Christmas Day 2010

In the end our Christmas day was much like any other year…

phone calls to absent loved ones, too much food, drink and sunshine : )

Cup of tea, presents opening in bed, a walk around the lake,









detour to the local church,









Christmas dinner, odd glass of champagne.



We watched the sun go down with the Christmas tree slowly taking on the role of providing the warm glow. Then a bit of a picky tapas tea and that carefully selected DVD – Inception. It was excellent – one that we need to watch twice… just as well as we don’t have that many and there is only so much Mexican radio anyone can take.

Then bed listening to the fireworks (Mexicans across the border we assume)





Christmas – DONE!

Thank you for your Christmas greetings and messages. It was great to get so many emails and to speak to the children (bless ‘em) and family.

We are thinking about you all at this special time.

On the 27th we go further north (Garner State Park, Cocan, Texas) and then on the 29th off west to Seminole Canyon State Park (Constock, Texas) for the New Year including a tour of the renowned? Fate Bell Shelter - ancient Indian pictographs (cave paintings to us).

Jan 2nd 2011!! will see us venture into the mountains (Big Bend National Park, Fort Davis, Guadalupe NP etc) and a rather cold awakening we think – jeans and socks are washed and ready.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Den and Jane X

Our Christmas Day 2010 ?

**** MERRY CHRISTMAS ***
and a HAPPY NEW YEAR ***

So you have the turkey, telly (Strictly Special – damn!) and that old Bond movie to watch in front of a warm fire with a few flurries of snow to help complete a picture postcard Christmas. Our Christmas is likely to be a bit unconventional this year – but to give you an idea of our options for the festive period...
Watch the sun go down – again!

Decide if it is shorts or jeans and socks… only joking it’s ALWAYS shorts : )

Look at the picture of when we met the Queen on her visit to the US

Get into another argument with Lasko (long story) about Den’s age

Try on our Christmas hats and pull our Christmas crackers (all handmade as neither is available over here)


Feed the local alligators

Do yet another page for the blog – haven’t we got anything better to do?

Visit Mr President… he was out last time

Pretend we are interested in when the last Space Shuttle is actually going to take off


Marvel at how cheap the Chinese can manufacture stuff (everything) for the US markets… take our amazing $15 Christmas tree for example

Open our presents under the Christmas tree…

Try having a Christmas chat with anyone in the US… without getting into an argument about the Obama Health reforms.

Watch that old Bond movie we bought in the $5 bargain bucket at Wal-Mart’s

Pray that the RV’s little Combo oven and Dr Who’s tardis both operate on the same fundamental principles governing time and space

Go swimming in the lake - not another 'gator pun :(

Go to Wendy’s etc and watch any waitress’ face when you order regular coffee… with the 'SUPER size me' culture it's only 10 cents more for large - only an idiot orders anything regular.

Ride our bikes – without a Queen sing-a-long “We like to ride our bicycles’…

Microwave that ‘Betty Crocker’ Festive Eggnog and Pumpkin Yuletide cake mix – scary!

Drink cheap Californian Champagne and toast your good health

Do our laundry and make out that it is all part of trimming up the RV for Christmas?

Invite the Mexican(s) that have just appeared, in for a glass of sherry… we are only 3 miles from the border and yes Chris you are right - Laredo is bandit country!

Make ourselves ill by eating another piece of that bloody huge Key Lime Pie Jane insisted on buying… I said it was too big for our little freezer (he was wrong!).


What we actually did… sorry but you will just have to wait until Boxing Day for those pictures

Have a wonderful Christmas Day - Cheers! Jane and Den

SatNav Suzie goes ‘Off Road’…

We are in Texas - Ye Ha!… after a couple of cooler nights we decided to make a run for the Mexican border and the Valley (Rio Grande river valley) to become ‘Winter Texans’

There is a complete industry made up of people like us, known as Snowbirds – RVers from the frozen north of the USA going south to hide from the worst of the winter. Texas loves RV's and welcomes Snowbirds with open arms (and open cash registers) making them all honouree ‘Winter Texans’. We have not yet got to the centre of the Snowbird migration (south of Corpus Christi and along the Rio Grande eastern valley) but this area looks more like our Christmas location.

So far we have resisted getting the cowboy boots, chaps and hat (Stetson) but are already feeling a bit out of place when filling up at the gas station. Texans are a pretty friendly lot but not keen on vegetarians… ‘I knew a vegetarian once… welcome to cattle country son’ : )

We have continued to travel along the Gulf Coast though Alabama (Mobile) then into Mississippi (Gulfport) and Louisiana (Lake Fausse Pointe). The things that stick in our minds are wet lands, hundreds of bridges (very long bridge on route into New Orleans) and hurricane damage. Hurricane Katarina may have been in 2005 but the damage in some areas was total and everything, literally everything is either lost, wrecked, waiting for repair or new. The state park we stayed at experienced 146MPH winds, inches of rain and a huge sea surge and had only just partially opened after loosing all of its buildings, infrastructure (roads, power, water etc) and over 8000 trees… this area was just one giant building site.

From Louisiana we crossed the Texan border and on to Galveston Island… where we watched the sunset over the lagoon with the pelicans fishing from our bedroom (no not the pelicans fishing from our bedroom, us watching the sunset from there….) and moaned about SatNav Suzie.

SatNav Suzie? Mother named her when she nearly lost it in the Blue Ridge Mountains ‘recalculating’ herself to a standstill and finally giving up totally lost. Well Phyllis, she is still up to her old tricks. Don’t get it wrong, Suzie is a fantastic tool and we would not be without her. She gets it right 99% of the time but that 1% can be scary.
En route to a fairly remote State Park in Louisiana she took us down a 20mile dirt track. Even at 15MPH it virtually shook the RV apart. The continuous vibrations for over an hour turned the milk in the fridge into butter fat… another 5 miles and we could have scooped it out with a knife! Then yesterday we were happily driving towards the bridge over to Galveston Island when we were forced to stop in a queue with some official looking guy asking us to make sure our LPG (Propane) was switched off? The first we know about what is going on is when Suzie who had been silent for the last 20 miles comes out with… ‘board ferry’ ???

In the valley of the blind, the one eyed man (or woman) is king : )

Finally… ** Happy Birthday Ronnie **, gone but still in our thoughts and hearts...

Take care - stay warm.

Den and Jane

Florida – the Sunshine state… done!

So we finally leave Florida after crawling over much more of the state than we originally planned. The sun certainly did shine with only a few hours rain and temperatures above 75F everyday and above 60F at night - except for a couple of cold nights. No, you’re right; we were not really expecting any sympathy given how cold it is in the UK right now. We have walked and sunbathed on some amazing beaches often totally alone – where is everybody? Maybe it isn’t cool to be seen on a beach in Florida in the fall? After finally getting a strategy for dealing with the mozzies (the worst bit) Florida has really grown on us in the last weeks. The Florida State Parks offer an oasis – the real Florida (their words). The parks offer a different experience from our previous trip to Disney where everything is possible - including a mouse with three fingers! Both are fun but one is disappearing fast (Florida wetlands at 2% pa) that in time maybe the only place you will be able to experience the real Florida is as part of a Disney experience………..

Lots of wildlife in Florida. We have seen deer, alligators, three snakes and numerous different birds and countless flying things (crickets etc). The more rewarding sightings include osprey, bald eagles, manatees, racoons (bandits), armadillos (sound and act like a tank coming through the bush), tortoise, turtle(s), dolphins and manta ray.

So just to update you where we have been since Cape Canaveral and the shuttle - the damn thing never did take off! Here is our route…

South along the Atlantic coast… Palm Beach Through the Everglade National Park (our 4th NP)
Down to the Florida Keys – Long Key
National Cypress Reserve with alligators everywhere – hundreds of them!
North up the Gulf Coast… Naples, St Petersburg
Then Orlando (RV’s choice not ours)… a long story - it was scheduled for a new Grey water tank but that is now set for Phoenix, Arizona in the New Year.


Lake Kissimmee, Lake Louisa, Manatee Springs, Apalachicola National Forest.
Finally along the Pan handle (Florida looks a bit like a saucepan) St Georges Island, St Joseph, St Andrews and Henderson Beach derogatively referred to as Red Neck Riviera (lots of holiday makers from Georgia – think Blackpool) and finally into Alabama on the 1st Dec

Now done around 5000 miles and the RV is ready for a lube (oil change)

Rather than a detailed and endless overview we thought we would give you a couple specific highlights each and then a joint favourite.

Jane’s highlights’ include…

Dolphins, (two different types) playing in St Joseph’s Bay on Thanksgiving morning.
Manatee Springs – Manatees, nine deer approached us at dusk, racoons and Den racing an armadillo to the toilet block on his bike. (Yes, Den, not the armadillo, was on the bike - he spooked it and it shot off in the same direction)


Den’s best bits…

Night sky - Flamingo Bay, deep in the Everglades. No light pollution, just stunning.
Sunset at Long Key (previous blog) and anything at St Joseph Peninsular beach with its acres of dunes of brilliant white sand that looks just like snow. Opps! Sorry, we mentioned the weather again : ).


And the WINNER IS…

***** Jane’s courgette and feta tart birthday meal *****

Take care. Jane and Den X

What did you do on your 35th Birthday Jane?

As you may know Jane was 35 on the 20th Nov… this year was a bit different from our normal pre Christmas stay/shop/meal/show trip to London.



Although she got your emails (thank you)… the mobile phones don’t work here so she has not yet (21/11) read any TXT’s you may have sent - but 'Thank You' anyway X.









We are at St Georges Island State Park. It’s a beautiful 1 mile wide, 20 miles long sand spit in the Gulf of Mexico linked to the mainland off the North West coast of Florida, not far from Pensacola by a very, very long bridge. Pensacola? think BP oil spill – but no oil here :)







After some present opening (pretty limited this year) we did a 6 mile walk to Gap Point. The sun was shining (78F) and we saw no one - just one boat.










I gave Jane her Birthday card at Gap Point (pic attached) and then it was out for a meal in the evening (my treat).







A friendly Gopher Tortoise did stop to have a shell stroke / tap which was good but apart from that it was mainly sun, sand, sea, pine trees and cardinals (red birds). No alligators or mosquitoes here – well just a few mosquitoes’ and loads of alligators warning signs but that is all old hat now although we did find out that they can run at 30MPH over land for short distances… nothing on how short ‘the distance’ actually is anywhere though :)







The eating OUT bit? Well actually more IN than normal as there is very little on the island… most (4 out of the 5 restaurants’) are sea food anyway… next year then. So Jane cooked here own Birthday dinner - courgette and feta filo tart (very good), champagne and candles followed by birthday cake with coffee and chocolates.


It is the US holiday season with Thanksgiving next week (25th) which they tend to run into Christmas with many people dressing the tree now and working up for all those office parties in December. Not sure where we will be for Christmas but at the moment it looks like Texas – Ye Ha!

We will 'wrap up' Florida for good in the next blog. Take Care - Den & Jane.

It's fun exploring new places...

After a while the new becomes common place and you tend to wonder what you did before. What seemed strange, complex or a hassle about packing up and travelling every couple of days has become part of the daily routine. It’s fun exploring new places – a different walk every day – it is also stressful in other ways.. planning, finding and learning all the time. As you would expect all the sites so far have been different but as you travel South (or North now) you notice that the flora and fauna changes slowly… palm trees and other exotics appear for example.
The real Florida is still wet and wild with the Everglades acting as a huge drain as fresh water moves slowly south and out into the Gulf. We were and are still not fans of swamps although the biodiversity is amazing (bird life, plants) the Everglades are full of alligators (lots everywhere, along every bank) some of them well over 10ft long. Much more frightening are… mosquitoes. The locals tell us that this is a low mosquitoes year the wet season (May – Nov) is nearly over and even covered in spray (50% Deet) we have still been bitten to the point where you can’t sleep because you itch from head to toe with huge bumps. These things can bite through your clothes and will even bite you on your face.

As I said you get used to dealing with things on a daily basis however although camping on the Florida Keys coast, 10ft from the sea, is truly amazing… looking out at the sunset colouring a perfectly flat, mirror reflecting sea… we personally have already decided that Florida is not for us. We have stared planning our route North up the Gulf coast and then West into Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.
NB Still about another 2-3 weeks in Florida.

To give you feel for the daily routine…
Starts at around 7:30 with a cup of tea and a scan of the campsite from our bedroom windows… maybe some new people have moved in, some will have already left but sometimes we are alone… just us or maybe a couple of other RV’s hidden somewhere. If you are frightened of the dark (some sites are totally pitch black – amazing stellar skies) and things that go bump in the night (birds, squirrels, er… raccoons… unlikely to be black bears or Florida panthers as both are very shy we are told) then you would probably drive into and straight out of some sites when you see how empty they can be. Although RV’s are self contained with everything you need for life support you can feel very alone especially when the mobile has no signal. It is dark at 6pm now and you don’t walk very far after dark (not when you saw the alligators basking in the lake on the way in : ) Freedom and a sense of adventure is all part of the RV fascination. The open road takes you where ever, when ever but makes no promises about where you choose to stop.

I normally have breakfast while Jane is in the cupboard (bathroom) then we swap over and think about moving on. Jane stowing away anything that can move on the inside and me pulling the external bits – power lead and water hose etc – unless it was a primitive site and then it just checking the pods and vents are shut and the bikes are secure. It is always worth checking for hitchhikers – only lots of ants in the power lead storage pods so far.

Then it’s the ritual check of the internal control panel for the status of ‘the systems’. OK, so there is lot’s to worry about. Tanks that you need fill (fresh water and LPGas). Tanks that may need emptying… Grey - waste water, Black - human waste - don’t ask for details. Plus checking the batteries (coach and engine) charge. You have some additional concerns - the pilot light (the fridge switches to LPGas when on the move), tyre pressure, gross weight… etc It’s like taking your house with you when you go away for a weekend. But just RELAX, you have got nothing else to do all day!

Within an hour of breakfast Sat Nav Suzie asks the question ‘Where to?’ and we are off. If you ignore her she sulks and refuses to help and when she get confused, she is simply dangerous. You need to keep an eye on her and where she thinks you are going.

Finding your planned campground is normally easy… registration and maybe a quick chat with the ranger… finding your actual space and getting into it is a bit harder. It’s easy to run Jane over when reversing – even with the walkie-talkies (ha ha). All that only to find the awning is going to be more effective on the sunny side… the other way round… so round we go again. Then its a level check and the hook-ups… power, water.

Cup of tea, a quick read of the site blurb, bikes off for a quick bit of reconnaissance of the site, trail locations and the general area to see what’s what and where the interesting bits are for tomorrow – walk etc. Time for a glass of wine (weekends only of course : )

If you think this all sounds like you, we can sell you our RV fully equipped (Aug 2011?), complete with everything... including a fibre optic Christmas Tree - another blog :)

The US must be the best place in the world for this type of lifestyle. We have hardly scratched the surface and looking forward to the really big and unique vistas that you get out West (Grand Canyon etc.) – hopefully without the mosquitoes.

Where we have been up to now:

Today (01/11/10) was supposed to be Shuttle launch day but as ever the damn thing has been delayed until Wed 3rd. We anticipated a delay and booked for a week at a site that normally we wouldn’t give a second look – commercial, close to the interstate (but nothing else there), no fires (land of the free? my a***) and expensive. Unfortunately we have already got used to staying in the state parks which are amazing tropical oasis in a sea of fast food outlets, medieval knights and Disney. We didn’t come to do that – we have done that with the kids already.

Where have we been so far? 2 months, already! It goes so quickly and we have already done 3000mls in the RV!

Without boring you too much - here is the short version.

Washington DC – Athens GA, 800 miles in a hire car / hotels with Phyllis
Tea at the Whitehouse, well in a café in the adjoining garden… through the Shenandoah National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway. Think, beautiful dense deciduous forest going orange for fall, pitch black at night, Rangers, Bears and cooking on camp fire (for extra warmth). It gets cold in the mountains at night and RV’s are not very well insulated.















Athens - a couple of weeks with the relatives.

Getting the RV sorted took two trips to Florida and then another back to Albany, Georgia to sort out the registration in our name. Without Julie and David (my Cousin and her husband) this would have been tricky and taken a week. In one day we visited 6 Gov Agencies obtained a Georgia ID card and a letter proving that we could not claim Social Security and even then they tried to take our UK Driving Licence away and charged us an extra $800 tax!! Who said foreign visitors must do this all the time – not in Georgia they don’t it is a painful process.
Orlando – Athens (and more family time) then back to drop Mother at DC airport (via Dollywood, Tennessee and Great Smoky Mountain National Park for her return flight (Oct 5).








In the RV now - around 1,500mls.
We visited and did lots in the Athens area with family - clay pigeon shooting, four wheelers and watched College Football game (Georgia Bulldogs) with 90,000 others.








Washington, DC – going south down the Atlantic coast… mainly State Parks
Jamestown, Virginia Beach… into North Carolina… our first Walmart car park… into South Carolina, Myrtle Beach, Givhan’s Ferry, Charleston, Skidaway and Savannah and across to Albany for the RV Tag (number plate)

NB Den was looking forward to going to Jamestown as it is the site of the original English settlement that started the USA. Of the 150 only 60 survived the 1st winter and only then by eating each other on occasions - nothing much has changed down by Ipswich docks then! The Captain of one of the three ships (Godspeed, tiny, only 30 crew) was Bartholomew Gosnold who enlisted sailors from the Suffolk area and sailed from Ipswich dock not far from our flat. All ships records are lost but you can tell from the names of the towns that there was a strong Suffolk influence (Woodbridge etc). Back to bloody Disney and Pocahontas, but the truth appears to be that she was a 14 year old chief’s daughter who only wore an animal skin loin cloth, er… no underwear and would often cartwheel into the settlers’ camp… 150 sailor types who had been at sea for 3mths! No wonder John Rolfe (and not John Smith, as told by Walt) fell in love and married her.

We had a really interesting day at the site and on the replica (fully sea worthy) ships etc. More about Gosnold if interested… http://www.historynet.com/bartholomew-gosnold-the-man-who-was-responsible-for-englands-settling-the-new-world.htm

Albany, Georgia… south again down the Atlantic coast to Florida
Okefenokee Swamp our most remote place so far… 47mile park road that stops at a dead end… 67 miles to the nearest doctor. The park was virtually empty because of its remote location (and name?) but lots of deer (not too frightened as no hunting allowed in parks), snakes (inc. the US 5 most venomous), huge noisy woodpeckers (16inches tall) and alligators in the waterways. As you would expect it was very dark with all kinds of flying ‘things’ at night round the camp fire!

St Augustine (beach side state park) Florida, then Tomoka SP (near Daytona Beach)
Another beautiful tropical beach state park with very hip wife and husband duo / camp shop owners who did a live music set from 6 – 8 at weekends. Everything from Hendrix to Irish Ballard’s… free, but coffee (no alcohol in Florida State Parks - unless the Ranger is offered a can or two!) and desert (Key Lime Pie) for 2 for $5. Our kind of Saturday night… well almost, a bottle of wine would have been good.

Cape Canaveral and the shuttle launch delayed again until Thur 4 – damn and the forecast is for thunder storms so who knows. We are due to leave on Fri 5th Nov maybe the rocket will go up that day…

PS Maybe I lied about boring you… : )

Home is an RV...

Home is a 30ft, Class C (truck cab with added body all in one) 2005, Four Winds, Majestic RV. It is based on Ford E450, 6.8L, V10 puller (RV speak). They tell me this is the biggest petrol engine made and as such you will not be surprise to hear that on a good day it will do 10 MPG (downhill and kept at 55 MPH max on the cruise control). Mountains are bad days!

It was a Cruise America ex rental with 100,000mls on the clock but completely refurbished and looks pretty good inside and out. We also added a 20ft retractable (manual) awning at the time we bought it as the shade is a life saver when it is 30C.

All new fittings beds, seats, shower, toilet, curtains basically everything they can and do replace during a normal rental life. Couple that with a year engine / transmission warranty, a really good idiots guide and the support of their emergency help people it was very good value and hopefully will prove easy enough to sell on. The good thing is that it is pretty much idiot proof with no over engineering, slide-outs, minimum electronics. They spec their own fleet and use ‘bullet proof’ quality fittings (fridge, generator, furnace (heater)) that are built to last and should give long service for min hassle rental.

When we bought it (there were 6 or more to choose from, 25 and 30ft models) the guy gave us all the normal rental kit of four people (cups, plates, utensils, chairs, sheets, pots pans etc) so we have pretty much a home on wheels from day one. Add to this all the bits that Auntie Heather has given or loaned us (sheets, towels, tins, crocks, bedspread, tools) with more tools and goodies (toaster, boards, drill, battery charger, rope, cable, spares) from Lynn and Lamar we have a mobile home that weights something like 10tons. However, we have still spent a small fortune on bits to make living a bit easier (bedroom carpet, bath mat, storage boxes, food mixer, mirrors, patio mat etc) mainly at Walmart (Asda).


Petrol is around $2.70 per US gallon (7 pints) so approx 60p per litre in UK terms. To fill the tank is an investment of $150 (£100) 60 US gallons for around 600mls travel. Given we have already covered 3000mls you don’t have to be a genius to work out the fuel will be a major cost for our round trip of say 20 – 30,000mls.

These RV’s are big… ours at only 30ft (which is longer than our flat!) is dwarfed by the 40ft+ Class A’s (converted 40 seat coaches). Some are 45ft long and tow a 2 level car/golf cart/garden shed transporter behind. But as you know everything is big over here… don’t get me started on the size of some of the people – it has to been seen to be believed.

It is a bit like driving a bus and more like reversing a tank. With a turning circle requiring a 3 lane highway U-turns are fun and reversing it anywhere can be a tricky operation especially with low obstacles (swimming pool fences comes to mind). Reversing it into a narrow camp site with trees, ditches, water pipes and power posts onto your levelling board in the dark requires teamwork and walkie-talkies! (Thank You, David). It is not something you take into towns – we have, Charleston SC – but it is scary and easy to get somewhere where you can’t get in or out of. NB it requires 12ft height clearance, 3 lanes to U turn and blind spots on both sides with very limited rear view. So we got 2 bikes and yes, you guessed it, the bike rack (Thank You Julie and David) now makes it 35ft long!

Having made it sound big – it is – but also it is easy to drive… although a bit nervous at first Jane has driven it and reversed it in an RV lot. Just like me the first time leaves you with white knuckles from all that gripping the wheel tight and a bad headache from all that concentrating!
Inside it has everything you need for life support with fresh water, grey (shower etc) and black tanks and heat and light. It has a separate full size double bedroom, separate (big) shower and separate little toilet / bathroom - Imagine going to toilet in a broom cupboard... With a 3 ring stove and combination convection/microwave Jane has cooked some amazing meals and even a cake! At the moment the camp fire thing is also giving us extra variety of food and entertainment but sure that will wear off when everything we own smells of wood smoke.

There is never a boring moment with over a dozen ‘pods’ along the side of the RV to look in and play with. They contain everything from the LPG tank to storage for your wood – love a good fire! As with any house things need servicing (generator, water heater etc) and repairing… our grey water tank developed a leak but Cruise America have been brilliant and have ordered a new one and will fit it when we are in that bit of Florida.


So there you go... a basic overview of our home on wheels.

Here we go...

In case you are wondering ‘What are they up to?’ here are a few words to give you a feel for what life is like for us in the USA