The Travels of Tel's Tin Tent.

[Airframes]

Thanks my friend.
The aches and pains from travelling are slowly easing, so should be more active tomorrow I hope.

 

[mikewint]

Surprised anything that big still has a manual transmission. 7 hours of manual clutching in stop and go traffic!!! Good Grief surprised you could still move at all. Here in the colonies manual transmissions are VERY difficult to still find and on most cars no longer even an option. That beast of mine with its 5.3 L Vortec V8 has an automatic transmission. My Saturn Sky is the only manual transmission left

 

[Crimea_River]

A tidy spot Terry.

 

[fubar57]

Agree with Andy. All it needs is a small river with 2lb. Rainbow trout and I could spend the rest of my life there

 

[Airframes]

Well Mike, my Tin Tent is thirty years and one week old !
That said, even today, auto on vans is not common here, and even cars, in the UK and a lot of Europe, are still predominantly manual.
To make things worse, the clutch pedal is very close to the steering column, meaning the foot has to be slightly angled out to miss the column, making it quite painful due to the RA, and more so when it's stop - start traffic for over 10 miles and two hours !!
My last two vehicles have been auto - Range Rover and Jeep Cherokee - which were great, although I prefer manual for off road use.

Now re-planned things, and will visit Thorpe Abbots and Tibenham on Wednesday, and maybe Knetishall, then move over to Leiston in Suffolk on Friday, with visits to at least Framlingham (and the Leiston site of course) over the weekend. If the weather stays reasonable, then I'll move on to Mildenhall and probably Lakenheath on Monday, with some 'modern' stuff to see (plus, of course, these were both WW2 RAF bases).

 

[Airframes]

Forgot to add - this is the campsite I first visited back in August 2016, just 300 yards from the village where I met Liz, sadly now passed on due to cancer.
And yes, there is a river, the Waveney, at the far end of the site, with a footbridge across it, leading to meadows. I believe there are trout, and other fishy thingies, in at least some areas of the river.
The campsite is just outside the village of Scole, roughly two miles east of Diss, on the Norfolk / Suffolk border, and about 19 miles south of Norwich, in a beautiful, and peaceful area. If I'm able to, I'll try to get some pics of some of the local villages and other sites of interest during my travels.
Sounds easy, but some of the roads and country lanes in this region are quite narrow, so stopping and / or finding a safe area to park can be hit or miss. Must have been really fun, in the blackout, without sign posts, during WW2, especially for the American forces stationed here !!

 

[mikewint]

my Tin Tent is thirty years and one week old !

Terry that is totally amazing. I would NEVER have believed that, it looks brand new. You did a fantastic job of maintenance.
A totally agree about manual and off-road. My Jeep Wrangler was 4-speed manual with the two speed transaxel. Both the Sky and Jeep were/are good on the highways, but PIAs in heavy stop and go situations. Shifting today is most confined to those POS paddle-shifters on the steering wheel.
Even many of the big diesel semis are going to automatic transmissions

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Mike.
The van was owned by the same person for the first 24 years of it's life, and obviously well cared for.
I've had it for just over four and a half years, and having got it cheap, I've slowly brought it back to good overall condition, replacing such items as door bottom panels, and the normal service items. The alternator, replaced last week, was the original item, as is the leisure battery, which also now needs renewing.
There are a few, minor, on-going cosmetic areas to keep on top of, but overall, it's in good condition, and drives well, with reasonable fuel consumption for a 30 year old, 2L, petrol engine vehicle weighing over 2.5 tons loaded. Actual fuel consumption on a steady run, at around 60 - 65 mph, is about 28 mpg, although I budget for an average of 24 mpg.
On the journey down here, I traveled 220 miles, with two hours of that in the 'stop - start' diversion, and used just under 9.5 Imperial gallons, so not bad, considering the extra fuel usage in those driving conditions.
The five speed box is a bit sloppy, mainly due to being changed to a floor gear lever for the UK right hand drive version, the original, French, left hand drive design being column change, but when in 5th gear, it pulls like an elephant, and cruises all day without effort, accelerating briskly from 60 mph to over 70 mph if needed, although over 80 mph it may need written warning to stop !
Of course, the maximum legal limit here is 70 mph, so I wouldn't know ...................cough !!

 

[mikewint]

Terry you really surprised me with your MPH and MPG usage as I thought that the UK had gone completely over to the Metric system. I was also surprised by the UK's 70mph speed limit which is the same as our interstate speed limit (outside of cities anyway) in most states. Your 28mpg also surprised me as that would be excellent mileage for a small car here in the states. Then I occurred to me that your G is the Imperial Gallon which is 1.20 times larger than the US gallon: 4.546L as opposed to 3.785. So in US terms your mpg drops to 23.3mpg which is still excellent mileage. Now that floor shiftier AND having to drive on the wrongside of the vehicle would be a PIA.
And a 2L engine!!! My little Sky has a 2L 4-cylinder engine and my motorcycle has a 2L 2-cylinder. The old Goldwing had an 1.8L 6-cylinder engine amazing

 

[Gnomey]

Nice campsite you found Terry!

 

[Capt. Vick]

Lovely

 

[Wayne Little]

great campsite Terry.

Even though Metric is the going thing here, in my line of work they are still both in use....I still revert back to imperial measurements a lot......usually to mess with the younger generation...

 

[Airframes]

Yep, it's a strange mix of Metric and Imperial here.
Fuel is measured and sold in liters, but most people still measure miles per gallon, and miles per hour. Road signs for speed limits are in mph, and distances are in miles, but warning signs for junctions are in meters !
Fluids in shops , eg milk, soft drinks and beers, wines and spirits, are sold in metric measures, but in pubs, beer is still sold in pints !
I mainly use Imperial measurement for road distances,and measuring, for example, the size of a room and so on, but for measuring / estimating distance for photos (or shooting), it's metric, as is smaller, more precise measurement for modelling !!
The one that really puzzles me is the way the capacity of a bag is now presented, for example, a rucksack, which is now in liters, rather than cubic feet !!!
I can visualise the size and capacity of a bag in cubic feet, but not in liters - unless I was maybe able to guess how much beer the bag could hold, and then convert that to gallons !!

Anyway, I'm having a lazy time here on the campsite, with reasonable, fine weather. I've just about recovered from the stiffness and pain of Saturday's drive,having been rather tired and somewhat weary, and will be heading out tomorrow, to visit Thorpe Abbots, once home to the 'Bloody 100th' Bomb Group and, if access is possible, also visit Tibenham. Part of this airfield (the accessible parts) are used by a gliding club, and although open on weekends, I'm not sure if the gates will be open during weekdays, so I may not be able to get onto the airfield itself, but we'll see.
So now I'm about to fire up the 'barbie', have lunch, and maybe beer or two ..... or three - but that's an odd number, so better make it equal and have four - and relax and browse through my reference books.

Back sometime soon, and for all you people who have to work during the day - retirement is marvelous !!!

 

[Crimea_River]

Glad you are having some good down time Terry.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Andy.

 

[Wayne Little]

Sounds....relaxing...

 

[mikewint]

all you people who have to work during the day - retirement is marvelous !!!

OH YEA!!!! My only clock has a single hand that points to: Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - . . . .

Time to Edumycate Terry, A LITER is a cubic DECIMETER, i.e. A box ONE Decimeter by ONE Decimeter by ONE decimeter. A DECI- is of course 1/10 of something so 1/10 of a meter or in Ye Olde Englisher System 0.33 feet which is 4 inches. So me friend a box 4 inches by 4 inches by 4 inches is a LITER.
So ONE Cubic Foot of volume is 28 Liters.

 

[Airframes]

Now I'm really b*lloxed !
If a bag looks big enough to get all my stuff in it, then it'll do, liters or no liters, and decimeters can go stuff !
Why measure the volume of a bag in a liquid measure - darned EU again !!!

Anyway, had a great day out at Thorpe Abbotts, former home of the 100th Bomb Group, with a superb museum in the restored control tower and nissen huts etc. (pics on my return) .Beautiful warm, sunny day, and friendly and helpful volunteer staff. Entry is free, but I gave a £10 donation, and bought their video, which I'll watch tonight.
Just had a small deer (muntjack, I think) wander nonchalantly past my van on the campsite, just ten feet away - wasn't quick enough to grab the camera, but got a couple of pheasant, eyeing me warily.
Feet and ankles ache a bit now, after walking around the museum site, and climbing the steep steps to the control tower roof, so going to have a bottle or two of Czech pain killer, relax and watch the video.

 

[Airframes]

A few pics from today. These were taken with my little Fuji digital compact camera ("proper" shots on the Nikon DSLRs ), and the shutter button is a little too 'stiff' for my knackered fingers, hence the poor quality due to slight camera shake.

Pic 1. A "taster" from Thorpe Abbotts, showing the front of the restored control tower.
Pic 2. Back on the campsite after a warm day, with the 'barbie' underway.
Pic 3. Czech painkiller !!
Pic 4. Settling down for the night.
Pic 5. Home from home, and planning the next routes.
Pic 6. Tonight's viewing - the DVD from the museum, which has some great archive footage from the 100th BG, colour and B&W.

 

[Wurger]