Following yet another
cooked breakfast at the Crown and Cushion it was with some trepidation that I
emailed David Godfrey at DVLA to enquire about progress with Mabel’s
registration. An hour, or so later while Jane was poddling around Chipping
Norton’s shops David replied saying he had found the application, moved it to
the top of the pile and it was currently being processed! Jane burst into tears
when I told her the news on her return from the shops.
At 10:30 and 2½ weeks after
the paperwork was sent to DVLA, a further email arrived from David providing
the registration number – XB14 AGT. I thanked David for all his efforts on our
behalf and passed the registration number on to Chris Maynard, arranging for
Elite to hand over Mabel to us at midday.
We checked out of the
Crown and Cushion and headed for Banbury feeling very excited. We pulled over
en route to phone Francesca at Down Under Insurance to arrange cover for Mabel.
With that all sorted (at not insignificant expense) the last hurdle to getting
Mabel was crossed We were relieved and excited.
At Elite in Middleton
Cheney Chris told us that he had heard from David at DVLA that they had found
the original application for Mabel’s registration number that morning.
Apparently it had gone to the wrong department and they had tried to process it
as a normal registration!
Chris passed us on to
Mike who painstakingly took us firstly around Mabel’s exterior and then inside.
There was a lot to take in, while there were similarities with Myrtle, there
was also a lot of differences, particularly in terms of the water heating and
home heating arrangements as well as the lighting – LEDs everywhere.
Satisfied we had grasped
the basics and having signed paperwork to that effect, Mike drove Mabel a short
distance down the road to Pete Maynard’s home where the contents of Myrtle’s
garage had been stored. We had long forgotten about what we had in Myrtle and
it was good to be reacquainted with the gear we had accumulated during our
travels two years ago.
Having loaded all our
gear Mike bade us farewell. Mabel was ours and it was time for us to take her
on the road. We decided not to hook Smarty on the back. The tow bar we had
purchased with Mabel was detachable and Mike had some difficulty in attaching
it during the hand-over process. I wanted to be sure everything was working
properly before towing Smarty. Besides, Chris had noticed at the last moment
that Mabel’s tow bar was equipped with the latest EU 13 pin electric socket
whereas the plug that connected Smarty’s electrics was the old UK 7 pin
version. Chris told us to drop by Elite’s shop and pick up an adaptor.
It was with some
trepidation that I set off down the lane from Middleton Cheney and then on to
the M40 motorway on a busy Friday afternoon while Jane followed a short
distance behind in Smarty. I took it easy on the left lane of the motorway
getting used to Mabel, her automatic gearbox made her easy to drive and her 3
litre engine was not much more than ticking over at my chosen cruising speed of
50 mph. I elected not to overtake anything preferring instead to slow down when
I came across slower moving vehicles. That technique nearly came to grief when
I caught up with a loaded car transporter that became progressively slower as
it climbed a gradient west of Warwick. Fortunately, as the transporters speed
dropped below 30 mph it took to the hard shoulder allowing me to pass. The
remainder of the journey to Knowle where we parked on Phil and Kerry’s drive
was uneventful.
Phil retrieved the
bedding we had stored in his loft and we made up our bed ready for our first
night in Mabel.
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| Mabel Shortly After Arriving On Phil and Kerry's Drive |
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