On The Road, Travels with Montmorency, Confessions of a Camper-van Newbie!

I love a road trip.

I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac at the impressionable age of 13. I admit that I initially only read it because it was supposedly the favourite book of Roger Taylor of Queen with whom I was besotted; but I loved it.

Quite possibly I didn't understand a lot of it but the sense of adventure, open spaces, long roads over the horizon opened up possibilities in my sheltered teenage mind - Halesowen in the West Midlands is about as far as you can get from the open roads of Midwest America. I decided there and then that I was giving up my ambition to be a teacher, and was going to be a long-distance lorry driver – much to the amusement of my teachers.

Well I didn't become a lorry driver and I did become a teacher, but I never stopped loving road trips – at school when we went on trips, I didn't really care where we went, I just loved the journey – even if it was only to a zoo or a historic place (and I'm not even going to get into the argument about 'a historic' or 'an historic'....), as soon as I was on board that coach full of chattering girls, shouty teachers and the smell of egg sandwiches, I was in heaven.

Fast forward a good few years and Paul and I travelled around Europe for 3 weeks for our honeymoon – making it up as we went along, stopping to camp when we felt like it and finally making our way to Venice. We have crossed America from Chicago to LA, and toured California and around Lake Michigan, each time just going with the flow and stopping as the mood took us (more of this anon). We travelled around France by car and later in his plane – making friends at remote French airfields and exploring French towns with our rucksacks on our backs.

Still my favourite books and films are about travel – On the Road remains an all time favourite, but also Dharma Bums, Travels with Charlie, NomadLand, Into the Wild, Bill Bryson's Lost Continent, Ghost Riders by Richard Grant; and on the more English side, 500 mile Walkies by Mark Wallington and even Three men in a Boat.... the list goes on.

So it comes as no surprise that with my life completely changed, I have decided on another road trip, this time in the company of Montmorency. I have always dreamed of having a camper-van and used to drool over them at car shows but Paul was having none of it; I think he'd reached an age when a comfortable bed and a decent shower seemed more appealing than squashing into a tiny van on a noisy campsite – and to be fair, he had a point - but in January this year, I bought myself a proper VW camper van. She's quite old but very pretty and I love her. She's called Salty Seabird – that was what Paul used to call me when I'd been sea swimming and it seems appropriate as she's grey and white like a gull and I often take her to the beach.

So now I'm planning my first big road trip! I'm driving from here in Spain back to the Midlands in the UK to see my family for my BIG!!!!! birthday in September.

But I'm not going alone – my dearest friend Joan is flying out to me a few days before I leave and we're travelling back together – Thelma and Louise anyone...?

So then started the 'Planning' – oh my giddy aunt – Which route? Ferry or tunnel?, How long will it take? 'Where shall we stop? What if the weather is awful en en route? What if...? What if...? What if...? Questions and ponderings while Montmorency just snored on the sofa as if to say 'Whatever – just chill guys!'

To be honest, we had even got to the point where we wondered whether to just book dog-friendly B&Bs instead of camping, but then I came to my senses! The joy of a road trip is not to plan beyond what's sensible. The road trips I did with Paul had very little planning – we took the routes that appealed to us and stopped when we were tired and I think the trips were richer for it. So Joan, Montmorency and I will set out on our trip with no stops planned, no campsites booked – we'll travel as we please and stop when we're ready. As long as Montmorency gets his walks and we get to the Channel Tunnel in time for the crossing, that's all that matters.

Let the Adventure begin!

Some of my favourite travel books:

On the Road, Jack Kerouac

Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac

Travels with Charley , John Steinbeck

Ghost Riders - Travels with American Nomads, Richard Grant

Into the Wild, John Krakauer

These are the Days that Must Happen to You, Dan Walsh

Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer

The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson

Nomandland, Jessica Bruder

The Salt Path, Raynor Winn

Travels with Boogie, Mark Wallington