Swiss Cheese

The van design has been chosen. I'd love to share it with you all on here, but I think I'll leave it until it is finished, just in case it doesn't look as good as the design pictures. I'm hoping it will be eye catching. In fact, I'm sure, one way or another, it will be eye catching.
Slowly but surely the Windy places are being filled. Considering we are still 16 months from kick off, to have as many teams as we have booked in has got to be good news. Well over half are claimed and I'm still awaiting several more teams to sort out their staffing issues and complete the process. Even more impressive is the number of teams now in possession of their vehicles. I firmly expected most to wait until after the summer of 2012, so that they would only have one MOT to negotiate and only one year of insurance. But no, you impulsive lot have all rushed out and frittered your money already on a right bag of old tripe. Well done !
We are seeing a lot of vans being purchased. Ever since I was offered my VW T25 (Jezebel it is now to be called, after the wife), it seems that teams are favouring this plan of having somewhere to sleep on board. Team 6 have their VW T4, Team 9 have some sort of long wheel based ex-school bus and Team 15 have a Renault SWAT van with it's own private toilet.
So, what progress on Jezebel you ask ? Designs (as I mentioned) are on the drawing board (well, on my phone at least). Hairyman at JB Restorations has taken some of the paint off. It's a bit concerning as it looks like this paint is all that is holding the bodywork together. The front section of the van is hand painted, whereas the back 2/3 are dull, faded red. The sliding door is the main concern. Having taken off some of the paint, the door resembles Swiss cheese. He assures me it is fixable and cheaper than buying a new one (£250, which is as much as I paid for the entire van). I have faith in him. He may not have evolved enough to wear shoes yet, but his bodywork skills are admirable. He says he is putting steel in to some parts of the bodywork to replace the rusty sections. I think our van may be bullet proof and weigh more than a double decker bus by the time he's finished.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the forthcoming Spring and to organising a few Windy events. Camping, treasure hunts, 3 Peaks Challenge. It's going to be tough fitting it all in around Lord Coe's sports day in the Summer.

What to Wear ????

I'm having a dilemma. Any advice or ideas would be most welcome. Our camper van (as yet un-named, something we should work on) is due to be resprayed very soon. I'm not sure what colour or design though. I've been given a few ideas and come up with one or two myself, but nothing has really grabbed me yet. It needs to be the visual equivalent of a slap around the face, but at the same time stylish and classy (well, ok, you probably won't ever make a 29 year old camper van that stylish and classy) .
The ideas I've been chewing over so far are :-
1. A miniature double decker bus. Paint the camper van bright bus red, put vinyl black panels in two rows (possibly even with pictures of passengers), advertising boards, destination sign on the front, etc, etc. The main issue is that the drivers/passenger windows can't be covered with vinyl/tints, so you would have a full sized window at the front and little windows for only 2/3 of the vehicle. Would look a bit odd I think.
2. A Weymouth tartan. By painting the van a light blue, I can then apply strips made up of claret and white thin stripes to make an all over tartan pattern.
3. An enormous Windy 500 logo taking over half the van, a bit like the Salvador Dali clock design with the floppy clocks (or in this case Windy 500 logo).
It's a real dilemma and it's stopping me sleeping at night (though that might be down to the shifts and having to work at night)
Anyway, back in the real world, Weymouth slumped to another disappointing away loss yesterday to another poxy team after two very encouraging home wins over Christmas and New Year and some excellent football of late. Makes me glad I didn't take time off work to trek up to the Midlands.
We have picked up another team, fully paid up and definitely coming along. Team 1, Garry, Ian and Courtney will be first team on their way on 14th June 2013 as they lead the procession up the Esplanade. They are looking for a big reliable estate car by all accounts, a Mercedes or similar, but have a Mondeo lurking in the background if nothing else grabs their attention. Little sense of adventure if you ask me.

The Strappy Top

It's been a horrible day weather wise and Weymouth lost 3-1 away in some horizontal rain in Hitchin. So, to brighten up my blog today, I shall be including references to straps and velcro, gaffer tape, inter-racial relationships and lots of underwear.

My chequebook took a surprisingly light hit today. I'm sure it was braced for a damn good pasting, I know I had been. Getting a 29 year old vehicle through an MOT after it had been off the road for 18 months should have cost me enough to pay off the debt of several small African countries, however Jamie, my hairy little magician had once more performed miracles. 110 of your finest English pounds. I can live with that. It had some minor welding issues, a bit of tidying and a headlight with a squint. Bizarrely, that was all that was required to obtain one of those fine VOSA related pieces of paper.

I popped over to Jamie's establishment (J B Restorations for anyone with bodywork or squinty headlight issues) and found the van parked outside. The roof appeared to be held in place by an industrial sized luggage strap. This was apparently a requirement to get it through the test. I had visions of the luggage strap snapping on the journey and us spilling huge quantities of underwear across Europe. Jamie has however assured me that the hinges on the pop up roof are fixable. This is also good news, we'll need the pop up section. It's not that Jo and I are particularly tall. With two of the offspring joining us for half the trip, if they are able to sleep in the pop up roof, it will do away with the need to velcro them to the ceiling of the van.

I've now left Jamie with instructions to 'fix everything'. Hoses covered in gaffer tape, that dodgy bush that he has discovered in the gear box that apparently makes it virtually impossible to find 1st gear at traffic lights, roof hinges and any other piffling matters that are bound to cause problems before we reach Upwey in June 2013. Hopefully that will keep him out of mischief and keep my non road legal vehicle off the road for another month or so. He also offered to do a complete respray job. I hope he's got some tartan paint.

In other news, we now have a partially Finnish and partially Poole based team (still awaiting news from the Swiss/Devon team on whether they are joining us). Part of team 3 is in Gibraltar and will hopefully be getting their application together upon his return. Slightly closer to home, we have also had interest from Gloucestershire and Wigan. It's truly becoming a little bit more global (well, beyond the borders of Dorset at least ).

We have also had various promises from teams that they shall be trying their best to bring ice creams, interesting moustaches and hanging baskets. I look forward to seeing how they get on.

The Right Mix

I don't think I've bought a sherry in a bar for many, many years. No, now I come to think of it, I don't think I've ever bought a glass of sherry. At least not for myself anyway. This was, however, the least unpleasant Spanish drink on the list and I needed to sink it to claim my exclusive Windy mug. I washed it down with a French brandy and a Scottish alcoholic ginger beer.
Friday 25th November heralded the first Windy 500 social event and charity fund raiser. Down at the Weymouth Police bar, armed with a large collection of merchandise kindly provided by Sean, my daughters fiancé, I sat myself at a desk and sold the unfortunate punters a 'Spooky's European Tour' passport, kindly designed and produced by Jim, my stepfather and member of team 6. The passport listed 10 countries and 3 drinks from each country. The idea was that by consuming a drink from each country and having your passport duly stamped, you could complete the tour and acquire a much sought after Windy mug. There was a fair bit of whining about the less popular drinks on the list, but I really don't know what they were whining about. There were non alcoholic options available, which by and large were ignored.
In attendance we had Mark and Richard from team 19, Marc and Roy from team 12, Robbie and Ken of team 9, Lee from team 7, Garry and Ian from team 3, Tom and Chris from team 39 and Oz from team 15, who appeared to have brought the entire contents of the Kings Arms. Along with Lucy, the other member of team 6 and of course Jo, my wife and Sean, my son and fellow co-pilots on team 38, not a bad turn out. There were also another two and a half potential teams giving the whole driving event thing some deep contemplation.
Oz had been drinking by the time I held the auction. Actually, I think we all had, but Oz was  on a drinking and shopping roll. He wasn't going to be beaten in the auction and went up to £90 for some rugby tickets. He also bought a Jack Daniels hat for a ridiculous £10 whilst his wife Paula made the most of his inebriation to do some Christmas shopping for Windy 500 polo shirts and hoodys.
Chris won a bottle of vodka in the raffle. I don't think much of it made it's way out of the bar. It's a good job he wasn't carrying it home as he apparently fell in a bush on route.
All in all, a great night. £342 raised for the charity, which I thought was an excellent start. My team needed to raise a minimum of £100. I'm still keen on pushing on beyond £1000. Really shouldn't be a problem.
In other news, our VW van is now being worked on (thanks Jamie) and could be roadworthy in the not too distant future. Bring on the summer ! Got to try the new wagon out.
The Windy 500 clothing line has also been launched and the first order of t-shirts, polo shirts and hoodys will be in by the end of the week. Should be ready in time for Christmas.
Welcome aboard teams 2, 10, 41 and 49 this week. All is going swimmingly !
 

My Capri

I had dreams of cruising down the Transfagarasan Highway in a mark III claret and blue Capri with spoiler, fluffy dice, huge numbers of headlights and one of those sun visors with the names on that people strangely don't find fashionable any more. I've always liked Capris. My second car was a V registration gold 1.6GL. A huge step up in power from a Mini Clubman and with bags more pulling power. Well, it did have until the passenger door began to fall off and the gold paintwork became more rust coloured. I digress...
My next dream was cruising down the Transfagarasan Highway in an Austin Allegro. OK, so not such a cool dream as a Ford Capri, but still a dream of mine. Obviously my dreams were limited by the £500 budget I had set.
So, have I ended up with either of these two fine specimens of motoring technology? The answer is no. I have settled on some 29 year old German machinery to convey myself and my team around the high and low spots of Europe. A 1982 2.0 litre Volkswagen T25. Now when somebody is trying to sell you a vehicle and they describe it as a piece of S**T, you shouldn't expect anything immaculate. It wasn't. The bodywork lived up to my rather low expectations. The engine however started first time despite 18 months of inactivity. It belched out a cloud of black smoke and stopped again fairly soon after, but it did start.

The new 38 Bus

Some of the dubious bodywork.

So, having viewed the kitchen area and the boudoir, which at present are scattered across a driveway in Weymouth rather than neatly arranged on the inside of the vehicle as is tradition, money and paperwork has been exchanged. Jamie, a local grease monkey (and never has the term been so apt!) is going to collect it and get the necessary welding and other work done to get it through the MOT. I'll then have 18 months or so to deal with the cosmetics and perhaps even learn how to work on this ancient piece of foreign machinery.
Jo is already talking about how we'll be able to camp in the winter. This is from somebody wrapped in a sleeping bag with the central heating on. We shall see.

A Fresh Start

I needed a fresh start, a new destination, a new adventure and most of all, a new vehicle. My previous vehicle is currently residing in Addis Ababa and is no doubt populated by hordes of Ethiopians. It's a long story (which you can read all about on Travelpod here :
 http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/spooky388/number38bus/1194554340/tpod.html
 involving dinner parties, speed cameras, extreme hopscotch, Weymouth football club shirts large quantities of dust and a rapidly disintegrating Bristol VR double decker bus.
So, having returned to normality in November 2008, I found myself pestered. "When is the next trip?" and "Can I come on the next one?" were frequent questions I had thrown at me. I'm sure most people assumed I was insane to buy a double decker bus and set off to deepest, darkest Africa, but now they wanted to come along, no matter where I was going and without even knowing what form of transport I was taking. Crazy fools...
The plan I devised to cope with the maddening hordes involved a much smaller mode of transport. Seeing the tuk tuk drivers of Cairo weaving in and out of the traffic had set me thinking. How about bringing some of them back to England ?What an adventure that would be ! Obviously with all of these people keen to tag along, we'd need more than one. How about 50 ?
The plan was formulated, revised, re-considered, discussed at length and after much more deliberation and sole searching finally thrown in the bin. The Syrians had let me down badly. With the ongoing political issues or potential civil war, I wasn't convinced that leading a squadron of novice tuk-tukers through a Middle Eastern war zone was an entirely sensible plan. The Indians had also let me down, hiking the prices of new tuk tuks every time I spoke to them. The World economy had also let me down by being in the doldrums and limiting people's spending power. Oh well, on to the next hair brained scheme...
It came to me one evening over a beer or two. I seem to be at my most creative when slightly inebriated, just 90% of the ideas are discarded once sober again. British registered vehicles, bought in Britain with a rally starting in Britain and returning to Britain. It does away with visas, shipping costs, vehicle registration issues, complex border controls, civil wars and other trifling matters.
The idea when floated past the potential participants was greeted with positive comments and I'm sure a fair bit of relief. It was a goer. A name was conjured up by a colleague and we were off and running. The Windy 500 was born. Vehicles worth £500 or less was the stipulation, 23 countries on the route and 23 days in which to do it.
My bank manager was happy too. Strangely, when I had originally floated the tuk tuk idea past him, he had agreed to lend me money. Now, with this slightly less ridiculous plan on the drawing board, he was a whole lot more relaxed when he saw me strolling in to the bank. So, with company set up, bank accounts organised, website up and running and potential participants flocking to get involved, it left me to deal with more important issues. How can I raise money for the charity ? What vehicle should I be buying for under £500 ? What if it breaks down ? And, more importantly, how many Windy 500 mugs can I sell ?