The Show Must Go On

Birmingham October 17-20

Post from John

October; leaves turn to gold, the nights lengthen, equinoctial gales blow – and motorhomers and caravanners head for the NEC. The autumn Motorhome and Caravan show is a big draw for the motorised camping fraternity, Theodora and her two occupants being no exception.

We’d originally planned to visit for a day, then stay a couple of nights at the Caravan Club site at Chapel Lane, Birmingham, and fit in a visit to Chris, Marie and Ben. But a change in my work plans, and a discounted ticket offer for the Friday, saw us add an extra night and make a two-day visit to the show. As Chapel Lane was fully booked by this time, our extra night was at the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Kingsbury Water Park.

So Friday October 17^th saw us up at sillyo’clock to get going before the A14 turned hellish. We headed straight to the NEC, where we were parked and enjoying a welcome coffee and croissant by 10.15. Thus fortified, we ventured into the show. We hadn’t got a huge shopping list, unlike previous years, but wanted to make the most of a more leisurely approach afforded by the extra day, doing things we’d not had time for on previous one-day visits.

Across the two days we looked at a lot of vans; not that we’re planning on changing just yet, but we will at some point. We also went to a couple of talks on escorted motorhome tours in far-flung places – research for retirement! As ever the show was busy (but not very photogenic – hence the lack of photos with this post). There were all manner of motorhomes from tiddlers converted from cars to behemoths the size of a bus with a price tag running into six figures. We were (mostly) restrained, buying exotic items like toilet chemicals. We did splash out on a wi-fi booster from Adam and Sophie at Motorhome Wifi (http://www.motorhomewifi.com/) to improve our connectivity when on the move, so hopefully blog updates will be more frequent when we are away.

After a pleasant Sunday with Chris, Marie and Ben, we headed home on Monday. Theodora is now emptied for winter, so that’s it for 2014. However, interesting plans are already in hand for 2015.

Watch this space, amigos……