our journey around the world

Well, our time in the USA has come to an end – as has our entire trip.   We spent an awesome week with our friends the Isom’s at their home in Utah – including Thanksgiving and the kids played in the snow for the first time!   Coming out as one of the highlights of our whole year – thanks Anne & Eric, we look forward to returning the favour when you come to Australia..

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Day 11 – Friday 19th Nov. – The Grand Canyon

Today was sunrise at the Canyon.   Amanda, Ashlea & I were the only ones to get out of our toasty beds and brave the cold weather to be in position on the South Rim of the Canyon by 7.00am.
Firstly i had to take some hot water and clean off the thick ice from the car windscreen, before we could head off.
Sunrise was officially 7.14am and definately worth the effort (have a look at our photos on flickr). Back to the hotel by 8.30am and wake up the other 3.
…..Happy Birthday to me, today’s my 43rd!, the kids had made me cards.

 In the  mid afternoon, we went to the 7 storey Imax theatre in town (to see an amazing 1/2 hour journey into the Canyon), then it was back into the National Park, we parked the car in the park & then caught the free shuttle buses along the South Rim to see some spectacular views.
We ended up at a recommended viewing point for the sunset at 5.18pm, by this time the  weather was closing in and getting very cold.
We finished the birthday off, with dinner at Wendys!.

Day 12 – Grand Canyon to Monument Valley

We checked out and got on the road by about 10.30am. We drove back through the Grand Canyon National Park and stopped
at a couple of spots on the South Rim for some last looks. The drive to Monument Valley took about 3 hours. We checked into a Holiday Inn for free (using points, we accrued in Asia!). After a short rest, it was back in the car, for the half hour drive out to the reservation. Entry was $5 per adults. Then we spent the next two hours on the 17 mile off road track, taking in the spectacular scenery, you felt like at any moment John Wayne was going to come and ride past you!.

Day 8 – Odessa to Deming

Today was a great drive, after a late check out (more mini golf!), we headed South to the Mexican border, the landscape  started to become more undulating as we followed the Texan / Mexican borders West.
Our goal was Tombstone, but by 5.00pm we called it quits and stayed at a place called Deming for the night.

Day 9 – Deming to Tombstone To Casa Grande

Today was only about a 3.5 hour drive to Tombstone. We arrived about 12.30pm and had lunch in an old salon.
At 2.00pm it was time to go and get our seats to see the daily gunfight being recreated at the O K Corral. All the characters were there, including Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

The town is purely touristy, but it was fun to have a look around. We drove out of town about 4.30pm to see how far we could get before dark. We ended up in Casa Grande (about an hour south of Pheonix) for the night.

Day 10 – Casa Grande to The Grand Canyon

Todays drive was only about 4 hours due North through Arizona to The Grand Canyon National Park. We arrived about 3.00pm and went straight to the Canyon for our first look. Entry to the park is $25 and gets you a 7 day
pass. We walked around part of the South Rim for about an hour (amazing), until the kids started to say thoes infamous words (Im bored, Im hungry, Im cold), admitedly it was starting to get cold, altitude is about 2500mtrs.

So we headed out of the park (the main town is about 5kms away) and found accomodation for the next 2 nights. Accomodation was slightly more, about $125p/n. We picked a big Best Western Hotel, with the usual free breakfast,
free wifi, gym, sauna etc. This one also had a 6 lane tenpin bowling alley in the basement!.

Day 4 & 5 – New Orleans

We chose a hotel on the outskirts (1/3 of the city prices) and rested for the night. Next day turned into a total rest day, as a majority of us had come down with a touch of the flu, quite unusual as for most of this trip we have not caught much.

The following day it was sightseeing,regardless of how crappy we felt. We drove and parked in the old French Quarter, and set off.

After walking the French Quarter, we drove through the old Garden district (to see the big old Southern homes)  then drove through the Lower Ninth Ward, the worse affected area from Hurricane Katrina, have a look at our photos, its very sad that 5 years on and its got a long way to go.

Day 6 – New Orleans to Lindale

Today was a big driving day, the aim was to get to Fort Worth Texas,but after about 8 hours of driving, we stopped about an hour east of Dallas at a place called Lindale for the night. Usual accomodation for $70 with all the extras, including a great indoor pool…..Michael & I had fun for hours, while the girls watched cable!.

Day 7 – Lindale to Odessa

Todays goal was to drive through Texas and get as close to the Mexican border by sunset. After a couple of stops and enjoying the continual scenery changes, we stopped at Odessa, just off the interstate highway.
We researched accomodation options the day before, and this was definately a pick. For about $80 p/n we got a huge room (2 queen beds, fridge & microwave), free hot buffet breakfast, free wifi and as this was “family” orientated, it had a big indoor playground (3 storeys high), indoor 9 hole mini golf, a heated indoor / outdoor pool, sauna & hot tub……life is tough.

Day 1 – Miami to Lake City

Picked up the car today, first time driving in 10 months – other side of the road and other side of the car – bit scared!!.

First challenge,  how to work the GPS!. We  made it out of Miami with only a few insults hurled at us!!.  Once out on the interstate highway, we started to get used to the right side & the left hand drive!!. We tried to go as far north as possible today. We ended up in Lake City (Northern Florida) by sunset, so stopped at one of the incredibly cheap highway hotels, this one was a Best Western for $65 p/n for a room with 2 queen beds, free wi fi,breakfast,gym, pool & sauna!…..things were looking good,  as our budget for hotels across America was $200p/n.

Day 2 – Lake City to Pensacola

Unlike most of this year when we have just got out of bed when we felt like it, we have started setting the iphone alarm clock!!!(Yuck), so we can try and be on the road by about 8.30am.

Today we were aiming for New Orleans,but after a couple of stops, by about 5.30pm it was starting to get dark, so we deceided to stop in Pensacola. We found a Comfort Inn (Similar deal  – $65 p/n).

Tonight we ventured out into town,to go to a buffet restaurant at about $5.00 p/head, we all had a good feed – but probably overdid it – Welcome to America!!

Day 3 – Pensacola to New Orleans

As it turned out, our unplanned stop in Pensacola turned out to be quite fortuitous, as Pensacola has the National Navy Museum there.
We went and checked it out (also free!), and even luckier for us, today was Veterans day, so they were having a huge aeronautics show on. It was like watching Top Gun, definately a “big” kids day as well.   (check out our video – on our flickr link).

After the show it was supposed to be a quick 45 minute drive to New Orleans, or so i thought.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that Maths is one of my strenghts, well not today. Three & a half hours later and we roll into New Orleans. (i was popular….Not)

Fasten your seatbelts,  it’s time to get up to date with the blog! 

C’est la vie
Our next stop after Spain was living the French life in a beautiful medieval village in France – Montaigu de Quercy.  Lucky for us, Paul’s father and step-mother own a cottage in this fantastic place where you could easily forget the rest of the world even exists.  We spent almost 2 idyllic weeks “speaking” French with the neighbours, eating fresh baguettes, cheese and pate.  We didn’t do any sightseeing or go anywhere; we just lived (including the kids doing homework and I actually shopped and cooked!).

 Paris
As four of us had already been to Paris on a couple of occasions, we were pretty relaxed about what we saw.  Saying that Paul walked our legs off!  We found a brilliant hotel – cheap but in a great location (see our accommodation page for that recommendation) so we were able to walk all over Paris and occasionally caught the Metro.

We did all the usual stuff including the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe.  Possibly my two favourite places in Paris are the Tuileries Gardens next to the Louvre and the Luxembourg Gardens – in fine weather there is nowhere better.

I had always had Versailles on my list and had never managed to visit there on any of our earlier trips.  Unfortunately, we thought the whole place was a disorganised debacle and somehow we fell mistakenly onto a guided tour, which although was informative, I’m not sure was worth the lining up and ticket cost. [Read more →]

Our first stop in our very short tour of Spain was Seville, which in my opinion is the most beautiful of the three cities we stayed in – Seville, Madrid and Barcelona.

Seville was in the hands of the Moors for hundreds of years before being taken back by the Catholics and so the architecture is very Islamic and quite different from the other cities in the north.

We thought about doing someothing really Spanish and going to a bullfight, however there were none scheduled in Seville while we were there, so we went to the bullfighting museum instead.  This consisted of a lot of bulls heads mounted on the walls and a whole gallery of paintings depicting bulls, horses, dogs and sometimes men in various states of their intestines being dragged out! [Read more →]

My biggest dilemma, when I was packing my backpack almost 10 months ago, was “Should I take my joggers?”

Amanda had visions of me out running at night in Asia somewhere, getting lost or something terrible happening, so sanity or fear prevailed and they were left in a packing box at home.

Well for the first seven months I would see people out running and quietly I would wish that was me.  (If you think that sounds weird, dont worry, you’re probably in the majority!).

By the time we got to Munich, Germany (after 7 months), I couldn’t wait any longer.  60 Euros later and I was now the proud owner of a brand new pair of Asics!

I think those Asics came just at the right time for me.  By month seven when we hit Italy, we were starting to lose our way a bit.

It was ironic, but as “independent travellers” travelling through S.E. Asia, China, India and the Middle East, we actually found it easier than in the “Civilized West” of Europe.

I think from being so long on the road in developing countries, we had become very accustomed to things that way, so arriving in civilized Europe was actually quite tough for us, from the perspective of higher prices, lack of available internet!, people (generally) appearing less friendly (or more busy!) and I suppose from a travel perspective, Europe was quite like being at home.

This all had alot to do with our decision to add Morocco to our itinery. I felt to get back on track, we needed a clear path and a bit of “spicing” it up.

Instantly when we got to Morocco, we felt alive again – the people appeared friendlier, the pace was slower, things were cheaper and perhaps our senses were again being challenged.

After Morocco, we moved easily through Spain (we had our mojo back!), had an absolutely amazing 2 weeks in Montaigu de Quercy (S.W. France) and kept powering on to Paris, then England.

…..So back to those joggers!!!   I have had the pleasure of running in Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Seville, Madrid, Barcelona, Littlehampton (England) and finally my favourite run to date, a great run in London last week.   Through Hyde Park, passed Buckingham Palace up to Westminster and Big Ben, across the Thames to the London Eye, back across the bridge, up Whitehall past Downing Street to Trafalgar Square, then up the Mall and finally back through Hyde Park!

…….Roll on next week, it’s New York and Central Park!

I remember when we started telling people that we were going to take a year out and go travelling, how most people say things like “Wow!  You’re so lucky!” or “I wish I could do that” and we would smile and agree.

Human nature being what it is, once we get into the swing of things and we get into a bit of a routine, things start losing their gloss.  Like the shiny new car  – after a month of admiring it, it becomes a means of transportation.  The beautiful home you designed, decorated and slaved to afford becomes the place where you watch tv, put your feet up and have a roof over your head.

All nice things; all worthwhile and enjoyable but after a while not as exciting.  Travel is no different.  Unfortunately, one of the downsides of long term travel is that it becomes your everyday.  Yes, we’re travelling to exotic locations and seeing amazing things but we’re also schooling four children, shopping, doing laundry and finding a place to sleep – it’s everyday life for us now.  The gloss of those amazing sights wears off.  Yes, I know!  It’s a travesty!  Believe it or not, some days we’ve had to force ourselves to leave our room and go out and look around a new city.  It’s like anything, you have to remind yourself how blessed you are to have such amazing opportunities and make the most of everyday.

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A little bit of a side trip off the itinerary – Morocco!  It’s just a brief trip, coming about because of cheap airfares from Marseille to Fes.  Our goal is to work our way north through Spain and this was a cheap way to achieve that ($50 each!).

The first interesting thing that happened was at the railway station.  We had booked our tickets to the airport, where they actually sold us bus tickets because there was going to be a train strike.  When we arrived at the station at 6.15am, the front doors were flanked by 2 rows of camouflage clad soldiers; presumably there to control the strikers.  Catching the bus wasn’t easy.  There are no signs and conflicting directions from anyone we asked, but we made it eventually and arrived at the airport unscathed. 

Ryanair leaves from the “lowcost” terminal.  We’ve never been on a low cost airline before and we’d jumped through hoops to make sure that our bags were each under the 20kg allowance we had prepaid.  Low cost means a concrete floor, limited computers and plastic chairs in the waiting area.  The plane itself was new but the most amazing thing happened!  There are no allocated seats!  You can imagine the chaos.  People travelling alone immediately jumped in seats of 3 and those travelling in groups split all over the place.  There were aguments over who had which seat first and so on and so forth like a school bus.  Really quite a rediculous system. [Read more →]