Our bosses, Hilary & Tony Self, set off for the States last Tuesday for their second trip this year, which will last six weeks and take in three shows and the NASC conference in New Orleans.  Hilary has said she will send us regular news items, a sort of blog-within-a blog!

Here is Hilary Herb's first blog.

March 16th /17th

Hi folks thought I would try and do a bit each day while were on the road.  Arrived safely and travelled down to Warminster so didn't feel too far from home, except this was Warminster Pennsylvania, not Wilts!  Next day drove to Doylestown where we were due to collect the truck from the dealers. All fine so far!

As usual things didn't go quite according to plan and everything took a lot longer than expected. We were due to be leaving Doylestown by about 2pm to start our journey down to South Virginia, where we are picking up the fifth wheel 'toy hauler' (this is a trailer that has accommodation and a 'garage' area that will carry all our stock for doing the shows - pics to come).  However 10 pm we were still in Doylestown, having spent most of the day trying to find an adaptor for the tow hitch on the truck, we needed this to be able to hitch up the U-Haul trailer we need to take all the show equipment down to put in the toy hauler when we pick it up. However the day was saved for Tony when I told him I had overheard a couple of guys in the U-Haul shop talking about our truck which was parked outside, saying that his Ford 550 Dually Pick Up was (and I quote) "one bad- assed Truck"!

The 'bad-assed' truck!

Finished the day in Costco, a sort of mega US cash-and-carry, which was like an Aladdin's cave. Could have spent hours there, of course this was no pleasure for me (!!!)  we were just getting the essentials for the RV so that Heather has sheets and pillows to sleep on when she comes out to join us in April, to help run our stand at the Rolex 3 Day Event in Lexington, Kentucky.  Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Anyway must get on the road there are a whole lot of adventures still to come I'm sure!

truck and 'toy hauler'

Driving south