davey!

Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing in front of Wimbledon on the television. Dave's tennis friend Kim came to watch the women's final with us. She arrived bearing a delicious chocolate cake and the pictured flowers cut from her gardeen. It was slightly embarrassing that we had forgotten to mention our now tiny telly, but we still had a good afternoon!

eBay auctions deserving of a mention are a small bookcase and the cupboard currently under it as my 'kitchen dresser'. They're ONLY £10 each starting bid and auctions close this weekend. See the eBay ticker at the bottom of this page for links.