It's been ten years since my car saw the road. Ten long, frustrating years. But today I finally got to collect my car.
The day was off to a less than brilliant start when I woke up from a string of wasp-related nightmares and a dead leg at 6:30am. Pottered around until arrival of the parental units at about 9am. I then drove the first leg of the journey to the secret location, which was about 70 miles, in Dad's Lexus.
It took me a while to make the transition from Dorset (the Lexus) to Wilhelm (my Polo), especially going from power assisted brakes to non-servo brakes. I did manage it, it got more comfortable with time. We ate up some miles by first heading out to Mablethorpe with me taking the lead. There was a strange (to me) noise from the front of the car and from the rear so I pulled over and an impromptu picnic broke out.
Turned out the noise from the rear was gravel in the tread of the tyre and the noise from the front was just the new brakes bedding in. Nothing to worry about really.
So on we went to Mablethorpe. Being used to Sheffield prices I jumped at the nearly-on-the-seafront £3 all day car park. Comedy ensued because it took me 3 attempts to park (I'm useless at parking) and poor old Wilhelm looked like a toy! I thought I'd parked next to a Range Rover, but it turns out it was the much smaller (!) Land Rover.
We went for ice cream and stared at dogs and donkeys on the beach. It was great, I felt like a 12 year old. Eventually it was time to get back in the cars and head over to my Nan's in Louth. The last time she saw Wilhelm he was stock and navy blue, so she was quite surprised at what turned up.
Adam came with us (he was in the graphite Escort XR3i above) and made me stand next to the car so he could take a photograph. It was like I was mirroring so many old family photos, and perhaps I was.
Sitting comfortably in Nan's house I spotted a photo opportunity and took another.
Then we were off again, this time to North Kelsey Moor, through more beautiful scenery on a glorious spring day on nearly empty winding Lincolnshire roads. An absolute joy to drive. Dad's Lexus had been with us all day, obviously, lurking in the background.
Couldn't stop long at Grandad's so it was off home. I realised what road I was on and detoured to lankytom's place since I bought my wheels off him. Turns out he's already moved out, unfortunately, but I took a snap anyway.
Some dodgy geezer in a black Skoda Rapid was pipping and flashing at me when I was trying to find lankytom's place, I wonder who that could have been?
Finally, we made the long trip home, pulling over once to figure out how to make the lights work, took me ages to find the correct combination for dipped beam, but we got it. Got home and it was dark.
All in it was a massive trip for me. My third journey driving and it started with 70ish miles in the Lexus followed up with a round trip of 170 miles in the Polo. No problems to report apart from wanting a fifth gear on the gearbox. Absolute awesome day in a very entertaining car.
Oh, and people *did* stare. I got the distinct impression nobody knew quite what to make of me.
The day was off to a less than brilliant start when I woke up from a string of wasp-related nightmares and a dead leg at 6:30am. Pottered around until arrival of the parental units at about 9am. I then drove the first leg of the journey to the secret location, which was about 70 miles, in Dad's Lexus.
It took me a while to make the transition from Dorset (the Lexus) to Wilhelm (my Polo), especially going from power assisted brakes to non-servo brakes. I did manage it, it got more comfortable with time. We ate up some miles by first heading out to Mablethorpe with me taking the lead. There was a strange (to me) noise from the front of the car and from the rear so I pulled over and an impromptu picnic broke out.
Turned out the noise from the rear was gravel in the tread of the tyre and the noise from the front was just the new brakes bedding in. Nothing to worry about really.
So on we went to Mablethorpe. Being used to Sheffield prices I jumped at the nearly-on-the-seafront £3 all day car park. Comedy ensued because it took me 3 attempts to park (I'm useless at parking) and poor old Wilhelm looked like a toy! I thought I'd parked next to a Range Rover, but it turns out it was the much smaller (!) Land Rover.
We went for ice cream and stared at dogs and donkeys on the beach. It was great, I felt like a 12 year old. Eventually it was time to get back in the cars and head over to my Nan's in Louth. The last time she saw Wilhelm he was stock and navy blue, so she was quite surprised at what turned up.
Adam came with us (he was in the graphite Escort XR3i above) and made me stand next to the car so he could take a photograph. It was like I was mirroring so many old family photos, and perhaps I was.
Sitting comfortably in Nan's house I spotted a photo opportunity and took another.
Then we were off again, this time to North Kelsey Moor, through more beautiful scenery on a glorious spring day on nearly empty winding Lincolnshire roads. An absolute joy to drive. Dad's Lexus had been with us all day, obviously, lurking in the background.
Couldn't stop long at Grandad's so it was off home. I realised what road I was on and detoured to lankytom's place since I bought my wheels off him. Turns out he's already moved out, unfortunately, but I took a snap anyway.
Some dodgy geezer in a black Skoda Rapid was pipping and flashing at me when I was trying to find lankytom's place, I wonder who that could have been?
Finally, we made the long trip home, pulling over once to figure out how to make the lights work, took me ages to find the correct combination for dipped beam, but we got it. Got home and it was dark.
All in it was a massive trip for me. My third journey driving and it started with 70ish miles in the Lexus followed up with a round trip of 170 miles in the Polo. No problems to report apart from wanting a fifth gear on the gearbox. Absolute awesome day in a very entertaining car.
Oh, and people *did* stare. I got the distinct impression nobody knew quite what to make of me.