Caravan wankers

Over the last few years when I was stuck in hospital for long periods of time Hubby and I would talk about what we would do if I ever got ‘better’. During some of those times when I was so, so poorly the idea of just being at home for more than a few weeks at a time seemed like a far fetched dream. But I’m currently living that dream! And obviously I know I will never ‘get better’ but for these purposes ‘getting better’ meant being well enough to be at home, not in pain 24/7 and not in bed all day, every day. Not too much to ask now is it?? 

So in our talks, once I was at home and was well enough to do the real basic things like watch Big Fella play football, Big Girl play netball, go to Tesco, play with the dog, go to the cinema etc one thing kept cropping up. We would love to have a motor home and tour round the country. We talked about the places we would like to visit, how much Buddy the dog would love it and how it would give us a chance to reconnect with each other. 

But after a few Google searches we soon realised that owning a motorhome wasn’t going to be an option for us; they’re just too expensive. Did you know that they cost upwards of £40,000? Being unable to work really limits us financially and puts a lot of pressure on Hubby to support our family. As a result we are very careful and cautious with money and whilst some people might say “Sod it! Live for the moment!” we are always worried about being able to pay the bills if anything happened to Hubby’s job. 

So then we started to think that maybe having a caravan would be a cheaper option and still give us that freedom to roam whenever I’m having a period of good health and the weather is nice. Whether those two things will ever actually happen in sync is another question entirely! 

My health has been pretty stable for about a year and while over the last few months life has been all consuming I have just had this caravan dream niggling away at the back of my mind. 

So a couple of weeks ago Hubby and I went to a local caravan showroom to have a look around. Firstly, we had no idea that they came in so many sizes with so many different layouts. We must have looked at about 100 but it helped us to realise that we definitely wanted one with a fixed bed so that meant we would be looking at a 4 berth. We also wanted the bed to be at the end of the caravan with the toilet in the middle so if I was in bed during the day Hubby wouldn’t have to squeeze by me every time he needed the loo. We did see a couple of caravans that were perfect but they were only a few years old and nearing the £20,000 price tag. Again, it was outside of our budget. Plus we have never spent a night in a touring caravan so we didn’t think it was a good idea to spend that much money incase we hated it. 

So one night when I couldn’t sleep I typed ‘caravans’ into Facebook marketplace and started to have a look. There were a couple that looked like they might have the layout we were looking for so I sent off messages to the owners. There were one or two replies that straight away made me think they were scams but then there was one that seemed legit. I messaged with the lady and asked a few questions and agreed a time to go and look at it. It was about 40 minutes from home but not far from my sisters house so we knew the area. 

When we got there we could see that the caravan had been very well looked after and was much loved by the current owners. It ticked a lot of our boxes… it had a fixed bed at one end of the caravan and a separate lounge area but there were a few things that weren’t quite right. It didn’t have an oven, only a grill; the bathroom was tiny and the fridge even tinier, so thinking about storing my feeds was a worry. We also had nowhere to keep it as it wouldn’t fit on our drive so we would need to find a storage site locally. We told them that we wanted to go away and have a think. 

I messaged my sisters sister-in-law as I knew she had a caravan and sent her the details and asked what she thought. She then passed me onto her hubby Dan who has been in caravans with his family since he was a baby and after chatting he agreed to come and look at the caravan with me the next day. The bonus was it was only a few minutes from his house. 

Dan brought a meter with him to check the damp levels of the caravan which turned out to be good, especially for a caravan of its age. He looked in all the nooks and crannies, asked questions about stuff I didn’t even know existed and after a thorough check declared he thought it was a good buy. We knew the leisure battery was dead and needed replacing as the current owners told us that so he suggested we try to get a few hundred pounds off the price to pay for a new one. 

But before I could commit to buying it I needed to make sure I could find a storage place and get it towed there as our current cars don’t have tow bars and wouldn’t actually be able to tow the caravan anyway. So Dan came up trumps again offering to tow the caravan to a storage site if we a) decided to buy it and b) found a storage site. 

I went home and talked it over with Hubby. It was the first private sale caravan we had been to see so maybe we should wait to see what else was out there? Could we afford it? Would we use it? We would need to get a new car that could tow it. Would we be brave enough to tow it? What if we bought it and hated it? Or I got really poorly again and it just sat on the storage site? All these questions just going round and round our heads. 

But unusually for him Hubby said “Fuck it! Let’s do it. If we don’t like it or don’t use it we can sell it. We might lose a bit of money but we might love it and have loads of fun!”

So we’ve bought a caravan! 

I’ve found a storage site about 20 minutes from home and Dan was as good as his word and towed it there for us. I’m now spending a lot of time on caravanning for beginners facebook groups, watching YouTube tutorials on things like solar panels and motor movers and trawling through Vinted and Facebook marketplace for the things we need to buy. 

So next spring when you’re cursing because you’re stuck behind a caravan crawling up a hill, be kind, because it could be me and Hubby. The newest caravan wankers on the road!!