Getting ready

We are Andy and Rosemary Newton, a retired couple from Shaftesbury in Dorset. Tilly is our 2006 registered Rapido 746 motorhome, which we've had from new. She replaces an earlier Tilly  that was inundated in floods in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 2005. (The messy details are here: http://www.pippins.me.uk/2005/2005_bulgaria.htm). This year we are having a holiday, an easy dawdle through France and parts of Spain. We always said we'd save France until we're old and past it, as there's no real adventure, but circumstances require us to be in Brittany at the end of June. (By comparison, last year's trip WAS an adventure, taking in Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania - see http://www.pippins.me.uk/2012%20Albania/2012_albania.htm)

A week to go, and we're still getting ready. The van is MOTed, I've added some new Daylight Running Lights, essential provisions are loaded (all the good things in life you can't get in France - decent tea, real English ale, marmalade) and we're still under the weight limit. There is usually something we forget, and while it is so cold here in England it is difficult to think of light summer clothes. One year I ran out of reading material - disaster! I have a stack of unread Scientific American, which I usually save for holiday reading, some popular science books, some adventure stories for easy reading, and a couple of "Game of Thrones" books for the gory stuff. And finally, having just attended a weekend course on solving cryptic crosswords, a stack of cryptic crosswords, dictionaries, and pencils. I've been trying to crack cryptic crosswords for at least 30 years - maybe this year I will succeed?

Tilly (and Rosemary) in Montenegto last year