Well, it's been a slow month or 2 since my last post - I've been out for a couple of drives but nothing too exciting to report on. Most of the effort has been planning for future trips and some interesting news; my wife has agreed to come out on a trip.
The SKCC group who I go to Wales with are planning a short, 3-day trip to Devon and Cornwall in May and my wife, in a fit of enthusiasm that will probably disappear nearer the time, has agreed to go. This is probably because I shamed her into it by telling her about Alison, who comes on all the long trips with her husband driving in a tiny Caterham.
So, in preparation for this, I need a couple of upgrades to Zedster:
1. An armrest on the passenger door, like I have on my side. We went out for a trial drive and the door kept flying open, so that needs to be done.
2. An intercom so we don't have to shout while driving. I also want it to link into the radio, so that she can hear all the banter. I've looked into a proper system (as used by racing pit crews) but they cost a fortune (£1000+). So I hope to duplicate the setup Duncan has which is a motorbike intercom which also allows for a radio to be added. I've bought (for £20) an old system of eBay from Autocom. What I didn't realise is that Autocom went under years ago, so I cannot now buy the headset accessories from their catalogue. The Autocom intercom has a stupid, 7-pin DIN plug that no-one else ever used, so there are no off-the-shelf headsets I can buy. For another £15, I bought a set of old motorbike headsets for the system which at least have the right plugs but I think I will need to buy a set of ear defenders, hack them about and try fit the bike headsets in those. Then I'll also need some sort of storage structure between the seats to fit all this stuff into, to keep it vaguely tidy.
Most importantly, I want to arrange a trip for next June, over to France and the Alps again. I planned a vague route over a week, put a long post on the RHOCAR forum about it to see if I could get any interest and 2 people vaguely replied. However, one is a guy who I know has young kids and I don't think will get a pass from his wife and the other guy suggested he was interested but he would probably use a different route and I see he hasn't logged back into the forum since he replied to me, so not looking positive.
I hoped my son might come with me but I'm not sure he can - it's too much money for him, unless I sub him. I've also asked Graham (from my last Alps trip) if he is interested.
My SKCC group are doing a 10-day trip up to Scotland around that time and when I suggested we go to France instead, one of the concerns was the long drive down through France needed. I pointed out that the drive to Scotland is just as far and much less interesting (M6 - urgh) but that didn't seem to count :-)
I've booked my non-refundable Eurotunnel ticket already (much cheaper to do it now), so I'm going :-). It is a shame to go alone but despite all the YOLO, make-the-most-of-life memes I see daily on FB, the reality is, not many do.
