Airstream Road Trip to Selkirk 2025 - Full Day the Third

 

With the prospect of storms later in the day, we opted for a do nothing, stay inside day. When I went for my shower at seven, the sun was just peeping up over the trees and the skies were deep blue, but there were some big fluffy clouds forming out to the south west so I guessed that today the forecasters may just be right.

The first task of the day, though, was to dismantle and stow the bug tent, the Pleasure Dome. It's waterproof, but I really didn't want to be packing it up wet, so down that came. The pegs I'd used to secure it in Monday's wind were a right bugger to extract from the rock-hard ground, but my camping skills and experience came to fore and I utilised another peg to add some leverage to the extraction process. The bug tent was an expensive piece of kit, and in most respects is excellent. The manufacturer, though, has skimped something rotten on the securing pegs, supplying only twelve, the minimum number required, and they are the cheapest mild-steel items on the market, which means they will bend and they'll get rusty. Given how much the tent cost, you'd have thought some pressed alloy pegs with a point on the end could have been supplied. Ah well, I shall have to raid Amazon and get some proper pegs, I think. 

The rain didn't show until well into the afternoon. We watched other people breaking camp before the rain started, and as the skies darkened we stayed huddled inside, tending to books, or blogs, of family trees, just stuff to allow us to decompress. We did at least get to test the automatic closing function of Towed Haul's roof vents for the first time this year, and as the rain hit the sensors, down came the hatches, which was comforting.

It was quite the deluge during the afternoon and early evening, and there was a little thunder to liven things up. I'd expected to see lots of people arriving for the upcoming long weekend, but I think the rain kept quite a few away. As the rain petered out, trailers did start arriving, but it was getting quite dark by then, and setting up in the dark is never fun.

We revelled in the peace and quiet of the trailer. When you live at home with a five-year-old, the opportunity to get away and decompress should always be taken and enjoyed, We love the little shaver, of course we do, but as you get older your tolerance wanes, and after he's been at home for two months, this break has been seriously welcome.

We're heading home tomorrow, and if we get away before noon then we should avoid the rain. Everything outside bar the patio mat and the water hose is packed, so it should be a swift camp break down. We'll have to dump the four days accumulation in the waste water tanks of course, but that necessary evil has to be performed and I'll factor it in to our leaving time. Let's hope the run home is uneventful.

Plymouth (The Original One) 2024 - The Accommodation

 Here in sunny Devon (very, very wet Devon if I'm truthful), we're staying in a nice little house on Plymouth's historic Barbican, the old port area and point at which the Mayflower sailed for the New World. Allegedly.

We've stayed down on the Barbican before, and because it's so central to the city, you really don't need your own transport while here. Everything you require is quite close by, and there's never anywhere to park anyway. The Barbican also boasts more pubs and fish and chip shops per square mile than anywhere I've ever been. The place is thronging with people, especially at the weekends, and it makes the whole area seem very lively. I have to say that we don't search out lively usually, but this part of the city has always been a hive of activity, so it all fits. In centuries past it was ships and sailors, today it's students and tourists, but either way it's vibrant. I mentioned the pubs, but looking at some 150 year-old maps, there are only a fraction of the number of pubs now compared to then, but the place is still full of them. 

 

Our house is on Stokes Lane, one block back from the quayside, and would have been home to stores and warehouses at some point. The present house dates to the Georgian period, but the stone walls that make up the rear of the house tell of earlier habitation. It's three stories high, four if you include the cellar, an is only about twenty feet across at the front. The door opens straight on to the street, and that itself can't be much more than twenty feet across. According to the little potted history of the house that's in the information folder, the artist Robert Lenkiewicz (1941-2002) lived in the house at some point in his life, and boy does that man have a history. I'm certain that the house also was home to many a salty old sea dog over the years, and if you looked, I'm sure the deeds would show up a "Sea Captain" or two, which seems to be a code for anyone associated with ships. The cellar, off limits to visitors, may have been used to store contraband, smuggled goods, in years gone by, although I'm certain that most houses in these parts would make that claim.

When we looked at the house on Google StreetView, it looked a bit different to the blurb on the VRBO website, but we worked out that it's undergone some significant refurbishment recently. The owner has updated the place without losing it's essential structure, so we are in a narrow, old house, but with all modern conveniences, and very comfortable it is too. I don't think it's on the list of Scheduled Buildings, or Listed in anyway, which would explain the blue frontage and modern windows. That said, there is a bit of a musty smell to the place, which is understandable, and it takes a bit of heating to take the edge off the chill. England can feel damp at the best of times, especially when just yards from the sea, and in an old stone house. Thank goodness for Natural Gas and some nice radiators.

 

The reason we're here at all is family related, not least because this is DW's home town. Family tree research has linked my family to the City as well, one of my Great-Grandmothers being born in a house just on the other side of the harbour, not more than a quarter of a mile from where I'm typing this. Family tree research isn't our reason to visit, but we'll definitely do a little looking around while we're here.

Given that it's raining stair rods out there at the moment, we won't be off exploring the area today, but when the rain does ease off then I'll document our travels.