We are having a last fling with European camping at the “Festival of Fire” (Las Fallas) in the beautiful city of Valencia. This is a truly spectacular world class event in a very beautiful city, if you are ever in Spain in March, don’t miss it!

Valencia and Las Fallas

Valencia was jumping on the Monday morning, more marching bands and processions than you could imagine and yet it was often in such an informal manner that it was more fun! This had to be the happiest place in the world.
Of course, that was Monday and there were a few more days for things to build to a crescendo that would culminate in “La Crema” (the burning), but first there was “La nit de Foc” (The night of Fire), when an amazing firework display takes place, the biggest in Spain (and probably Europe), at 1.30am.
Every day at 2pm vast crowds gathered in the main square, spilling out into the surrounding streets for the “Mascleta,” ten minutes of deafening firecrackers. Then the last night of the festival, La Crema, is when all the figures, some over fifty feet high, are burnt where they stand, in the streets, with the fire brigade standing by and sometimes hosing down the buildings. Then along come the clean-up squad and everything is soon back to normal.
The weather gods were kind as usual, and we had clear blue skies and comfortable temperatures for the duration of the festival.
http://www.turisvalencia.es/

American Dream Blog



We always enjoy our trips to the USA and we also love travelling to see the sights wherever we are. What better way to see America than by that which we are used too, from a travel trailer/caravan. (the spelling depends which side of the Atlantic you live!)

By now, we have travelled a lot of Europe, far more than most folks will ever see, now it’s time to see more of the world.

We have “done” America with the aid of a couple of suitcases (valise if you prefer), but after a month it does things to your sanity!!

During a holiday to California, we stopped to browse our way around a site selling RV’s, travel trailers (caravans) and the very American fifth wheeler.
Both of us were amazed at the value for money offered and almost immediately a germ of an idea was born.

Let’s tour America in a way that we understand - with a house on wheels!

We investigated buying a caravan, but the whole deal seemed fraught. At this moment, I don’t know if our American friends are a bunch of wimps (cowards) or if travel trailers really are as dangerous as they tell me. All kinds of new things to learn about electronic brake controllers and other funny stuff.


The thought occurred that we should do this in a way that only an American would do. We would buy a fifth wheeler. Nowhere else in the world would you find one of these monsters and as a long term holiday event, it would be very comfortable. The holiday will consist of three months, twice a year for five years. That way the numbers start to make sense, I say that just in case you thought I was immensely rich! Some folks might call me headstrong but I think they were refering to my wife!

We had seen the adverts for those big American trucks (what we in Europe call a pick-up) at a crazy cheap price for a new one and we set about researching a package that we might buy for our
“Great American Adventure” .

We soon found that we would need a larger truck than we had anticipated and it was not until we had a further investigative trip that we were finally convinced that the truck to buy was some kind of monster, so that’s what we have ordered for delivery mid April 2008. A Ford 250F long wheelbase with crew cab and four wheel drive.

We arrive in the USA on 16th April and take delivery of our wheels about the 17th April and will set about finding a mobile house to tow the day after, we don’t anticipate any problems with this as the spadework has all been done. We expect that we will be dragging something weighing 6 ½ tons and about 34 feet long, that’s why we need a 6.3 litre turbo diesel to pull with!
We will keep you posted as we go along, meanwhile we will miss all our friends but keep you all in mind and look forward to seeing you in late July when we have a short break in Spain. Note that we will look something like this that you see above !!!!!