Plan C

Hopefully the Chevy van will sail through MOT on Monday, but just in case it doesn't - meet plan C, my trusty Escort.

Rubbery jubbly

Good news: Got a tyre for the Jag off eBay for £40. Woohoo!

Bad news: Something's leaking out of the bottom of the car on to the driveway :-(

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

The cash just keeps on rolling in, and we're less than £100 off £4,000. Thanks so much again to everyone who's donated so far.

For those who haven't donated, please see what you can spare - remember every single penny goes to Christie's. The whole cost of the trip is funded out of our own pockets (cars, insurance petrol, accommodation - the lot), so there's no 'expenses' to be taken out.

Thanks again!

Knowdedge is knowing tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in your fruit salad.

Things are coming along nicely.

The Chevy van is booked in for an MOT on Monday. One possible failure is the dodgy looking shock absorber bushes, but a reliable source informs us that if we 'cover them in mud' we'll probably be ok.

The quest to find a spare tyre for the Jag could be successful in about an hour, when an eBay listing ends. Hoping to pick up a bargain there.

More importantly for now, we had another meeting on Thursday night with most of us there. Unfortunately Bob couldn't make it, so in his absence we allocated him loads of jobs to do. Sure he won't mind.

True to form the meeting was in the pub, with pints and burgers and loads of lad chat. Oh, and we talked about the trip too - we even took minutes. None of this back of a matchbox stuff, that would be incredibly amateur. No, we're professionals. Our minutes are on the back of an envelope (see pic to the left if you dare doubt our organisational skills).

We've now established a more detailed route, with specific towns along the way as checkpoints. The method behind this was very scientific - we looked at a map and shouted out towns with funny sounding names. Still, it's a base for the journey, and we're going to have to be flexible along the way anyway.

We've agreed that we need three vehicles no matter what, so if the van doesn't make it, we take plan C (the Escort). We've also agreed that camping by the roadside is not a great idea due to sanitary and safety concerns - nowhere to poo, and a good chance of getting 'moved on' by the locals. We're taking tents and sleeping bags just in case, but we've decided to try and book B&Bs in advance day by day, depending on how far we get.

There's more to think about, such as: tools, spares, radios, breakdown cover, insurance, power invertors (don't ask), jump leads, oil, a stove, cameras etc. Rest assured we have this all in hand now.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together...

...famous words of Hannibal from the A-Team after sitting in a shed for an afternoon with various power tools and making a beast of a machine out of a pile of scrap. Could we emulate this with the Chevy van? Maybe...just maybe.

The boys worked hard on it over the weekend, and while it's a long way off roadworthy, it's also a long way off the scrap heap. Jon and Tim have managed to source some professional mechanical help and even managed to blag a free MOT from Ricky Service Station. Whether they can get it through...another matter. Watch this space.

The wheels I bought for the Jag, although very nice, don't actually fit. Bugger. Back to square one and spending hours on eBay looking for 'metric' tyres. They're as rare as rocking horse poo, and more expensive (I guess). A glimmer of hope in that the local tyre dealer in Ricky has said that all the tyres are actually ok, but also confirmed that if we need a replacement in Europe we'd have better luck hitching a ride to the moon. The search continues. (Size 220 65 390 in case you happen to have a couple lying around your shed/garage.)

The good news is that we have another meeting tonight. Not sure if we'll have full attendance, but we're getting down to business now, so after tonight we should all be busy little bunnies with a long list of jobs we should have done several weeks ago.

Another update in the next couple of days.

Where Are we Going?

Well, it appears we have a plan of sorts. Open up a map of Europe, start at London, and draw sort of circle to the South East. That's our route. And that's pretty much our methodology too.

The pic's pretty big, so give it a while to download if you're planning on inspecting it more thoroughly.

The black route is our 12 country route: England (bit of a cheat that one), France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Leichtenstein (should be through there in about half an hour), Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Netherlands. If we get time - or if the cars are still running - we'll try for the red route, which adds Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland to the tally.

We're ramping up the activity now (well, you'd think so with only three weeks to go wouldn't you?). Jon has secured some publicity in the Watford Observer (we're going big time baby!), and we're having some pics taken for the article in a couple of weeks. Watch this space.

The boys have also been busy trying to resurrect the Chevy Van. They arranged a recovery truck to pick it up from its field, but the Chevy was 6 inches too wide to fit on the back, so it remains in Reading awaiting plan B. If we can get it back to Herts, we have plenty of manpower waiting to work on it, so we'll see how we get on. It's still a long way off being roadworthy, so there is also a plan C.

Plan C is my 1997 Ford Escort LX, ready to step up to the challenge if we need a third vehicle at short notice. Not quite a luxury motor, I know, but I got it off eBay for £260, so it's within the '£500 rule'. And let's face it, it's probably more likely to get round Europe than the Jag.

Speaking of the Jag, we've had tyre trouble. The old wheels have 'metric' tyres, which are notoriously hard to get hold of and very expensive (£150!!), and three of them aren't great. So we've bought a set of imperial wheels off eBay with three good tyres for a paltry £50. Whether they fit or not, we've yet to see. If they do, we need two of those and we're pretty much set to go. The stereo has been fitted and speakers rewired, and although the engine's a bit lumpy, it seems to go alright, so fingers crossed.

The BMW should by now be fitted with its monster 1000w amplifier (you can tell where our priorities are can't you?), so at least if the engine starts to fall apart no-one will be able to hear it ove rthe stereo. Rich is apparently very attached to the beamer, and drives it everywhere he goes. Rumour has it that at night he pops down to the garage and sleeps on the back seat. It's a lovely relationship.

Stick with us

What's happening? Well - we all got a some bargain stereo equipment from Rich's brother at Kenwood, so we're busy over the next week or two fitting speakers and amps to the cars. Well we have to get our priorities right don't we?

Quent's bought a new head unit and four speakers - despite not having a vehicle on the road just yet. Well, we all know he's a failry optimistic chap.

Just to say apologies for the lack of postings on the blog. The truth is, we have nothing much to blog about at the moment. Please stick with us - as the departure date approaches we'll have much more to impart, hopefully with routes, updates on the cars etc.

Some would say that we're disorganised, but I'd say we're keeping everything loose for the moment. No doubt we'll be frantic in a week or two. Watch this space.