Small Wellies And A Handbrake

We left the Stamford area and started our drive to North Yorkshire and specifically the outskirts of Filey. The A1 was busy, but moving freely so we made good progress.

The rain over the previous few days had caused in a leak in the rear window of Sheldon, which had seeped onto the bed (thankfully Margaret’s side)! The road north took us past 'Brownhills Motorhome Dealership', which is just off the A1. We needed some bits to make the repair so made a quick stop off at their shop. Whilst it is quite a good-sized shop, the choice of products for the repair was limited - I think they must be still restocking following COVID closure. We bought what was available to make the repair when things had dried out and continued on our journey.

Our fresh food supplies and diesel fuel were now running low, so we hoped to find a supermarket with fuel where we could top things up. This didn’t happen. Despite traveling for a number of hours, we didn’t come across a suitable place for this. We had almost arrived at our destination before we could find something suitable. This proved to be a petrol station with a decent shop on the outskirts of Bridlington. It wasn’t what we’d been looking for, but served its purpose.

By now we were feeling hungry. It was too early to arrive at the campsite, so we looked for somewhere to park. A mile out of Bridlington was a lay by, which we pulled into. It was here that I was to have another doh moment.

I parked up and went to the back of the van to get Jerry, who was ready for a walk. As I moved back through the van, I looked out of the window and noticed that the scenery was changing. Sheldon seemed to be slowly moving backward. Realising what was happening, I quickly turned around and ran to the front of the van, where I applied the handbrake and the roll immediately stopped. Goodness knows what I was thinking about in forgetting to put it on, but thankfully no harm was done, but I felt guilty, relieved and a little bit stupid.

Lunch was taken and we went to our destination, ‘Muston Grange Caravan Park’. We checked in and set up on our pitch. The pitch's situation was a little bit disappointing as it was near the entrance and exit. It was also in sheltered, which meant we didn’t get much sunshine to sit out in. However, the pitch was serviced, with electricity, our own freshwater tap and drain for our waste disposal (not toilet disposal), which was in a separate Chemical Waste point. So the second phase of our holiday began.

The day after, we had a pleasant walk into Filey for more shopping and a coffee in one of the numerous cafes. We did a bit of exploring. The town was fine, with most things you need available. It had a touristy feel to it, but not overbearingly so. We returned to Sheldon feeling good and I attempted to repair our leak.

It was now Saturday and we went to explore the seafront. The walk down to the front took us back through the town. The weather looked unsettled, but we decided to carry on. Filey seafront was mostly nice, with things to do and well-tended ornamental gardens. We walked along the front to the northern end, which was uncomfortably busy. There were lots of people gathering around cafes and beach shops. It didn’t feel right, social distancing wasn’t being observed and we made a quick retreat back up the promenade. As we walked back up the promenade, we came across the statue below which is called ‘High Tide in Short Wellies’. The statue commemorates Filey’s fishing heritage and was the subject that was named following a competition ‘Finlay’ by an 11-year boy. It is a nice story and a very impressive statue. We went for lunch and after more shopping returned to the Motorhome. A very enjoyable day out, despite the ‘mixed’ weather.

Sunday was largely a lazy day. However, we had earlier discovered that just a 20-minute walk from the site, going away from Filey was an American Diner called Harry’s. It has excellent reviews and looked like a good place for Sunday lunch. We each had chicken wings, which came with chips, a side salad, coleslaw, and either barbecue or hot sauce. Margaret played safe and opted for the barbecue sauce, whilst I went brave and chose the hot ones which were covered in 'Franks Red Hot Sauce.’ It was hot but very tasty and enjoyable.

Monday was spent largely sorting out in preparation for moving the next day. Margaret did some laundry in the morning, to keep things up to date. In the afternoon, I went for a walk alone into the town via the cliffs. It was just a slight detour to our normal route, but one which was enjoyable and worth taking as the views were excellent. On return to Sheldon, I did more work on the area of our leak and checked the tyre pressures. It had been a satisfying stay in the Filey area and we were ready for the next leg of our trip ‘Up The East Side’.

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I look forward to sharing the next leg of the journey in the blog soon.