We travel to Connie's

Once again we have achieved the minor miracle which is moving ourselves a fifth of the way round the globe without mishap or disaster. We made very connection with the minimum of hassle. I am constantly amazed that the four big engines on the 747 can work constantly for 9 hours without a single falter (they can’t misfire).

For those who are sad enough to like the details of journeys and for our own records the following is a description of our journey. For those not so afflicted they may pass on to the lower part of the page.

You can skip from here……………….

A rare experience for us is to travel through Middlesbrough by taxi. Fortunately we gave ourselves half an hour to travel the mile and a half to the station, since the driver told us a) that the would take the quick route through the town, using the bus lanes and then 10 minutes and three quarters of a mile later, that b) he normally worked in Thornaby. Our journey of no more that 7 minutes took him nearly 20!!!! However we arrived on the platform as the train pulled in. The train journey went very smoothly, the only hiccup being that because of signal failure the train terminated at Manchester Piccadilly. However we only had to get off the train and move to the other side of the platform to catch a connecting train to the airport. A quick call summoned the Hilton’s shuttle bus, which transported us the estimated 100m (as the crow flies) to the hotel and we were safely installed in an upgraded ‘deluxe room’ (no provision for disabled access room, even though it was on the booking form). Because they never have anywhere comfortable to lounge I like a couple of extra pillows and because Sally doesn’t like to feel left out she has a couple as well, so I returned to the front desk to ask for four extra pillows, “That would be fine Sir” the lady said with a refined, but definitely Latvian accent. About an hour later a knock at the door and a slightly confused housekeeper brought two more pillows. She gave them to us and made a move for the bed and started to pickup our pillows, saying something in a definitely unrefined Polish accent “ Ghare R you pheorm pelos”. At this point confusion reigned as I was not about to give up my pillows because this lady could not count. Clarity arrived through repetition as she eventually made clear these were foam pillows. She thought we wanted hypoallergenic foam pillows, so was replacing our pillows with foam pillows. To be replaced by eye popping expressions of disbelief that we would want four pillows each! Fortunately Sally said that she would be happy without any extra and every thing was sorted (except of course Sally stole one of my pillows, not that I would complain about that).

That evening we splashed out on the three course set menu in the Hilton’s restaurant and justified it as being Sally’s Birthday Meal! It was very nice, Sally had a char grilled chicken salad followed by Salmon with new potatoes and green beans and finished with fresh fruit salad. I had mussels in lemongrass and chilli cream sauce, followed by rump of lamb pan fried with chips and a jus, with green beans. I finished off with a lemon tart and cream. Overall it was a very enjoyable, well presented and tasty meal, leaving us feeling pleasantly full.

We woke early and unfortunately could not do justice to the breakfast buffet, though we did our best. The shuttle delivered us to the Terminal, there was no line for the bag drop – straight through, the aircraft boarded early, there were plenty of spare seats on the plane (unusual) and a favourable route delivered us to Orlando airport 30 minutes early. A slight hesitation on our smooth passage was the immigration officer! She had been annoyed by another employee who had ushered us to her desk before and American Resident (two different lines)! So she relieved her annoyance be giving us the third degree on why we wanted to be here, why I had a visa but Sally didn’t, why I had a visa, full stop, how much cash we had, etc. very petty, but after reading all the small print on our passports very closely, she allowed us to enter the nation proud of it’s freedom. A rapid transit through the airport followed by a short taxi dirve (which didn’t stop it costing $45) to the premises of Cruise America. A quick walk around our RV, which is adequate, though basic and looks t be about 5 years old and held together with duck tape, and we were underway. One minor slip of direction (going the wrong way on the Expressway) meant half an hour extra on our journey time and we arrived at Connie and Jim’ just in time to get parked up in our usual spot before it got dark.

…………..To Here

As we drove up Connie and Jim’s drive we could see that about a dozen RV’s were already here and when we pulled up at the Pole Barn we got a very warm reception from everyone and within seconds felt we had never been away.

Kathy and Jim have been wonderful and loaned us a whole heap of stuff like cutlery, bedding and Jim has even loaned me a coffee maker. I left Sally to unpack the cases into the cupboards and drawers on the RV, while I went and had a short jam session in the Pole Barn.

As we crawl into our bed in our little RV we give thanks once again that we have arrived safely on the start of our next adventure.

My Cooliris Wall

The Waiting

The list is progressively getting shorter as we slowly do all the things on it and then tick them off. We have sorted insurance, printed off all the tickets and bookings, done last minute shopping, cleaned the house, done washing, tidied the garden, loaded up our English caravan with the bedding etc. after it was emptied for the winter, done the list of birthdays and made sure we have all the addresses, put checks in the bank and Sally's had her hair done (thanks girls) and is trying to catch Terry to do his!!

There are still a few things to do, but we are well on target.This is good, as this means that we can rest in between doing things as we are both still trying to recover from various viruses we have had.

We have had to load up our caravan before we go to the USA as we plan to take it away a couple of days after we return home so we can camp with our friends from the Ridings Folk Group for summer half term week. Trying to load up when jet lagged is not a good idea so we have got it done, ready just to put our food and clothes in it and set off. We can sleep when we get there!!

Why do you always lose something that you need? I cannot find a folder which contains all my songs and music and Terry cannot find the English dongle to connect the laptop to the internet. We have looked everywhere, but I'm sure they are in the cavernous region of the GARAGE - where most things not in use are stored! We even checked the caravan to see if we left them there. No joy!! So today, I'm having to make a new music folder.

We are beginning to get excited and are really looking forward to some warm weather. The temperature in Orlando is around about the 80's F - lovely!!! It's really cold here today - the sort where you need gloves, scarves, thick coats, hats and thermals! But the garden is already beginning to bloom and grow. The crocuses are out in all their glory and the miniature daffodils are budding. The bushes are all sending out new shoots and the heather is in full flower. Very nice to see this after such a long, cold and dark winter.

The Preparations

Getting ready, DepartureWith only 8 days before we leave home, things are hotting up. We have a long list of things to do and are slowly working our way through them.

We have been a bit hampered because we both caught a virulent sickness bug while spending time with our whole family last week. Andrew and family flew over from Guernsey and we all stayed with our eldest son in Derby. It's the first time that our three children, wives and partners and grandchildren have been with us altogether for over a year. We had a very enjoyable time despite the bug affecting 5 of us and the flights being cancelled both ways, due to fog, for the Guernsey family. Being ill delayed our return home by a couple of days and neither of us are on top form.

We have travel insurance to renew and a myriad of other little things to do. Most of the shopping has been done and lists prepared. The tickets and bookings done on line need printing out. We need to call Connie and Jim and Jim and Kathy and also contact Charles in Dallas to let him know when we will be there to pick up our trailer. He has offered to show us the local sights in and around Dallas/Fort Worth. Exciting!!

We have a few appointments this week and Sally is catching up with friends to say goodbye for three months. We are glad our daughter, Helen, is staying at home to keep an eye on the place , sort out our mail, and prepare for any viewings on the house. We have had 4 offers on the house since it went up for sale but none of them have been enough to tempt us to sell. Fingers crossed the right person will come along and offer us a sensible amount instead of the very low amounts so far!! We had another viewing last evening but they still have their house to sell, so no joy there!

We are really looking forward to catching up with friends, making new ones and doing some sightseeing while travelling.

The Plan

The itinery for our trip[ is starting to come to gether.
We will spend a week in Florida, then 5 days in Dallas sorting the trailer and see the area.
We go North to Oklahoma City the follow Route 66 to Amarillo.
We then head south into New Mexico, to visit Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands, then north again to see the Santa Fe area. By then it should be about April 5th. After spending time there we plan to do a whole host of things in The Four Corners Area from about the 16th April. Driving back Southwards we will probably spend Easter in the Flagstaff area, near the Grand Canyon.
After that we drive to Phoenix then on to the West Coast to fly back on 24th May from Los Angeles.

First Steps

So on the morning after The Pittsburgh Steelers gave away a Superbowl win our thoughts turn again to a vacation in America.
We are now just four weeks away from leaving England.
We are experimenting with a different mode of travel in UK. We will travel by train to Manchester and leave the car at home!
This is because when we return in May we are flying from Los Angeles into Heathrow Airport, London and will then also travel home by train.
We are really looking forward to this part of our Road Trip as we are returning to the 'Big Country' of South Western U.S.A. to see all those wonderful natural features that are so fascinating.
At the moment though all is gloom in Dallas, not just because of the Superbowl, but the weather is really cold. It has been down at about 12 degrees F and is forcast to hit 9 degrees F on Wednesday. I am glad that we winterised the trailer before we left. The forecast mentioned 'ice pellets'! I dread to think what they are and can only hope that they do not dent the roof of the truck. I also realise that we left some bottles of drinking water in the truck, I am pretty certain that they will not break if frozen, but you cannot tell. Still we can do very little about it until we return there in five weeks.
Most of the essential bookings have been made and Sally is now starting to tick off lists of things we will take with us.

Home and getting ready for Christmas

We had a very good flight back from Orlando to Manchester - only just over 7 hours - and were only a half hour late arriving 8am. The delay was due to a couple who didn't board the plane in time and their luggage was taken off.

We were amazed to see the amount of snow and ice lying on the ground - they had had over two feet of snow which is very unusual - especially in November in the UK. Fortunately, the main roads were clear and we had a good run over the highest motorway in England, getting home around lunch time. Our street was lethal - like a skating rink with very deep snow and ice, so Terry was very careful in negotiating the front so we could unload our luggage and then taking the car round the back alley to put it in the garage. It has been very cold too, but the temperature has eased up the last couple of days and most of the snow has melted. There are still patches of ice on the side roads and the pavements and walking out is treacherous . We have seen a lot of damage to roofs and gutters as the weight of the ice was quite considerable. We seem to be OK. The cold weather is due back later this week, so we may yet get a White Christmas.

We have been busy doing last minute shopping and posting cards and all the usual hoy palloy in the run up to Christmas. We are off to Derby for Christmas and then Terry and I are flying to Guernsey for New Year. Cannot wait to see all the grandchildren.

Terry has already booked our flights for the next visit to the USA - flying into Orlando on the 8th March ( we WILL be at Jim and Connie's Party - whoo hoo) and then onto Dallas on the 14th March to pick up the trailer. We will return directly from Los Angeles on the 24th May as this time as we really are heading west.

Looking back over this last trip, we have had another amazing time. We have travelled a total of 3,700 miles in the truck, 1815 miles with the trailer in tow and flown approximately 11,00 miles. We have met up and spent quality time with some of our friends and met and made some new friends. Our address book is getting quite full. We have sampled and enjoyed Cajun food, - gumbo, jambalaya, etoufee, boudin - Mexican food and Texan steaks. We have eaten lots of shrimp and Terry learnt how to prepare and cook shrimp from our expert friends. We have learnt about Cajun, Arcadian, Mexican and Texan cultures and music. We visited two State Capitol buildings and learnt about politics in Louisiana and Texas. We have seen the country changing from the wetlands and sand of Florida through the swamps and prairie lands of Louisiana, the beautiful coastal area of southern Texas to the drier hill area further north in Texas. All beautiful in their own way. We have seen fossilised dinosaur tracks, Spanish Missions, the Alamo, beautiful plantation houses, lovely rivers, sweeping plains and rolling hills, lively cities like New Orleans, Austin, Baton Rouge, San Antonio and Dallas and enjoyed some wild country in the depths of Louisiana and Texas. We have seen coyotes, snakes, raccoons, deer, opossum, armadillos, and myriads of birds from pelicans to cardinals, from hawks to eagles.

Our love of America and American people just grows with each venture into the New World.

Homeward Bound

Well, we are sitting in Orlando airport waiting to catch our flight back to the UK. We flew from Dallas Fort Worth airport to Orlando this morning after putting the trailer and truck into storage yesterday. We spent a night in a motel near the airport so we could catch the early flight to leave us plenty of time in Orlando. There is a big freeze on here in the USA, so we were glad to find out that all our flights have not been affected and we should be OK to get back to the UK. What we'll find when we get home us another thing - been freezing there for the last week. Will our car start, will the roads be clear - fingers crossed!!
The last 5 days have been taken up with slowly getting our rig ready for storage. Washing everything in sight, cleaning all within an inch of it's life, draining water systems, packing all linens in vacuum bags etc. etc. It's also been very cold, so we have been unable to wash and dry things which will not go in the tumble drier - will have to do them when we next get back. Anyway - we managed to get everything done and leave for Dallas at the time we wanted.
We have had such a great time here and cannot wait to get back again. We plan to return in March - fingers crossed. Sally

Ray Roberts Lake

Today we have moved on to our last campground for this trip. It is a State Park beside a huge reservoir – they say it is 30000 acres, which is 46 sq. miles. A large part of the 118 mile journey was spent in going round the outside of Fort Worth, which is a large conurbation. We decided to stop en route for lunch, rather than making a packed lunch and then cooking in the evening. Since we did not know the area when we thought it was about time for lunch we just pulled off into a town area and looked. We saw a sign which said Café, great, so we pulled up and went in, only to find that it was a Mexican Restaurant. What the hang, we had never eatn proper Mexican, as Sally was bothered that everything would be too spicey, also that everything seemed to have wheat or corn in it (fajita, burrito, enchilada, tortilla, etc.), however we were pleasantly surprised that we were able to find some great food there.

We arrived at Ray Roberts Lake and have a great campsite almost beside the lake and this evening we sat and watched a massive red sunset as the sun went down over the lake. It was very beautiful.

The Lost World of Dinosaur Valley

Wednesday we set out bright and early to take the road to another world. The Lost World of The Dinosaurs. Yes we were going to stay at Dinosuar Valley State Park.

We had a good journey, using mostly back roads, which though only two lane were very straight and fast. We travelled through the Hill Country to the north of Austin. Worth mentioning is that when we passed through Hamilton we passed a cemetery and Sally had to do a double take as she saw a sign over a gravestone which said ‘Billy the Kid is Buried Here’. Sure enough this is where Billy the Kid is buried, but we didn’t get a picture of it.

We arrived at Dinosaur Valley State Park and were set up by 3.00, so set out to investigate what the place was about. The Paluxy river is a small (15m across) river that flows in a deep gully through the park. Along the banks on either side a hard layer of limestone is exposed, providing a flat shelf of rock, in which we should be able to find dinosaur footprints. We climbed down into the gully and used giant stepping stones to cross the river. There we found our first footprints, we could see them in the bottom of a small pool of water, clearly an elongated foot with three toes. We moved on and there, under the lee of the wall of the gully was a large flat area of rock, covered with footprints. The three toed clawed feet were the easiest to see, but then we picked out big round impressions in the rock. As we moved round we could see other tracks, clearly there were four impressions showing that the animals had been walking. The footprints are huge and of two different dinosaurs. One is a large, plant eating monster, with feet shaped like an elephant’s feet, but larger, these are the footprints of a sauropod, most likely the Paluxysaurus Jonesi.

The other footprints are of a 3 toed carnivore. We could see it was a carnivore as each toe ended in a huge curved claw, leaving marks in the rock 4 inches long. The footprint impressions were made some 110 million years ago, when what is now hard limestone was a hard, shelly clay, a bit like playdo. Most likely it formed the bottom of a shallow lake or estuary as once the mud had been stepped in it was never disturbed again, but covered over by more layers of shells and mud. Over millions of years the lime/clay became hard, but the layers above stayed soft and shaley. When the river eroded down to the soft shale it was easily washed away, leaving the hard limestone exposed, complete with its fabulous footprints.

Finding these dinosaur footprints was amazing. It was something I read about as a child. The whole afternoon had a air of Jurassic Park about it. To be actually treading here dinosaurs walked was very exciting. To be doing it in this beautiful river setting made it even more of an adventure.