Sedona

We'd heard so many good reports about the whole Sedona area that we really were expecting a pretty cool place; and we weren't to be disappointed! Part of the appeal was the race track quality mountain roads (obviously I didn't act like I was on a race track; ok well maybe a little bit then... after all Helen was away in Houston for a few days leaving me alone with the bike...), not to mention the stunning scenery - There seemed to be something to do in every direction; to the east was the Coconino National Forest, south to Prescott was the local area brewery which Helen made the most of whilst I rode us there! Like so many brew pubs we've been to, the food was pretty spectacular so I didn't do so bad out of the deal. It was no surprise that the brewery was there as the town has the original "Whisky Row" street from way back in the days of the wild west; they had a fire once, (as most old American towns seem to!) and the patrons of one particularly popular bar managed to get together and physically lift the wooden bar out in to the street to save it - it's still there!

On the way to Prescott was a small town called Jerome that although now quite a hippy/arty town, was once a virtual ghost town; it was a big, (in fact the biggest in America) copper mine built on the side of a 7,000 ft mountain overlooking the Sedona valley but partly due to a lack of demand but mostly because of a huge land slide that dropped more than half the town down the mountain, people moved out and almost but not quite, deserted the place.

In and around Sedona itself are the most amazingly red rocks and mountains so hiking was big on our list; unfortunately the pictures will never do it justice - you'll just have to go there and see for yourselves! Sedona is well known, (apparently...) for its vortexes; not really my chosen subject but the area is said to be full of high energy points which means everywhere you go there seems to be a bunch of people chanting and offering sacrifices, (thankfully not live goats and things) to whoever I don't know.

This was our hike out to the West Fork. Lovely shaded hike and at the end the trail just dead-ended in water. At least I'm sure it would go on if you wanted to get your feet wet!! We paddled a little just to see what was round the corner but it was COLD!! On the way back to the trailhead we were treated to a glimpse of this Hummingbird faithfully guarding it's nest. Didn't seem bothered by us even if we were poking a camera lens in it's face!

And then there was Slide Rock State Park; the name might hint at the theme here; basically a large park cum picnic area with a river running through a very rocky valley. The river of course had worn away the rock over the years leaving a smooth, narrow and thankfully, cold channel in which one can slide one's way downstream. We should have perhaps taken more notice of the fact that the locals were all wearing heavy duty shorts or cut-off jeans; let's just say my backside hadn't felt like that since my last caning at boarding school!

Last but not least was the winery just outside the campground gate; too expensive for us travellers to shop there but we of course had to at least go through the rigorous process of tasting the choices they had on offer...

Verde Canyon Railroad

So after the 'little' mishap with reading abilities I finally got home Sunday night. Late. Very late. Pulled back into the RV park just after midnight. It's so good to be back and so much exciting stuff to talk about and show Chris - all my goodies and projects from CKU!

Today Chris surprised me . And I generally am not easy to surprise - I usually think too hard and figure it out! But I was stumped until about 2 miles from our destination...The Train depot. Had no idea there was a scenic railway around but Chris had booked us First Class tickets for an afternoon journey on the Verde Canyon Railway. I specify First Class as it's quite a different experience from regular and so worth the $25 more. Comfy, comfy armchairs. Only about 30 people per carriage and served by 2 wait staff who brought drinks, gave us info about the sights we were passing and generally pampered us. After the journey from hell yesterday this was the best way I could imagine spending an afternoon. Hor d'erves were served during the outbound journey and ice-creams on the way back, along with a full bar service. It was WONDERFUL!!

Oh, and to mention the scenery. Well it's a given that it was rather lovely. The tracks run from Clarkdale to Perkinsville and it's loveliness all the way. Even the slag heap on the side of the tracks had an interesting story and we saw 2 bald eagles and plenty of funky rock formations - if you squint you could maybe make out George Washington, the Angel or most impressive the Elephant!!

CKU!!

CKU. Stands for Creating Keepsakes University!! Creating Keepsakes is the 'leading' scrapbook magazine in the USA and very proactive in promoting the craft. It was a 3 day convention I suppose is the best way to describe it. Lots of classes, projects, time to work on your own stuff in the 'crop' hall, great chance to meet new friends with a like-minded hobby. Fantastic experince. Was maxxed out the whole time with non-stop business - they only gave us an hour between classes and evening activites on some days! Busy from 9am till midnight!! I have so many projects I worked on. Mostly Scrapbook pages - I normally create 12x12" pages but here we were using different sizes - we created a whole album of 6x6" pages - 8 different classes with 8 different teachers with different styles and products - very cool - all I need to do now is finish it off with my photos and some journalling!
Also created a fab mirror! Loved this class - so many new techniques for me and I could even get into the messy play thing and start using paints! The main thing I realised I can't fully embrace Scrapbooking until I have a much larger space to collect products, tools, papers, paints - an RV isn't ideally suited!! I came home with 2 bags full to bursting with goodies we'd been given and all my new projects!!

These are all the goodies and even here I have stuff tucked away in bags so there's even more than it looks!! Now I have to find homes for all this! I ain't complaining!

Read your ticket properly... and use the 24 hr clock when travelling!

DUH!!!...... CheapAir.com obviously haven't mastered the 24 hour clock system. If they had I'd still be wandering the Galleria mall in downtown Houston after having had a lovely long night's sleep in my Heavenly Bed. Whilst I'm prepared to accept SOME of the blame I will defend to the death. It's not 08.35 it's 20.35 - if only....the ticket says 08.35.....you can see where I went wrong! Meanwhile I will continue to sit at this blasted airport for another 4 hours. 8 hours down, 4 to go. Thank God for Itunes Monvie rentals, Wifi, and a cosy corner with power outlet, added to which I will miss my shuttle bus in Phoenix which means I lose the return portion of my ticket AND Chris will enjoy a 6 hour round trip to drive the RV down to Phoenix to meet me. Duh, duh, duh.....

And the moral of the story is two-fold.....(1) Use the 24-hour clock when travelling (2) Learn to read!!

Oh...and always travel with snacks!!! (They come in handy!)

Petrified Forest (belated!)

OK so I was gonna post about Petrified Forest National Park. First up I must say it really doesn't look all that scared...

It was a day-use only park, so we drove in from Gallup, NM - Arizona doesn't use DST so our times were all messed up and we got there early in the morning so first into the visitor centre. Even by that time (8am) the sun is so high in the sky and the colours were already getting washed out. We entered the park in the Painted Desert area. But even with the high sun the colours were still amazing - photos just don't do it justice! Took a little hike from here - walked down into the desert floor from Kachina Point and headed off into the 'wilderness area'. There were no trails we could just walk wherever we wanted - used the 'wash' in the distance as a reference point. What looked like a tiny dried-up stream bed was actually as wide as a 6 lane highway and filled with perfect 'clean' sand once we got there! All along there were bits of old trees just strewn about - trees that are rock! I just can't get over how cool this looks - how tree like! The texture is all still there - preserved forever, cast in stone - AMAZING! And this part of the park wasn't even heavily populated with the petrified forest so much - that was more south!

The park has a 30 mile road going right through it. Lots of pull-outs and mini trails leading to points of interest. We stopped at most of them - really making the most out of the fact it was only day-use (we're so used to spending time in the National Parks, camping, hiking out etc). There was an old pueblo ruins, some petroglyphs and the old Route 66 passed right by - the line of old telegraph poles remains to mark the old road and a rusting old car.

The thickest concentration of petrified wood (did I mention HOW COOL this stuff is!!!? - I did?, ok!) was in the Crystal Forest and Long Logs area - wow! Did another little hike round this area - to an old pueblo building that had been built with the 'wood/stone'. These days that's not really in keeping with the whole National Parks preservance policy but it was done 'before their time' so it's been left. People nicking stones is a HUGE no-no in the park. They estimate (how on earth?!) that 1 ton of the stuff gets swiped each month! There are spot checks on vehicles as you leave. Strange because 1/2 mile down the road outside the park boundaries you can buy as much as you like - there are whole parking lots full of the stuff all laid out for your perusal and purchase (it just isn't collected from within the park).

Standing on the corner of Winslow, AZ!

As sung by the Eagles in the song 'Take it easy' Well we've pretty much got the latter part cracked over the last 3 years but this was our chance to get the first bit checked off!! Winslow, Arizona is a tiny town on the old Route 66. Politely put there doesn't seem to be much going for it these days but after it's fame from the Eagles song they'd milked every last drop and have a fab little park dedicated to the whole 'Standing on the corner...' thing. A bronze statue of a backpacker with guitar standing on the corner. A lovely big mural of a girl in a old Ford truck is in the background (And the real life version in the foreground). It's rather cool and I've been humming that darn song the last 24 hours. Perhaps this will get it out of my system!

Also in Arizona, also on the Route 66 this time in Holbrook - a classic of the old Mother Road - the Wigwam hotel - 15 concrete wigwams, each comes complete with it's own classic car parked and rusting away outside! I'll stick to Harvey thanks but it sure looks the part! And you can still actually stay in these things - rates were starting from $48!!

More about Petrified Forest National Park which we visited the same day soon (my battery is about to die!)

Memorial Day Weekend

Finally the weather picked up just in time for the long weekend. After a couple of days cooped up in the RV half way up a mountain getting snowed on it was good to get out! This really is such a beautiful part of the state - we took a long ride out north west of Santa Fe - up to Taos area. Lots to see and do along the way!

San Francisco de Asis church - it's in some dispute whether this is the oldest or second oldest church in America - either way it's old! A lovely adobe building - the straw is literally crumbling out of the walls with every gust of wind! - But adobe building techniques are not to be sniffed out - it was built in 1815!

The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge - with incredible views into the river gorge some 650 feet below! The landscape around and approaching the bridge is quite flat and within 1/4 mile of the gorge we still hadn't seen the gorge - then suddenly it opens up like some giant crack in the earth - Amazing views along the gorge with the mountains far off in the distance.

Taos Peublo - was built around 1450 and has been continuosuly inhabitated ever since! It's the largest exisiting multi-storey pueblo structure in the USA and is traditional adobe construction and is home to a fair few ferral dogs following you round and begging for scraps!

Taos Plaza - we stopped in Taos town for our lunch and listened to the drone of Harley Davidsons going by. Being Memorial Day weekend every man and his pillion rider were out on bikes proudly wearing their Vietnam Vet jackets (did the US Military issue Harleys to their War Vets to see out their days deafening everyone with the noise???) On the up side it was free parking on the plaza and a cheery display of Stars & Stripes flags backlit in the sunshine.


Red River - we soon discovered the source of all the Harleys...Bike Week in Red River! The place was heaving. It took about 15 minutes to ride the 1 mile downtown main street. I don't like (the noise of) Harleys (who'd have guessed eh?) BUT they do look good - especially en masse and there was a party atmosphere even just riding through.

Took the 'Enchanted Circle' road - 84 mile loop around Wheeler Peak the highest in New Mexico (13,161ft) - still completely snow capped at the moment and by the time we passed by glowing in the last rays of sun.

We had such a long ride out - didn't get back till 10pm - 2 hours after sunset by which time it was freezing of course! Just as well the neighbours had a healthy campfire roaring away to sit beside!


This morning we said out goodbyes to Nancy and Chris - after nearly a week of having some Brit Rv-ing neighbours they're fast-tracking their way to California whilst we're Arizona bound. We moved further up the hill but back into a site with electricty for the night to recharge our woeful batteries after battering them with an overdose fan heating!

But with more gorgeous weather another day out on the bike beckoned. There's so many variations of roads around the area - all with such lovely scenery and good roads just to be out enjoying the ride and the long weekend holiday! (but with that ever-so-slightly smug thought that I'm not going back to work tomorrow! (Yes you can all laugh oh-so-loud at me when it's my turn, but until then...!))

Snowing in Santa Fe

Here now in Santa Fe. We're staying in the National Forest just 8 miles away from town but it could be a million miles - we're 1500 feet higher than the city (which is at 7000 feet anyway!), the air is fresh and clear, we're camped surrounded by pine trees with the most amazing smells and today we woke up to snow!! (actually it was exciting but wasn't really part of the plan!) The high altitude seemed like a great idea when we arrived in town with temperatures in the 90's. Now I'm not so sure....it's a little chilly! It didn't stop us setting off for our daily hikes but the last mile today was a determined hail storm! (nothing like a natural exfoliator!) We ventured briefly into the old centre of Santa Fe but we're here for a few more days and we'll explore more then. Camping next door to us are Nancy and Chris - the other English RV'ers. There's nothing like a good chin-wag around the campfire at night!

Albuquerque part II

Had a busy time in Albuquerque. Lots of chores to do - a new fridge fitted, new tires for the RV and for the bike (already!!). But we still had time for some fun. Did a couple of hikes in the Cibola National Forest - We rode up to Sandia Crest - a 16 mile scenic highway to the 10,000 foot peak overlooking the city and hiked from there. Or rather it wasn't so much of a hike as a 'trudge' - it was still pretty thick snow on a well shaded trail - at times knee deep! The view from the top was spectacular - that was moments before the cloud came in and obscured the view and treated us to a little snow in case we were in any doubt who was boss!

Back at the bottom of the hill we stopped by a great museum - The Tinkertown museum. We've done our fair share of musuems during this trip but this was totally unlike anything else. It was put together by an artist called Ross Ward who spent most of his life creating what today comprises Tinkertown. It started with a collection of miniture hand-carved figures back in the 60's and 70's which he travelled to carnivals and fairs to display. Now the museum is housed in buildings made of glass bottles (over 50,000 of them!) and is a crazy maze-like series of rooms with various collections - the original figures & old southwestern street scenes, circus scenes, a collection of wedding cake bride & groom toppers, antique tools, dolls, a 35ft boat (Which spent 10 years travelling the world - that's a whole other story!), fairground entertainment - we had our fortunes told by 'Esmerelda', established that I should be a 'Dictator' on the career wheel of fortune and listened to music on the wurlizter! It was just an amzing place and such fun! You turned each corner never knowing what delights were in store and there was so much to see! We met Carla - Ross's wife. It was her brother Fritz that had travelled for 10 years in the boat. We chatted for a while about his travels - so interesting for us also being travellers! The boat he wasn't able to sell after his adventures so it took the trip across the land to settle forever in the Tinkertown museum. As we left Carla gave us a copy of his book - we haven't finished it yet but already it's such a fascinating read.

Our second day being tourists we went downtown. First to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Centre - we got there in time for the traditional dancing. There were just 5 dancers but they all performed different traditional dances - lots of fancy names which I'm afraid were totally lost on me. The costumes were what I loved the most - so colourful and vibrant and full of texture and flow as they moved! The rest of the centre was dedicated to the 19 pueblo villages that still exisit in New Mexico. Although they often get lumped together as similar cultures they are all quite distinct with a number of different languages and customs.

We spent the rest of the day at the National Atomic Museum (it was here in New Mexico that the first atomic test bomb was exploded) and in the old town area - eating ice-creams in the shade of the trees surrounding the traditional plaza.

Albuquerque

We have a new camera! Very excited! After a false start on Sunday when we bought the camera orginally, we took it home, played around, and discovered the colour was off - like REALLY off - Chris's new bike was bright pink! After a call to Canon they agreed it was defective. Somewhat frustrating as we were in wilderness 200 miles from the nearest store to get it exchanged. So now...it's sorted. We have our brand new fully functional Canon Digital EOS Rebel XSi!! and very nice it is too. Currently wading our way through the instruction manual. It's a late birthday present from each other and from Pat who gave us birthday money this year towards it - so thank you all!

Have just spent a few days in a town called Truth or Consequences. Yes a strange name for a town, but in 1950 they changed their name (previously called Hot Springs) as part of a publicity and fund-raising effort and it's stuck ever since! It was named after a popular game show at the time.

From here we took a fantastic ride out on the bike up into the hills and Gila National Forest. The roads were fabulous biking roads through very picturesque scenery. Past the HUGE open mine pit of Santa Rita (the oldest active mine in the SW - it's 1.5 miles wide and 1800ft deep and is producing 300 million lbs of copper a year!), over the 8228ft high Emory Pass and through a few small (nearly) ghost towns . Stopped for lunch in Silver City - it was a silver mining town, then got lucky and found copper once the silver ran out so now it's still going strong as a funky bonhemian town with every other store an art gallery, a few good cafes, wineries and at least one brewpub that we noticed! The old downtown is full of Victorian brick buildings and a real wild west town feel to the place! A great stop and a chance to stretch our legs for a couple of hours. We then took an incredibly twisty road north to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument - the road was actually TOO twisty to be really good fun on the bike - but at least we weren't in a car - the recommended drive time was 2 hours to do 58 miles!! (we did it all in about an hour! - the advantages of a bike on narrow roads - at least we could overtake the slow stuff!) Gila Cliff Dwellings were inhabited about 700 years ago by the Mogollon people - there were a series of 7 caves set up in the cliffs with dwellings built in stone inside them making up some 40 or so individual rooms. Quite fascinating stuff - quite reminiscent of the Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, CO we visited a couple of years back but these were very quiet because of their remote location - we only saw 2 other people in the area!

And so now we're in Albuquerque. Getting a new fridge fitted! After 2 years of intermittent problems with the thing - going from +15 and everything warm to -5 and frozen food I've got fed up and booked us in Friday, whilst Chris was still mincing about it all (it doesn't help that for the last week everything seems to be fine). I figure it's a kitchen applicance and therefore my domain and whilst Chris sits gazing adoringly at his mistress (aka the new bike) I'll get on and admire a new shiny, clean fridge - a fair deal - nah!!! - get me my leather jacket and helmet and take me for a ride baby!! (but I WILL get a cold drink when I get back!)

The Fireblade's first track day

A bit of an exciting 'in a nervous kind of way' day today; I took the new bike, aka 'The Mistress' (as named by Helen and for probably obvious reasons) on the track for the first time; not bad really as it is only two weeks old and barely run-in! Not that modern Japanese bikes really need much of a running-in; more of a case of stay under 120mph and don't practice too many racing starts... The nerves were there anyway, what with it being a new bike that I'd hardly had chance to get to know. (unlike 'Donkey' who had over 25,000 miles on him before he was subjected to track abuse) And then compounded by the track owner who gave us a drive/walk round first thing explaining as he went just how technical and complicated to learn the track actually was. And then there was the bad surface, the dips and bumps, the gouges dug by previous unfortunates and the desert wind blowing sand and dust across the place. Being a sensibly mature(?) kinda guy I set off at a comfortably slow pace choosing, along with another 'new' guy - Bill, to follow one of the locals to learn the lines and was more than a little surprised to see Bill hammer it down the first straight, brake waaay too late and run straight off the track into the desert; the last I saw out of my peripheral vision was him and his beloved bike cartwheeling into the distance. Almost comical considering the conversation we'd just moments before about taking it easy for the first few sessions! Thankfully that was the only mishap of the day and the rest of us had a good safe day exploiting the sheer excess of power, speed and ability way beyond any of us mere mortals that is a modern sportsbike. So now my head is buried in magazines looking for any up-coming track days whilst Helen has resigned herself to second place... No chance honey!!!

Viva Terlingua!

We so didn't want to leave Terlingua. Such a great place that just felt so 'right' straight away. It obviously helped that we met great people - Cynta, who in turn arranged for us to park the RV in the yard of Sue & Joe. Such a warm welcome. The plan was just a night - Cynta laughed at us and said people never stay what they planned - and she was right - it really didn't take that much persuading for us to stay an extra day (And really it could've been so much longer). Terlingua Ghost Town is such a funky little community that we felt right at home in - out walking the neighbourhood dogs with Cynta in the mornings and sitting on 'The Porch' at the Starlight in the evening (and really the BEST margaritas I've tasted!). Last night we also met another great couple - Nancy and Chris - English (check), Young (check), RV'ers (check), wanting to emigrate to Canada (check)!!! Talk about conincidence! In all this time of travelling we've met next to no RV'ers our kind of age and then we do and we're similar in those other aspects too! Obviously we had a fair amount to chat about!! With 4 Brits in the house we treated Terlingua to a little of the weather from home - got them pretty exicited about the flash of rain that passed through - first for them since November I think it was!! With that came a spectacular show - lightening like we'd never seen - dramatic fork lightening going across the sky in all directions - amazing!

Staying the extra day also gave us the chance to check out a wicked little biking road that Sue & Joe implored us to do. (FM170) Just 62 miles long between Terlingua and Presidio it was non-stop twisties and roller-coaster straights - sometimes both at the same time! There were a few crazy blind bend hilltops and some seriously steep hills - following the Rio Grande all the way. We stopped in Presidio for lunch then turned around and did the route in reverse - which was just like a whole new road of turns and twists putting the new bike through it's paces. We stopped at a little old film set village and some fun teepees (or wig-wams?) check out the pics!

Big Bend National Park

We've just spent the last 3 days in Big Bend National Park. Right at the bottom of Texas on the border with Mexico. A very remote and beautiful part of the state. The Rio Grande runs along the edge of park creating a natural border with Mexico. We camped down by the river - the hottest place to be! But the other campsite was up in the Chisos Basin - 5500ft up with a small, twisty and steep road with a bunch of switchbacks to contend with - not a road that Harvey could handle! It would've been nice but I don't think we'd have lived to be writing this blog!! Instead we used the bike to get around the park. We did a couple of amazing hikes up in the basin - one out to 'the window' - a gap in the mountains surrounding the basin where you can see out into the surrounding area (slightly spooked at the idea that the trail we used had had a bear sighting only the afternoon before - a bear with 4 cubs no less! - our crazy bear song came into good use once again!! - actually it was a pretty well used trail and we saw a bunch of other people out hiking too) The second hike of the day 'Lost Mine Trail' was way more peaceful - the trailhead had 2 other vehicles parked up and we passed 2 groups of people heading back down within a few minutes of us setting off so it seemed like a safe bet we were the only ones out on that particular trail that evening. We didn't leave till 6pm so we had gorgeous late afternoon light when we got to the top - just amazing views. Back in the basin we watched sunset - conviently it lines itself up just so with the window!! From the basin we had a 20 mile ride back down to the river campsite and here we were ran the gauntlet of sucidal animals that seem to live in Big Bend. We had near misses with 3 birds (added to the 3 birds that met their maker on the 8x12 foot speeding wall that is Harvey!) We saw 3 deer and then 3 javelinas - which we stopped in good time for but the truck coming the other way wasn't so good on the brakes... and lets just say if Javelinas were pigs then I'd be cooking myself a bacon butty right now! Finally the sucidal Jackrabbit so I seriously don't know how we missed - and by this time we were crawling along at a snails pace after all the near misses!!

But besides all the crazy animals there's been a few 'new' animals sightings for us to add to our list! Javelinas (they are NOT pigs!!) and a real live tarantula (not in a zoo!) and though we've seen them before we had a cute little roadrunner hanging around our campsite! The morning we left the winds had come in. Bad for visibility but great for the heat - so much cooler down by the river and we took a nice hike out along the river, through the desert to the Hot Springs. The cooler temperatures made it so much nicer easing yourself into the 100 degree water too of course!

Right now we're staying in Terlingua Ghost town - just a few miles outside of the park on the western side. We came here to meet up with a couch-surfer - Cynta. She lives in a beautiful house she'd rebuilt from the ruins of the ghost town (this was an old Mercury mining town which was abandoned in the mid 1940's). It's a great little place full of funky old ruins and the old Stralight theatre - now a great reaturant/bar/meeting place. The town mercantile with a huge porch full of intersting characters and impromptu music from someone sitting out and stiking up a toon on the banjo! It's so peaceful here! We just whiled away the evening sat on Cynta's porch star-gazing - and boy can you see the stars in a place like this?! There's just no light pollution - the sky just doesn't seem big enough for all these stars!

That grin...

Still hasn't worn off!

Yesterday we'd moved on to Hill Country, TX and some classic biking roads. There's a loop route of three roads - the 335,336,337 that are sweet (according to a t-shirt we saw someone wearing the 3 roads are called 'the 3 sisters' and it's a very well know biking route), We took a ride in of about 300 miles. A great way to get used to the bike a bit and help with that 'running in' thing. Hill Country is just gorgeous. This is actually the 3rd time we've visited (the first time we had no bike, the second I was ill so Chris went riding the route by himself). There's a whole bunch of exotic animals living in Hill Country (at times the scenery it quite African looking. We saw giraffes and plenty of exotic hooved animals with fancy antlers - not your regular white-tailed deer that's for sure!) I was most excited by the kangaroos!! (At least I think they were - they had the whole bouncy thing going on but were quite small - what's a wallaby? could it have been them?) Anyway, Cute and all chilling out under the shade of a tree in the heat of the day! There's so many rivers and the contrast between the lush greeness and the bright blue sky was wonderful. We ate roadside BBQ at a bikers joint and kept the jackets open-necked to let the breeze in - it was a hot day!

Before leaving Austin we stayed with some other friends - Marty and Tom. They were fantastic tour guides who gave us an 'Austin in 8 hours' tour! Boy we crammed in a lot, it was great! We toured the capitol building (with a 4 floor building set underground next to the original domed building) and the senate & house of represenatives and into the Governors reception room. We went by Lake Travis (Another of Austin's lakes that was dammed), We saw their new house, had lunch at their new neighbourhood restaurant and finished off the day at the University of Texas Club in the Longhorns Football Stadium (the Longhorns are the College Football team of the Univeristy of Texas Austin). It was a great day out - thanks Marty & Tom!

A new addition to the family, Donkey is put out to pasture and Happy Birthday Chris!!

Well what a busy couple of days. It's all change in the Mills-Backhouse household. After nearly 3 years of loyal service Donkey (or 'The Donkster' as he was more recently known as (hey - it was a Buell we had to make him a little more hip and cool y'know?!)) was put out to pasture - to see out his days in a more relaxed and better place than hanging off the back of the RV for about 35,000 miles!!

And of course y'all know better that Chris isn't saying goodbye to one motorbike without welcoming in a new one! Yes we welcome a new (as yet un-christened) motorbike - a Honda CBR1000RR (Fireblade). To me it's a large shiny red and black thing. It has a higher pillion seat making it more difficult for me to clamber on and off but it IS much smoother ride, less vibrations and it sounds nice - much less like a Harley, much more my thing. Chris, well he's just spent the last 24 hours wandering around with an ear-to-ear grin - it's beginning to look a little scary, you know - village idiot look!

It wasn't REALLY that planned an event. He'd hankered after the 2007 model Fireblade since last November just before we left Texas when he saw they'd been discounted over $2000 on the new price (there's a new model out now which he prefers less). I reigned him in at that point but there'd been various mutterings over the past months and finally I suggested he phone round the Austin dealers 'just to see' if they still had any in stock in his colour choice. So all we'd really gone into the showroom for was to see what kind of trade-in price they'd give us on Donkey. He'd had a hard life, several scuffs and all and we'd been offered just $1000 last November which was a joke. When the guy looked at the bike and offered us considerably more than what we'd even hoped for we didn't even look at each other (we just knew it was good!), and pretty much signed on the dotted line right there. About 45 minutes later Chris rode out the door on the new bike!! I got all upset about Donkey - poor old thing. I was probably more fond of him than Chris (being the underdog, and I never really appreciated all his faults and shortfalls than Chris found so frustrating). That was all yesterday. I like to think that it was his birthday present - that's what I'm saying anyway - because that makes me sound like a really cool, understading wife!!

Today we're staying with friends John & Michelle and their kids Kate & Callum in Austin. Started the day off watching a VERY exciting little league Baseball game that Callum was playing in. This is WAY more interesting than grown-ups baseball and I even totally got the hang of the scoring, along with a little screaming and cheering! John & Michelle took us out to lunch for Chris's birthday. It was a scorchio day and what better place to be than down near the water - Lake Austin to be precise. There was a great Hawaiian themed place called 'The Hula Hut' (though I'm sure most of the food was TexMex) right on the water and we sat out drinking cold beer and margaritas on the deck before eating a late lunch.

Back in the USA!!

Oh it's so good to be back. We had an OK journey back from Gatwick, via Philadelphia and into Houston. At least this time US Airways served something vaguely edible!! We had a 4 hour stop over in Philly but just as well as we spent some time chatting to the folks at immigration. Of course we're nice people and once they realised this they were more than happy to stamp our passports and see us on our way. But that only left time for our first American junk food meal (in the form of Chick-Fil-A - it could be worse!) before boarding for the second leg of the journey. By this time I was quite frankly cranky. I'd worked out we were fast approaching the 24 hour-with-no-sleep time and I still had to drive from the airport back to the Storage facility where Harvey was parked. Things looked right up when we ended up landing 3/4 hour earlier than we'd expected. We're still not sure whether we'd got the times wrong or the pilot just drove fast!!(Oh - you know how we always moan about England. Can I just point out the America charges $3 for a trolley at the airport (compared to free) AND the bottles of water at the airport were more expensive than England. Now don't say I never say anything nice and complimentary about my place of birth!!) The hire car place was empty so we were through that in a flash. They had no compact cars so we've ended up with a monster of a 7-seater MPV - it's SO embarrassing - someone might think I've got children!! I set to the drive with new and renewed energy and we even zombied our way round Walmart to stock up on some immediate essentials. We were in bed at 12.30am local time - just 25.5 hours after we'd got up in England the previous day.

Harvey had no power or water that night. But everything looked good by torchlight. The lady from the storage facility had come by and opened the windows for freshness but I'm sure it still smelt of the air freshener I'd blitzed 5 months previous! We had a surprisingly good nights sleep and and when we came to move next door into the campground Harvey even started on the 2nd try - no dead vehicle batteries!!! And everything IS GOOD. Harvey is great. A small hiccup with some rain through the roof but nothing we didn't know about. Still confused as to why our plastic sunflowers are in a vase full of water???....(I'm sure there wasn't THAT much rain come through the roof!!!)

Tallinn, Estonia - last days in Europe

OK. So it's been awhile. Once we got back to the UK we had just 6 days to get our gear in order before heading off again to the USA. It's only today that I got to download the photos from our last days in Eastern Europe!..

Our final stop was Tallinn in Estonia. We couch-surfed here for 2 nights with a wonderful host - Marion (thanks!!). Her apartment was just minutes walk from the old town. She took us out to eat at a great restaurant - Kompressor. They did enormous stuffed pancakes and were a bargain price. Apparently EVERYTHING in Estonia gets served with sour cream - and Kompressor didn't let us down - I had a garlic sour cream with my cheese & mushroom stuffed beast! (It was so good we wound up here on our 2nd night too!) She also gave us a private guided tour of the Old town theatre - the Linnatheater. It's in a beautiful old building (or rather several buildings on the same block). The facades are all classicly old and inside it's a wonderful higgildy piggidly maze of rooms, backstage areas, workshops, dressing rooms and stages. There are 3 stages, all only seating a few people (maybe 100-150?) Somehow it's all been fused together inside even when each building looks so 'separate' from the street. Sadly the weather in Tallin was terrible. I guess it was the most north we went on our 3 week trip and it's on the Baltic Sea (now doesn't that just seem to shout COLD/WET at you?!?!?) We still did a walk round the old town cobbled streets and buildings but it was inter-jected with a darn sight more cosy coffee shop stops than usual!! (Check out the spire of that church - you can't even see the top it's so shrouded in mist!!) There was a particularly great coffee shop right on Raekoja plats (the main town square). It had rough, uneven stone floors, low ceilings, cosy soft lighting and comfy old sofas in the corner AND they served a great hot cocoa and mulled wine (not together!) and cheesecake - what more could you ask for?!

So after 3 weeks and 1 day we flew back to the UK. Sad for our short trip to be over but had a brilliant time visiting 7 different countries. We travelled by plane, train, bus, underground, tram, fenicular, foot & cable car!!

Latvia

This was Riga. In Latvia. Great place. We spent 2 nights here staying in a great hostel right in the centre of the old town. A small old town area and very easy to get around by walking alone. Sadly already overpopulated by drunk English who have already made a name for themselves (we were there on a Saturday night so at it's worst). But then, where Easyjet go, the drunk British yob will follow...

This trip we've seen more cobbled streets than you could shake a stick at. Also since getting to the Baltic countries we've seen a LOT more rain. (and there's something quite lovely looking about wet cobble-stones glistening in the neon lights of an evening!)

From Riga we took a bus ride about 50km out of town to Sigulda. It's a town of castles. 3 in fact. Pretty old - around 800 years. 2 are in serious ruins but the 3rd - Turaida castle is in pretty good shape with the help of some restoration! It was a great place for some hiking along the Gauja river and in the woods. We took a cable car across the river valley in one direction then walked (And got lost!) before finally making our way to the castle. At that point the heavens opened (lucky we weren't still walking) so we took refuge in the castle until it eased off!

Happy Anniversary to us!! in Lithuania!

6 Years and counting!! We celebrated our 6th Wedding anniversary today in our 6th different country! Yahay!! A fun tradition that crept up on us a couple of years back and so far so good!! This year we were in Lithuania! We were staying in the city of Vilnius. It was lovely (though didn't quite live up to my expectations of old world euro capital - I must admit I've been somewhat spoiled for choice of late!!) It was a small city and so ideal for us to just stroll around. We had some great food and yet more of the wonderful European beer and visited the Museum of Genocide victims (housed in the former KGB headquarters!). It was a great museum, with excellent displays and plenty of English langage info. In the basement were the old cells and exocution chamber.

From Vilnius we took a 4.5 hour coach journey to Riga in Latvia. Now this is far more my idea of classic, old world quaint European city....

Auschwitz & Birkenau

Today we took a day-trip to the Auschwitz & Birkenau State museum - about 1.25 hours from Krakow.These are such famous names they need no introduction.
The Auschwitz site is much smaller and was the original camp - many of the original buildings remain. Once they outgrew that and needed more gas chambers and crematoria they built the Birkenau site about 3km away. This covers approx 1 square mile, and although the retreating Nazi's tried to cover-up the horrors that had taken place by destroying much of the place some barracks, the railway lines, the unloading dock and perimeter fences remain. It truly is a vast place (there were over 300 barrack blocks here, 4 gas chambers (holding up to 2000 people at one time) and crematoria.

Because so many of the deportees arrving at Auschwitz were gassed on arrival and were never registered (as many as 70%) it has never been agreed exactly how many people perished at these camps. However it is estimated that the figure is in the region of 1.5 million; 90% of which were Jews. It was an insightful day...