1 August 2010

Debwardo started off brilliantly with a power chuck; no doubt we will be seeing more of this. Terry (the car), Bjy and Nev rolled up at 7am and we loaded up and headed to Dover to catch the ferry to Calais, France. T'was pretty smooth running until we stopped for a bit of morning tea at BP (that's the petrol station not sunny Blackpool). We got back in the car and were preparing passports and I offered Deb's a photo of me for her wallet, which she eagerly took. Nev said she didn't need one as I was already in her wallet . . . 'oh my wallet, where is my wallet?' she asked, as we were pulling up to the ferry ticket booth. The jockstrap left it at BP, well so she hoped. SO we had to high tail it back out of the ferry terminal down the road and stop in at BP. Luckily it was there so we swung the car back around and back to the ferry terminal. This earnt Nev the first wearing of the Elvis wig! Although this time we were not so lucky and they randomly selected us for a security check. Simon was bent over the car, pants down . . . no to be honest it was a pretty poor search, bonnet up had a geeze no bombs, that's because the weapons of mass destruction were attached to my arms (Des and troy), and other small pistols were attached to the other hot b****es in the back seat. Safely onto the ferry and it was kip time. A swift 2 hour crossing and put the clocks forward and hour and at 1pm we set off towards Troyes. Bradley drove off hugging the left lane, and it wasn't until Nev piped up to say that we were driving on the right hand side (as we were meant to) that Bradley who was driving realised this too, luckily we were on a motorway. Debwardo saw all the sights on the way; well she could have if she had the ability to see through her eyelids. We started a road trip kitty; Nev had some Euro's so she started it off with €59.00. We called into the servo and Si wanted something to drink so grabbed some change out of kitty. Back on the road and it wasn't long before it was time for lunch so we pulled into a rest station with a cafe, time to get our cash out to add to the kitty, hang on a minute, hold the phone, shut the gate, crikey where the heck is it???? Second mishap for the day, either Si robbed the nest (He did later state that he didn't really have enough cash for the trip) or we think it may have fallen out the door when he got out for the drink. Ah well we started again €100.00 in each to cover food, accommodation, diesel (Of the car kind), diesel (of the boozy kind) and road tolls. We had a quick bite, certainly wasn't appetising food, fly covered buffet food or stinking sambo's, went for a sambo, which later contributed to sore stomachs for some and run run runnies for Nev, she was in dire straits the next morning. Arrived into Troyes at about 5pm and thanks to Tom Tom was able to find the camp site no troubles. Even though the sign said full we think we got one of the last sights right down the back and set up for the night. I provided Simon and Debs with a bit of direction and had the family starter tent back up for action within minutes! Simon was equipped with 2 bed rolls, a sleeping bag and pillow in his own bedroom whilst Debbie and I were in the master suite with airbed, homemade pillows and sleeping bags. We decided to try out a bit of our limited French vocabulary to get some bits and pieces at the local supermarket; it's fair to say all those years of playing charades at brownies really paid off. We got the yummiest French stick, probably referred to simply as sticks over here, and it was demolished for we even got back to the car so Debs ran back and got 2 more, only €0.80 each and they went own a treat with fromage (Cheese) and salami (salami). Unfortunately we got picked up what we thought was hummus and ended up being a tuna spread, well wasn't unfortunate for Debs as she loved it and demo'd the pottle! We also indulged in a bottle of champagne as we were in the champagne region, thought we had better. We sat around the camp tables, overlooking the swimming pool, iPod speakers out and enjoyed a lovely relaxing evening. France's version of crocodile Dundee was kicking round the campsite with is three legged dog fixing things and swung over for a bit of banter. We all had our hats on that we had brought for the fancy hat theme for the road trip and asked him to judge them, he said "am I judging the ridiculousness of them (looking directly at Simon wearing Debs cowboy hat that looked like a cow) or the one I actually like the best, he gave us around down to the thoughts of all the hats but didn't give us a sum up so will have to seek your thoughts instead (yeah you, the one reading this masterpiece, comment up on the photo's). We nestled into our beds and had a bit of banter, Bradley told me the next morning that his neighbour called out for us to be quiet at some point but at the same time I laughed (the ol usual loud laugh) and that comment was shut down, luckily for him we toned it down on our own accord not long after that.