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Pusser

Pussers Spain Trip Part 2 (Middle bit)

This first bit should have really been at the end of part 1 but I forgot. I finished off part 1 just after we had finished breakfast at an aires and we had a fair bit of driving to do with the intention of stopping the night at a campsite as near as we could get to our destination.

For reasons now I cannot remember, we were bombing down the road from Reims direction Lyon, deliberately the wrong motorway to Spain. It was very windy indeed and if we still had Two Loos, (sadly missed but not forgotten), I think we would have either to have driven very slowly or stop altogether somewhere.

The Pussbus was a dream to drive with the benefit of power steering, less noise than Two Loos, plenty of power, electric windows and door mirrors with panoramic lower mirrors to cover blind spots and a very well thought out cab with lots of places to stow things. Changing gear was a doddle although I can see now that these add on engine chips could well be the answer to perfection and I think I may get one when I have sufficient funds. Also roof air mains\12v is on my list but that is a long way off.

The Pussbus interior is well thought out, cramming in a lot into a small space including a rear bed\dinette, shower and cassette swivel loo, 2 burner hob, fridge, wardrobe, two belted seats behind the driver with a table that collapses to enable a makeshift bed if used with the swivel drivers seat. The 100ltr water tank is under the belted seats. All habitation windows and roof vent have blinds and fly screen although the rear windows have simply curtains. I think I will get a couple of cassette blind\flyscreen thingys to replace the curtains.

Around the cab is a set of blue curtains which do a good job for privacy but a crap job for stopping heat and I would imagine a crap job at stopping cold. So I may get rid of these for the silver screens.

The Truma does hot water and blown air heating, gas only but can be used while driving along and you can by an add on electric wrap as an alternative to using your gas.

I think everyone knows, particularly the entire population of Reims that it has a Cobra alarm and reversing sensors, and a manual slide out step which I prefer over electric anyway as it is unlikely to go wrong.

I opted from the buyer to have the Blankput cassette steering wheel remote control, 10 cd changer rather than the more modern MP3 player one and this works very well with the remote attached to the steering wheel just where you need it.

I should say that with the size I am, space to say the least in the bathroom is limited and e.g. to flush the loo I have to bend down but bending down is out of the question without opening the loo door. The loo has the electric flush taking water direct from the tank so I do miss the option of the using the pink stuff. I did try a test poo and because the loo swivels I can just get into postion with my knees almost pressing against the door. The shower has yet to be tried due to the gas problem I have.

There are also two pieces of floor that come out for extra or secure stowage, one of them holding the cd changer and all my vehicle documents and the larger other one is at present empty.

Under one of the back seats is the Truma and also space for two 7kg gas bottles or one big one laid down but I don’t know if laying them down is advisable. Certainly I have seen them horizontal on fork lift trucks. Under the other is total storage and under the floor where the table support goes is more storage ideal for hook up leads, tools and hosepipe. We also have a bike rack which is not fitted at present due to lack of bikes.

Finally we have a awning that is as long as the vehicle and it stands proud vertically and I have to bear this in mind when driving under trees and in one village, the balconies of the town houses where certainly low enough to rip it off the roof.

Even more finally, it is LHD which was a preference for me and took me longer to get used to it than I thought it would, even abroad where it would be in its natural environment and many times tried to change gear with the door mirror with no success. As my experience grew, I began to try changing gear with the indicator stalk. But I think this trip has sorted me out and I feel reasonably confident.

With regards to beam benders and stuff, I really could not get my head around what to do. The lights I have were English ones, replaced by the previous owner at no small cost. So as normal, when I am in doubt I do nothing and through the night in France using position 3 on the little headlamp adjuster wheel. Never once did I get flashed but of course, there is a sacrifice to be made in how far ahead you can see so not really satisfactory. I may get some driving lights fitted to remedy this.

I digress from the trip in hand and we bowled down the motorway without incident until we decided to look for a campsite around Nimes. This was a big mistake as we chose rush hour to do this and it was a continual queue into Nimes and the same going out but we eventually found a small site near Montpelier but we needed to get something to eat first and it was nearly 20:00. We could find no suitable dinery in the immediate area and so I am ashamed to say we parked in MacDonalds and sent son with money to get us a meal.

He arrived back shortly with a large bag and gave me my beef burger and chips and gave his Mum her beef burger and chips and then pulled out the biggest triple burger for himself.

I looked at my beef burger and then looked at his.

“Excuse me,” I said, “Just a small point but why have you got a three burger one and your Mum and me a small one”.

“You didn’t give me enough money to buy three big ones so I had to get two small ones and one big one but don’t forget you get a free toy with yours. I didn’t get a free toy with mine”. He spoke as though he had made some great big sacrifice for his parents and I must admit I felt almost guilty for asking. Until that is I opened my free toy. It was a squashy world cup ball.

“I’ve got one too,” said the missus, delicately picking out and eating each chip individually unaccustomed to eating fast food and obviously felt that fast food was no excuse for forgetting one’s etiquette.

“Oh. For a minute I thought I had been given a bum deal”. I stared once again at my lonely burger and then glanced up at my son who was having great difficulty getting any part of it in his mouth.

I finished my burger off in seconds and spent a further 15 minutes watching my son trying to finish off his monstrosity of a meal.

“If you don’t want your free toy can I have it,” my son said between mouthfuls and I overcame the urge to throw the ball at his Monster Mac.

“You can have mine,” the missus said, already on her tenth chip and handed him her world cup ball having first cleaned her two fingers with the serviette provided.

Sulking, I drove to the campsite we saw near by and booked in. Nothing much to write home about other than it served its purpose for an overnight stop and the French lady at reception was helpful and polite. We did get electric hook up so was able to use our electric kettle option and have a decent cup of tea.

“I’m still hungry,” wailed the son.

“Are you really dear?” said his Mum, concern showing on her face.

“…I think I have a packet of crisps in the locker above your head which I put in for emergencies,” she added.

Son opened the packet of crisps and started munching.

“I’m still hungry too,” I said in a squeaky and hurt voice.

“Well, you don’t need anything else tonight, especially before you go to bed. You’ll only get heart burn,” she advised and I knew that was the end of the conversation.

I went to bed, still sulking and my tummy was rumbling either through hunger or the shock of eating something entirely indigestible. I lay there dreaming of breakfast.

Breakfast didn’t happen. Son had an upset tummy and whereas my remedy is feed it some more, the missus believes only water is the answer so as she and son did not require food, breakfast was cancelled.

“Would you like a biscuit to keep you going,” the missus asked with what I considered was pretend concern.

“No I bl**dy wouldn’t” and I had decided then and there to die of hunger so that she would then be sorry for failing to meet her husbands needs.

At around 11:00 and much nearer to Spain the missus could not cope with any more of my sulking and we pulled in for what she announced as a Brunch.

“This will have to do until we get to our campsite in Spain,” she said and added, “I’m not made of money”.

My son and I had the same. Two eggs, sausage and chips and I cannot remember what the missus had, probably salad.

I love runny eggs and was dismayed to see both my eggs had been broken and were to all intents and purposes hard. I walked back to the table and there was my son eating his Brunch with two perfectly cooked runny eggs.

I watched him dip his bits of baguette into the runny yolk with some envy and wondered if this was in part an act of God that my breakfast should be spoilt. I had nothing to dip my bread into.

It was then that tummy informed me that the previous nights MacDonald needed to come out immediately. I hate public lavatories but very few people were here so I wandered into the Gents to find absolutely no one there. I had just sat down when I hear the door open and what must be a whole coach full of men walk in. Doors slammed as the shut themselves in the cubicles and I sat there listening to some horrendous noises, my bum having sealed itself up in terror. No point me sitting there any longer and I left just as the smell was becoming over powering. I was going to have to use the cassette which I did successfully, in peace and privacy and in comfort. I could even wash my hands while still sitting down.

I flushed the loo and stepped out of the shower compartment.

“Have you washed your hands?” my wife queried who has a phobia about hygiene as I do public loos.

“Nope,” said I, “I thought I would wash my feet for a change.”

“That’s alright then….you can’t be too careful”.

We bumbled on and into Spain via the little road where the two customs men could not give a monkeys who came in a who came out and stopped to buy tobacco and a bottle of brandy for my Dad.

We arrived at the campsite Cypsela after some difficulty finding it and met up with my daughter and her husband and 3 grandchildren.

We had booked a mobile home with aircon through Keycamps, now bought out by Eurocamp and it was indeed luxurious with a double bedroom en-suite at one end and a twin room and a two bunk bed room at the other with another bathroom.

After some discussion with everyone we decided to eat that night at the restaurant on site and tonight was Texan night. When we got there Texan night consisted of one large Spaniard wearing a 10 gallon (45.460 9 litre) hat and wearing a bullet belt with a plastic pistol.

He insisted that each child should draw and fire at him with a finger and he would crumple to the floor and pretend he was dead. I thought how much more entertaining it would be if he really did die.

That is a far as Texan night went and I assume this was the part of the entertainments that were advertised in the Keycamp brochure.

We had a nice meal from the point of view of chatting although the food was at best mediocre and the draught San Miguel beer was as usual excellent.

We learned that my daughter while travelling down to Spain with a bike rack on their Toyota 3 seat people carrier had popped a back window as one of the bikes was pressing on it and it would not be able to be replaced until the day before they left to go back to UK.

The next three days apart from a beach visit and a trip to Estartit I spent in the mobile home because my back problem from the week before we left re emerged and I couldn’t walk or do anything without severe pain. As such I made friends with a sparrow who showed no fear and would hop between my legs waiting for another piece of baguette. He looked quite fat and he was shaped like a feather ball with two legs and a beak sticking out and I named him Fatty. At one point I saw him getting amorous with a tasty looking bird but he was spurned probably because she felt a fat father would not be the best role model for her eggs.

Estartit was interesting and well worth a visit as was L’escala. There were some interesting shops, and many types of boats to see and in Estartit a selection of glass bottom boats for reef viewing. It appeared to be a haven for scuba divers and we saw many of all ages, sizes and presumably, experience.

I cannot use flippers because of some sort of birth defect where my feet will not bend out straight and this has the effect when doing the crawl of making me go backwards.
So breast stroke is really my only option.

This reminds me that on our first visit, I was heartened to see a reasonable sprinkling of topless ladies and tried to analyse why it was that the ones I would really like to see topless were the ones that were not topless.

Once again we saw “Pamplemouse”, a name we gave last year to a very old man who walked around the near bye coves with two buckets selling pineapples and coconuts.

He would cry out Pineapple in about 5 languages and the same for coconuts. When he had got a customer, he deftly sliced the skin off the pineapple and quartered it and with coconuts, tapped them with a hammer and split them in half, retaining most of the milk for those that wanted it. He would then chisel out the coconut into pieces but as he had a cough that would appear normal to someone who has TB I declined any purchase from him.

On the day before the French Autoglass company arrived to put in the new rear window, she took her family and my son to an Aquapark for the day while we chilled out at the campsite. When they came out, they found the front passenger window has been smashed and I would imagine they were after the Tom Tom as the bracket was visible on the window although luckily they had taken the Tom Tom in with them.

The French Autoglass company put in a Perspex temporary window for their return and while they were playing tennis, I got some duck tape and secured the Perspex for their return journey to UK the very next day. I am proud to announce that they had no trouble from this temporary arrangement either through it falling out or draughts.

So that’s it. On balance I don’t really feel I like I have been on holiday mostly spoilt by my own stupidity, my back of course played apart although better now and my next chance to do a proper motor home holiday will not be until late August. I still have to sort out the gas problem which I will do tomorrow.

Thank you for the kind comments on Part 1 and 3 and I hope you find something interesting in this Part 2.

coral

Sorry to hear about the bad back Pusser.

Great writing once again.

cabby

what a wonderful way with words you have Pusser. I have really enjoyed reading your travel experiences.maybe you should take it up as a side line. my one problem is now to find part 3. having read part 1. maybe a tale about the return journey is in the making, i hope.

mauramac

Sorry to hear about your bad back Pusser, I know exactly how depressing that can be. I was in a bad way with my back when we stayed in Mijas one year and could not walk without being in agony. So annoying as your mind tells you to keep going as you feel fine but your body has the last laugh and says "no way" .

Even worse when you see all the little old Spanish OAP's scampering up and down steep roads for their daily get togethers around the village square and you can not walk two paces.

Hope you get more luck in August.

Great writing...as always.

Maura

BillD

Pusser,

Brilliant writing my friend.

I am sorry about the back, especially having had a trapped nerve this week myself.

Keep up your travels and let us have more.

eddied

wonderful!
when can we look forward to the film?
saluti, eddied