We had had a lovely sunny week staying at a holiday cottage in North Somerset with our neighbours from Salisbury and were on our way home.  I mentioned to K that we still needed a water hose for Roxie and thought that we might look into Somerset Motor Home Centre.  This is just outside Taunton and on our route home anyway.

I was still faffing about with The Boys in the car when K called me over to look inside a van she had found.  I settled The Boys down and went over to have a look.  It just happened to be a German model that we had seen many years ago at a show and liked a lot. Of course it was still everything we envied about a van, comfy interior, an island bed, spacious and full of quality. Now with us both having an existing van we seemed to be viewing the interior and the van generally with a more critical eye.  As we sat in the “lounge” area K said “I like this, I like it a lot, don’t you”.  Taken aback slightly by that remark I still could not disagree with her. Incidentally we had both previously decided that we would probably exchange Roxie sometime, but now, was that what she meant?

Well at that point before I could say anything more the salesman arrived to see if we were ‘Ok’.  As it was such a hot day I went back to the car and returned to the van with The Boys.  They immediately sniffed around and settled down under the table together for a snooze.  They had made their minds up! The salesman left us alone and so questions flowed, thoughts aired and figures figured out over the next hour or so between us.

Well to sum up – we left a deposit and did an exchange on Roxie!

On our way back we both discussed even further what had just happened!  We could not believe it really and did feel slightly unfaithful to Roxie who we were just beginning to understand.  I mentioned to K that I had read that many people do exchange after a year or so as they get closer to what they really want in a van. Anyway a layout will probably be always a compromise.  This van does not have such a large garage so any bicycles or large items we wish to carry will need a rack fitted to the rear.  However it does have many other features instead – two leisure batteries (seems to be special boat batteries too, according to K, the sailor), a solar panel, external BBQ point, island bed, drop down centre bed, spacious living area, separate toilet and shower. Cupboard space arrangements seem a little different too so storage will need some thinking.

So on the 14th July I return to Taunton with Roxie to do the exchange.  It has been arranged that I will stay over with The Boys and my neighbour at a local site to make sure that it is in full working order and so able to go away knowing where everything is how to works it.

Oh the model – its a Burster 724 iT Plus and has already been christened ‘Zygie‘