Monday: Back In The USA

So we are here again, safe and well.

We had a very relaxed flight, only 8hours, 15 minutes. A nice easy passage through the airport and were on the road by 3.05. The trailer was ok, the truck started first time. Connie had made us a nice roast ham. We collapsed into bed.

Tuesday

It was lovely to see some of our old friends, Connie and Jim, Paula and Walt and Fred and Cathy. The weather is warming up and in the evening we were able to sit out under the pole barn just chatting, it was a lovely. Very relaxing.

Countdown - 1

Well, it's our last day at home and we are practically ready.

I cut Terry's hair this morning - he hates having his hair cut and lets it grow too long before getting it cut. He looks very nice with a short crew cut and a well trimmed beard.

We web cammed the kids this morning. JP, Andrea, Emma and Julia are staying with Andrew, Marie, Ben and Beth in Guernsey for a couple of weeks. It was great to see them all - we sang actions songs with the grandchildren and caught up with all the news. We do miss them all while we are away.

All the washing (laundry if you are American) is all done now, everything organised and we only have to pack our few things in a suitcase. We don't carry much as we have a full wardrobe of clothes in our trailer - makes life so much easier.

Our only concern is the weather. It is still very cold with snow and ice so we are keeping our fingers crossed we can get across the M62 to Manchester tomorrow. To tell you how cold it is, they had snow in Guernsey - about 4 inches which lasted for a couple of days.!!! It very rarely snows in Guernsey - exceptional weather for them.

Let's hope it will warm up a bit in Florida, as our old bones are protesting at the cold. Can't wait to see all our friends in Florida and to play and listen to some Bluegrass. Yippee!!!!!

Countdown - 4

Thursday

We've had snow!!! Twice this week. Monday, we woke up to find 2-3 inches laying on the ground and it snowed on and off during the day. It had melted 48 hours later, except where our next door neighbours kids had built a snowman. Today we had a flurry of snow which lay for about 2-3 hours. It's very cold and the heating is working overtime to keep us warm. Hope it's not bad weather on Sunday as we have a two and a half hour journey over the Pennine Hills, across the highest motorway ( like US Interstate) in England, to get to Manchester. We have to travel from the East coast to the West coast. We are booked into a motel for an early start the next morning.

Southern England has come to a standstill this week, with the worst weather of the last 11 years. Snow, whiteouts and ice; schools have been closed, roads impassible, railways disrupted and airports closed!! We seem to have been lucky up North and not been as badly affected as further south. The M62, the road over the Pennines, is notorious for ice and snow, so keep your fingers crossed we get across and that Manchester airport is not closed on Monday!!

It seems as though it's cold in Florida - thanks for the weather report on facebook, Paula, so we may just be going from one cold spell to another. All we want is some warmth!! and sun!! and bluegrass!!

Countdown -8

Sunday

Yesterday was quite an eventful day - Terry discovered a mouse's nest in our garage with three really cute babies in it. Unfortunately, he had to kill them and then we had to put fresh bait down. We have had a problem with mice in our area since the local dairy was pulled down and new houses built on the land. The mice must like our garage - warm and cosy with plenty of material for making nests and a supply of food as Sally feeds the birds and stores the seed etc in the garage. We have now put all the bird feed in sturdy plastic sealed containers, hopefully removing their food source. Let's hope the bait works.

Helen phoned from America. She is staying with our niece, Sarah , in Breckenridge, CO. It was great to hear from her and find out that all is well. Sarah told us that she, her husband Carl, and their daughter, Brianna have booked flights to come to the UK on 5th May. We don't get home till the 8th May, so it looks like we will have a quick turnaround - will take our English caravan (Trailer) down to Coventry where my nephew, David, Sarah's brother lives, a couple of days after we get back, before Sarah flies to France on 14th May to stay with her dad, who lives in the Dordogne. We haven't seen Sarah for two years and I can't wait to see them all. She is like our other daughter and I love her to bits. David and Claire are expecting their second baby at the end of April, so can't wait to meet her/him, too.

We are still slowly working our way through all the things that have to be done for our next visit. We now have tickets booked for Palatka, a great Bluegrass festival (our first weekend ); a site reserved for Waldo, also a Bluegrass festival( the second weekend); new travel insurance taken out for Sally(her old one changed their medical screening and refused to cover her pre-existing medical conditions); email sent to our mail forwarding service to get our mail sent to Jim and Connie's ( fairly vital it gets there as our new tags (car and trailer road tax) will be in it); shopping for the food stuffs we want to take (eg.cup-a-soups as we couldn't find them in the States etc) and many other bits and pieces. We are trying to get the whole house ready for our cleaner to do a thorough Spring Clean while we are away. Our apple tree needs pruning, so I've arranged that and my neighbour to come in to check the house while we are away. Our neighbours are great and keep an eye out for us, coming in periodically to open/close curtains, sort out mail and check the automatic timers on the lights are working.

We will need the first month in Florida to recover from getting ready!!!!!

Counting Down -11 days to go.

Our daughter, Helen, finally set off on Monday at 5am, with her friend Bryony, to travel round the world. They are in Las Vegas, travelling to Breckenridge, Colorado as I write this. Last week was hectic, to say the least, as Helen has a tendancy to pack at the last minute and we had our eldest son, wife and our two grand daughters staying till Saturday. Hectic, but lovely.
This week, we have been steadily working through all the things we need to do to prepare for our next trip. Terry is still out working - substitute/ supply teaching most days, so his evenings are very busy.
We are thankful that our friend John - a fellow Brit who travels in the States in his RV as we do - phoned a few days before Helen was due to leave. He wanted to chat to Terry about insurance in Florida and casually asked if we had applied for our Visa Waiver online. Apparently, the USA now require you to apply for your 90 day Visa Waiver online before you depart instead of filling in the form on the airplane and handing it in on arrival in the States. So we duly filled in the form for the three of us. Terry and I were accepted immediately, but Helen was told the decision was 'pending' as she was refused a visa last winter as she had not been out of the USA for 6 months before applying for her H2B visa to enable her to return to work in Breckenridge. She did get her visa a month later. We had to wait three days for a decision, worrying about what she could do if she was refused, until she was told it was approved. Thank goodness John phoned as we were totally unaware of the new rulings and we could have been refused entry on our arrival in the USA. The approval lasts for two years .
We are getting excited about returning to Florida and seeing all the wonderful friends we have made. We are also looking forward to some sunshine as our winters tend to be cold with short dark days - very dreary. We plan to take things easy for the first month, staying in Florida, as we are both still recovering from a nasty virus we picked up over Christmas, before we start sightseeing in other states.

Here We Go Again

Well Howdy Folks,
Yep, we're almost on the road again.
We are just getting over Christmas and its time to start planning our next trip.
We hope that you will stop by this page every now and then to catch up with our adventures.