This genuinely was not the video we planned to make. The plan was simple: finish the last bits on the van, pack up, and head off to Europe for the summer. What actually happened was Lyndsay driving to Peterborough on a Saturday morning to hand in George’s passport at the passport office, while I stayed back at SMG having the final bits fitted to the van. Not exactly the send-off we imagined.
How We Ended Up in This Mess
Lyndsay is going to tell you this herself in the video, and honestly, she deserves huge credit for being so open about it. The last couple of years have been genuinely tough for her: losing her dad in difficult circumstances, then her grandma, and on top of all that going through perimenopause. She describes it as her brain simply not working properly, and she is not wrong. Plenty of women watching this will know exactly what she means. The upside is that she is feeling stronger and more like herself than she has in a long time. The downside is that earlier in the year, when she checked all the passports (yes, she does this, she is the organised one), her brain filed George’s expiry date under “November 2026, that’s next year, don’t worry about it.” Except November 2026 is not next year. It is this year. And George needs to be in school trip-ready shape just weeks after we get back from the summer.
She only spotted it the day before we were due to leave, while filling in a school form. It was a heart-sinking moment. She sat there running through every possible scenario: cut the trip short, delay the whole departure, have George fly home early with Harry. None of them were clean. In the end, the answer was to get to the passport office, hand it in, and hope it arrived before Sunday. A new child’s passport the normal way costs £65.50. The emergency version is £156.50. Ouch. And even on the emergency service, you are looking at a week for a child, not the 24-hour turnaround available for an adult. So fingers crossed was basically where we landed.
Meanwhile, Back at SMG
While Lyndsay was loitering in Peterborough trying not to arrive more than ten minutes early for her appointment (she arrived twenty minutes early, naturally, and had to go and find shade), I was getting the van properly sorted. The big one was the Teleco air conditioning unit fitted into the lower dash at the front. We already have one at the back, so now the whole van is covered. Mark at SMG did the install, and I will be honest, when they took the front bumper off and revealed the state of it behind there, it was genuinely grim. Dead flies, something that looked suspiciously like a hornet. Crikey.
But the result is brilliant. With both units running, I am pulling around 1,000 watts, which on a 5,000-watt inverter is absolutely no problem at all. Cold air is coming through into the front lounge area, and the rear unit has the back and kitchen covered. It is a proper game changer for hot nights off grid. I also had the skid wheels fitted on the back of the chassis. No drilling was required; the holes are already there on the Alco chassis, and they simply bolt straight in. I fitted them myself in about ten minutes. If I can do it, anyone can. A new Wolfbox dash cam mirror has gone in too, and I will give a proper verdict on that once I have had a few weeks with it.
So, Are We Going?
The van is packed. We are ready. Lyndsay had her night out with her best friend (well deserved, genuinely), and I had a very pleasant evening testing the air con. But as of filming, the passport has not arrived. We are due to go tomorrow. So you will have to tune in to find out whether it is the two of us heading to Europe, or the whole family. Fingers crossed for us.
Watch the video to see how Lyndsay’s passport office visit actually went, and drop us a comment if you have ever had a travel document nightmare of your own. We cannot be the only ones.
Watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP7TfP5U2fA