With about ten days notice, Chris announced we were going camping during the May half term – there was a debate about or not the discussion had been had previously but in the end, we just got ourselves together and set off on an adventure. Yorkshire here we come! (I know we’re in July! I’m catching up with all those drafts that I started but didn’t finish!)
Most people would be annoyed about having a building site outside their hotel room but Jaxon and Chris spent more time with their noses to the window looking at the building site across the road. I guess it was glad it was a Bank Holiday otherwise we could have been woken by the builders and been unhappy lol.
While we were getting ready we had a call from reception, the guy from yesterday had finished with the charger and wanted to let us know so that we could go put our car on charge while we were at breakfast (We have a Renault Zoe). Chris headed down to get it sorted while Jaxon and I got ready for the day and packed our stuff so that after breakfast we could come straight back up and get our things.
We headed down to breakfast and it just happened the reception lady was on her way through the restaurant as we arrived and she remembered we needed a gluten-free option so helped us out. There was a choice between a cooked breakfast, cereal and pastries etc. I either go without breakfast or end up with a bowl of cereal so didn’t really know what to pick. I ended up with some scrambled eggs and a couple of sausages to start with.
While at breakfast we watched the news about the European Elections. With Brexit going ahead, this was the last time we’d be included. The charging man also came to see us to make sure that reception had let us know about the charger. That was very nice of him to check as he didn’t need to go out of his way to do that but I’m grateful he did.
Once breakfast was finished we headed back upstairs and got ourselves all sorted. We came down and checked out before getting on the road again. The next leg would take us from Lincoln to the services at Ferrybridge on the M62/A1(M) which is just outside of Pontefract. It seemed liked everyone else had stopped for their lunch too so finding somewhere to sit was a real challenge.
In the end, we found some seats right in the corner which worked while we had our lunch.
Following lunch, we got back on the road to do the rest of the trip. We had a discussion about what order to do things in as we needed to stop for a charge and the camp site would be about 15 miles away from the campsite. In the end Chris decided that we would go to the campsite first, the car would then be lighter for the drive back to the charging point and would hopefully make the charge last a bit longer.
We got the car unloaded and started setting up our tent. We managed to get the tent set up and everything inside before the heavens opened which was good! Jaxon and I stayed at the tent and got things sorted out while Chris went to the charger at Scotch Corner. We were staying at YHA Grinton Lodge which has dormitories but also has space for camping.
About a mile from the charger, Chris ran out of charge and had to wait for the AA to come to his rescue. The first AA man couldn’t help. The call centre person had taken “I’ve run out of charge” to mean that we had a flat battery like you would in a standard car rather than “My electric car has ran out of battery”. The first guy then updated his system and got a tow truck called out for Chris.
Outside our tent throughout our stay we had a few visitors who were quite noisy…
While Chris was out, we booked in properly as the YHA reception was then open and tried to sort out food for Jaxon and I. There was a little hiccup with payment which caused me a little stress but I got it sorted in the end. As well as that, food isn’t normally served until 6:30pm or something like that so trying to get food for Jaxon was proving to be a challenge. We both had a panini and sat in the YHA dinner hall. Apparently, food isn’t normally served until about 6:30 but the YHA guy sorted it out for us as a sort of goodwill gesture.
Once we’d eaten we headed back to the tent and I got Jaxon ready for bed. Between waiting for the tow truck and then waiting at the charger, Chris was delayed with coming back and missed bedtime. Jaxon got all settled then decided that actually he needed the toilet again so I had to get his coat and shoes back on again and take him into the building. The toilets for campers were really easy to find but did involve doing almost half of a lap of the building.
Once Jaxon had settled, I did some more tidying up and organising around the tent and then curled up on our bed to read my book.
This was the view from part of the building. It was a soggy start to the week but even then the view was still beautiful.
