Travels with my Truck - expidition around 39 counties in May

[Kotch]

Some of you guys may have noticed a couple of threads recently where I've talked about getting my truck in shape to do a trip around England. (I say England because that's going to take six weeks and I can't get any longer off work to do the whole of Britain.)

I intend to drive around England and camp for one night in each county. I'm a technical author for a living, I had a go at a bit of journalism years ago and I've also been trying to get into a bit of creative writing over the years. So I am going to write a travelogue about the journey, the sort of thing where the people you meet or the events that occur create anecdotes of spark ideas. I'll also be doing a blog as I go along. (http://jackbarrow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/0 ... nyway.html I write under the name of Jack Barrow, it's a long story and not very interesting.)

The plan would be to not really have a plan which gives the maximum opportunity for serendipity. So if I wake up in the morning I'll think about which new counties are roughly in the direction that I'm headed, read the wikipedia pages for them and pick one. Hopefully there will be something there to attract my interest and go off and look at it. Ill spend the day in the county looking at just one or two things and then find somewhere to camp and so on. It's not about examining each county in detail, just really about finding something interesting to do for the day that I can write about.

Naturally The Truck will feature pretty heavily in the book as I'll be reporting on the miles travelled each time I write an entry and the it's health and behaviour will probably come into it but at this stage I really don't know more than that.

I've had The Truck serviced and yesterday I visited the East Anglia boys who did a fantastic job of changing my vacuum tubes (all now yellow) and cleaning out my inlet manifold which was thick with black gunk. (viewtopic.php?f=32&t=53589) It's running a lot better now with it most noticeable around town in the lower gears, with much more power. The fuel consumption seemed to have dropped by about a third on the way home but I suspect that is because of a mismatch in the pump filler nozzles at petrol stations in Norwich and Hemel Hempstead.

The latest thing is that the bloody ignition switch is now playing up and won't cut the power to the clock and radio when I take the key out. However, so long as I can fix that by May 1st (or I can find a workaround such as a fuse to remove over night) then I'll be off and the trip will run throughout May and the first week of June. (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=53824) Whatever happens I'm going anyway and if I have to keep fiddling under the bonnet (with my limited capabilities, check with the East Anglia guys to see that I'm not really a mechanic) then any issues with The Truck will just be a feature of the book.

[Alfie]

Sound like a great trip. If you have trouble with you truck en-route surely each county will have a member willing to aid you when you stop. We are spread far and wide and a really freindly bunch.Good luck and happy travels

[Wilberforce]

Should make for an interesting trip, and a good read too. I can't imagine you'll have any difficulty in finding something to do in each county for a day, nor anywhere to camp.
As alfie says also, we're all over the map so a good source of potential adice and (hopefully not too much) truck assistance.

I presume to get a number of 39, you're just going with the old ceremonial counties then?? Liverpool & Manchester being in Lancashire; West Mids being bits nobbled from Staffordshire, Warwickshire & Worcestershire, that sort of thing?

[MG Autos (Mark)]

If your coming through West Sussex mate and want to stop off and use the workshop to check the Fronty over before heading onwards then your welcome to do so, just give me a call and let me know prior to your arrival just to make sure I'm there and give me some time to ideally get the ramp clear so we can have a quick look over it for you

[bobbinsjob]

Remember to give the guys at the vauxhall heritage centre a call to see if they are interested in helping with fuel costs or something.

Also if you're looking for interesting things from different counties then surely the Staffordshire oatcake MUST be sampled and mentioned in the book

[Kotch]

The 39 counties will be the historic counties which differ slightly from the ceremonial counties. I'll describe the reasons in the book at some point but I think the historic counties were described in the 19th Century whereas the ceremonial counties are later and do include such compromises as the West Midlands. The historic counties are the ones that go back in proper English history and, hopefully, will have have more resonance. To be honest it doesn't really matter as I just need a list of divisions but I really don't want to go camping in cities, which might be worthy but I'm just not interested in so I'm ignoring the modern lists that have the metropolitan counties and and all that jazz.

There has been quite a bit of feedback from people saying pop in on your way around. I'm going to be using a small tablet computer so I need to get it set up to log in here and it would be great to be able to call for help if I detect a problem with The Truck. The plan, though, is really not to have a plan and let the experience happen organically so I'll probably play that by ear but I'll be posting a blog and may get a chance to post updates here but I really don't know how it'll work out. If there is a plan at all it is to start in Oxford on May Morning (just because May Morning in Oxford is interesting and should give me something to write about) and then work my way across the country to cover east Anglia, up the east coast and back down through Lancashire. I have a loose appointment to get to Derbyshire to an event organised by some friends that I usually attend on the third weekend of May so that is the only real target and I've counted the counties up and down the country and it looks as though I could make it seventeen if I fiddle things a bit. I'm not going to be strict about backtracking so I could always drive to Derbyshire for the Saturday and continue on the Sunday but, again. it's all very flexible. Also, with that plan it mind I won't be hitting Sussex until close to the end as I expect to come along the south coast some time in June but again, I really have no idea.

I will get get onto the Vauxhall Heritage Centre and see what they say but I wonder if they'd be interested in the progress of a fifteen year old rust bucket even if it is the quietest DTi heard in a long time. Actually I like how noisy it is but let's not tempt providence.