Spring ski trip 2010

Early 2010

We are now on our travels across Europe with the caravan, the plan being to stop at a few ski resorts en route back to Spain, and ski a bit here and there.

We had some problems the day before the start from our home in England with a mechanical failure of the toilet which created loads of stress. The problem was resolved at the very last moment; the very hour we were due to set off, the parts arrived. We then found, while camping at Folkston, that Arthur had not winterized the caravan and we had a burst hot water tank. So the next morning on the ferry to France, thanks to our new Dongle, we sent a frantic e-mail to the German dealer we’d bought it from, and when we arrived at his place on Friday morning, his staff were ready to leap into action. This is Europe’s largest centre for Hobby caravans and motor homes and is situated right by an exit off the A5 autobahn, dead easy to find. www.ernst-caravan.de if you are interested.

They just got the job completed before they shut for a two-hour lunch break and we were quickly on our way again down to Switzerland, where we stayed on a small campsite in a small ski resort. This enabled us to visit Peter and Sylvia and also had planned to ski here but the weather was poor so we didn’t.

On our way to Germany we had stopped at two camp sites in France, at Berny-Riviere and at Obernai. We have used the municipal site at Obernai before; it is excellent, nice heated sanitaires including an excellent washing up area, a decent electric hook-up, and just a short walk into a beautiful town. Not only that, but the toilets have seats on and there is toilet paper provided. You think that’s normal? No, not on French camp sites! Don’t forget the free included WI fi!!!

After leaving the Swiss village of Sattel, another day’s travelling got us down to the French Alps, and here we are on a very friendly little site just outside Morzine, nice and quiet until last night when we had an invasion of six British motor homes, full of families for some half term skiing. This place too is very good, with under floor heating in the showers and a warm room to leave skis and boots etc.

Having got the water system fixed, the extreme cold has knocked it out again and it is all frozen up! I have drained the parts that were not frozen and left all the taps open in the hope that our new hot water tank has not been dealt a death blow so soon after being fitted (less than a week!)

Yes, we can get by without hot and cold running water but it’s a real pain. We would not have wanted to try getting by without four wheel drive, it has been invaluable this trip.

We have had temperatures of minus 20 C here!!!  Skiing this last week has been for the hardy with daytime temps of around minus 15C on the slopes here in Les Gets, within sight of Mont Blanc. We had poor visibility (and lots of snow fall) for three days which spoilt things a bit and we have changed plans a time or two during this trip and will possibly make another major change very soon. We have been glad of the thermal underwear, and yes, even the crash helmets, as they help to keep you warm. A bit of energetic skiing here and there has helped get the circulation going too.

We will stay here until Wednesday which is longer than our original plan, but then we may cut out our planned stop on the Italian border as bad weather is due there the same time as us. We may well push on to the Mediterranean coast then head for Andorra. Time will tell.

Tuesday 16^th is Mardi Gras and we plan to go along to a firework display in the evening. We have been to several fireworks displays in France over the years, and have yet to attend one that starts less than an hour late, so we hope we won’t have to stand around in the cold too long this time. We shall see!

Tuesday

In the town of Morzine on the floodlit piste, there was a demonstration of old tyme skiing early in the evening, more accurately, the history of skiing through the years with different types of skis.

An entertaining 35 minutes at the end of which the commentators (one French, one English) said goodnight and the lights were turned out.

We wandered off to find the much hailed firework display by following the crowd who were obviously confused.

As we reached the town centre, the fireworks started on the ski slope that we had just left! You would believe that the French would do that wouldn’t you! The crowd all turned round and hurried back.

Wednesday February 17^th and after a major change of plans, we are off to Narbonne on the Mediterranean coast. This is a day to tug our “house” 380 miles, of which 320 were on toll roads. The Brits hate paying 160 or so pounds per year road tax and the Americans hate the tolls they pay occasionally, but the French are in a class of their own with toll fees today of around 52 Euros for 320 miles, that’s 47 British pounds or 70 US dollars!

Now you know why we like to travel the Route Nationals. Today’s run was just too far to take the slower route and still arrive at the campground in daylight, hence our unusual use of the autoroutes.

We have moved to here because the weather was predicted to be rubbish in the ski resorts and so we are now a big chunk warmer (it’s 13°C plus instead of minus) and in a day or two will arrive in Andorra for a week to ski in glorious sun with a free lift pass for an old geezer like me. This will also get us back to Altea a bit earlier than expected.

The lasting impressions of Les Gets were the number of crash helmets being worn by all and sundry (but more notably the young and the retired) and also being given a demonstration of how to attack a steep slope by an eight year old who was truly awesome! Oh yes, and the whole experience was let down by the appalling state of the toilets. The French really need to learn how to look after the tourists if they want us to go back; we expect better than this. 

Just one more small item that made me think in France. Propane gas is 26 Euros for 13 Kg and in Spain it is 12 Euros. On our caravan, we have one Spanish bottle and one French bottle. Perhaps we need to reconsider our strategy, but bearing in mind one can only buy Spanish bottles in Spain.

Saturday and after a break at Montpellier and the opportunity to discover that the water system wasn’t “mort”, it was time to push on across France and the Mediterranean coast before heading inland for the Pyrenean mountain range.

This was a lovely day to travel, bright sun and the snow on the mountains; we were soon set up in Andorra in our normal half hearted camp site but the best of a not very great bunch. Saturday is changeover day for hotels and so the roads into and out of Andorra were very busy with departing guests and arriving guests.

Andorra is a crazy country (principality to be accurate), you are either going uphill or downhill, there are NO level bits. Whenever these guys need more space for anything, they make level ground by hacking at the cliff face. I have predicted that they will soon cover over the river and build on the land. We had a little explore today (Sunday) as the cloud was covering the place. We were actually driving at over 8,000 feet altitude in several places. I cannot admire the scenery in Andorra, I find it a bit ugly but the skiing is superb.

We managed to get an internet connection at the Hotel Encamp and checked the weather forecast which proved to be a bit dismal. The only prospect we had was a good start to Monday and then deteriorating rapidly. We were up and on the pist early on Monday but by one o’clock it had all gone down the tubes and we retired.

Raining like crazy on the afternoon and we will be on the way home early on Tuesday, It’s quite a drive pulling our little house from here to Altea in Spain but we know that if we bash on relentlessly, we will be home by six (ish).

We have had fun on our tour but it was not a great holiday for skiing.

Must plan next years skiing a little better.

Cost 2500 miles at 25 mpg towing 100 gal at £5 m= £500 (this allows to return c/van to uk)

Camping                              20 nights @ 20 =                    £400

Ferry crossings Folkstone/France                                 £70

Ferry Roscoff/Plymouth                                                                  £170

Montreal and onward

29 July 09

We are having “fun” in Montreal.
We are at quite a nice campground some forty miles from the city, where we have good Wi-Fi but have to put up with some road noise, can’t have everything.
We arrive just in time for Christmas, the campground had decided to relieve the boredom and have a Christmas parade an hour after we arrived and so in the blazing sun, Father Christmas made his rounds on a golf cart! The children were delighted.
Our trip into the big city started well with a trip to the Montreal Olympic site, the buildings now have new practical uses, one as Canada’s answer to the Eden Project in Cornwall. This kept us amused for half a day then we moved on to the city quayside for a look at the market and the canal (no big deal). When we returned to our truck we found that someone had had a very successful go at it. The ignition lock was all smashed up and wires hanging everywhere and we were missing many items including a bicycle and the sat nav. Also we needed to get the truck “rescued”.
Sorting this problem in Canada, where the natural language is English, should not be a problem, but in this part of Canada they don’t speak much English, it’s more sort of French!
For all that the French infuriate me with their very Frenchness; these guys take it to a new level!
Even the insurance company is being difficult, so we anticipate paying for our own problems.
We have already found a superb GPS sat nav courtesy of the internet and a few other things that we need but I expect that a new bike will wait till we are back in America, hopefully day after tomorrow!
Today, the saving grace has been the fact that we have “Skype,” and so can make the many phone calls courtesy of the internet; thankfully we have a decent internet connection at the campground.
Freda spent a lot of time today on the “phone” sorting problems. A very full day, even sorting a rental car was difficult as we need to have it delivered and we are not near a major town. We have got one eventually (hopefully, tomorrow) so that we can return the 50 miles to Montreal to collect our truck which is at the Ford dealer for repair. Ford roadside rescue got us and the truck to the nearest Ford dealer, but we had to get a taxi back to the campground as all the car rental places were closed. Our most expensive taxi ride ever, at 123 CAD, that means Canadian dollars.
The rest of Canada has been fun even if it is generally 10% below the USA in terms of efficiency and service.
The weather has been very mixed, heavy rain followed by hot sun. Today has been nice and sunny even if a bit humid.
Normally I enjoy France and the French, one minute being bloody minded and then absolutely charming, but this lot in Canada, words fail me. Perhaps it is partly due to the theft problem. I have since been told that Montreal is the crime capital of Canada. I have had problems with theft in Spain, Italy and England so theft is pretty universal but I was still glad to leave behind French Canadians and head to the USA.
Maine, New England and it is the time of the Lobster Festival, well, it would be rude not to try some, wouldn’t it?
We have had a run into Rockland where the festival was in full flight. The most amusing event we saw was a row of wooden crates (about a hundred yards long) strung together and floating in the harbour. The idea was to get across as quickly as possible, and attracted the young people of the area. This was no careful walk; they were running like hell! The last competitor we saw was going like a train and hailed from Alaska, so I don’t suppose he’d had the opportunity to practice in previous years. I think I should put the video onto “You Tube” it was so much fun!
I have a new bicycle now, $99 in Wal-Mart with front and rear suspension and twenty one gears, how cheap can this sort of stuff get?
Sunday and after the promise of a bright sunny day, we had a dull and drab day, bad enough to cause the NASCAR race at Pocono to be cancelled due to rain. I had contemplated making the run down to Pocono only because my petrol head wife would have loved it all but it would have meant a considerable change of plan, glad I didn’t do that.
Monday was a stunning day and we chose to go into the nearby town of Boothbay Harbor, very New England and very Peyton Place for those of you with a long memory. We had a pleasant amble round the town and noted a two hour cruise on a 56ft schooner, Shall we? Shan’t we? We did, and what a good decision that was, thirty on board including crew and jolly good fun for all, and all for $25 a head, great stuff. The sailing part was good but we also saw seals and ospreys, lots of other stuff including a whale, although I must confess that the whale was one that had washed ashore and was very dead!
We had a coffee in the local hotel and a gentle stroll back to where our bikes were parked, a quick shop for food and then home to organize a superb evening meal.
Onboard the schooner, we had been told where to buy soft shelled lobster, cooked to order for only $4 per pound. Lobster is not our normal fare , it always seems so overpriced but at that kind of value, we had to give it a try and so after the boat trip, we went and ordered a couple of Lobsters to be collected later in the afternoon.
The previous evening we had been to a seafood restaurant and while Freda sorted out the boring stuff, I took time to video the young lady dousing the live lobsters into the steam and then preparing them for the table, a fascinating learn to be put to good use the following day!
While we were having our own lobsterfest outside our RV, our neighbor came along and introduced himself, and we made an appointment to attend his RV for wine “tasting” later in the evening.
Today has been a two hundred mile drive down to Middleboro, Massachusetts, after driving through three states (there was a short loop through New Hampshire). I had done enough driving by the time we got here, passing through Boston was crazy busy and so was the stretch to the south. I was glad to get out of the driving seat and Freda had done enough navigating thank you very much. Life is so much easier when you have sat nav and of course, more difficult without.
Caroline is travelling to this part of the world next weekend and then we will have our new sat nav at last (it was delivered to her address a couple of days ago)
We now have an agreement with our insurance company, they are going to pay and so I am feeling about a grand more cheerful!
The next day we visited Plymouth, MA where the Pilgrims first landed in USA on the Mayflower. We visited the Mayflower II, a replica of the original built in Brixham, Devon and sailed over a few years ago. It was a very hot day and we enjoyed a lovely cool milk shake full of ice cream.
Our next day out was to Martha’s Vineyard, a very exclusive part of America. Getting there cannot be complicated as it’s only thirty miles. Don’t you believe it! Drive to the outskirts of town (Falmouth) and take the shuttle bus to the ferry. The shuttle turned out to be (for us) the bike bus. This was another novel experience. We all sat one side of the bus and the bikes (about twenty of them) hung on hooks on the other side. The day was not too hot, you don’t see much when it’s too hot as you cannot be bothered to make much effort and so the temperature suited us just fine.
A forty-five minute boat ride across the water to the Island which has similarities to the Isle of Wight in some respects, (except that the homes all seemed to be very very up market). Like the Isle of Wight ferry, it is crazy expensive to take your car across so the bikes were the only way to go. I pedalled myself to a standstill and had to stop for a beer whilst the bike shop mended a puncture in my new bike! At the end of the day I was well worn.
Rhode Island. My son-in-law Bruce’s employer has spent a fortune building real estate in this part of the world. He has had constructed a tower block at a cost of $400 million and several houses, one of which we got to stay in for the weekend. It’s not every weekend that you are loaned a $2.4 million house but that’s the way the guy works. You had better be prepared to work 2.4 million hours per week for the privilege.
Bruce gave us the guided tour of the complex and it was all amazing, especially the penthouse that was looking for a new owner, someone with $15million spare change but it was lovely.
We are back to reality now, our house on wheels but it is ours and this is not difficult living. It was nice to make our way home aided by our new sat nav.
Last proper camp tomorrow in New York State for three nights then down to Quakertown, PA to clear out all our stuff before putting our “house” into store for a few months
Newburgh, near Albany, New York State.
Deep in the woods but the weather is very hot and we are glad of the shade and the air-conditioning,
We have two days here, we can spend a day getting sorted before the trip into storage and a day sight seeing, the only problem is my wife’s over active imagination. Day one sort all our stuff but only after we have been here there and everywhere. Day two is well planned but the sorting out sort of got missed!!
As if the site owners know that they have to beat the opposition and they have heard about Christmas in July at Montreal and not to be outdone by the “Hayride” offered on most camp grounds, this lot have a beautiful old fire engine that they thrash round the campground loaded with kids each day! Sirens and bells going flat out, all good fun!
Day one and we haven’t had breakfast at “Cracker Barrel” for a long time and there is one locally. This is a country style sort of place, a bit up market but very old world and nice, we just had to go. It was not much further to West Point Military Academy and it would have been rude not to go. The next day we drove into the Catskill Mountains and visited the Belleayre Ski resort. This was a not desperately exciting place but it was all trees and sunshine in a relaxed manner so it was good. Sod all was achieved re packing today!
We have fair internet connection here; this is normally free on most campgrounds we’ve been to. I note with dismay that the British Camping and Caravanning Club are offering this service at £4 per hour, an outrageous fee!
My new bike was getting scratched against the side of the truck bed as was the truck bed itself and so I dived into “Lowes” (DIY superstore) and bought some timber to sort the problem. The timber was very cheap and not the usual crap “white deal” that we have in B&Q, this was respectable hardwood that would make something durable, what a pity that I only have limited tools here, one has to have some tools but eventually one has to draw the line. Lowes is like B&Q and it is easy to see where B&Q got the idea from, to be more precise, go to “Home Depot” next time you are in the USA and you will feel very, very “at home” like you would not believe. The prices are different of course but the stuff on sale is a similar sort of stuff, same colour, same layout!
Time to move on back to Philadelphia area and empty the RV of most of the stuff before it goes into store. There’s just one problem, this morning we had an e-mail from our friendly RV dealer, who normally stores our RV, that says he is shutting down his business in a few days!
We have had a hunt round the dealers after we had parked up north of Caroline’s house in the mud of Tohickon Family Campground. They cannot help the rain (and we have had a lot!) but the place does quickly turn into a bog with little provocation. I must find somewhere else to start and end our trips.
Caroline grabbed a phone and found us a really good storage deal not far away so that will be our next and final stop for the R.V. for this year

From Montreal looking back

Muskoka 5th July
Parry Sound is actually on Georgian Bay, round the corner from Lake Huron. We have moved on from there after meeting up with our Canadian friends Gary and Judy who we met in North Carolina last October.
Gary and Judy arrived to spend a little time with us at Parry Sound, home of the world’s largest fresh water Archipelago. There are thirty thousand Islands here and a boat trip convinced me that if you’ve seen one etc… We were told that an island has to be one acre in size to be called an island, anything smaller than that doesn’t count.
A boat is a definite must here, some folks even have floatplanes at the bottom of the garden whereas I only have fairies!
Gary and Judy escorted us to our new campground, about sixty miles from Parry Sound and close (by Canadian standards) to where they live. An invite to dinner was immediately offered (and accepted), and so we leapt back into the truck and headed for the boondocks.
Our friends live a ways off the “pavement” (tarmac) on the very edge of the water and we were treated to a very pleasant ride on the lake in the power boat. It was interesting that full throttle could be used on the 50 horse motor without my lunch being spilled over the side. The two Labrador dogs like to sit in the prow but not when we are going flat out!
I am pleased to see that these guys over here and in America have got all the toys that a man needs, it annoys me greatly that it is not so in the U.K.
Just to illustrate how out in the wilds these guys live, Gary and Judy had seen a bear in their yard only a few days earlier.
There was an evening concert in the park which we attended, the country music star was playing and singing at a speed of dead slow, we all nearly fell asleep.
We have been trying to play golf again as we do on rare occasions. The 9-hole par three course on the campground had so many trees, bunkers and water hazards, that we almost lost a ball per hole! This is not a course for novices.
We stayed at Gary and Judy’s house for a few days. I was amazed at the wildlife in the garden; there were red squirrels, grey squirrels and would you believe, black squirrels! We also had chipmunks and Mallards, and lots of beautiful birds.
The day dawned that I had to paddle a kayak but it was no problem. Gary had told us previously that he and Judy have a collection of kayaks and when the moment arrived I was given a kayak built for two with a large beam. My wife who has the large beam got the racing kayak. This was all lots of fun and a memorable event. Then Judy suggested a swim, she said swimming off the dock was OK, but I was deliberately slow at getting my clothes off (fortunately), and Freda was first in the water. As the video was capturing the moment, she didn’t like to hesitate about it!
Not for the first time this side of the “pond” we attended a vintage boat show. These boats are all about varnished wood and beautiful styling, a combination that is hard to put together and anyone who has had a boat will tell you that keeping things that way requires lots of hard work.
If you own a boat in Canada, you need a boat house. The kind of place that will protect your boat in a serious snow storm and also fitted with a hoist so you can lift the boat out of the water, you don’t want it crushed by the Ice!
A local Old Tyme Steam fair was nothing compared to what we have seen at the Great Dorset Steam Fair in England but there was some strange and interesting stuff to be seen.
A memorable stay with Gary and Judy in the Muskoka region,
We moved 125 miles (perhaps I should really be working in kilometers like the Canadians do) in a south east direction to spend time with horse farming friends, Debbie and John. They found us a convenient spot outside the hay barn, not too far to stagger at the end of an evening!
We saw some of the local countryside and because Canada has a lot of water (don’t ask about the mosquitoes!) it has lots of canals and locks.
The local town had another spectacular lock with a 48 foot rise and fall. This is actually a two stage staircase on a very pretty part of the outskirts.
By pure chance, there was a boat due and I was talking to the boat owner, before he dropped out of sight and into the depths of the lock,
It transpired that a buddy of his who previously owned a nightclub on the Island of Jersey, (Channel Islands) was actually one of the nuttier customers that I had had at my garage! His pal had arrived fresh off the channel island ferry at my garage by taxi. “I want a car, that one, I want it now” he said producing a briefcase stuffed with readies.
Three days later I’d had a phone call from a Rolls Royce dealer in London, the guy had done a similar stunt there and the Dealer was wondering if he had stolen the car that the man wanted to trade in and the briefcase full of money! I explained that the man was a former nightclub owner from Jersey and seemed ok to me, my bank manager liked the money, what more could I ask!
I spent a little time helping John and Debbie with the haymaking and it reminded me what a bad habit work is. We enjoyed our stay on the farm but were constantly reminded that horses equal flies!
Another 130 miles east to call on yet more friends, this time folks who have connections to my Swiss domiciled cousin Sylvia and her husband Peter. We have again been made extremely welcome by Rosmarie and Peter; this time we are in Mallorytown but I do wonder if the Brits would think it large enough to give it the title of town!
Rosmarie and Peter also have a black Labrador and the usual collection of wildlife in the garden but it was a treat to see a Hummingbird at the specially designed feeder that some folks have.
The campground is nice with a heated outdoor pool and wifi but it could not be called high speed internet and phone calls over the net are a bit fraught.
We often find poor mobile (cell phone) signals on campgrounds and just use the “Skype” anyway, but eventually the penny dropped that we do not have “roaming” on our USA cell phone, that’s why the bloody thing won’t work! We won’t worry about it now as we will be back in the USA in a couple of weeks and there was a time that I thought this might be our only trip to Canada but now I’m not so sure. We like it here.
One item of wildlife so far unmentioned is the skunk. We have seen a number of these and they are a little larger than I expected. We have also found out what the smell is like. They only create a stink when they are frightened but I suppose they are entitled to be frightened when a truck is bearing down on them faster than they can run. So far the only ones that stink are lying in the road, I have driven past the same dead skunk for several days and the smell has shown no sign of decreasing yet.
We have been having a fresh study of fuel consumption and the onboard computer tells us that when not dragging our home behind us we are doing 18.5 Miles per US gallon (24.2 miles per imp gallon), not bad when I remember the old Ford Zodiac Mk III doing 14 per gallon.
When our house is tacked onto the rear we manage only 11 mpg (US) or 13 miles per Imperial gallon, mustn’t grumble even if Canadian diesel cost a ridiculous £1.79 per US gallon or £2.14 per English gallon. It is important to remember that the whole kit and caboodle weighs twelve tons.
For all you pretend Spaniards, I did not bother to work it out as Ltrs per 100 Km, It’s been a long day and today we have moved to Ottawa, a leisurely trundle in the sunshine.
Well, we have “done” Ottawa and enjoyed it even if the weather did spoil things at the end of the day. We knew it would all go pear-shaped so we had planned to do outside things in the morning and indoor stuff later. Indoor stuff was inside the Canadian Parliament building and very interesting (and very English) it was too!
Outside, this was a very busy city with very French looking buildings and the chatter of French voices on the street, lots of water and rivers and even more canals. There is a staircase of eight locks alongside the Parliament building and maintained very well as a tourist attraction. The Brits could learn from this as we have a “staircase” of very grand proportions at Devizes, Wiltshire maintained very badly. What should be a tourist attraction to be proud of is barely scratching by, with no help from the government.
Ontario normally has superb weather at this time of year, not so this year. The weather Gods have deserted them and perhaps global warming is having more effect than anticipated. The weather is rubbish, big time thunderstorm today and lots of cloud, some days with temps in the low twenties. Low temps can be a good thing, we know how wearing a steady 32 centigrade can be but a normal amount of sunshine would be nice.
Canada is nice but just not as “sharp” as the USA. Campsite internet can be very poor to non existent, service in shops etc is just lacking that extra fizz that we have become used to; cars are generally smaller than the USA and roads a little narrower. It’s all in the economics with a smaller population to pay for a greater area so some things will never match the USA but the people have all been very nice!
To view the photos, click on the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/arthur.croasdell/CanadaPartTwo?feat=directlink

U.S.A. and Canada 2009

July 3rd Parry Sound, Canada.

We started this year’s American trip with a weekend in New Jersey, that’s the bit just south of New York. We went with my daughter and her husband to her mother-in-law’s caravan on the Jersey shore. I don’t think the Brits would want to pull this caravan down the leafy lanes of Dorset with a length of thirty eight feet. There was plenty of room for all five of us.
The following week we set off to collect our “home” and camped twenty miles from my daughter; we find it best to be sure we have everything in hand before disappearing over the horizon, and we had not seen our “fifth wheel” for over six months.
We spent a day or three near Quakertown, just getting our fifth wheel up to speed, stocking with groceries and other essentials like booze! We had to paddle about in the mud for a day or two, weather most unlike we should have had.
When we eventually left the Tohickan campground, we had 250 miles to cover on not the best roads. This was a bit of a challenge for my first day in a long time, behind the wheel and dragging our house. By this I mean tugging a total length of 54 feet and six tons of fifth wheeler, and my own six tons of truck, but at the end of the day we nicely parked at Watkins Glen.
We did allow ourselves to become sidetracked en route when we realized that the American National Soaring Association had a museum not far off our route, and so a quick phone call to discover how large the car park might be (we need them to be definitely not small, just think how much room I need to turn this rig around) and we had a small detour organized quickly. Some you win etc and this was not one of them. It was nice but not startling.



Watkins Glen
The motoring nuts among you will remember that Watkins Glen was the venue for the American Grand Prix in days of yore. As luck would have it, they were having a race weekend for race cars from days of yore while we were there. This was a three day event for the race cars but not for us. We were camped close enough to hear the cars during the daytime but it was not as noisy as being at Le Mans!
Watkins Glen’s main claim to fame is the spectacular glen that has nineteen waterfalls and lovely scenery. This is a NY State Park and they thoughtfully provide a return shuttle from the top of the glen. The Americans quickly cottoned on to the fact that you could ride the shuttle to the top and then walk the mile and a half downhill more easily. You will be proud to note that we walked both ways, it’s 832 steps going up, (plus lots of pathway) The walk was one of the most beautiful sights that I have seen for a long time and must come very close to the top of them all!
We did see more than our share of waterfalls and yet we still had Niagara to come. We thought we might be “waterfalled out” before we got there!
The Finger Lakes region, is the wine region, or one of them. We found a winery open for tasting for a very modest one dollar a head. We just had to do that, and had some fun including a guided tour of the wine making and brewing facility. (They made beer too.) We did expect to be “strong-armed” into buying wine, having sampled the “degustation” in the Loire Valley in France, but that was not the case here. I did buy a few bottles and am very pleased with the result.
We spent the Sunday at the race track, cheap admission and we could go anywhere we liked. We had a great day in the sun and were glad we took our bikes to help get around. We treated ourselves to an ice cream at one point, one dollar each. Can you imagine that at Silverstone?

Canandaigua We moved a hundred miles to the northern end of the Finger Lakes area and had a few days at a rather nice campground, cycling the Erie Canal and other places, before going on to Niagara.
We had a bright weather window of opportunity at Niagara, a little cloud on the first day improving over the next few days. We elected to leave the falls until the third day, having seen them before. The falls themselves are there because the two lakes, Huron and Ontario, are at greatly different heights. There is a lot of shipping with quite large boats on the lakes and to move from one lake to the next requires a canal of gigantic proportions, The Welland canal.
The Welland canal has the largest locks that I have ever seen, lock three has a rise and fall of 47 feet and another of the locks claims to have the greatest length in the world.
We also visited the botanical gardens, St Catharine’s and Niagara on the lake, and finally, in bright sunshine, we visited Niagara Falls.
If you park your car opposite the falls, it will cost $20 but if you look just a little further along the road it’s only $4 per hour. Look a little further still, and it’s free! Park and ride – our bikes, that is.
Last time we were here, fifteen years ago, we had steady rain, today we had perfect weather and we thought there was more water going over the falls. We will check our picture album when we are next in Spain, and compare.
Time to move on, another seventy miles.
Toronto
Toronto was a short blast of some seventy miles from Niagara and it was the kind of day one is pleased to sit in air conditioned comfort, I almost wished the drive was longer. Our new garden outside our ever moving house is just a little nicer and more spacious than the last. We are not far from the pool but as yet it is untried.
Day two and we had a drive into the big city after an outdoor breakfast in the sunshine. The day became a little overcast and as soon as we had parked and unloaded the bikes, we were struck by a thunderstorm and so we sat in the cab watching the torrential rain and relaxed for a while.
We had a little cycle around the Waterfront Trail before an excellent light lunch. The CN Tower, claimed to be the tallest in the world, was almost engulfed in the low cloud and the queue to get to the viewing platform was discouraging. We gave it a miss. Perhaps today was not a great adventure, but it was fun and that’s the bottom line.
Day three and we went to investigate the town of Hamilton. This was the place where, in another life, I was once planning to emigrate to. It would have been an excellent choice but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
During the evening we did another adventure, something that neither of us had done before; we went to the local horseracing track where they had been advertising the “Pepsi $1,500,000” all week.
We found we could enter the track for free and that the $1.5 million was all on race number seven! All the other races were for a miserable forty grand or so, just to add insult; this was for Trotting. There were no seven stone weaklings sitting on these horses, these horses didn’t even carry the jockey! (They had to drag one behind on a sulkie)
All good fun and another new experience.
Owen Sound, 96 miles north of Toronto. We set off from Toronto on minor roads in the drizzle but we saw no point in rushing towards a soaking when we arrive and set up our mobile home. We just cruised for three hours. We arrived to find dry weather that later turned to sunshine. The campground itself is quite pretty but communications are dismal with no internet unless you trip to the office, no signal on the phone and only five TV channels. The ‘net’ is particularly dismal as we normally make all our phone calls courtesy of Skype.
We eventually find that the net is a satellite service and is badly affected by weather so we can be down to 5Kbs/sec on occasion.
The folks next door have a bird feeder, the birds drop bits of food to the ground and then we have the sight of a family of chipmunks there twice a day to re-fuel! Quite novel to us Brits.
We had a good walk through the forest yesterday but today does not promise great things, perhaps a day to catch up on those boring chores that we have to do to survive like washing and ironing but we did have a short trip into town.
Tomorrow is Canada day and we will be travelling again, this time to Parry Sound, a distance of 140 miles.
Parry Sound
Almost a sea side resort but of course it’s a lake, Huron. We made the journey in three hours which pleased me as the roads were not great. Canada has not the population to pay for top class roads the way the Americans have, and so I don’t moan about the quality. Considering the economics, the Canadians do very well.
Today July 1st, is Canada Day and everyone celebrates. We went into town in the afternoon, just to see what was in the offing. There was all the stuff on the quayside that you might expect with ice cream and other stalls, and on the band stand were the nature experts giving brief chats to the children about Canadian wildlife, mainly snakes and quite fascinating. A quick inspection of the schedule showed that we were to have fireworks at ten pm and a rock band at eight, good enough to make us return later that evening.
We still have no phone and p*** poor internet! And another thing, the weather is distinctly lacking sunshine!! The weather should be around twenty eight this time of year but today it might make 21 with luck!

You can see the latest pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/arthur.croasdell/USAAndCanada2009?feat=directlink

At the top left you can click to view as a slide show and then click F11 to view full screen

Blog 081201


Christmas looms and it is time to wish you all a (not too)

Merry Christmas
You will get none of this Happy Holidays nonsense from us.

Some folks have been advised by e-mail that the Blog has been up-dated. I will not be doing this whilst we are in Spain so you can log in occasionally if you wish. I will endeavour to tell a tale once a month or so.

I have written a book! The hard bit about writing a book is getting the thing published and so I have taken the step to put the first chapter “on line” in the hope that a bored literary agent may consider following through.
The book can be found at

http://www.arthursonlinebooks.blogspot.com/

The Americans are a polite lot, far more than the average Brit who is almost as bad as the French.

I do not include all my friends from Great Britain who now live alongside me in Spain. They and the Spanish generally show how it should be done.

The polite American drives his car the same way, politely! They could never be called aggressive drivers and in any traffic queue the motorcyclist “waits in line,” whereas in Europe, he would push to the front and be gone like a rocket. I have never had anyone go blasting past me on a motorcycle in America at 150 mph, as has happened in Europe on numerous occasions.

They are all so bloody boring, driving on good quality roads with good quality cars with a strong police presence including an astonishing number of unmarked police cars.

Why oh why then, do they have such a terrible toll of road deaths?

In Great Britain, questions were asked in our parliament about the death toll on the roads, 3,200 last year. This is a per capita figure of 5 deaths per 100,000 of population.

In a table of European road deaths, ALL were worse than Great Britain with the Portuguese worst of all at 20 deaths per capita. The Americans were have 14 deaths per capita.
Food for thought? For those who like statistics, 41,000 deaths on the road and 32,000 by gunshot in the USA. You are more likely to be shot in the USA than you are to die on and English road!

Florida and warm sunshine so today we set off to watch the shuttle land at Cape Canaveral. We take some crazy chances and often get away with them but not today. We had crap weather as we sat on Merritt Island nature reserve, a mile from the end of the runway, whilst NASA diverted the shuttle to Edwards air force base in California. Can’t win them all! We drove “home” in monsoon conditions.

VIAGRA
Everybody knows about Viagra, well, those who are of a certain age!
Over here in the USA, it really is everybody, the TV commercials are non-stop, even in the daytime! There are times when I can imagine young Janet or John saying “Mummy, What’s Viagra for?” Is this not “sexualising” children?

December 1st
Breakfast all you can eat for $3.99. It would be rude not to go wouldn’t it, so this morning we did! No lunch today!

Here in Florida (Kissimmee), they just don’t do snow. So at a nearby town called “Celebration,” once December arrives, every evening from 6pm they have suitable music and decorations while machines turn out artificial “snow”. It is artificial snow, but not as we know it, this is more of a soapy solution released onto the main street (no traffic on “snow days”) from an overhead system. The effect is really good. It fits in with the character of the town which is actually very artificial, like a film set; Peyton Place on steroids (for those old enough to remember).
We went along to the town of Celebration this evening, just for the fun. We met a Scot who had just phoned home to find that Scotland has just had 4 inches of the real stuff, he couldn’t stop laughing! You should find pic’s on our Picassa album.

Here in Kissimmee at the camp site, the de rigueur golf cart used by the management is a miniature “Hummer”! I will try to include a picture on the album.
Dec 2nd
Today I took my wife out to lunch, well; a guy has to treat a girl now and then. We went to the “Golden Corral”; you guessed it, all you can shove down your neck for $6.19 including soft drinks (sodas) and/or coffee. This is not poor quality and just one course, but three or four courses; the choice is amazing. No evening meal for us today!
Dec 3rd and another breakfast bonanza to be followed by crazy golf (Mini Golf they call it here) and last minute shopping before we set off on the long trek back to Pennsylvania.

Our nearest crazy golf has a heated pool; the water is heated so the collection of alligators doesn’t nod off to sleep for the winter! At this time of year, alligators normally slow down and almost stop, surfacing once a day to breathe, but not eating at all. We learnt that any food eaten now would, under normal conditions, just rot in their stomachs and kill them, as their digestive system has shut down for the winter. Of course, when they are kept warm, as are the “golfing ‘gators”, it is a different story; they are very frisky! See pic’s on the slide show.

We will have a night near Jacksonville, Florida on the way north.

When one reaches a “certain age” in England, it is necessary to re-apply for your driving licence. If you wish to continue to drive vehicles over a certain weight, you first have to get an expensive medical examination done, then you re-apply, not on the form they sent you, but a different one that you have to get from your local DVLA office. Then you must be very careful to tick all the right boxes or the government will take away your right to drive anything over a certain weight. I did all this well before my birthday, but our wonderful government has so far spent ten weeks sitting on my paperwork. In the meantime, my driving licence has expired, so if the American police ask to see my licence, (which you are required to produce on demand) I cannot produce one. Therefore my wife is now doing all the driving of our six ton truck with it’s six ton trailer!!

The cost of fuel has steadily dropped, regular gas (petrol to you Europeans) is now around the $1.75 but diesel (which is a waste by- product) is now $2.65.
This is a lot cheaper than nudging five bucks a gallon, as I was paying earlier in the year, but I cannot figure the reason that diesel is 53% dearer for a gallon of waste product.

We are well on our way north now; we will soon be into the snows of Pennsylvania and this particular trip will come to an end as we head for Europe. Since I have discovered that an astonishing number of you are following the Blog, I thought you might like to follow us back to England, Spain and then the rest of our travels through Andorra (for the skiing) and France for our brief return to England, before we return to the USA in the spring. It could be fun for all of us!

4th December and back in Georgia

Just occasionally I buy myself an English newspaper; I think I do it to remind me of what I am escaping from!

I note that England has become the promiscuity capital of the world; for sure old fashioned ideas on morality have been thrown out and I wonder where it will all end. If you were in Spain you might like to check the “personals” in my local paper and wonder, Spain is a country where prostitution is legal as is public nudity (with some limitations)

Don’t you Americans get too complacent, over here in the U.S.A. is a new dating agency website with a difference, it is for MARRIED folks, instant unmessy adultery!!! During the course of some intensive serious study, I now find that the Brit’s have a similar site so I’m not feeling too truculent!!!

The weather is a little cooler now, we have moved 230 miles north and just into Georgia.

Dec 5th
We leave the campsite and join the interstate after only one mile. A voice from the sat nav said “continue 193 miles”, I doubt that could happen in England but it’s a regular occurrence in the USA.

We are now back in Charleston, South Carolina and we will stay for two nights. I have my new “windows” to collect from the local Wal-Mart and when we were here a week or three back, we noted an advert for a major car show, and so we planned that into our return journey.

Watching a little TV this evening, I do wonder what those Americans who are not on the best quality analogue cable TV think. Often the reception is very poor indeed. Next spring, America will turn off analogue TV completely (as we will in England.) England is doing this in easy stages and we already have digital TV to a fair extent, only the die hards are avoiding digital. (My mother in law!)
The big upswing in quality will be a shock for many but meantime there is all kinds of advertising rubbish going on and the current quality of reception is abysmal.

If you fancy planning your holiday down in Kissimmee, Florida; we noted that the motels are doing stunning deals at $29.95 per night per room and better quality ones at $39.99 per room. Even with the £ at a poor state, this represents great value.

We have had a relaxing day, part of which was spent at the planned car show which we thought was overpriced and a bit disappointing. The admission did include a tour of the Plantation house which hosted the show, and that was quite interesting. Tomorrow it will be onwards to the north (and the cold weather) and another night or three, and we will be back in Pennsylvania, with night temperatures of -7C!

We are both looking forward to seeing family members in Pennsylvania and England, but we are very much looking towards seeing our friends on the Costa Blanca, Spain. We hear that at least one group has arranged a ‘blast’ to celebrate our return, and we also have a dinner organised to celebrate our “homecoming”. I really must organise a belated “birthday bash” for myself, probably at “The Imperial” in Calpe.

I see folks who don’t know me looking at my profile. That won’t tell you anything!

My wife Freda and I both love America very much so we chose to spend more time here. Doing America out of a suitcase is enough to drive you nuts, we have done that more than once, so we elected to get our hands on a fifth wheeler by any means. A fifth wheeler! Where in the world would you find one of these except America, you can see that we are embracing the American way of life as much as is practical, including having a camp fire in the evening.

Almost back to Philly and after a few days we wend our way to rainy England for a Christmas with the English side of the family, and then back to Spain where the sunshine is almost endless and a warm welcome awaits from friends, who come from around the world.

More about Spain later (January?)

Sometimes we feel like paupers when we see some of the flash setup that some Americans have. Half a million dollars spent on their toys for vacations seems like strong money in anyone’s language.


Don’t forget to visit our photo album at:-

http://picasaweb.google.com/arthur.croasdell/DaytonaAndKissimmeeOnwords

If you click above the top left picture, you get to see them as a full screen slide show!

Don't forget to visit my photo album which you can view as a slide show, it is at

http://picasaweb.google.com/arthur.croasdell/TravelingTheEastCoast#

Sunday 16th November 08
South from Myrtle Beach and on to Charleston, South Carolina, a pleasant visit even if the weather did turn cold. We had a nice site with KOA (Kampgrounds of America) again and after a sunny visit to the historic town centre we retired for the evening. We knew that the following day was going to be extremely cold, 10ºC (50 F) but with chilly winds of 25 mph it was a day to wrap up.
We chose to visit Patriot Point and spent a very cold day at the naval basin there inspecting all the ships, the main exhibit being the WWII Aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. Strange to relate, the previous evening we had watched the film about the Battle of Midway which featured the “Yorktown” getting a real bashing from the Japs. That one was sunk during the battle in 1942, and the one we visited was in use by 1943.
The following day was a little more civilised as the wind had dropped and Mr Sun was out to play. We had a boat ride out to Fort Sumter which guards the entrance to Charleston Harbour. The first battle of the American Civil War was fought here. During the evening, we visited a local park for a festival of lights. I was not really looking forward to this but one has to please the “little woman” occasionally. The event was astonishing and we were glad to have ventured out to a local park for a three mile drive past beautiful Christmas lights.
Onwards and another cold day but we were in the truck so it was not a problem, further south to Beaufort and Hunting Island State Park.
We did not expect to have internet here, but it was good. Wifi is becoming more and more important as we normally use “Skype” for all our outgoing telephone calls, and internet to deal with mail etc. Today we have an irritating problem with our fifth wheeler that needs attention next time we move so several frantic phone calls were the order of the day.
Always plenty of wildlife to see here. When we arrived there were wild deer wandering nonchalantly round the camp site, not at all bothered about the campers. Earlier this week we saw Dolphins swimming alongside the aircraft carrier.
20th November
We had a good day “getting away from it all” and rode our mountain bikes along the forest trails for a mile or three, loads of strenuous fun bumping over the tree roots. Freda also ascended an old lighthouse; I had more sense!
Early morning start tomorrow to go and see the repair man after manually adjusting the “landing gear” front legs. Hopefully we will have the front legs working electronically by the end of the day. Good exercise for the arms though.
My eyes are struggling a bit. It is only eleven months since I had new windows but I am having problems, so I have had my eyes tested and ordered new glasses at Wal-Mart (where else?) I will collect them on my way north after we have left Florida.
November 21
We are now in Savannah, Georgia, and another state park. We have 30 amps electric, cable TV, water on our site (not seen in England) and a very large area with fire pit (for our camp fire) and BBQ all for twenty dollars per night, what good value! We do have to go to the office area to use the very fast internet but you can’t have everything. It has been nice to use the internet to have a video call or two with our friends in Spain and France, and friends and family in England too!

The weather is much milder today and the internet tells me that it will improve when we move to Daytona on Wednesday and that Orlando will be just great at 26c on Sunday.

Shoppers may like to note another new shopping trend; as you go to collect your shopping cart (trolley) you are encouraged to collect a “wipe” to disinfect the handle of the shopping cart just so you do not catch anything!

November 25th
On our way to Daytona the RV dealer network sorted our electrical problem and our “landing gear” works just fine now, all done with no fuss.

Since we are trudging down the coast, fish is in abundance and always on restaurant menus. We have decided that crab cakes are super, we were not inspired with oysters, and we both like Grouper which we are having tomorrow. There is so much good food to be had that it is difficult to make a choice sometimes.

Tomorrow will be a day at camp here in the woods doing those domestic chores that sometimes get left to mount up but we have planned a bit of a bash on our pitch with a nice lunch and a bottle of wine in the early afternoon sun. It should be good! First of all we have to go and cycle a 4 mile nature trail.

Thanksgiving day 27th November
Florida at last, we are at Daytona Beach, the birth place of NASCAR racing. We have steady sunshine and whilst the temperature is below the seasonal norm of 76f, it’s ok.
The Americans are great coupon clippers, and we found one for “Free Balls” on the driving range (golf!), well we had to do that, didn’t we?
Today we have the “Turkey Run” – America’s largest custom and classic car show taking place two miles down the road at the Daytona Motor Speedway. We just had to go! Last year there were 5000 cars on show, and according to the TV report, this year was about the same. It goes on for four days. Our feet are tired but we both had a good day in the sun and saw some amazing stuff. I have painted a lot of cars in my time, and done some custom stuff, but some of the paintwork was mind-blowing!

The campground we’re on has a lot of Canadians (the Americans call them “snowbirds”) and very wealthy Americans. There are many 45ft buses, with double rear axles towing large (usually matching) trailers containing their toys, beautiful classic cars. They are making us feel like the poor people and our stuff is all new!

Off to Kissimmee tomorrow, the weather gods are promising a return to traditional Florida weather so all should be good


Sat 29th
Kissimee and it’s great, so it should be the price they charge to park our American house here.
Last night was Karaoke around the camp fire but that’s to save for another time!

Myrtle Beach

4th November
CARS AND THINGS

With a hundred TV channels to fill on a daily basis, sometimes the producers struggle to find something to show. “SPEED TV” resort to some funny stuff including “banger” racing, hardly the stuff for great TV, but as I have spent a lot of my life at auto auctions in a professional category, I found it quite fascinating to watch the classic car auctions that appear surprisingly frequently. Some of the stuff auctioned is old but better than new. We had, an evening or two back, an hour of $100,000 plus prices and I am amazed that these guys have enough money to play with toys like that. I am reminded that the only difference between men and boys is the price of the toys!

Visiting a local auto museum recently, the owner stopped for a chat. He told us that he shows only about twenty-five cars at a time and changes things around frequently. One of his friends has a store of three hundred old cars in as new condition so he always has something fresh to show. He was concentrating on quality not quantity which was clearly apparent. We had to wonder at the financial clout of his buddy with the three hundred cars, all stored under cover in “as new” condition!

Voting takes place today to elect the most powerful man in the world.
We have had this election in the media until we are quite tired of it and will be glad when it’s all over, but we would bet on Obama. We see lots of him on TV but not his running mate; on the other hand McCain has a little less presence on the box but we see a lot of Sarah Palin. Now she is something else in terms of presenting herself on TV, a first class star at an impromptu question and answer session.

The price of Diesel continues to fall; regular gas (petrol) is now down to
$2.09 and diesel is now $3.15. This is a far cry from almost $5.00 we paid earlier in the year.

There is a WWII memorial in Washington. On TV here in South Carolina, local veterans are invited to apply for free transportation to visit the memorial on Veterans Day (11/11), about seven hundred miles. We thought this was a very nice gesture on the part of the local government. I know what the British government would offer our WWII Vet’s, bugger all.

Most of us had parents involved in WWII; we all know what the government gave them!

I am starting to really like the way things get done over here, but am disappointed at the number of senior citizens that still have to work.

November 6th.
The election is over and if you don’t know the result, I’m not the man to tell you. The TV programmes have improved a lot now!

We have had 25c today and yesterday with wall to wall sun, just lovely!

I have friends who are golfers, please don’t do that old gag again about “old golfers never die….”
We have played on the “crazy golf” courses a few times; they are far grander than the ones we are used to in Europe. On the way back from a “crazy golf” morning, I noted a “par three” golf course so I pulled in to reception to find out more. Getting a round of golf in England is almost impossible and in Spain, completely off the planet. First you must buy a share in the golf course! (Honest).

No problem here, you want to play golf, and on a full size course, it will cost you $30 for TWO people for 18 holes. No clubs with you? then you can hire a bag with clubs for $1 (one dollar!). Yesterday we practiced on the driving range; today we played the par three course, just nine holes. Tomorrow we are playing again, this time 18 holes.

We have seen a few folks with something like a very small golf trolley, - the kind you put your golf bag onto, - but they have a small cylinder of oxygen mounted on it, piped up their nose to help them breathe. This means that those with breathing difficulties can still get off down to the shops instead of being housebound. If you have a breathing problem, try asking your GP for one of those!

We have had a month here in Myrtle Beach where the sun shines almost all the time and it has been fun but moving time looms.

We are always planning ahead and so far we have sorted Christmas, New Year and the “blast” that goes with it, and our New Year walk with the Costa Blanca Mountain Walkers. We have just about sorted next March and the skiing and we know that we will be bringing the caravan back from Spain at the end of March. Breathtaking sometimes!

There must be some money about over here. One of the local R.V. dealers has among all the mega flash R.V’s on his lot, one which is displaying a price of $359,880!! His other stuff is a bit cheaper but not by much!

November 13
The horsey types are in town, on the campground next door. This is another mega sized campground with three thousand pitches, they arrived en-masse last night for a weekend get-together with their seven hundred horses. They tell me that there are normally about sixteen hundred of them but the economic climate is getting to some of them. Some of the 5th-wheel horse boxes are fantastic, with superb living accommodation in the front end. The few less well-off are in tents! The horses are kept on small roped-off areas on the camp sites (what we call “pitches” in UK)

Diesel is now down to $2.99!