The Days Leading up to......

08 September


THE DAYS LEADING UP TO OUR FIRST ‘TREK TRIP’ .





It all started on the downward spiral with a 16 hour delay before we even left Turkey followed by the surprise information, when we went to board at Gatwick, that there would be a stopover in Charlotte before continuing to Orlando. Another delay there for 90 minutes, which was a comparative doddle compared to the previous wait, and then we were on our way again for the final part of the journey.



We eventually arrived in Orlando to be met by Bruce and Kitty who drove us to their home, and who totally understood the excitement we displayed when we saw the (OUR) ‘Trek’ standing in their drive. We couldn’t wait to look inside and marvel at our new purchase and for Tom certainly there were the butterflies at the prospect of driving what appeared to be an extremely LARGE vehicle.



In spite of the questions we were bursting to ask and the shopping we needed to do we fell into bed rather early that evening as the eyelids absolutely refused to remain open!



The next day we were up quite early as our body clocks were still working on Turkey time and telling us we were 7 hours ahead so it was NOT 8 am but rather 2 pm and time to be up.



Poor Bruce was lumbered with us for the next 2 days as Kitty had to go to work (lucky Kitty), and so he had the dubious pleasure of driving us around to register the RV and pay the tax and insurance (all of which he had already arranged for us prior to our arrival), and then shopping to buy essentials like a GPS system and an IPad, which had been on the ‘want list’ for a long time. There was very little for us to buy to actually EQUIP the RV as Bruce and Kitty have left practically everything needed for us to set out straight away, and we feel ourselves to be very lucky indeed to be fortunate enough to have met this wonderful couple and be able to call them friends.We did, however, need to do some necessary food shopping, and we had vowed that we would NOT be tempted by all the lovely treats in the supermarkets, and would just buy enough for a couple of days at a time. HA! We emerged from the store with TWO trolleys full of absolutely essential items, which I then had the pleasure of fitting into the fridge and cupboards. Actually not a problem as there is masses of storage space in the ‘Trek’.



The afternoon saw us in the car park of a local church, fortunately deserted being a Wednesday afternoon, where Bruce bravely sat in the passenger seat(in the brace position) and advised Tom as to the techniques necessary when driving and reversing a larger vehicle. Tom then twirled and reversed us around the spaces until we were quite giddy and then, with Bruce’s agreement, pronounced that he was ready to move out onto the ‘real’ driving practice on the road. It went really well and we drove back to the house feeling pretty good and raring to start our journey.



The next day we said goodbye to our new friends knowing that we would be seeing them again in about 3 weeks time, no doubt full of tales of our adventures, (and hopefully go shopping again).