St Stephen's Day

Well thats what they call Boxing Day, here. We had a lovely outing today, walking among the hills and along the cliffs of Castlerock. We visited Downhill Castle and the Mussenden Temple, build by the Bishop Hervey, the Earl of Bristol. The locals tell us that the Temple was a romantic hideaway built as a meeting place for the Bishop and his cousin, who apparently he had a love affair with. It was cunningly disguised as a library and is perched on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean. From the Temple you can look down the coast along a 6 mile sandy beach and then on the other side across the coast to the village of Castlerock with its church steeple rising up out of the mist of the day.

It was truley lovely. We have had a great stay here. Wonderful hospitality from Stuarts' family with a traditional Christmas Dinner served hot at lunch time. Very different from my family Christmas Dinner in Australia, cold meat and salad served at dinner time when the evening is cooler. We are off to Belfast today and then intend to travel towards the west coast on our journey back to Dublin and back to England.

Happy Christmas

Many blessings to everyone who has managed to keep looking at the blog and to all of you who gave up. We are in Ireland for Christmas with Alan's daughter, Charlotte and her family. Ireland is warm (up to 12c) compared to Basingstoke and the sun has been shining and the rain has only fallen once. We are truly blessed. Today Alan and I went for a drive to Donegal County and had a look at Greencastle. We drove around the coastline which was very picturesque and spent a little time in Derry looking at the city walls and shopping for some last minute presents. We are off to dinner with Stuart's (Charlottes' husband) family this evening and have been invited to share a traditional Christmas dinner there tomorrow.

Have a lovely, safe and happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you all.

Down in the Bayou; Louisiana, no its still Texas

Well Alan and I are trying to dredge up our memories of the US again. After Galveston we drove on through Austin and headed off to Louisiana. We could have gone to the space stuff in Austin but it was late afternoon when we got there because we spent ages looking at the Galveston Oil Rig Museum.

We drove for ages and eventually pulled up at an RV camp on the side of the road and asked could we camp there. The camp was actually a community of road workers and their families living in 45 foot camper trailers and Winnebagos with all the mod cons. We were the only campers there. There were US flags at the front doors of nearly every trailer.

It was a warm and balmy night and we set up camp at the back of the RV park as far away from the large family gathering that was happening on the other side of the road. It initially sounded interesting because they had a band playing latin music. Then we noticed the singing. Visualise Uncle Fernando, playing his piano accordian and casstinettes hogging the karaoke machine and singing pissed and off key for hours and you have it.

We had just settled in and cooked our dinner when the sky got dark and brooding and it started to pour rain. Next thing the RV owner came over and told us that a gale force wind was on the way and would we mind spending the night in one of the vans. We gratefully accepted and while the van didn't blow away the rain came in in buckets, dripping on the bed, and floor etc. As it turned out the tent was intact the next morning, dry as a bone as we had coated it with water repellant from our stay in Galviston. The owners of the RV park refused to accept payment for our stay. They were like most of the American people we met, kind, helpful and generous.

Stonehenge

Now that we have our little car. Its a Ford KA, a tiny little thing that looks like a noddy car, we are able to go out visiting local points of interest. We took a day trip to Stonehenge and after queing for 2 miles to get to the site we got there. It was very interesting but because its so touristy it was hard to get into the ambience of the place. The wind was howling and it was as usual overcast and bloody freezing. You can no longer go up and walk among it or touch anything anymore but we all herded round it and took some great pics. I am having trouble uploading pictures on the blog and on flikr at the moment but I will keep trying. To avoid the traffic we drove home through the countryside and visited some small villages. The army seems to own most of the area near Salisbury and there were road signs saying Slow Tanks Crossing.

Old Basing

After Al got back from Aus. We hired a car in order to buy a car and after spending a weekend roaming around Basingstoke looking for cars we gave up and went sight seeing. We went to Old Basing. We went to look at Basing House which is actually a ruin of a manor house but unfortunately it was closed so instead we walked around the village of Old Basing and took in the little thatched roof cottages and had a fantastic walk through the churchyard. The cemetery was overgrown with brambles and ivy but there were walkways through it. The old tombstones were beautiful emerging from the ivy and hidden in amongst the autumn trees. It was really lovely.

Back blogging and coming up in the world

Hi, y'all. No I'm not back in the states but in Basingstoke, Hampshire UK. Lots has happened since I last posted a blog. We have moved twice, I got a job, Al went back to Aus (sadly for his darling Aunty Pam's funeral) and came back (thank God) and now we are house sitting in Basingstoke and looking for a car.

We moved for one night to another hostel and then to a so called holiday let for the same price. It was a bed sit with an insy winsy kitchen and a bathroom that was down the hall. We had our own key and didn't have to share with any one else but the shower didn't work and the bog was so close to the bath Al had to put his feet in the tub to crap. To wash my hair I had to sit in the bath and pour a bucket of water on my head. No offence to any poms reading this but our experience so far is that English plumbing is the worlds worst. Every shower we have used has been bloody useless. Although we at least have hot water and reasonable water pressure here in Basingstoke.

I have a job in Twickenham where I work as a care manager for a people with learning disabilities team. The staff are friendly and helpful and two lovely Irish nurses helped me move all our stuff to Basingstoke while Al was gone. Apart from having one case from hell, the work is reasonable and I am starting to get into my role. I still have no idea how the NHS, Housing and Social Security systems work but I'm working on it. The down side is that I leave Basingstoke at 6:14am on the bus to the station and after two train rides I arrive in Twickenham at 8:33am. Coming home is a bitch because the train arrives about 3 minutes after the bus leaves and I have to wait 20 mins for the next bus. If I don't catch the right train from Twickenham I don't get home until 8pm. Glad I'm not going to be doing this for ever.

We hired a car this weekend and drove around looking at car yards to buy a car and then gave up and went sight seeing. I have some lovely pictures of Old Basing. This is a very picturesque place. I will post pictures later. Anyway, its Sunday night and if I don't hit the sack by 9pm I'll be wrecked tomorrow at work. See you all anon.

Galviston Oh Galviston

Well Galviston is not quite what the song evokes. We spent 3 days sweltering in a public camping shelter. It was very tropical weather, raining in the afternoon and humid as hell. The town is really flat and below sea level. At one time it was devastated by a cyclone along the lines of what happened to New Orleans. There is a long road running parallel to the beach and we saw some amazing looking beach houses. They were all different shapes and pastel colours and looked like something from a film set. I would have loved to transplant one in Bateman's Bay. They were a bit out of our price range for property starting at around $800,000.

Al was very keen to visit the Ocean Star Off Shore Oil Rig and Museum. We spent at least 4 riveting hours there (yawn) looking at all sorts of deep sea diving, oil drilling stuff. Al loved it. They had an oil men wall of fame and George Bush Snr was on it. I looked for Jed Clampett but he had not been given the acclaim that he truly deserved.

Back in the States; The Alamo

We nursed the car to San Antonio where we paid to get the fuel problem fixed.$1000 later it went like a dream. While we were there we stayed in a very interesting B&B ( used to be a youth hostel) called General Bullis House. It was a magnificent old mansion built by General Bullis who was a famous Civil War General instrumental in capturing Geronimo. Have a look at the link to the Bullis House homepage but don't be taken in by the glorious pool pic it was so green we didn't think it was safe to swim in. While the house was lovely and you could imagine the grandeur of the past, our room was in the attic and was about 100f with a noisy struggling air con in the window that had to be left on the whole time just to cope with the heat. The area the house was in had a faded glory sort of feel to it. There were some beautiful old houses there but most were run down and would probably cost a fortune to renovate.

We actually liked San Antonio. We went for a river cruise in the city centre. Civic could do with canals linked with the lake and meandering through Garema place and out to the museum before flowing back into the lake. It would be a great tourist attraction. Someone should talk to Jon
Stanhope about it. Of course we visited the Alamo, saw Davey Crockett memorabilia. He came from Tennessee and after visiting Tennessee you wonder why he would ever go out of that beautiful lush state to fight in Texas. The link tells you all about it.
.

Do we ever get out of Texas

Well, yes we did and travelled to many other great US destinations which I will endeavour to up date you on but right now we are actually in London.

We arrived on 1 August 2008. It was 17c and raining and has barely stopped since. To be honest we have been a bit flat since we arrived. The USA, while it has its warts is vibrant, energetic and in your face and London feels stodgy in comparison. We have been living in a hostel which costs a fortune. 180pounds a week for a small room with a double bunk, a sink and a fridge. The other people here are like us; broke, looking for work and somewhere cheaper to live just younger. Alan took down every scaffold number on the buildings that we saw and has managed to get a job with a scaffolding company doing casual work. I have my name with the recruitment agency and am waiting to see what happens. If I hear nothing in the next week I will send my own CV out to different places.

We have been looking for a flat and have had an unpleasant encounter with someone who after a few emails was very certain that we should go to Western Union and send money to each other so he could be sure we had the cash. He sounded more and more sus so we told him we were no longer interested. A lot of people find work and accommodation on a website called Gumtree but I think there may be plenty of shiesters on there ready to rip you off. The real estate agents here charge 79pounds just to release the stuff on their books. I think its probably better to pay it than have to put up with these other people.

Anyway we have been into town and had a look at the tower bridge and walked around Kensington Gardens and the Kensington Palace but we cant afford to go inside yet. We also wandered around Greenwich yesterday which is a lovely area. The Cutty Sark which was moored there unfortunately burned and only the hull is left. Such a shame.

I will keep adding our other adventures in America as I can. Its been difficult getting to an internet spot and having the time to do it. So sorry if its out of sequence.

Bad place to break down

We left El Paso heading East to San Antonio where we intended to stop and have the car fixed. The heat was still up in the high 90's and we were on 4 lanes of an insanely busy highway 10 travelling west. We were only 15 miles from Mexico and the Texas Border Security patrol funnelled the four lanes of traffic into one by blocking the lanes with huge red plastic barrels. At this point where the four lanes became one our bloody car decided to clap out again with three miles of traffic behind it and about half a kilometre to the checkpoint. We put the hazards on and began walking toward the checkpoint. We were met by a border patrol trooper with a smile and a hand on his pistol asking "Y'all have a problem?". We explained the car situation and that we wanted to bypass the check point because we didn't want to push it through the checkpoint in front of 500 eighteen wheelers. He took us to the check point. Inside were about 10 armed cops who listened to our story and decided to let us evade the check point. They checked our passports and then drove us in the patrol car back to our car, stopped the traffic and allowed us to go on the empty lanes to bypass the checkpoint. We had explained that the car went if the fuel tank was completely full and that we could get fuel at the next stop about four miles down the road. We headed for the servo and while filling up we noticed that the Patrol Car had followed us, presumably to see that we did what we had said we would do.

Down in the West Texas town of El Paso ....

After Alan felt a little better we decided to push on to El Paso, Texas. On the way the bloody car clapped out in temperatures of up to 110 f on the blacktop. At a place called Truth or Consequences we called the AAA and had the car tabletopped to Las Cruces. A guy at a Honda dealership there, said to put wooden clothes pegs on the metal part of the fuel line feeding the injectors. He reckoned that it was heat evaporation causing the problem. We followed his advice and limped on to El Paso, where Al had a rumble guts relapse so we booked into a very seedy hotel. The hotel was built in 1959 and at that time was top class but it had long seen better days and commanded a hefty $27.00 a night. While the air conditioning worked and it was clean there was a very large mysterious stain on the bathroom floor that we deduced was the blood stain from a drug deal gone bad, backed up by a huge piece of plywood covering the absent window in the bedroom and frequent patrol visits to the car park by the local sherriff.

Lying; dying

Because of Al's irreverent attitude to my holy sand gathering, God afflicted him for the whole of the next week in Santa Fe and later in El Paso and then in Fort Stockton (Texas) with terrible diarrhoea and vomiting. He initially took refuge in the Santa Fe camp ground under the shade of a motley tree. It was 106 f (in the shade) and the ravens were literally circling above him. Then the cheeky buggers did a low level run and flew over the top of him. He feebly waved his fist and said "I'm not dead yet".

El Santuario de Chimayo,

El Santuario de Chimayo (The Shrine) was built between l8l4 and l8l6. This intense and deeply catholic community enthralled and scared us somewhat with its brutal iconography combined with lovely architecture. The faithful come to gather the "holy sand" which is reported to cure all sorts of ailments. They left an amazing assortment of offerings.

Leonie gathered some of the sand but it didn't stop us from being afflicted by the holy diarrhoea for the most part of our time in New Mexico. We also stayed in some of the driest, and dismal camping spots.

The Durango Kid

We spent time in Cortez, a lovely little town with lots of interesting Indian Cultural information and shops and we also took a steam train ride from Durango to Silverton. Al wore his cowboy hat and we dubbed him "The Durango Kid" but he thought he might be mistaken for someone from the set of Brokeback Mountain. The steam train took us through the most spectacular country to Silverton, an old silver mining town.










It seems Paris Hilton cant keep out of trouble, even in Silverton.

Mesa Verde, Colorado

People along the way had recommended that we go to Mesa Verde National Park and look at the cliff dwellings where the ancestral Pueblo people had lived centuries ago. We headed south to Colorado and into the hot dry desert country. This place is a must see we stayed at a campsite at the entrance of the National Park for about 4 days and visited the Mesa Verde National Monument, where I overcame my fear of heights and climbed a 30 foot ladder up the side of a cliff to get to the Balcony ruins. How people managed to live up there and not fall off the cliffs I dont know. They used hand and foot holds to get up and down the cliffs. Terrifying. So is the arse shot.

Adventure in the mud at Dove Creek, Colorado

The one night we decided to camp on the side of the road we nearly got bogged because it rained all night. We had gone up a dirt road and into a bit of bush to set up camp and the next morning we drove out onto the dirt road, now a quagmire. Al drove like a rally driver for about a half a mile to the highway. He steered and the car slid all over the place; I prayed and we made it with out getting stuck.

The Wild West

My apologies for taking so long to up date the blog. After travelling through the Mountains of Montana we found ourselves in the most amazing plains country. Apparently it was Blackfoot Indian land. It went on for miles with the Rocky Mountains in the background. It was stormy and raining and we took some fantastic pictures of the sky and hills with a magnificent rainbow over it. If you get out the map you will see we came over the mountains and then travelled south along the boarders of Montana, Wyoming and Utah and into New Mexico. We were heading into desert country and the scenery changed from these lovely rolling hills, through more magnificent Rocky Mountain vies to red canyons and sage bush. Wyoming and Utah are the "wild west".

We went to Yellowstone National Park and saw the famous Old Faithful that faithfully did its thing but unfortunately for us the camera ran out of battery at the last minute and we MISSED getting it on film.

Glacier National Park, Montana

From Tri-Cities, we took Dick's advice and headed for the magnificent Glacier National Park in Montana. It was everything that we were told and more. The scenery in this park is spectacular. Lakes, forests, snow capped mountains. Every turn was Aaaaw, will you look at that!!!!

Back to Seattle and off to Tri-Cities

After an excellent visit to Vancouver we headed back to our friends, Dan and Karlene in Seattle where we bought a car. Its very reliable (so far). A Honda Civic LX. We bought it through a broker ( the broker cost $300) and he took us to a number of dealers that he knew and we chose he car. All up with insurance paid, rego for 12 months, broker and the car it cost us just under $5,000. On the Memorial Weekend we headed off with Dan and Karlene to Karlene's family in Tri-Cities (Richland, Kennewick and Pascoe) in East Washington. We stayed with Dick and Lyn and caught up with Don and Terri and their families. They made us very welcome and Lyn's cooking was to die for. Dick bought a didgeridoo when he visited us in Australia and he plays it really well. We really enjoyed our stay there and appreciate the kindness and generosity of the Hodgeson family. They set us up and got us on our way for a big touring adventure of the states.

Grouse Mountain, Vancouver

We had a great day trip to Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain where we went on the Sky Train. The Capilano Suspension Bridge was 100 years old ( I think they have done some safety updates) and the park had been added to with a series of suspension bridges strung among the trees. It was really worth the visit. We took a lot of photos and somehow managed to put the camera on black and white with only one colour. It produced some pretty good pics.

Stanley Park, Vancouver

Stanley Park is the most beautiful public park. It takes up a whole peninsula of Vancouver Bay. We had a lovely day there. There is a great collection of totem poles that was very interesting. We hired bikes and rode around the perimeter of the park. Al fell of his bike into a puddle, the only puddle on the road, and got mud all over his foot and leg. I of course laughed. We had lunch and watched the beach touch football and to boats out at sea. It was a really relaxing and lovely day. We also took a picture of a raccoon in the wild. Its a big park. After such a pleasant day we taxied it back to the hostel, collected our gear and headed back to Seattle.

The Templeton Cafe, Vancouver

Just across the road from the hostel is the Templeton Cafe. It served great organic food and became our haunt while we were in Vancouver. The place had a great 1950's feel and had interesting period info on the tables. I particularly liked this Wonder Woman cartoon.

Vancouver, Canada

We stayed in Vancouver for a week. We caught the train up from Seattle. Another scenic journey. Vancouver is definitely a place to visit. In the spring and summer we both agreed that we could easily live there. Its very easy to get around as they have excellent public transport. We stayed in the Samesun Hostel in the downtown area. We we were the oldest people there but the "young people" we shared the room with were really interesting and doing great things. One guy had just returned from riding his pushy around NZ, Australia and Asia and was riding up to visit his friends in Victoria (Canada) about 100 ks up the road. A lot of them were young Aussies travelling the ski fields, snowboarding, skiing and partying (obviously) and working in Canada to finance their travels.

Both Seattle and Vancouver have some great public art. We wandered around the city and visited a banking building that had a great public display about the Aga Khan Development Network and the work they are doing around the world. It was excellent. The young woman who showed me around had done her degree in architecture and religion, which I thought was really a great combo. She was very passionate about the restoration work that the Network were doing. One of the interesting things they were doing was collecting plastic bags and melting them down, mixing them with sand and turning them into paving blocks.

We did so much in Vancouver and had such a great time there. The only real down side in the cities that we have seen has been the number of homeless people. In Vancouver there seemed to be a lot of meth addicts who were more aggressive as far as begging was concerned and younger than the people on the streets in other places. Meth is a real problem and along the roadsides in the USA there are posters advertising rehabs and assistance. Being homeless in Seattle and Vancouver in the winter must be the pits. I felt really sad for them and gave them money from time to time but there is a person on nearly every corner in the downtown areas and my money just cant spread that far.

Seattle

Well, everyone must be thinking we never got out of Portland. This holidaying is hard work. I just haven't managed to get to somewhere and get the time to update the blog. We only spent 3 days in Portland before going to Seattle to visit our good friends Dan and Karlene.

Dan and Karlene made us so welcome in their home and with their extended family it was hard to leave. Dan took some time off work and showed us around Seattle and took us to Port Townsend where he grew up. Its the place where they made the movie an Officer and a Gentleman. Port Townsend had some magnificent Victorian Mansions and like every where we seem to have been, the scenery is stunning.

We visited the Arboretum where Karlene works which is really beautiful. If the Canberra Arboretum turns out like the one in Seattle it will be a real draw card.


Among other places we also went to Dan's favourite shop, the Aussie Pie Shop, where they claim to make real Aussie pies. They were pretty good pies, but they have been adapted for American tastes so there wasn't a steak and kidney in sight.

While we were in Seattle we bought a car. Its a Honda Civic LX 1994. Its registered for 12 months and we had no probs with getting insurance. So far it has been really reliable. We practised driving under Dan's tuition and have both got the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road although I have to admit that Alan is much better at it than me. I am OK on the highway but get confused in the traffic in the towns. I feel like a learner driver all over again.

We took a week out from Seattle to go to Canada to sort out our drivers licences because we lost them in a bag on a bus in LA. Unbelievably, the NSW Motor Registry are not satisfied with a Public Notary from America verifying your identity, even though it is far more rigorous than any Australian Post Office employee sighting your credentials (they even took our finger prints). We had to go to Vancouver to the nearest Australian Consulate to have an officer there do the same thing. I was highly pissed off by the bureaucratic bullshit gone made but the best thing was we got to see Vancouver.