Serendipity

But what about the beloved Bill I hear you ask? I asked myself the same question. When I became the very proud owner of a Devon Aztec motorhome/campervan I truly thought "this was it" and I would never need to change leisure vehicles again. But here is what happened:

Last year we very casually tossed around the idea of changing the campervan. Without Daisy (who never liked the van and only tolerated the car)



and with Himself no longer wanting to overnight in a metal box, there really was far far too much space for one little me. I packed two or three times more than I needed just because there were cupboards to fill, never used a fraction of it, and on my last Scotland holiday got thoroughly, thoroughly, totally hacked off at the number of places I could not park because of the size of the vehicle.

And then we did nothing.

In June we talked about it again. Not being able to get under parking height barriers had become increasingly irritating and I felt a growing discomfort about having two large vehicles, neither of which were covering enough miles to justify their ownership, plus the unquantifiable feeling which came out of nowhere that it was just the right thing to do.

And then the Doubting Voice of Doom stuck its tuppence-worth in: the one that waffled on about: not taking risks, staying with the status quo even if it was not really working, was it ostentatious to get a newer vehicle when there are people in my village struggling to pay their heating bills, owning one vehicle for everything instead of two is much more sensible but it is a big step, and so it went on . . . I am really good at talking myself out of things before I have even started and I very nearly convinced myself to put this idea away again and just be very grateful for what I already had.


However . . .

I don’t know if you have particularly followed the vehicle supply situation since Covid started, but ’staycations’ have resulted in a massive demand for leisure vehicles, there is some component shortage in Asia that I do not fully understand, less new vehicles are coming off the production line as a result, and the second hand market has gone crazy because there is more demand than supply.**



[**, the salesman told Himself if he took an order for a new VW-based camper the wait will be at least 12, maybe 18 months with no price guarantee and from what I am reading on forums online where people write about how long they are waiting for VW's they have on order, I believe him.]



Anyway we said “well, we will start to have a casual look, but I bet we will not see anything we like for ages”. I truly expected the search to take somewhere between six and twelve months. It took less than SIX HOURS from first phone call to sitting in the van I knew we would buy! I took that as a sign The Goddess thought I really should do this, and who am I to argue with a Deity?


Himself had found a VW conversion listed for sale at (probably) the nearest dealer to home which in itself is something of a result when you live as remotely as we do. I phoned and during my conversation about the van that was actually in stock I was told of another which had a specification that suited me even better, was not yet on the website and had come in as a part-exchange. At this point it was not just The Goddess directing things - all the planets had joined in to align perfectly.


So we went and saw this:




And went back the following day for a test drive which was hugely successful, eventful to the point that the re-telling will become one of those stories which is trotted out every Christmas (and will have its own post when I have nothing else to write about) and I signed the papers on the spot. Evidence of the ludicrous state of the leisure vehicle market is that I sold Bill as part-exchange and received virtually the same £££ as I paid for her four years ago.


As I started the process of depersonalising Bill a few days later I felt no sadness, no remorse which told me it was definitely the right decision.