20 June Galax Virginia

Forgot to put this up on the blog!
We had a great night out in Galax Virginia that's pronounced GAYLAX...

Home of the second longest running country music radio station in USA. Yes you will have heard of the Grand Ole Oprey but not everyone has heard of this show :
 Blue Ridge Country 98.1 FM
Look it up on google and you will be able to listen to some very old fashioned blue grass but roll up to Galax on Friday night and get in to watch the show being broadcast live for $5.00 each. Great fun.

I think we may have been the youngest people in the place and the place was full of regulars who came wearing there dancing shoes!!

These folk get up and dance at the front...not exactly "strictly..." but good fun! No we did not get up.....

29 June St Louis Missouri

St Louis Missouri
The gateway to the west.
The bottom picture above is the view from our hotel room.
The others are self explanatory.
Getting to the top is a bloody nightmare. The place was mobbed and having started by watching a nice movie all about Lewis and Clarke ( if you need to know about them ask me when we next meet I can bore the pants off you with the Lewis and Clarke stories! or look them up on google much quicker!) and the start of the expedition to the West we then joined a queue or as they say here a line! This then took about two hours to reach the "pod" which takes you to the top. This is a tiny claustrophobic metal box with a tiny window and five seats. You get up close and personal to strangers in this little metal box which slowly grinds its way to the top! If you should go there do not do it on a school holiday weekend mid afternoon.....too busy!!! Oh and try not to go when it is over 90F in the shade!
Went to Irish pub afterward exhausted and a nice chilled pint of Guinness with fish and chips!! Very nice!

Sevierville Tennessee

21 to 28 June
Sevierville Tennessee
Smoky Mountains Cabin
We spent a week in the Smoky Mountains in a fab cabin which is probably the best rental we have ever stayed in. Peaceful, private and very very quiet. Really a wonderful haven after all the travelling about.
We only came off the mountain once all week and that was because we had run out of fresh milk!

21st June Savannah Georgia

We headed into Savannah Georgia once again to visit a B&B we had visited before many years ago. The Green Palm Inn next time you head to Savannah I recommend a stay here!! Not cheap but the best. Fabulous breakfasts as well!
Okay on the first night we were woken at about 4am by gunshots....yep 8 repeated shots. I mentioned to the owner that someone must have had some weird firecrackers but no she said that was gunshots that we had heard!

No that is not normal for this area!! This is part of the historic area in Savannah which is divided up with shaded squares that all have seats so you can have a stop and rest. Given that the heat was above 95 F we made a great use of these squares. It does mean that a 5 minute walk takes 20 minutes but you can still walk and talk at the end! Too bloody hot!! It is summer so what do you expect! But the locals were also complaining that this heat does not usually arrive until later in July! Our luck ...

 This is the square where Forrest Gump sat and narrated the movie! They have removed the seat now.

This was a bit cooler an quieter!

Found a great pub fro beer and food well worth a visit something like 26 beers on tap!! Only managed two pints of one type cos it was nice!

Thats the Crystal Beer Parlour. Note Kathryn has a little battery fan hanging around her kneck for use outside the pub had super air conditioning!

Leaving Titusville

Okay I know too long since last update but here we go!

We left titusville on 15 June and went to Apalachicola in North West Florida, the Florida panhandle. We stayed in the Water Street Inn because we had been before and enjoyed it so went back...stayed two nights. Enjoyed it again. Apalachicola is very old 1950 /1960 America. But it was soooo hot way up in the high eighties fahrenheit ...bloody hot and humid!

After that we went across the state then up to Georgia to stay at Darien. Darien used to be called New Inverness because the settlement was made up of people who had sailed out of Inverness yes that Inverness in the Highlands. A long time before the clearances! They came to defend Georgia against the possible invasion from the Spanish who held Florida at the time. We stayed in a rubbish Hampton Inn had booked for three nights but checked out after one. There was also very little to see that showed the history of Darien cos we was there on a Monday and all museums seem to be closed on a Monday....

We moved up to Hilton Head South Carolina. Great hotel Hilton Garden Inn but Hilton Head is all resort hotels that offer golf and all are very private so you cannot reach the beaches without being a resident. We found our way to the only free public beach but the car park was mobbed so we never got to the beach. Avoid this place unless you really want to stay inside the grounds of a resort hotel and play a lot of golf ...oh nearly forgot there are a load of outlet stores presumably for the little women to visit whilst there men are golfing! Not a favourite place.

Rocket

Look what happened the other evening! Yes we were lucky enough to watch the launch of this rocket. Cape Canaveral is across the Indian River from the apartments where we are staying. The rockets still attract a lot of people to gather on the shore and watch. It lasts about 30 seconds and then there is nothing to show but it is exciting .....This was going up to launch some satellites for the USA Secret Service so nobody has been told exactly what it is putting up in the sky!

New Car May 10 2014

Up early Saturday morning ...cos of jet lag so being tired did not help sleep longer it was only 4:30am.....yawn.

Fuzzy headed we set off for the ford dealership in Titusville cos it is only about 3 miles away and it is close to our bank which is open on a Saturday morning so we can nip back and get the money to pay for the new car.

This process was painless, well apart from the horrendous cost of insurance which is because we are not homeowners and have no no claims benefit! But it all took about three hours from start to finish. Yes less time than getting off an aircraft and into USA.

Here is the car at Playalinda Beach called Ford Escape here but it is a Ford Kuga in the UK.

Let it All Begin May 09 2014

It's Started

We started the adventure on May 9 when we arrived at Orlando International renowned for it's connection to Disney. That is where the good bit ends. After an 8 hour flight which was reasonable we landed on time. All good so far! As we all started to gather our stuff to leave the aircraft we were informed it would be another ten minutes before we could disembark as the "Immigration Hall was too busy ..."  Clearly the landing of two jumbo jets within minutes of each other came as a surprise to the immigration authority in Orlando. 

We were in line for three hours before we reached an immigration officer at his desk! Yes that is three hours shuffling through a badly air condition room. When I stated to a fellow suffer that I had never seen it this bad they laughed and said that this is what it is like every time they arrive. 

Ah well we will not let that get us down although we are now totally knackered as it is not my usual behaviour to stand around for three hours.

We get to the immigration officer and he asks purpose of our visit and how long we wish to stay. So I tell him we want to stay for 10 months. He looks astonished at this, and declares,  without any pause for thought that people on a visitors visa stay for 6 months on average and that was what we could have. No matter what we said he was being a jobsworth and that was all we were going to get. He then pointed out that if we leave it a week we could then apply for an extension and explain in that application that we were wanting to travel extensively and they, yes the mysterious THEY may give us an extension. You could see that he was not prepared to take responsibility for allowing these two dodgy characters into the United States of America. Because terrorists always start trouble after 6 months...perfectly safe up to that point and then it all goes to hell.  That was not going to get in the way of our adventure we boldly strolled on through the airport through to the customs who picked us out to have a secondary inspection and the bags were X rayed ....but our endeavour was not thwarted we struggle on through to the car rental area. By now we are at the back of the 400 + people who got off our plane let alone the similar number on the previous flight! 

Bet you guessed already there was a long line waiting for the car rental and that took us another hour. We eventually drive away from the airport at 7pm having landed at  3:30 ... Alright those who did the maths that is only three and a half hours so I got the numbers wrong somewhere too tired to pay much notice!! Modern travel is so wonderful!!

Patriots V Detroit Lions

Just bought a hotel and game ticket package to see the Patriots at Gillette Stadium Foxborough on November 23. 

Wahooo 

School hols over now.

So the school hols all over now the Kathryn's retirement is getting real!
I am getting used to having this woman hanging around the house all day and doing stuff! 

Finishing off all the planning now as we leave on May 9th. Bet we forget something!  Have managed to get return flights through Tesco points and Virgin miles so they have only cost £150 for both of us. Orlando to Heathrow on March 11 very nice!

Talked with car salesman and he says we can get car on May 10th so that will be nice to get our own car straight away! 

Spent last weekend with Thomas. Went to see new Spiderman movie on Kathryn's Birthday and she got into cinema as a Senior first time ever and on her birthday! 

Kathryn on Birthday sporting new jewelry

First ever senior reduction

Kathryn Retires

April 4th 2014 Kathryn's last day at work and grand send off shared with the retiring rector.