Lights off, spotlight on - Part 1

The year 2024 has so far brought us very few positive moments, and that’s why I have been looking forward to going on the trip crazily for weeks.

Attach Château Mistral, be on the road for four weeks, just following my nose without stress or rush, always holding onto the hope that the Kangoo brings us back home again.

But first, Zappa desperately needs a machine for the workshop, so why not combine a little test drive with the caravan to the beautiful Sauerland.

Near Brilon, we take a break. The sun is blazing in the sky, giving us a hot first September weekend with over 30°C. We find a spot with a view over the low mountain ranges and a refreshing breeze blows around our noses. Enjoying the panorama, we take a little walk to a huge hole where a lot of limestone is being mined.

After dinner, we want to continue our journey; we still have a few kilometers ahead of us. Just to be safe, we do another light check on the caravan. One can never know! And what should I tell you? The taillights of the Mistral do not light up on the right side. Good heavens!

Now and then the connection wobbles, usually caused by the caravan’s real jumps over potholes or bumps. Generally, this can be fixed by shaking and rattling the plug.

However, once that is done, the turn signals go haywire. The car blinks left, the caravan right. The right taillight continues to fail.

By now, darkness has fallen over us, and with non-functioning lighting, further travel is out of the question. Especially not with the crazy blinking light.

In the morning, Zappa wants to load the eagerly awaited machine and therefore checks the contacts on the plug and socket in the light of his phone flashlight. This very important accessory connects the electronics of the motor vehicle and caravan, which he painstakingly repaired last year under the watchful eyes of attentive neighbors at the old Château in France:

https://vakantio.de/chateaugeschichten/licht-aus-in-la-roche

Previously, we obtained the corresponding spare parts at Feu vert in Valence, and the French socket, which was no longer needed last year, is now being assembled on the Mistral during the night.

It is pitch dark, a few stars shine, the deepest darkness envelops us. Cables and plugs must be connected correctly in dim light: yellow into number 1, red into number 6, blue into number 2, and so on. A highly complicated science in itself.

After two hours of painstakingly small work, during which I observe and announce the barely visible changes in the lights at the rear of the vehicle, we change our plan.

Tomorrow morning we will drive the remaining distance to the destination only with the car. We will leave the caravan at the location, secured with a Quick-Lok lock, and return home with the machine on board to take the little trailer home.

At least the left taillight and both turn signals are working again – however, only both and at the same time.

The reason for this? It cannot be determined, all cables are intact, all connections have contact, no rust and no grime in the plug or socket. Zappa took precautions last year by using a lot of terminal grease at the crucial points.

No cause for the malfunction can be found. And whether this will be successful at home, the master does not know either.

It’s almost like a curse! Time and again, huge boulders lie in our travel path, so that we are incessantly forced to devise new plans.

For example, in the year when a drunk Ascension raider causes total damage to the red car, but Zappa transforms my sky-blue Twingo into a mobile home with a bulky waste cupboard and thus saves the vacation dreams at the last minute:

https://vakantio.de/chateaugeschichten/twingo-camping

Or when the clutch of the Kangoo stops functioning on the departure day at the intersection by the Braunschweig town hall, and the repair can only take place in three weeks, but thanks to great colleagues, we can postpone the departure and then head to Tuscany because all other reachable destinations are unreachable due to the pandemic:

https://vakantio.de/chateaugeschichten/wohin-soll-denn-die-reise-gehn

Or when the Kangoo timing belt ruins entire annual plans, but Zappa transforms my Pyrenean white Twingo with discarded cupboard doors from grandma Gisela’s bedroom into a mobile home and saves the vacation dreams at the last minute:

https://vakantio.de/chateaugeschichten/twingo-camping-20

And this time? The lighting system of the caravan fails just a few days before the trip starts. So does the little lock have to stay at home? How annoying!

Without the caravan, we must at least head to the Bardenas Reales, as we want to be on the move until October. I might check the ferry connections to Sardinia. Or perhaps the cruise?

The goal is, in any case, to relax in slow motion, not to gobble up kilometers, to dawdle slowly. And now?

When we return the next day after the successful machine mission to the Mistral, Zappa once again shakes and rattles all the cables. The plug on the car still needs to be assembled and is packed in a protective garbage bag. The hero lies down under the Kagoo and knocks, rattles, thumps, and taps all the impossible spots where a short circuit might be present. And he also resets the battery. This time completely for all batteries installed in the car.

And then something unbelievable happens: suddenly both turn signals blink properly and independently of each other, the taillights shine their brightest red in the bright sunshine, and the brake light illuminates properly. What happened? No idea, really.

I also don’t ask any further questions.

It’s unfortunate that Zappa has to reassemble the plug and socket correctly and professionally in the home yard, which he was forced to dismantle in darkness and nightshade. This will take at least a day. The weather frogs are croaking about continuous rain with a lot of water to come, which will delay the repair work and our departure.

Fortunately, they are wrong this time; I sneak off to work and am not in the way, and the hero restores everything to its best light, despite a cough and a cold.

Now nothing stands in the way of the much-anticipated tour.

Hopefully...