Hello everyone. I'm Malc and new to these forums though I have posted a question earlier this afternoon and thought it would be right and proper to introduce myself properly.
We started motorhoming in 2015 so, on paper, we're fairly new to this but, as you shall see also quite experienced. Anyway, we were living in North Wales in a small rented cottage in the woods and had been there for about fifteen years or more. So, we were rather much settled.
Anyway, for some strange reason we decided one sunny day to look at motorhomes. For no other reason than "Let's have a look at some out of simple and idle curiosity".
So, we pulled into a second hand motorhome emporium in Penrhyndeudraeth and looked around a couple. Just out of simple and idle curiosity. We liked a six berth Ace Firenza and then the next thing I knew was that I was shelling out the deposit for the twenty one foot beast.
And that was that. None of this tedious messing around doing research or even discussing whether we would want one and, if so, which one. So that was it. We had a motorhome.
That evening I decided to do a little research. That is to see if I had a driving licence sufficient for me to drive the thing. Luckily mine was an old school licence obtained in the early eighties and not only does it permit to drive road rollers it also meant that I could take the newly named Gin Palace off the forecourt.
The next question was where to store it. That was easily sorted. For a quid a day, the salesman told me, it would be put into secure storage and kept safe. Perfect. And so every day and night that we drove past the secure storage our motorhome would be visible. No, not inside the secure storage but in a layby opposite on the main road.
A few small trips here and there, mostly day trips to try to work out what operated what and how to turn on the lights and how to make a coffee when we fell out with the landlord.
The landlord was landed gentry living in London and couldn't give two hoots about his tenants except that they should cause him no expenditure and that they pay to upkeep his lifestyle. Our kitchen was a disgrace; the furniture was getting more and more rotten each year (and it was covered in black spores when we moved in) and started to collapse. We could read the newspaper that was under the linoleum's bare patches and the bathroom looked like a municipal rugby club changing room circa ninteen seventy. So we decided to do the updates ourselves. The place looked good and we sorted out the damp in the kitchen and in the bathroom (connecting the sink to the drains helped!) and it was cosy.
Then he turned up. Had one look and said "Very good. Your rent has just gone up!"
So we shoved the keys where the sun doesn't shine (it's either that or my wife was going to bury his slowly cooling corpse under the slabs in the garden), put everything into a container and then left on the motorhome.
A year on the road and we found a house on the end of the Llŷn Peninsula and moved in. And here we've been for a year and then, last week, our landlady told us that she's selling the house and of the end of this month we're homeless again. But the Gin Palace has passed its MoT with flying colours and we're going to hit the road again.
This time we're going to hit Scotland. Perhaps find something in the Highlands or the Hebrides. Or we may just carry on trucking. So, if you ever come across a WiFi SSID on a small site somewhere named 'The Gin Palace' and it's coming from an Ace Firenza then come and say Hello.
But, make sure that you bring a bottle.
Malc
We started motorhoming in 2015 so, on paper, we're fairly new to this but, as you shall see also quite experienced. Anyway, we were living in North Wales in a small rented cottage in the woods and had been there for about fifteen years or more. So, we were rather much settled.
Anyway, for some strange reason we decided one sunny day to look at motorhomes. For no other reason than "Let's have a look at some out of simple and idle curiosity".
So, we pulled into a second hand motorhome emporium in Penrhyndeudraeth and looked around a couple. Just out of simple and idle curiosity. We liked a six berth Ace Firenza and then the next thing I knew was that I was shelling out the deposit for the twenty one foot beast.
And that was that. None of this tedious messing around doing research or even discussing whether we would want one and, if so, which one. So that was it. We had a motorhome.
That evening I decided to do a little research. That is to see if I had a driving licence sufficient for me to drive the thing. Luckily mine was an old school licence obtained in the early eighties and not only does it permit to drive road rollers it also meant that I could take the newly named Gin Palace off the forecourt.
The next question was where to store it. That was easily sorted. For a quid a day, the salesman told me, it would be put into secure storage and kept safe. Perfect. And so every day and night that we drove past the secure storage our motorhome would be visible. No, not inside the secure storage but in a layby opposite on the main road.
A few small trips here and there, mostly day trips to try to work out what operated what and how to turn on the lights and how to make a coffee when we fell out with the landlord.
The landlord was landed gentry living in London and couldn't give two hoots about his tenants except that they should cause him no expenditure and that they pay to upkeep his lifestyle. Our kitchen was a disgrace; the furniture was getting more and more rotten each year (and it was covered in black spores when we moved in) and started to collapse. We could read the newspaper that was under the linoleum's bare patches and the bathroom looked like a municipal rugby club changing room circa ninteen seventy. So we decided to do the updates ourselves. The place looked good and we sorted out the damp in the kitchen and in the bathroom (connecting the sink to the drains helped!) and it was cosy.
Then he turned up. Had one look and said "Very good. Your rent has just gone up!"
So we shoved the keys where the sun doesn't shine (it's either that or my wife was going to bury his slowly cooling corpse under the slabs in the garden), put everything into a container and then left on the motorhome.
A year on the road and we found a house on the end of the Llŷn Peninsula and moved in. And here we've been for a year and then, last week, our landlady told us that she's selling the house and of the end of this month we're homeless again. But the Gin Palace has passed its MoT with flying colours and we're going to hit the road again.
This time we're going to hit Scotland. Perhaps find something in the Highlands or the Hebrides. Or we may just carry on trucking. So, if you ever come across a WiFi SSID on a small site somewhere named 'The Gin Palace' and it's coming from an Ace Firenza then come and say Hello.
But, make sure that you bring a bottle.
Malc
& 
it was a perfect storm style situation that caused us to long term travel in our van among other things . Fair play i say
