Friday and Sunday were the two possible days that we would leave.   I continued with the "farce" of Friday up until a few hours ago but now it's quite clear that it will be Sunday, Mothers' Day.  There's still a lot left to pack.  I can't wait for the day when the van is finished and we won't have to pull anything out to work on it.  (Let's not kid ourselves!!  I'll be long dead before that van is considered "finished".)

Steve rang a large wrecker's yard in Wagga Wagga and found that they have a wheel and an air suspension seat that will fit the truck.  They aren't open on Sundays so if we get there on Monday morning, that will be fine.   Our first night will be at Jerilderie which is only two hours from Wagga.
The driver's seat is air suspension and is extremely comfortable, Steve says.  My seat, a good one out of Tarl's old car, is not so great.  It bottoms out on every bump in the road.  This was probably due to the springs, which Steve recently worked on.  We should probably forget about the new seat this time and give the repaired springs a trial.  (The seat is worth 4 weeks rent at the caravan park!)

We slept comfortably in the van last night and woke up to the bird songs.  It's much warmer than our bedroom, which is very welcome now that the weather has turned cold.

We're still on the trail of insuring the van, despite the fact that it has done a few trips already.  Because it's considered neither a caravan nor a motor home, and because it's home built,  it has been difficult finding someone to insure it, without mortgaging the house!  Finally, we have found an insurer who will take it on, at a reasonable price.  They want to consider it to be a motor home, so all of the literature refers to it as one unit, although we have to insure  truck and caravan separately.  Questions are asked which are impossible to answer!   The value?  Well, Steve has a heap of receipts;  I wonder if they want those?   They want to see our No Claim Bonus.   I asked our local broker and the answer was to send them a copy of the last invoice, which shows NCB 60%.   I didn't understand that but I was told that 60% is the top rating.   Huh???????

This problem of insurance, plus numerous other loose ends will occupy us for the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, half the house is inside and the other half is in the van.  It isn't easy to take off for 7 months!!
I tremble when I write that figure......  the thought of not seeing family for that long is gut churning.  Thank goodness for email. 

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