I dare you, I dare you

 It all began about 4 years ago. I was sat contemplating the future trying to plan what I wanted to do with my life once I retired. I live alone and had a mortgage that wouldn’t be paid off until I was 67. I was working as a chef in a garden centre and had been there for the fifteen years. Woking in busy kitchen is a young man’s game so I decided I wanted to retire on my 65^th birthday. Quite by chance I came across a blog posted by a couple who were spending a year travelling Europe in a motorhome.  www.ourtour.co.uk. It’s well worth checking the site out, and it helped inspire me to make a life changing decision!! I put my house on the market and decided that I would cook my way around Europe. The house sold last year after about 18 months on the market. Now I could make plans. I had briefly considered buying a narrow boat but quickly ruled that option out as it’s not much fun in the winter and you’re limited to where the canal goes and not where you want. That brought me to my next decision, caravan or motorhome? After lots and lots of research I decided on a motorhome. Now all I had to do was to choose what make and model, more research. I needed a motorhome that was the right size and had the right layout. After spending a great deal of time visiting motorhome dealers and internet sites I made my choice. A  Hymer 584. I chose a second hand left hand drive model as I would be spending a great deal of time travelling around Europe. He is 13 years old, had one owner and has done 50,000 miles. I decided to call him Leftie on account of him being left hand drive and in memory of a dear friend who had a prosthetic left leg called Leftie. That brings things up to date. I retire in 27 days on my 65^th birthday and plan to start my travels early in April. I had thought about going to Scotland first but winter may still with us that far north so France will probably be my first adventure.