I had hopped into Glasgow for the day and was heading onwards to visit my Aunt Janet and Uncle Stuart, and Clyde the dog, in Troon. I headed out towards Largs, where I knew I could stay at the Marina – a campervan friendly place. Passing through Kirbirnie, I took a wrong turning, and found myself on a single track backroad, on a very dark night with bucketing rain. I thought about turning round but google maps told me the road would loop me round to where I needed to be. So, overly trusting, I carried on.
But the road worsened, and in the heavy rain I was soon playing a very un-fun guessing game of “Puddle or Pothole?”. Spoiler: I lost. One of my back wheels, and my heart, sank into a monster of a pothole. I actually shouted “Fuck” aloud and then held my breath. Maybe I got away with it? But 3 seconds later the loss of tyre pressure warning popped up, and a few seconds after that one of my back corners started to sag. Just at this moment, the road became a steep downhill slalom, with nowhere to stop til the bottom. Perfect. And when I stopped and hopped out the van to check, I saw the sorriest sight.
I called Green Flag – I do *know* how to change a tyre, but believe me these are hefty things and the advice (even for men) is don’t do it yourself unless there’s no other option. It took Green Flag a couple of hours to get to me, but the plus side of campervan life is I cooked up and had a very nice dinner while I waited. 😀
At Kwik Fit in daylight the next day we were able to see two cuts to my tyre wall. I headed back to the scene of the crime a couple of days later and found the pothole that bit me. I’m trying to report this to the council and hopefully claim for my £200 tyre, but when you do this their website says “500 – server error!”. Hmm. Not sure that’s entirely by accident.
Anyhoo despite the flat tyre hiccup, I still made my way to Troon. It was SO GOOD to catch up with more family that I hadn’t seen in over 2 years. We also visited my Granda who I probably haven’t seen in closer to 5 years, so it was fantastic to see him and tell him about my travels around places he has known well his whole life. My cousin Lee came over with her husband Pete and their two beautiful boys – Jasper who is 2 and Rupert who was just 4 weeks old at the time!! Here is me with the wee baby.
And here is me with Clyde!
I had a couple of nights in a king size bed, got to chill out on a proper sofa, watched some TV, got to shower daily, got taken out for a fancy lunch, and got a free laundry. Proper luxury! I’ll definitely be back!!
Only Young Twice 