One Wedding and a Lunch Date

Over a year ago a postcard dropped through the door. It was a request to set aside Saturday 22^nd August 2015 for the wedding of Danielle and Scott. Danielle is my great niece if there is such a thing! We stuck it on the notice board in the kitchen occasionally glancing at it to remind us that we had to make arrangements. There was the offer of staying at the reception venue hotel at a reduced rate but even that added up to substantially more than a few nights on a Club site even in the middle of August!! 

We arrived at Rookesbury Park on the Thursday before the wedding. The site was pretty full but we managed to find a hardstanding. The Friday was a lovely day so we got the instructions from reception for a walk into Wickham, the nearest village. It was off road so we didn’t have to worry about traffic, except for crossing the A32 at one point. Part of the route made use of the now disuse Meon Valley Railway which has been converted to cycle/walking path. Wickham is a very pleasant place and seems more substantial that a village but who am I to argue? We had a sandwich and a pint in The Kings Head which was very nice. We were surprised at the quick service although our order did not quite seem what we had ordered, it did look nice so we just got on with it. About ten minutes later another set of sandwiches showed up, we had obviously been given the wrong ones!!! I don’t think I could have made it back the same way to the campsite so we treated ourselves to a taxi.  Bit surprised we had to pay a £3 out of area surcharge so at £10 I did not think it very good value. 

The big day arrived and fortunately sunny again with the forecast of very high temperatures. For a bloke getting ready to go to a wedding is only marginally more complicated than throwing on your shirt and jeans on a normal morning. Unfortunately for the ladies it seems that a motorhome is nowhere near large enough and what is really required is a room the size of a ballroom!!! I had to book a taxi to take us to the hotel where the reception was being held and a group of us would go from there to the church in a small coach as there was limited room to park outside the church. So far so good. Trouble was the coach had a truck satellite navigation system so we had a tour all-round the houses. The ceremony was lovely and nice photos at the church. Back to the reception venue, more photographs, lots of speeches. By the time we actually sat down to eat we were starving and breakfast a distant memory! 

The following day we were off to our next site. This trip was turning into a bit of a whirlwind tour but we had a lunch date on the other side of Southampton Water so had booked a couple of nights at Black Knowl in the New Forest. Pretty wet journey but it dried up as we arrived at Black Knowl and turned into a rather nice day. Margaret’s sister, husband and son were picking us up to take us out for a meal at the Mill at Gordleton which is near Lymington. It was a delayed Christmas present which we couldn’t make use at the time because of Margaret’s operation. The Mill is highly recommended and we had a lovely meal. 

On the Monday the weather took a turn for the worst. The wardens were having to dig some shallow trenches to drain water from some pitches. It was supposed to be another lunch date with an ex work colleague of Margaret’s who had moved down to Christchurch from MK. Given the weather it was decided to leave it for another time.  By the time we were making our way back home the following day we were looking forward to a rest!!!