To Dallas

On Monday morning, minute by minute precision planning took over and we swung into action. We had to leave at 9.00, to return the RV by 11.00 (we arrived at 10.45). Having spent $45 on a taxi to the RV rental the previous Tuesday we had decided to rent a car for the day, so we were then collected by the Budget Rental driver and taken to collect our Budget Rental Car. Because of the late notice, I had to rent the car for 8 days in order for the Budget Computer to think we were worthwhile bothering with (it is spring Break and a lot of cars are already hired out). This meant that we had to return it early, like by about 7 ½ days, still it worked out OK. As we had about 5 hours to kill we went up to Downtown Orlando, as we had never been there. We found a lovely park and a historic district to have our lunch in, then we went for a wander round the Florida Mall, avoiding all the temptations (apart from a Goodie with our tea and coffee in Panera Bread) . We then drove the 15 minutes to the airport, dropped the car, did a Bag Drop, had some tea and arrived at the gate just in time to go straight onto the plane. The plane was more than on time – it landed 20 minutes early. We took the shuttle to the car rental, picked up the car. Interestingly using the Fastbreak programme with Budget the guy at the desk swiped my card and then said to choose any car in section 1 of the car park, which gave a choice of about 5 different compact cars; we chose a Nissan. We arrived at the Motel 6 by about 10.20 and flaked out. Next day we jumped up early and drove north to Sanger, where the trailer was stored. Lo and behold, the trailer was clean and bug free and the Chevy started first time. Having read the small print on the budget rental car we find that Sally can drive it at no extra cost, so Sally drove the car and I drove the Chevy and we returned the hire car. We then drove back south to the Corps of Engineer lakeside campsite at Hickory Creek Campground near Lewisville that I had booked a couple of weeks ago.

This evening we went out for our first Steak of the trip at the Texas Cattle and Land Roadhouse Grill. It was excellent. We also had a great conversation with our waitress, Stephanie, who had just returned from a 6 months tour of Europe.

Party Party Party

Inevitably communications with the rest of the world ceased for the weekend, as we have done nothing but eat, play bluegrass, eat, talk with our friends, eat and laugh.

It has been a wonderful weekend, one of the best that Connie has orchestrated. Only the very cold nights were able to put a stop to the jamming.

I had a great time with the band scramble, as I was fortunate to be with a group of really great musicians, so we had some really good ‘instant music’. Well done to Jan and Marilee for organising the Band Scramble so efficiently.

Saturday afternoon and evening saw the concerts by regular bands, again I was really honoured that a band called the Haines City Good Old Boys asked me to join them on stage for a great set.

The highlight though of the evening was the performance by the ‘Hideaway Hooters’, a relatively unknown (thank goodness) group of swinging girls(?) who move everything in an effort to please their audience. Somehow Connie had persuaded some of the men to dress provocatively as women and sing for us. It was a hilarious performance. Connie thinks that there may well have been 500 people for the pot luck supper on Saturday.

Sunday: in the Gospel hour Sally and I had the chance to sing our latest song, In Times Like these. A very simple song which was well appreciated by the group gathered there.

All things must come to an end and through Sunday afternoon people packed up and left, we again had to say farewell to friends old and new. We ourselves stayed over until Monday morning.

Thursday

Things are really winding up now. There is a team of cooks who help Connie to prepare food and they have been bustling round all day, making pies (chocolate, banana cream, lemon meranguie), soup (any dish vaguely damp is pronounced ‘soup’ in America, from chilli to goulash to clam chowder, this happened to be goulash) in 5 gallon boilers and enough macaroni cheese to feed an army. Lots of signs have gone up, the registration tent is now active and the sound system has been put in place. We awaited the arrival of Don and Sandy and they turned up just after 12.00, having set out at 6.30 from West Palm Beach. Meanwhile the music has started, Sally and I practiced for an hour, trying to make up for 6 months of doing nothing. There was one big jam session in the evening, which moved further and further into the Pole barn as the evening got progressively colder, finally ending up in the food store, which was delightfully warm from all the fridges in there. I bowed out at 12.55, which in jet lag terms was 5.55 a.m. U.K. time. Sally made the sensible decision and went to bed at about 10.00. Really good fun though.

Wednesday

Today was a good day to visit Walmart.

Our Friends Jim and Kath took us to the Oxford Landing Walmart so that we could stock up on goodies for the week we are in Florida. Oxford Landing serves The Villages, which is a massive development for the over fifties (more than 100,000 people). Without her electric wheelchair Sally is dependant on using one of their handicapped electric carts(scooters). While waiting, I idly asked how many carts they have. He told me he has 35 for the one Walmart store! He also thinks that is the largest number of electric carts in any store in the country. That is a piece of trivia that you may want to drop into the conversation at your next dinner party.

Today is Oakwood day, 30 of us went to the local Pork Rib Joint restaurant for dinner. Sally and I each had a very nice full rack of pork ribs (half of which is now residing in our fridge for lunch tomorrow).

As I sit here now a storm has been blowing up, we have had to take down other sides of Jim’s marquees and store all the plastic chairs out of the wind, now the rain is starting.

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.