The Early days

The Early days

His bit

Monty meets the Hazbeanz

Time came to stop working for the corporates and find time for ourselves, I am sure many of you out there have thought about this at least a few times. I was ready for a nice house in Spain but the boss had other Ideas and some good logic to back them up. We have an age difference that is greater than a decade, so one of us is in their 70’s. This means that whilst we are fit and healthy now, the future will probably challenge this. The boss wants to travel some more before we grow roots. So we thought of getting a motorhome and touring Europe. The transition from a four bed house to a motorhome looked a bit daunting as we expected to be mobile for 3 years. So we looked at bigger caravans which required towing, cassette toilet and some fussing about to put in place. We looked at 5^th wheel units, which are better to tow and very nice inside, but they require a substantial tow vehicle which would also become the run around, so we, for better or worse fell upon the idea of an American RV. One came up that we thought acceptably large enough and yet not too small inside. Monty the RV is 9.4 Meters Long, by 3.0 Meters Wide by 3.7 Meters high, it has a super slider (one side slides out). Monty also has LPG for the Motor and Habitation. In theory I could drive Monty on a standard driving license as my license is pre 1997 and Monty was registered at 7.5 Tonnes. But we wanted mobility beyond Monty which meant either towing a car or a Motorbike. The Boss put reigns on my desire for a Triumph 2.5 litre Rocket III or a Harley, so I had a look at scooters, and we ended up with Mike the bike, which is a Piaggio 300 Beverly (horrible name, nice bike). This meant we had to be very careful not to exceed the 7.5 Tonne weight limit when Mike the bike was loaded, or we could re-register to the American limit of 8.1 Tonne. To do that, I had to go back to school and get my LGV license. Slightly lighter on cash and proudly waving my new license, we had Monty re registered and Mike joined the family.

Mike and Him

This process of selection and qualification took 6 months from the beginning of 2019. We learned on the way, there is no perfect solution for all eventualities and all people. As soon as we started planning our trips around UK and the Europe a number of issues very quickly made themselves apparent. The first and big issue is Monty’s size, 9.4M Long plus a bike rack for Mike is long and many camp sites limit to 8.5 Meters, but not all thank goodness. Monty’s height means some sites which have low trees, a tunnel at the entrance or an arch at the gate can be a problem and you have to check before booking. Google Earth street view has saved us so many times, and continues to do so! We realised manoeuvring would be an issue, so the boss learned to marshal and is getting really good at it, we complimented this with hand held PMR radios, which are also our communications system on Mike the bike. I must say though that the boss kept inventing new ways to give the marshalling signals, which for me was very frustrating and dented my trust in the signals I was receiving, but we are working through this with little blood involved.

Around 4 months in to the planning our cost projections indicated our measly pensions would struggle and we had a great Idea which turned out to not be as original and innovative as we thought. We would house and pet sit part of the time, this meant no fuel burn or campsite fees whilst doing the house and pet sitting. We hoped for a 50/50 ratio of sits to camping and moving. So we joined Trusted house sitters, did a video and pictures for our profile. this was not an easy thing to do and the video is included so you can have a good laugh at the out takes at the end or see what is required. certainly our delightful daughter was howling with laughter, largely at my expense.

Trusted House Sitters profile Video

Then we went through the verification process. We got our first house sits in the UK at Newbury, Pewsey Vale and Bradford on Avon. Each was lovely. So nice we wondered if we needed to get Monty at all. But when we considered this we realised that Monty is our independence, sometimes at a sit, sometimes between sits. Monty is our base with all our things, entertainment and services. Monty was essential, though the question to be answered is, do we need to have such a big motorhome, time will tell. We will have to live with the fear of a big unexpected expense, this does sit like a vulture in a tree waiting for its prey. We will have to come to terms with this fear.

The UK house sits allowed for a shakedown of Monty and Mike. A few minor defects were found in Monty and dealt with by EMPIRE RV of Radstock very promptly and with no charge. Empire RV is not in my experience your average dealership, they have given wonderful advice, honoured any issues found without so much as a blink and continue to do so and give support as we travel. This is no small thing to a couple that has never caravanned or motor homed before. One piece of advice was the following. Monty is left hand drive, in the UK, judging the centre of the road will be difficult initially, put marks on your wind screen to show gutter or curb and centre line. On picking Monty up, I parked and had the boss run a tape down the side of each wheel, rear to front and out ahead several meters, then sat in the drivers seat and placed tapes where the lines were. This has saved the day when under pressure so many times, I can be confident by these marks I will fit in the narrow UK lanes and later the Toll booths in France and Spain, and it is close in those toll booths with just 1cm clearance for each mirror. It turns out width is Monty’s biggest problem, try being 3.0 meters wide on the A350 south of the A303 and you will immediately understand, you have a mirror dragging the hedgerow and your passenger side wheels on the cats eyes, if any lorries come at you, you really need those wind screen marks, the mirrors only just miss! The boss is not normally one to keep quiet, but the mirror jousting, where the passenger gets a front row seat in the UK manages to keep her amazingly quiet, and just a little pale.

Her bit

Does size matter? It is not the length so much, as the width.

So it has finally arrived! We are in the lounge seats on the ferry bound for France. Our American RV, Monty, is parked on the bottom deck with other vehicles the same size-over 9.4 metres long, 3.7 metres high and 3.0 metres wide.

Floating Hazbeanz

For years we had talked of owning a place in Spain. In fact we have been on several ‘holidays’ viewing possible properties. Initially, we were looking at ones where we would also get an income-a separate casita perhaps or an underbuild which we could make into a self catering apartment.

My concern was that as we do not know the areas of Spain, if we bought somewhere and then didn’t like it after a while, we would be stuck there and maybe have a problem selling in the present climate-so we would not be able to afford to return to the UK. Once we bought somewhere, our traveling days would be over. I wanted more flexibility, so we decided to look at motor homes and see if we felt that would be a good way to combine the dreams. Travel around and stay in different areas of Spain and decide if we did actually want to live there for good.

The choices.

We looked at European motor homes-most in our price range had ceilings too low for Steve to stand up straight (he is 6’2”), and they were quite narrow. We made a trip ‘up North’ to see the 5^th wheel variety. Luxurious and palatial, but the vehicle to pull it would cost a lot to run around in once the trailer was parked up. So, we decided on the American Recreational Vehicle-varying in sizes from 26-foot-long to 45 foot long. The latter obviously is fine for USA or Canada-but not so good for Europe.

We were told the length was not really an issue when driving. Lots of cars pulling caravans were longer than some RV’s. But the width could be an issue, especially on the roads in the UK.  So to answer the big question, the length is nice but it’s the width that counts and most importantly what you can do with it.

Undeterred, we viewed several RV’s over months and decided on a Monico Riptide. Once parked it was lovely. The one slider out in position made a great deal of difference to the inner space. There is a lounge and a dining area with a table and benches.

Hazbean at work in Monty

The settee in the lounge pulls out into a double bed and the benches also make beds and there is a large fixed bed in the rear of the vehicle. There is a full-size shower, a toilet & sink in the bathroom. The kitchen has a large fridge and freezer, an oven and a 3- burner hob, and a kitchen sink. The driver and passenger seats are very comfortable chairs that you can turn around to face the lounge. Once purchased we had to kit it out as our home-as this is what it will be for the next few years. We needed our own Internet, so we had access to all our media equipment, computer games, play station, DVD’s, CD’s, and our Virtual Reality (VR) system. We bought a special pull up tent for VR use with rubber tile mats, also it is useful for bug free reading and eating and exercise. We already had solar panels and our own generator, so we added special gas detectors which detect anaesthetic gases, changed all the light bulbs to LED lamps, and made metal jack pads to go under the legs if we were on a wet or uneven surface. Also we made a lap tray/computer table to fit in the passenger area of the cab for the desk top computer, keyboards and all accessories plus a signage board for the back as well as a trailer board.

The second vehicle.
We then had to source a second vehicle to travel around in once Monty is parked up. Initially we decided on a Smart car but were then we were told it was not allowed in Spain to have a car on an ”A” frame-so it would have to be on a trailer. We already had discounted towing anything, so that left us with a motor bike/scooter option. Steve did a fair amount of research as he was keen to get an electric vehicle. For various reasons that was ruled out and it came to a choice between a trail bike or a scooter. Wisely, Steve chose a 300cc Piagio Beverly scooter. Big enough to carry us both and Steve had a padded back rest fitted for me. It had larger wheels so was not as bumpy as the smaller scooters.

Meeting Mike for the first time

We then got a scooter rack and ramp of steel to carry the scooter on the back. We also got two folding bicycles, so we felt we had the travel option covered. The plan was that I would learn to ride the scooter so I had some independence but not having ridden a bike for years, even on the bicycle I was rather wobbly-I think it will be some time before I try the scooter.😉