17th November 2004
You may remember our last letter when we were visiting Boston. From there we have headed in a generally southerly direction in order to warm our bones a bit before our return to the UK. From Boston we drove to Plymouth-where the inhabitants of the Mayflower decided to settle. We spent a day at the excellent living history museum- The Plimoth Plantation. This consisted of a reconstructed village as it would probably have been in their day, a Native American Indian village and an exhibition hall. The inhabitants of the villages were in complete role play, right down to the language and cooking. The main exhibition gave an interpretation of the first Thanksgiving. There was also a reconstruction of the Mayflower down on the harbour which was also very interesting. From Plymouth we headed south to the Assateague National Seashore in Maryland. To get there we drove slowly through New England, New Jersey, Washington DC and Annapolis.
The campground at Assateague was beautiful, right next to the beach and the only other inhabitants apart from campers were wild horses. One of which came right up to me and nuzzled into my t shirt. Although I’m not too comfortable with horses I was still flattered by the attention.
We had quite a blustery stay there as the remnants of one of the hurricanes came through.
We then continued our journey south through the tax free shopping haven of Delaware and into Virginia by the amazing Chesapeake Bay Bridge. A combination of bridges and tunnels spanning 23 miles across the Chesapeake Bay. We then visited historic Williamsburg in Virginia. This was the capital of America when it was an English Colony. This had also received the living history treatment and was beautifully preserved, though a bit pricey.
We then headed south to Charleston, where our journey began nearly a year ago. On the way we stopped at the beautiful Huntington Beach State Park. Once we got to Charleston we caught up with our friends Joann and Mitch who we met when we first arrived last year. We all got along really well just like old chums. Hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to return their hospitality when they visit Europe. Whilst we were there Mike celebrated another birthday at the very nice French restaurant where we first met Joann and Mitch. We also did some touristy things while we were there such as visiting the aquarium and taking a carriage tour around historic Charleston.
Unfortunately we had to leave them at the beginning of October in order to head north to Baltimore where we had decided to ship the motor home out back to England. We took a couple of days to make the journey north. It was during this journey that we gave a performance worthy of screamers in a horror movie. While we were driving along the motorway Mike started shouting and pointing at the steering wheel, I eventually saw a HUGE cockroach on the steering wheel! (It had come out of one of the air vents) It was two inches long and very mean looking. Mike pulled off the motorway and flicked it at me, luckily it landed on the dashboard on my side and we were able to remove the culprit before it ran back into the rear of the van. If anyone had seen us they may have wondered what was going on as we were pointing and screaming at the tops of our voices.
We eventually stayed in a very nice seaside town called Havre Le Grace just north of Baltimore. We fell out with the only campground over their charging system (read rip off merchants) so we prepared ourselves and the van in true gypsy style by parking at the harbour front during the day and driving back to Wal Mart over night. We managed to keep this up for 4 nights which gave us enough time to organise and research all our travel plans and prepare ourselves and the motor home for the journey back. Good old Sam Walton.
So that’s it folks! The end of an era. We’ve visited 40 US states, crossed Canada and visited Mexico twice. We’ve had a marvellous time and when I send this we’ll be back in England.
In order to go out with a bang rather than a whimper we decided to finish off our trip with a Caribbean cruise. We visited Charleston AGAIN-we took the opportunity to meet up with Joann again. She took us on a walking tour around Charleston and we also met up with Mitch and her sister for lunch. We had a lovely day and it would be hard to tire of such a wonderful place. We also visited Key West, Cozumel, Belize City, St. Martin, St. Thomas, Aruba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It was a fantastic way to end the trip and gave us something to do while the motor home was being shipped back. We flew back from Galveston in Texas on 2nd November. We had to change flights twice and unfortunately missed the first connection due to a thunderstorm. We managed to get back eventually 8 hours later than intended and parts of the journey were reminiscent of the film Trains, Planes and Automobiles. Including a taxi driver in New York who drove an enormous sedan at 100 miles an hour, only dropping to 80 on the slip roads. Whilst driving he kept turning round to look at us to chat. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic on the road, but sadly Mike didn’t get the relaxing sleep he’d been hoping for!
So that’s it folks-the end of an era! We’ve visited 40 US states, crossed Canada, visited Mexico twice, and just for good measure have squeezed in a couple of cruises as well. We have been back for a couple of weeks already and are reunited with the motor home which has made it safe and sound. We are now getting round to seeing everyone as well as getting all our bits and pieces in order after a whole year away.
You may remember our last letter when we were visiting Boston. From there we have headed in a generally southerly direction in order to warm our bones a bit before our return to the UK. From Boston we drove to Plymouth-where the inhabitants of the Mayflower decided to settle. We spent a day at the excellent living history museum- The Plimoth Plantation. This consisted of a reconstructed village as it would probably have been in their day, a Native American Indian village and an exhibition hall. The inhabitants of the villages were in complete role play, right down to the language and cooking. The main exhibition gave an interpretation of the first Thanksgiving. There was also a reconstruction of the Mayflower down on the harbour which was also very interesting. From Plymouth we headed south to the Assateague National Seashore in Maryland. To get there we drove slowly through New England, New Jersey, Washington DC and Annapolis.
The campground at Assateague was beautiful, right next to the beach and the only other inhabitants apart from campers were wild horses. One of which came right up to me and nuzzled into my t shirt. Although I’m not too comfortable with horses I was still flattered by the attention.
We had quite a blustery stay there as the remnants of one of the hurricanes came through.
We then continued our journey south through the tax free shopping haven of Delaware and into Virginia by the amazing Chesapeake Bay Bridge. A combination of bridges and tunnels spanning 23 miles across the Chesapeake Bay. We then visited historic Williamsburg in Virginia. This was the capital of America when it was an English Colony. This had also received the living history treatment and was beautifully preserved, though a bit pricey.
We then headed south to Charleston, where our journey began nearly a year ago. On the way we stopped at the beautiful Huntington Beach State Park. Once we got to Charleston we caught up with our friends Joann and Mitch who we met when we first arrived last year. We all got along really well just like old chums. Hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to return their hospitality when they visit Europe. Whilst we were there Mike celebrated another birthday at the very nice French restaurant where we first met Joann and Mitch. We also did some touristy things while we were there such as visiting the aquarium and taking a carriage tour around historic Charleston.
Unfortunately we had to leave them at the beginning of October in order to head north to Baltimore where we had decided to ship the motor home out back to England. We took a couple of days to make the journey north. It was during this journey that we gave a performance worthy of screamers in a horror movie. While we were driving along the motorway Mike started shouting and pointing at the steering wheel, I eventually saw a HUGE cockroach on the steering wheel! (It had come out of one of the air vents) It was two inches long and very mean looking. Mike pulled off the motorway and flicked it at me, luckily it landed on the dashboard on my side and we were able to remove the culprit before it ran back into the rear of the van. If anyone had seen us they may have wondered what was going on as we were pointing and screaming at the tops of our voices.
We eventually stayed in a very nice seaside town called Havre Le Grace just north of Baltimore. We fell out with the only campground over their charging system (read rip off merchants) so we prepared ourselves and the van in true gypsy style by parking at the harbour front during the day and driving back to Wal Mart over night. We managed to keep this up for 4 nights which gave us enough time to organise and research all our travel plans and prepare ourselves and the motor home for the journey back. Good old Sam Walton.
So that’s it folks! The end of an era. We’ve visited 40 US states, crossed Canada and visited Mexico twice. We’ve had a marvellous time and when I send this we’ll be back in England.
In order to go out with a bang rather than a whimper we decided to finish off our trip with a Caribbean cruise. We visited Charleston AGAIN-we took the opportunity to meet up with Joann again. She took us on a walking tour around Charleston and we also met up with Mitch and her sister for lunch. We had a lovely day and it would be hard to tire of such a wonderful place. We also visited Key West, Cozumel, Belize City, St. Martin, St. Thomas, Aruba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It was a fantastic way to end the trip and gave us something to do while the motor home was being shipped back. We flew back from Galveston in Texas on 2nd November. We had to change flights twice and unfortunately missed the first connection due to a thunderstorm. We managed to get back eventually 8 hours later than intended and parts of the journey were reminiscent of the film Trains, Planes and Automobiles. Including a taxi driver in New York who drove an enormous sedan at 100 miles an hour, only dropping to 80 on the slip roads. Whilst driving he kept turning round to look at us to chat. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic on the road, but sadly Mike didn’t get the relaxing sleep he’d been hoping for!
So that’s it folks-the end of an era! We’ve visited 40 US states, crossed Canada, visited Mexico twice, and just for good measure have squeezed in a couple of cruises as well. We have been back for a couple of weeks already and are reunited with the motor home which has made it safe and sound. We are now getting round to seeing everyone as well as getting all our bits and pieces in order after a whole year away.
