Friday - I do like to be beside the seaside

Visitors (yes, visitors) to the van reduced blogging time yesterday so a double dose today - here's part 1Friday: Glenrothes to Stonehaven, via Perth, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose, an outdoor clothing factory shop and a phone box library. Stop one, the Keela outdoor factory shop in Glenrothes. A proper factory shop, the sort you have to ring a bell to get someone to open the door because serving customers is not their prime role. Lots of sale items and some at crazy bargain prices, we bought base layer tops each and I picked up another pair of trousers, all in the crazy price range.Then on to the small village of Kinnesswood which hosts the only phone box library in Scotland that Liz has been able to find. Books appropriately swapped .
Next plan is to nip round the larger cities of Perth and Dundee to go and eat Arbroath Smokies in Arbroath itself. But it's just too cold, so a quick walk round town and pop into a charity shop to buy a couple of mugs so we can offer tonight's guests a cuppa. We travel so light that we just realised we don't even have the facilities to offer basic hospitality. Fortunately the Sally Ann shop has two nice matching mugs. Since we didn't stop long in Arbroath we're ahead of schedule and do a similar whistle stop tour of Montrose. Highlight there was the 10 minute conversation in the car park with a lady who liked the van and wanted to know more. That happens a lot! The coastal route has been pleasant enough but, to be honest we're glad to get to Stonehaven campsite late afternoon and chill for a little while before our guests arrive. Guests being Bob and Jackie from just north of Aberdeen who are contemplating a Romahome but had never seen one in the flesh. Well when we set this up they hadn't, but in the 4 weeks we've been in the road they did go to view, with intention of purchasing a van a little way a way. They, probably wisely, backed off when they realised it had suffered collision damage and the fibreglass had been repaired  So they thought it would be worthwhile coming and seeing us and how we were managing in the van, what changes we'd made etc. I do hope that got value out of the visit, particularly since Bob arrived and presented us with a packet of locally made shortbread. A very generous gesture I thought, but then from behind his back he flourished a bottle of single malt, distilled in their home village. Very generous indeed! They were lovely people and it looks like Jackie had already fallen in love with the cute charm of the Romahome and I think Bob was impressed with the tardis nature of the van. After their generous gifts I really do hope we were able to help in their decision process. Buying a van is generally the second most expensive thing in your life and is consequently quite a tough decision.And after all that they didn't want a cuppa, so our new guest mugs are still unused