photo album ageing overlanders blog

A few pic's of our overnight stay in this mall Spanish town.

2011-02-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

A day on the beach in Baja!

2011-01-31T10:52:00.000-08:00

Camping among the Cacti!

2011-01-31T10:43:00.000-08:00

Off road excursion!!!

2011-01-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

Into Mexico!

2011-01-08T09:34:00.001-08:00

First video in Mexico!

2010-12-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

First attempt at putting a video on our Blog

2010-12-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

Jumbo Rocks camp site, Joshua TreeN/ Park

2010-12-03T08:07:00.001-08:00

A walk around Richmond gardens

2010-11-08T16:34:00.001-08:00

OK I know this is not a garden, but it is in one!

Every garden should have one!

Oranges, lemons and Grapefruit growing everywhere!

Some climbing frame!!!

Eucalyptus trees are not native, but do very well in California!

All shapes and sizes

Agava to die for!

Almost as big as the Bungalow.

Many gardens have these well trimmed specimens

Good old Pyrcantha!

In and around Death Valley

2010-10-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

First view of Scotty's castle in Death Valley

Scotty's Castle!

Oh yes there are plenty of open roads in Death Valley!

Ouch !!

Penny caveing in Titus Gorge.

This reminded us of our time in Jordan visiting Petra, the rose red City.

Penny on the edge of Ubehebe Crater, Death valley.

Dan-Dan the motor cycle man at Wild rose camp site, Death Vally, at 4,000 feet we were cool at last!

Leaving wonderfull Death Valley behind!

Fort Rock, Antique village,Oregon.

2010-10-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

Take a sidewalk around old Fort rock village

Fill her up please!

Saloon Bar!

Whats this then?

Old wooden water pump tower!

Fort Rock, Oregon

2010-10-03T10:17:00.001-07:00

Penny entering the crater rim at Fort Rock

Mercedes seen from above!

Wind swept sculpture

Enlarge to see the Heart

Honeycomb Rock!
Monster Rock!

Its a long way down!

Rock face

Is this one safe?

A walk round the quilting town of Sisters,in Oregon!

2010-09-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ski Lodge found along the way in Washinton state

2010-09-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Whats this ?

This looks spooky

Ah a cabin!

Steps too ?

Tardis or Loo ?

Lord of the 'Rocks'

Now that's nice!

Fungi !

Now that's what we call a campfire!

Ah it's a Ski lodge !

Friends and things in and around Vancouver

2010-09-20T09:57:00.001-07:00

More chainsaw carvings round the town of Hope BC

2010-09-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

Chainsaw carvings round the town of Hope BC

2010-09-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Logging contest at Williams Lake

2010-09-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

Thick or thin Sir?

Timber!

Flying logs!

Don't mess with this 'Miss'!

Almost a Bulls Eye!

More Barrel raceing from Williams lake

2010-09-07T10:42:00.001-07:00

Barrel raceing at Williams Lake!

2010-09-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

A few of the many Animals seen in Alaska and B.C

2010-09-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

The three Bears!

Moose cooling off!

This Mule Deer visited one evening,we are camped just three yards away!

We stayed in the van for this one!

All four 'Feet' off the ground!

The Denali Highway

2010-08-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Blue berries picked on our first camp off on the Denali Hwy
Mountains galor! Enlarge this pic and notice the road top right corner!
And more
Ah Well & Glaciers plus Caribou

More roads on the way to Deadhorse

2010-08-05T12:19:00.001-07:00

Doug the ice road trucker
Penny and Bill arrive at the Arctic Circle
Hillary, one of dozens of Motor Cyclist doing the Hwy
Through the windscreen, deadhorse road

Roads and people on the way to Deadhorse

2010-08-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Eagle campsite yukon

2010-07-24T12:55:00.001-07:00

Penny beside Eagle campsite lake
Steps leading to old picnic site.
Old site name Katiyamya.
Picnic sight

Eagle campsite yukon

2010-07-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Unidentified Fungi
Balsam Aspen, cotton wood
Long drop toilet, room for two!

Alaskan Highway from Dawson Creek 1,532 miles to Fairbanks Alaska

2010-07-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

A walk round Dawson Creek 5th July 2010

2010-07-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Old railway station

Station master office

View from Tourist Centre

Mile 0 town centre

One of the many trains that pass through Dawson Creek

Old vehicles found on our travels through Canada

2010-07-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hello we are back to try again with a few more picnic photo's

2010-07-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

2010-06-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

A walk round our first picnic site in Alberta first part!

2010-06-30T09:37:00.001-07:00

A walk round our first picnic site in Alberta

2010-06-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry we are having a problem down loading the photo's will try later.
Bill

2010-06-26T11:02:00.001-07:00

A walk around Landis village on Highway 14 askatchewan

Friendly folk found in Landis Grain Silo

Harvest time in Landis
One of the old cottages

Village church

Village library
Iris

Who did this?
And this ?

Storage.

Landis time capsul

Traveller met in Landis, find him at the 'Tradin Post Biggar.'

Lake Huron Ontario, to WaWa

2010-06-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

Crossing lake Huron Ontario

Old cattle Fencing

Off Road to Wawa!

Wild Camping

Rolling tone!

2010-06-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

This old house looked in fair order!

First floor bedroom

Kitchen

Going down to the celler

More tumbledown cottages

2010-06-19T13:03:00.001-07:00

Down in the celler

Old plastering work

Note the mud between the logs

Oh dear what happened here?

Old tumbledown cottages

2010-06-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

2010-06-19T12:33:00.002-07:00

trains

2010-06-19T12:33:00.001-07:00

2010-06-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

trains

Old vehicles found in the USA

2010-04-19T09:51:00.001-07:00

Old & new campers in the USA

2010-04-19T09:38:00.001-07:00

Old campers in the USA

2010-04-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

2010-03-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

2010-03-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

2010-03-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

2010-03-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

2010-03-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

New Photo Album up and running!

2010-03-04T03:22:00.000-08:00

When we arrived at Liverpool dock we found our selves parked beside a WW2 Jeep identicale to our first vehicle over 50 years ago 'Beat that!

2010-01-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

It is 17th January 2010 and only 42 days until the van sets sail for the USA. We started our Travel Blog at Christmas on our website: www.ageingoverlanders.co.uk

We realise that we cannot run two blogsites and will no longer be writing updates on this site so please go to the website for the latest up-dates. There you will find both a Travel Blog and a Patchwork Blog. Note the names are very similar but not identical.

Thanks for following this summers exploits in the UK on this site & we hope all our Club friends have a great season, we are peeved that we will not be here for the Air Balloon Rally, lets us know how it goes.
Penny

November

2009-11-07T03:30:00.000-08:00

So much has happened this last month, including the windscreen problem; the main thing is we've become great grandparents to a lovely baby boy, Lucas, pic of the quilt I've made him; by the way I'm not that tall but standing on the veranda on the barn where my workroom is.
Now the silencer has gone on the van & needless to say it is impossible to find a replacement - but I will leave Bill to tell you about that, probably when he has solved the problem & stopped driving around sounding like a boy racer!
Anyway we are struggling to set-up an new website ready for next years restart of the Odd Way Round journey; we like the layout of the site but not happy with the pics, seems impossible to increase the thumbnails to viewable size. If all else fails we may use this blog to hold the bulk of the pics over the next 3 years as the travel blog will be on the website. Check out the current state of the websit at:
www.ageingoverlanders.co.uk
We have also joined several chat groups, mainly in the US which are proving very useful with information & advice. So life is pretty busy keeping up with them all.
Penny

Windscreen replacement

2009-10-23T10:09:00.001-07:00

There is a first time for everything, or so they say; last week we experienced our first ever windscreen breakage, no stones flying up from the vehicle in front or space debris, just the turbulence from a 38 ton curtain-sider truck reduced our screen to what Penny described as a lace curtain. OK for furtive observation of odd goings on across the street but disturbing at even our pedestrian pace! Autowindscreens were quick to respond but failed to find a new or second hand replacement. But within 48 hours we had tracked one down in St Ives. Autowindscreens agreed to collect and install as soon as it had made its way to their Doncaster depot, this took a few days, but once there the job was completed efficiently by two technicians. They informed me one had fitted over 50,000 screens; sounds an awful lot, but he fits 5/6 a day=30 a week x4 a month= 120 x12 months& it soon adds up!! Well done lads! and thanks.

Isle of Wight windmill.

2009-10-03T02:38:00.000-07:00

One of the many delights of our Camper Club Rally to this somewhat crowded island was a visit to the last remaining windmill circa 17th century, situated atop a moderate sized hill a short walk from Bembridge. A good information office/shop opens from 11am till last admissions at 4.30pm, who last year welcomed over 24,000 visitors, so at £2.90 per head raised a lot of cash for future National restorations, it would be good to hear that in the future

the sails will once again harness the wind and begin to produce stone ground flour again, no doubt what ever government is managing our economy they will introduce a tax on the wind! The Dutch did centuries ago!

2009-09-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

It is now over a month since I last updated this blog but time has flown so fast & we've hardly been at home. On 19th August we motored down to Balsall Common, between Coventry & Birmingham, to a little campsite we've used before. From here it is only a 1.5 mile walk to the nearest railway station with a direct link to the NEC & the Festival of Quilts, so guess where I spent the rest of the week!
On the Thursday my stitching friends from the Bawtry area came down by coach; to the quilt show not the campsite. We had an orgy of shopping & quilt viewing before they had to return home; I managed to fit in a couple of Talks too, one about the Mongolian Charity & another about quilt as you go, both excellent & informative. The train journey back was far too short to give me time to recover but luckily Bill was there to help me carry my purchases back to the van, supper & bed.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday I returned to Steward at the quilt show & organised my days with more care, making sure I was not too exhausted for that 1.5m walk back to Camp. It was difficult as there was so much to see. I didn't take photos of the winning quilts, they will be in all the magazines in the next few months, but hope you like the couple I've included here.
Since then we have attended Harrogate Quilt show & one in Hawes, Wensleydale, close to where we used to live many years ago - the beautiful and remote Raydale.
This valley always makes me think of the book Lorna Doone with its lovely secret setting high above Bainbridge and the streams narrow gorge down into the larger dale from the lake above. It is just as beautiful as I remember and very green after a wet summer.
Now the autumn term of quilting classes has begun and I am way behind everyone else after our visit to the Isle of Wight but while everyone else is making large blocks for quilts mine will be six inch blocks that we can use as Prayer Flags to hang on the van during the next part of our Odd Way Round journey - the last ones didn't disintegrate as expected but finished looking as though they had been down a coal mine!
Now I need some good sayings to write on them such as;
We can stitch the world together piece by peace
Any suggestions?
Penny

Lingfield Rally update

2009-08-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

Thursday 30th of August found us motoring south to attend our fourth Classic Camper Club rally at the Blue Anchor Show Ground near Lingfield Kent.What a grand event ably hosted by Sue Mickleborough and friends. In total 13 vans turned up for the weekends entertainment, and there was plenty to interest all ages, Steam Engines,Road Rollers, Stationary Engines in all shapes and sizes chuffed away throughout the week end.
For the classic car enthusiasts there were just about every make and model to enthuse over, all turned out to perfection, most arriving under their own 'steam'though a few museum pieces were trailered in,one an electric 'Harrods' delivery vehicle in splendid condition, one of over thirty built for Harrods in the 1930s, so much for progress!
One of the many highlights of each afternoon was a display of hunting birds by a local falconry enthusiast,Bald Eagles,Kestrels,Hawks and a brilliant hunting attack by a Peregrine Falcon that screamed in at 154 miles an hour, we were told!
All in all another very good Club Rally, one that we shall look forward to attending in the future.

A future quilter

2009-08-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

Our recent trip down south to the Lingfield Steam Rally enabled us to visit several old friends including Roy & Edna on their farm in Edenbridge. While their most of their children and grandchildren came to visit & say hello; though they were also probably there to help on the farm where work is never finished. The grand children, mostly boys, are growing up so fast we hardly recognised them. With her Mum's & Edna's encouragement Ema came shyly, & proudly, up to me to show me a piece of patchwork she is working on with her other grandmother. I was amazed. Ema is only just 11 years & this piece she is producing is all done by hand in the English Piecing method - one of the most time consuming and fiddly methods of patchwork. As can be seen it is very well done & she should be very proud of it, so should her Gran be. Ema was very interested in the magazine I write for, British Patchwork & Quilting, which has a regular Young Quilters section & plans to join a Textile Club at her new school in September. So maybe in a few years we will find quilts made by Ema on display in the junior section, at the annual Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Well done Ema. Penny

Bawtry & Austerfield Quilt Festival July

2009-08-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

I seem to be struggling putting this report on the blog so please bear with me, obviously it has been too long since I last used the blog. The caption over the first picture below should read -The Bawtry Church entrance showing a beautiful Dahlia quilt with one based on the ChopStick block on the left and a panel on the right showing the Post Card & Journal quilts I made while travelling in 2008.

The Quilt show lasted 3 days with two before hand to hang all the quilts & as I had 6 items on display there was a great deal of stitching too! Bill did all the posters & road signs so it took over our lives for quite a while. It was well worth the effort though exhausting & we are not too sorry we will be away for the next one in two years time!

But the quilts, there were well over 200 on display, the quilters and all the complementary visitors make all the effort well worth while. There are about 50 of us in the Cottage Quilters, we are mostly regular or occasional students of Helen Stringer and without Helen's mammoth effort this show would never take place. We had visitors from as far afield as Newcastle and they all found it very hard to choose just one quilt as their favourite. But Ruth Sargeant's Sampler quilt (only the second quilt she has ever made) swept the board.

Many quilters helped with various tasks during the week, hanging the quilts, stewarding, refreshments & stalls, but Ian & Janet Stimpson (Church Wardens & originators of the idea of a show) were at their post before doors opened until after they closed every day. Janet is also a quilter with several pieces on display.

The Students Class competition - to make a bag using several different techniques - was won by a rucksack made by ME! The show raised over £1400 for the two Churches
I hope you enjoy the photos. Penny

The entrance to St Nicholas's Church, Bawtry showing a beautiful Dahlia quilt with one using the ChopStick block on the left & a panel of my Post Car

2009-08-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

Some lovely pieced quilts

2009-08-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

A delightful side Chapel display

2009-08-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

A wide variety of cushions

2009-08-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

The class challenge last term was to create a bag using numerous different techniques

2009-08-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

Ruth Sergeants winning Sampler quilt hanging behind a display of bags

2009-08-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

The 2 black quilts ones I have made, the smaller is a lap quilt, the big one is our campervan quilt based on the Mariners Compass block

2009-08-09T06:54:00.000-07:00

Our book stall with Peter Gell's fabulous wooden bowls

2009-08-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

Fabric stall & Linus stand

2009-08-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

Bawtry & Austerfield Quilt Festival July

2009-08-09T06:42:00.000-07:00

Visitors in the refreshment area of the Church Hall

Book list

2009-06-29T10:32:00.001-07:00

Book list

2009-06-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Book list

2009-06-29T10:25:00.001-07:00

Book list.

2009-06-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

We have now managed to produce three books of our travels, plus an Overlanders Diary for those of you who are inspired to follow in our wheel tracks. The price for The Odd Way Round, Merc It To Africa, and Forgive Us Our Trespasses is seven pounds fifty pence each,& Three pounds fifty pence for the Overland Diary all plus P&P please go to www.atomicsoup.plus.com for payment details.
Forgive Us Our Trespasses is a journey by Bicycle from San Diego to Miami completed in 2002, just over 3.300 miles.

29th June blog

2009-06-29T04:38:00.000-07:00

Another month has slipped by, it’s hard to believe it’s now 14 months since we set off on the first leg of the ODDWAYROUND, and now it’s only 7 months till we set off on the second leg by shipping the van to the States. Give or take a couple of weeks we should pick it up at Baltimore by the end of March 2010.

Once we have re-instated all the equipment and personal effects and restocked the food store (you may remember we have to ship the van completely empty and this should take at least a couple of days), we head south to visit relations in Arkansas and a quilt show at Paducah, Kentucky before heading north to see more friends in New York State on the way to Canada and Alaska.

To-date the Mercedes is running very well, the engine make-over has transformed the performance, we even have to consider speed limits now and to my surprise we are getting an even better MPG. Towards the end of the first 10.000 miles of the Oddwayround we had noticed a small leak from the brake master cylinder, new internals eventually solved the problem (Past Parts, Bury St Edmonds) and now we can deal with all that extra speed!

I hardly dare to mention the Webasto A/C drama, but at last it’s up and running, eventually the main agents fitted an upgrade kit to replace the water level sensors and another two pumps before things began to run smoothly, and now we have good hot weather we shall be giving it a good test before the winter sets in, just one last little hiccup, finding a new battery for the remote control has taken four weeks intensive searching!

Last weekend found us attending our second Classic Camper Club rally at Holbeach Vintage Vehicle Event where we enjoyed good weather and the company of nearly thirty club members. The general public showed great interest in the 14 Classic Campervans that were on show and we sold quite a few books. We now have four on offer, the ‘Oddwayround’, ‘Merc it to Africa’, a ‘Travel Diary’, and ‘Forgive us our Trespasses’; the last one is about the 3,300 mile cycle ride we accomplished in 2002 from the Pacific to the Atlantic across the USA. We are relieved to have finished what has proved to be a marathon of writing, editing and printing these four books, it has been a huge learning curve often leaving us nearly tearing our hair out. But with the help of our son in law Tony and many staff at Staples, plus numerous others generous with their time, help and advice we have just about managed to stay friends (Bill & I that is! P).

We now look forward to relaxing at the National Classic Campervan Club rally in July, and also attending number of quilt shows.
Bill

Just a few words from me – Penny
Bill is being extremely reticent about the quilting, at times it has saved our marriage over recent months when the writing/printing saga has become really fraught and I have disappeared into my workroom and left him to it! Now I have three unfinished quilts which WILL be on display at the Bawtry Quilt Festival on the 10th, 11th, 12th July! So no time to write any more now but will do a full report on the show after the 12th. Then we’ll be off to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC for four or five days in August. Penny

June update Holbeach Vintage gathering.

2009-06-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

Classic Camper Club, Members vans.

June update

2009-06-29T02:54:00.000-07:00

'Yet another Honymoon Jeep!

June update

2009-06-29T02:52:00.001-07:00

Penny's father used one of these

June update

2009-06-29T02:49:00.000-07:00

Morris Commercial Organ van

June update

2009-06-29T02:47:00.001-07:00

Scale model.

June update

2009-06-29T02:45:00.000-07:00

Rollers!

June update

2009-06-29T02:42:00.000-07:00

Essex super six,200,000 made in the USA

June update

2009-06-29T02:40:00.000-07:00

Austin Chummy, I would like to get my hands on one of these!

June update

2009-06-29T02:37:00.000-07:00

Road side rescue!!

June update

2009-06-29T02:35:00.000-07:00

Copper spotter!

June update

2009-06-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

Look closely at the last truck then at next pic.

Holbeach Vintage Event.

2009-06-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Westbury Transport show.

2009-05-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Ban owl age 14 years, only ever been hand feed!

Westbury Transport show.

2009-05-08T07:51:00.000-07:00

We have seen similar age Lister engines still giving good service all round the world!

Westbury Transport show.

2009-05-08T07:49:00.001-07:00

Can I have one of these please?

Westbury Transport show.

2009-05-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

We did have one of these!

Westbury Transport show.

2009-05-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

The inside of this van was very spacious.

Westbury Transport show.

2009-05-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

Those were the days!

More from Westbury, 2009.

2009-05-08T07:26:00.000-07:00

Just a few of the good turn out of British vehicles at Westbury.

Janet, our host at Westbury

2009-05-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

Janet, Penny and Pickles pose for a last photo call before we pack up and head for home.
Bill

Westbury Transport show.

2009-05-08T04:30:00.000-07:00

Having failed to put in our intended slide show we have settled for a few pic's of our very good week end at Westbury transport and vintage gathering at westbury. Bill

May blog update

2009-05-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

Our engine make-over seems to have been a great success having just completed an 800 mile round trip via York (patchwork and quilting)then on to visit family near Carlisle; back down the M6 to Buxton & more family, then another 176 miles for an enjoyable weekend at the 'Westbury Transport and Vintage Gathering' loads of old stationary engines chuffing away and some pretty rusty old farm machinery, great entertainment and friendly folk as you will gather from the pic's!
Then back up the Foss way to more family (we have them spread far and wide for convenient overnighting!) Despite the fact we seemed to spend a lot of time filling the van with diesel, (and cringing as we listened to "captain Darling" saddling our, as yet unborn, great grand child with a huge millstone) we still managed to return a mileage of 34.7 mpg!
Our plans for continuing the Oddwayround journey are well underway. The Mercedes will be delivered by us to the shippers at Southampton no later than 28th Feb. 2010 and will arrive in Baltimore south of New York by the end of March at the latest, by which time we will be waiting on the dock side!
You may remember that since 9/11 vehicles have to be empty! Even the curtains have to be removed and packed into boxes and pallitized along with all our personal possessions, including van spares, jerry cans, spare wheel, roof ladder, cutlery, books, maps in fact if we have to follow the letter of the law everything that has been added since manufacture has to come off!Then of course it all has to be reinstated in Baltimore! Sounds fun. And of course the food cupboard will be empty so Penny will have a good excuse to declare "we haven't a thing to eat!"
All this sounds like a huge "Heave Ho" can hardly wait to get going, but must dash lots to do!

Bill
P/S we did intend to put a slid show of pic's from westbury but fell at the first hurdle, so have to settle for a few pic's Bill

Updated 28th april 2009

2009-03-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

Hello.
At last it's done!Or perhaps we should say they are done, BOOKS that is! It's taken an awful long time, four years for the African epic, and a year for the 'Oddwayround' Russia to Spain, first 10,000 of our intended round the world journey. To say its been a trial would be the understatement of the year. Since getting back from Cyprus just before Christmas we have changed printers three times, and have a pile of ruined A5 sheets of paper to equel a small forest! But we have won through in the end and hope that at least some of our fans will have the courage to part with their hard earned cash, and in doing so enjoy sharing in our adventures. Towards the end of this saga, being suckers for punishment we decided to go the extra mile and produce an 'Overlanders diary/journal' so that those of you who are intending to follow in our footsteps can use it to keep a record of your own travels,(almost everyone we meet along the way remarks 'That's my dream!)
For details and costs please visit our newly updated website at www.atomicsoup.plus.com

regards Bill & Penny.

the ageing overlanders

2009-03-10T00:49:00.000-07:00

Early March up-date

2009-02-28T11:42:00.001-08:00

Oddwayround March update

We always think time flies while we are on the road, now back home things are moving at an even quicker pace! Originally we thought three months would be more than adequate to arrange shipping the van to the USA plus all the other 101 things needed to keep our expedition on schedule. Events have proved otherwise, bringing about a change of departure date to March 2010! We now have a whole year to sort out the many problems we have found ourselves faced with. Our Cyprus extravaganza; the somewhat truncated engine transplant; the malfunctioning Webasto A/C unit, and the turmoil in the business world dictates we tread water for the next twelve months!
This has of course been a very difficult decision for us to come to terms with, but our aim in life is, and always has been, to succeed in everything we undertake, to press ahead in these uncertain conditions could jeopardise plans that have taken years to hatch.
So now we find ourselves with more time to get our heads round stage two of the Oddwayround. With the reconditioned engine running smoothly (we hope) and plenty of time to run it in carefully, a nagging problem in the brake department has re-emerged calling for drastic action in the master cylinder department needing a re-sleeve and new internals, so now we find ourselves without transport for 2/3 weeks. On the up-side it gives me a good reason to borrow our son’s new Land Rover Discovery; with all this snow about just the vehicle to be out and about in, shame about the fuel consumption!

While motoring through Russia we of course keep a daily diary and in a rash moment decided that on our return home we would look into the possibilities of publishing a small journal of the first 10,000 miles of the Oddwayround! Easy I thought, just type up my daily diary add a few pic’s; ring-bind and sit back! Penny did have reservations, partly I guess because she would have to sort out all my computer problems.
Suffice to say, to date we have wasted almost a forests worth of wood pulp, invested in a new lazar printer, ring binder and guillotine; before dropping the idea in favour of putting the job in the hands of a printer; that was until we received the estimate! Now we have reverted to desktop publishing and things are beginning to run smoothly, but we could finish up with a huge pile of ‘practice books’! Provided we do not have a serious breakdown of relations between author and editor we expect to be in print with at least a dozen copies by our new dead line of 1st March. Watch this space!

New Year’s resolution to update blog 1st every month!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regards Bill

Penny
Quilting blog to follow.

Last day of February.

2009-02-28T03:57:00.000-08:00

Hi there, this is Bill being alowed to play with the computer, and doing ok, though it's all still a bit hit and miss, just now we awaiting the asistance of our computer guru to help fine tune our efferts, so please watch this space for our March up date of 'Theoddway round journey!'

Bill

The Ageing Overlanders

2009-02-27T05:59:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone
This is an up-date on our oddwayround blog.
We have been experiencing problems over the past couple of months with our Oddwayround blog on Diino - in fact at present we are completely unable to up-date it, so we are hoping this site will prove more successful and easier to access; we know some people have had problems and hope this will be an improvement.

Since returning from Cyprus we have been putting together a book of the journey so far and working on the campervan. Both projects have caused considerable problems, in particular the van which is only just back on the road. This means we would not have time to 'run the engine in' before setting off on the second part of this journey and have therefore decided to postpone shipping to the USA until spring 2010. So you may spot us around the UK during this year as we visit Classic Camper Club events, quilt shows, etc.
Bill will give a detailed up-date on the van shortly and if we are happy with this site we will import all the diino oddwayround journey entries here then new readers will know what it is all about.
Penny & Bill
The Ageing Overlanders