A Cotswold Catastrophe

This weekend had been planned for months, we were meeting one of Adeles oldest school friends Sarah and her husband Ian at Broadway in the Cotswolds.




Saturday 27th September
Day 1

We left home last morning for the hour or so drive down to the Cotswolds, we were meeting Sarah & Ian at Broadway Tower, somewhere we have seen from a distance many times but never visited.
The journey down was fine until just outside the town, we were chatting away like we always do then as I was changing gear the clutch pad sank to the floor, the clutch had gone! Well how could this be? the van is only 6 years old and done only 31000 miles.
We managed to get to the car park at Broadway Tower Counrty park where we planned to meet, I checked the pedal again, there was only 'bite' on the bottom inch of the pedal and the clutch reservoir level was down from where it normally stood, after a cup of tea and piece of fruit cake, everything seems better after a cup of tea, we decided that we would continue our weekend, we would be able to get to our overnight site, The Broadway CAMC site, the worst case scenario would be to be taken home on the back of a truck, at best I might be able to limp home if I was careful.





We met up with Sarah and Ian, had a great afternoon walking, chatting and letting Archie and Alfie, Sarahs dog, have a good play together.
By 5oclock the park was about to close, the CAMC site was only a couplenof miles away, Ian said he would follow us just in case, we were fine and booked in, the site was almost full so didn't have any choice of pitch but the one we had no:55 was fine.
We had an hour or so to get ready, we had showers at the amenity block and got changed, Ian and Sarah picked us up to go for a pre-booked meal at The Swan in Broadway, a gastro pub, it was very busy, we got some drinks and ordered our food.
With the van on my mind I had thought I might not be in the mood but we all had a rally good time, I had forgotten to take photos of the food, which was tasty but my pork was a little over cooked and dry.

After an evening walk around Broadway, Ian dropped up back at the site, it wasn't late but we decided to have an early night.

Sunday 28th September
Day 2

We woke after a good nights sleep, we were woken in the night a couple of times once for what sounded like a fox screaming, once by the rain and once by my nightly loo call.
We had showers then enjoyed some bacon sandwiches for breakfast, we then sat and read for a while, we had planned to meet up with Sarah & Ian again and explore Broadway a little more but with the problems with the van on my mind we asked to be excused.
We left the site just after mid day, gingerly driving out of the site and onto the main road, the couch was definitely faulty, but with care we managed to get home.
We had a lovely weekend with Sarah & Ian and said that we would repeat the trip when the van is fixed so as to make the most of what we had planned. 

Monday 29th September

After my morning Shift at work I took the van to my normal garage to have a look, he had a quick check and thought it was probably the clutch slave cylinder but he wouldn't be able to take on the work for at least 3 weeks but did suggest another garage just up the road, they would be able to look at it nest week so arranged to drop it in the following Monday.

Hopefully it will be back on the road soon as we are planned to go away the end of October.

Watch This Space! 

We picked vera back up on 13th October, the clutch had been replaced and we parted with £900, I spent the next couple of days taking her out to see how she drove, all was good but there's always that "what If" moment.
We would continue you with our plans for our next trip, hopefully everything will be okay.

See How We Get On in our next Blog.



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