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!
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!
5 comments:
hi
is it allright with you guys if I use this picture
http://bp0.blogger.com/_LBnM-snYRqM/SFe3GChniFI/AAAAAAAAA30/hQA9BDcGLWo/S220/P1060695.JPG
on my Triumph Herald Tips&Tricks site?
regards Flemming
FYI
you can see the Herald Tips&Tricks site here
http://herald-tips-tricks.wikidot.com/
regards Flemming
Mas Tango, you may use herald pictur.
Please acknowledge
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