After a late night drinking and chatting with Gary and Ginger we woke late. It was about ten am and I felt awful that we had been occupying their lounge, holding up their day, and wasting valuable time. True, Rik had driven 800 miles in two days but I surely had no excuse. No matter, we were awake now, and Gary and Ginger took us out for breakfast and a tour of Springfield. We started at Aunt Martha's Pancake House where I had a huge and delicious breakfast o...

New York! Well, we've been here for a couple of days now and it is NOISY! People shout, the music in the department stores blares (less than five minutes in Macys was way more than enough to convince me never to set foot inside again) and the traffic roar and other, unidentifiable, background noise assaults my ears. For anyone reading this who doesnt know me, let me tell you I am a Londoner, so it is not that I'm not used to city traffic. Fortunately, our hostel ...

An Eventful Beginning (part one) We spent the night before we left at Karl and Magna's. Adrian-next-door drove us there (stopping at the 'Welcome to Bletchley Home of the Code Breakers' sign for us to photograph it, and ourselves with it - I want to change the 'welcome' to 'goodbye'). Magna provided a lovely meal of lamb tagine and couscous followed by a raspberry and chocolate roulade. We drank a lovely red that they provided and a sparkling NZ rosé from Marks...

(Part Two of) an eventful beginning The entrance to the hostel was a locked doorway between two shops. It was not obvious how to get in. We could see through the glass door and down the empty, and uninviting, corridor. We could see various buttons for buzzers on the outside of the door. While we were debating which to press someone came out and let us in, pointing to 'reception' as they left. Reception was an unmarked room but the door was ajar and I made th...

Well the flights are booked, the shippers are booked and I've even booked our Christmas accommodation in the Cook Islands. In 35 days we'll have left England and our adventure will have begun. The travel plan showing on here at the moment shows only the the places to (and from) which we have flights booked plus Niagara Falls as we know tht is going to be the first place we go after New York. We know that we want to go to the Grand Canyon and San Francisco, and ...