Messin' about on the river

A great time was had by all at Wekiwa Springs national park, about 30 mins north of where we are staying.

The peace is over

The kids arrive and immediately get into the holiday groove!


Steven tries his hand at training the wildlife, before sending an application for a job at Sea World!

Sunny Delight

The pictures above are of the clubhouse and lake within the 'Terra Verde' complex, where we are staying for the next eight weeks. After taking two weeks and driving approx 3500 miles, its nice to be able to settle in one place and relax.



When we planned our trip last year, we envisaged a sea front hotel and lots of walks along the beach. Well we got half of it right but arrived to severe weather warnings, so after only one night we hot footed it out of Galveston and made our way through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to reach Florida three days later. Luckily for us, the weather changed and so did Tom into his shorts.

Yee Haa

San Antonio (Texas) was a chilly but beautiful city. We spent the morning strolling along the famous River Walk until we reached the Alamo. Inside a guide gave a short history of the garrison and battle where Davy Crockett was killed in 1836. His remains are interred in San Fernando Cathedral pictured above.

A meal at the 'Mi Tierra' family owned Mexican restaurant, complete with wacky decor, was the next port of call before returning to the hotel to get ready for our evening visit to the rodeo.

The arena was huge, our seats were so high up we thought we would have nose bleeds! The show was great, everyone was cheering on their favourite cowboy, and we even managed a few 'yee haa's' ourselves.

ET phone home

We couldn't pass through Roswell (New Mexico) without a visit to the UFO museum. This is a reproduction of the alien autopsy scene from the film 'Roswell'. Looking at the state of the room I bet he wishes he had gone private!
Leaving the museum through the usual 'gift shop' exit, we made our way to Carlsbad Caverns about 70 miles away.

Carlsbad Caverns were fantastic, the photo's just can't do them justice, the size of the main cavern was immense. We walked for an hour and a half, 750ft below ground (by elevator, after all, we are in America) and were amazed at everything we saw. Would definitely recommend a visit.

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Cowboys and Indians

Our journey was broken by an overnight stay at Gallup (Arizona), this is high up in the desert and therefore cold (-1degC). As you can see by the pool picture, this holiday is not all sunshine and sex, sometimes there's no sunshine. OUCH! after that dig in the ribs from Pauline, looks like there won't be any sex either!

As we entered New Mexico we travelled through Apache and Navajo territories and the scenery was like moving through a spaghetti western. It was easy to imagine a line of Red Indians looking down on us as we drove our wagon south (aka, Ford Focus).

Get your kicks on Route 66

We left Las Vegas just before the crowds were arriving to watch the superbowl, and set off east across the Hoover Dam (see pic of inlet towers). The water level is at an all time low and will possibly be dry in another ten years time if residents continue to use water at the same rate.

Travelling along route 66 we stopped off for a Coffee and a slice of old fashioned apple pie, unfortunately it wasn't old fashioned prices!

The further east we went the elevation rose to 6000ft where snow lay all around, closing the Grand Canyon for winter.

At Winslow we visted the site where a meteor fell causing a crater approx three quarters of a mile across (rim to rim), too big to get it all in the photo. NASA used to train their astronauts here.

Viva Las Vegas

Vegas seems louder and brighter than ever (we must be getting old). We checked in at "Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon" as recommended by Mark (good choice), nice central location. Yesterday we toured several hotels and last night went to the Venetian theatre to watch "Phantom of the Opera", a superb show equally on par with anything at the West End. Today we are off to the classic car museum then down to Fremont Street tonight to see the overhead light & sound show tribute to Queen, (Freddie, not Elizabeth).

Ghost Town

Next day we visited Calico, an old silver mine ghost town. There were only a few people there and we had a great time exploring. After a ride on the train and a walk through the mine, we got back on the road and headed for Las Vegas.

San Francisco

Sailed under the Golden Gate bridge and passed Alcatraz at about 05:30 then docked around 08:00. By the time we had cleared customs, caught a taxi and picked up the hire car it was 12:30 followed by a 429 mile trip to Barstow.