Days 25–42: The Road Doesn’t Always Go to Plan

When I arrived in Taunton, I expected to be there for a few days.

It didn't quite work out that way.

If that sounds like the beginning of a complaint about Taunton, it isn't. Quite the opposite.

I wrote in my last blog about arriving with a piano that needed repairing, a van that had developed another problem and, after everything that had happened in Sidmouth, a head that was finally beginning to feel like it was in a better place.

What I didn't know was just how long it was going to take to get all of those moving parts moving again.

The people of Taunton never disappointed me.

Between the heat and everything happening with the van, I only managed to busk on five days while I was there. Every time I did, the welcome was the same. Businesses came out to introduce themselves, people stopped to talk, coffees appeared and complete strangers asked about the journey and PianoMission.

On my final day, I finally busked the market. After some of the experiences I've written about recently, another market could probably have gone either way.

I needn't have worried.

The stallholders were entirely in keeping with everything else I'd learned about Taunton: kind, welcoming and happy to have me there.

The frustrating part of my time in Taunton had almost nothing to do with the town.

It was the van.

We knew when we arrived that it needed attention, and initially we thought we'd found someone who could sort it. A mechanic came out, looked at the van and said he could do the work.

Brilliant. Problem solved.

Except it wasn't.

For the next five days, we were repeatedly told he would come the following day. Tomorrow became another tomorrow, and then another, until eventually he told us he'd run into problems and wouldn't be able to do the work.

He passed us to another mechanic who said he would come on Tuesday.

We never heard from him again.

Thankfully, Yorkie doesn't really believe in having only one plan.

As a contingency, she had already found a garage willing to take the van on Sunday evening and assess it first thing Monday morning. They knew the van was my home and that while they had it, I'd need to pay for somewhere else to stay. So I booked an Airbnb, dropped the van off on Sunday night and expected to know what we were dealing with on Monday.

Monday came and I was told they were getting to it next. Later that became later in the afternoon. Then it became the following morning.

Tuesday came and much the same thing happened.

By Wednesday, the van had been sitting there for three days and nobody had assessed it.

There is probably a lesson in all of this that applies to considerably more than mechanics.

Do what you say you're going to do.

Things go wrong. Jobs run over. People get sick. Parts don't arrive. Plans change. If anyone understands that by now, it's us.

What becomes difficult is when somebody repeatedly makes a commitment they can't keep without simply telling you that.

Every "I'll be there tomorrow" affects somebody else's decisions. Every "you're next" causes somebody to wait instead of looking for another solution. In our case, it meant additional nights paying for somewhere to sleep while my actual home sat in a workshop waiting for somebody to look at it.

By Tuesday evening, we were already working on another contingency and found someone else.

On Wednesday, I went back and collected the van. When I arrived, I was asked what was actually wrong with it.

Unfortunately, that was the question we'd taken it there on Sunday for them to answer.

On Thursday, we took it to the new mechanic.

And finally, the van was worked on.

It isn't completely finished. There is oil contamination in the coolant system, so we still need to arrange a chemical flush further along the route. Rather than stop again and hope somebody can fit us in, we'll find a garage ahead of us, book it in advance and make it part of the route.

For now, though, the van is running well enough to get us safely from point to point.

And that means I can move again.

There was another change during our time in Taunton too.

Shortly after we arrived, our support driver left the project. There's no great story I need to tell about that. Sometimes things don't work out, people move in different directions and that's life. I genuinely wish him well.

Fortunately, within a day we had somebody else willing to step in. He's someone I've spoken to about the role for quite a long time, so he wasn't completely new to me or to the idea of what this journey involves.

The dogs approved almost immediately, which is probably the most important interview anyone joining this team will ever have to pass.

I feel relaxed with him here. The dogs clearly do too, and I know it's made an enormous difference for Yorkie. There are more moving parts behind this journey than most people will ever see, and she coordinates an extraordinary amount of it from thousands of miles away. Having another person on the ground who understands that his job is about considerably more than simply driving the van means she finally has someone here who can share some of that load.

For the first time in a while, it feels like there's another person properly inside the operation rather than standing alongside it.

That matters.

And perhaps that's another version of the lesson Taunton gave me.

You don't need people to promise you the world. You need people who do what they say they're going to do.

Being in one place for longer than expected wasn't part of the plan. The heat kept me away from the piano on more days than I would have liked, and the van kept us stationary far longer than either of us expected.

But standing still didn't mean nothing was happening.

The piano was repaired. We found a new driver. We solved enough of the van problems to keep moving. I had five good days behind the piano and met another community that reminded me why I love this profession.

Yorkie and I also learned a few more things about what, and who, we need around us if we're going to keep this journey moving over the months ahead.

Eventually, the wheels finally turned again.

And this time, everything came with me.

The van made it. The VOK made it. The piano made it. The dogs made it. We've all arrived safely in Bridgwater, and I can't tell you how good it felt to finally have somewhere new in front of me again.

There is still work to do on the van, and we'll get that scheduled somewhere further along the route. For now, though, it can support the journey again, and that means I can keep moving.

Yesterday was Day 42, and I spent it doing exactly what I'd been looking forward to doing, busking Bridgwater.

I'll save that story for the next blog, because Taunton deserves to end where it actually ended, with us finally back on the road.

The road doesn't always go to plan. I'm beginning to think this one rarely will.

But we're moving again.

And right now, that's more than enough.

— James

Day 42
Taunton to Bridgwater
Miles travelled: 10.95
Average speed: 14.1 mph
Elevation gain: 368 ft
Elevation loss: 383 ft
Locations busked: 2 — Taunton & Bridgwater

Journey Total
Total miles travelled: 261.2
Total locations busked: 13