Well, home again! Hope you enjoyed my trip across the States! A month of R&R and it's off to Majorca with Cadet Claire - see you all again soon!

Well, here we are at journey's end! New York is, as I suspected, the total opposite of Washington D.C. Brash and bright and alive with dozens of differing cultures. Manhattan Island, itself, is easy to found your way around and after a trip up the Rockefellar Centre today we got a good look around its regular grid of Streets and Avenues before Cadet Ashley went for a run around Central Park to burn off some of the last month's "over-indulgences" Last ...

Well, we've spent the last two days in this nation's capital, Washington D.C. On Tuesday afternoon we visited the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and today we undertook a wider tour of all the regular 'monuments' and tourist hot spots, including the Natural History Museum. Unlike Houston, with it's blocks of tall glass skyscrapers and contemporary sculptures, Washington is entrenched in Colonial conservationism and wonderfully historic architecture. One area,...

Today was a driving day in order to get within a couple of hours of Washington tomorrow. We covered about 400 miles from Knoxville to Charlottesville. Unfortunately the camp site at which we had planned to stay no longer existed and turned out to be no more than an old sign nailed to a tree! The second place we used our navigation device to find turned out to be for children with special needs and Cadet Ashley wasn't amused at the suggestion we stayed there! Can...

Today, we visited the Huntsville Space Centre. It all seemed a bit run down and I couldn't help but think that the cancellation of the Shuttle program had taken the wind out of all the staff - especially as the 'Space Camp' for youngsters that is attached to the site is based around that particular craft. The 3D and IMAX films were very good though so the day wasn't a total loss! We pushed on and spent the night in Knoxville, Tennessee. Off to Charlottesville, V...