USA Trip

Downloaded from: justpaste.it/13fob Around USA with a Turtle February, 1996 - Bradenton, Florida. We takedelivery of our new home. It was a lot smaller than the average American RV - it was in fact designed to be just a weekend camper. It was built by a firm called Turtletop, so we naturallycalled it our Turtle - and like all turtles, it was a snug fit inside

So, in this limited space, we set off to explore America. This was our route.....

22000 miles in total - almost the circumference of the earth It's a huge country! And turtles being slow, it took 9 months to get around. Just think - 2 people in that tiny space for 9 months... at least it gave us an opportunity to get to know each orther -because in fact, we were almost strangers when we set out on this venture. ---------------------------------------- For background, we need to go back to SA and the real beginning - starting with Alan's story.... I'll try to make a long and complicated story short... The whole idea of this trip started because I was fed up with work work work, and I wanted to go cruising. Not cruising on the Queen Mary or suchlike but something more like this.....

So, I was looking for a boat - and if you are looking for asecondhand boat like this, then the best place to go is toFlorida, because there are literally thousands of them -and the prices are good.Florida is built for boating, with many developments likethis.....

..with people living literally on the water’s edge,often with boats, like this one, for sale at the end of their gardens.

There are places like this right round Florida, some are small, and some are huge, like Fort Lauderdale here....So I was hooked, and wanted to go to Florida. All I had to resolve was how to get around, andaccommodation. Hence the van idea. But of course having the van in my mind, I started to think Iwould like to see more of the States, and THAT became the new plan – to see the whole country,and look at boats along the way.Great idea I thought. But there was a problem. To really enjoy a trip like this, you need someoneto share it with, and at that point in time, I was alone. I needed to find a travelling companion,which of course is not that easy – a little ad in the local paper doesn’t work!So I was stuck, but luckily fate brought Pam into the picture. As I said before, Pam and I didn’treally know each other, but we had met - perhaps a dozen times or so - playing bridge at a mutualfriend’s house. So we had had lots of bridge table type of chat, but that was all.This part becomes more Pam's story than mine, so perhaps I should leave this to her -Pam's Story......As Alan said, we had played together and I had heard his story and dreams but had neverconsidered myself as I was married, had 2 children, a dog and a home, usual story.But, one day at a game Frida, our mutual friend, jokingly said to me ‘Why don’t you go to America

with Alan Pam?’ Ha ha hah. Well, in the car going home I thought, WHY NOT? My kids wereleaving home now, my marriage had failed and my husband spent all his time at the club with hisfriends, I was in fact free to go. I had come to a point in my life where I needed a change, a newdirection – a new life. And this did sound exciting so – I spoke to the kids who both said, GO MOMand before I changed my mind, I phoned Frida and asked her to tell Alan that I would go with him.She was stunned – never thought I would take her seriously – and .......................OK, back to me...And I was surprised too. Suddenly I had this bolshy woman saying she would come with me.We arranged to meet, had a chat about it, and decided, what the hell, this was something we'dboth like to do, so let's just give it a go. We're adult enough to make it work.So we spent a couple of months packing, and getting to know each other better and in January1996 we flew to Florida - and got our first nasty shock.The travel agent in SA had told us that with British passports, we could enter the States for 6months without a visa. The immigration official in the US said no. He would not believe we werejust wanting to tour and were not looking for work - his main concern. He finally gave us a 3month visa waiver, and said if we wanted longer, we would have to get out of the country andapply for a visa.We thought that was the trip over before it had even begun - but we looked at the map anddecided we should be able to drive across the south of the States, up the west coast, and intoCanada in the 3 months – and get a visa there, so no real problem.So we bought the little van, and were ready to go.It was winter, north was too cold, so we headed south for our first exploration – south to theFlorida Keys.The Cays / Keys are a chain of islands stretching from the bottom of Florida down towards Cuba.

The nice thing about these islands you don’t have to take a boat or a plane to get there, you can drive......

There are 110 miles of islands, connected by 42 bridges...

and this one is 7 miles long......

When the warm breeze from the Caribbean meets the side of the bridge, it gets deflected up to create a vertical wave and....

…..these guys ride that wave, gliding alongside the bridge. We slowed and drove next to one for a while – we were watching him, and he was taking the odd glance at us. A magic moment. The last island in the chain is Key West...

and at the end of town is Mallory Square, where the crowds gatherevery evening to watch the sunsets and all the street performers.

The square is full of zany acts but the strangest thing was, at the moment of sunset, the crowd burst into loud applause.

Back north – spent the night here at the waters edge in Key Largo...Back on the mainland, we crossed Alligator Alley, throughthe Everglades...



As it was still winter, most of the campgrounds were closed, so we had to find our own places to spend the night. Marina carparks were a good option, along withWalmarts etc. Then we came across State Parks like thisone - officially closed, but with no gate, so we could help ourselves.

We were the only ones there - apart from deer, squirrels etcBut there was no shower in the van, so we bought a solar shower

which lived on the dashboard of the van where it was heated by the sunthrough the winscreen. When it felt it was hot enough, we'd find a quiet spot, toss a rope over the van, and shower au naturel.....!





OK move on, move on!On to the lovely calm water of the Gulf of Mexico....

But they're not always like this - just 3 months earlier.... ...causing a fair bit of damage - even the stilts didn't help...

On to Louisiana, New Orleans, and the French Quarter.... Tourists, street music, bars... Took the 'Streetcar Named Desire' out to the better

suburbs With their graceful Antebellum housesAnd back to wander the town for an evening of jazz - beer glass in hand...

Next day, crossed the Mississippi, and then on to Texas

Spent the night in a truck stop - approx 400 trucks there, many with engines left going all night.



Very noisy, but we found a quiet corner - and awoke to find ourselves next to the mobile chapel.Next stop, Houston Texas - America's biggest town by area.

We wanted to see the Britsh Embassy to try and resolveour visa problem, but were a little concerned aboutdriving in the centre - so imagine our surprise when wegot into town and found virtually no traffic...

...and no pedestrians...

No it wasn't a holiday. Because of the heat, there are 7miles of airconditioned tunnels underground linking all the main buildings.... ...shopping too...

But no help with the visa, so on to Corpus Christi... One of America's oldest towns - c1520. The USS Lexington is now a floating museum. PityPortsmouth missed the opportunity to do the same thing with HMS Illustrious.We had to wait for a mail drop, so spent a day just south on the Gulf....

It was now time to leave the gulf and travel into ruralTexas. We had seen that Americans are generally verypatriotic, and many fly the Stars and Stripes in their frontgardens - but in Texas that changed to the state flag.

After miles of scrub scenery,



San Antonio's Riverwalk was like an oasis...



The old Spanish Govenor's palace....And of course the famous Alamo of Davy Crockett fame....

We spent the night in the carperk behind here, and in themorning saw a Denny's restaurant over the road, sopopped in for one of my favourite breakfasts...... my fuel for the next drive, 550 miles to El Paso.Nothing but open scrub- land..

Nodding Donkeys....And Pam's favorite trucks....

We met this driver at a lonely rest area - he'd been drivingfor 32 years, hauling rubber from Houston to Long Beach, Calif - 1600 miles each way. El Paso, on the Mexican border, a fence of contrasts..

The Rio Grande, where Trump will no doubt be building a better wall..

But it looked and felt like a hostile border town, so we left for New Mexico,where we stopped at this desolate rest area for the night. Amazing place - middle of nowhere, but the gravel was raked like a zen garden, and heated toilets with piped music! We met the man in charge, and he was so proud of it - had even won an award. Up into the mountains - this is the continental divide - rain one side of the road to the Pacific, the other to the Atlantic. Further up, we came to the Gila caves - home of Indians about 700 years ago

Amazingly, they didn't just live in the basic cave, but builtmulti-roomed dwellings

Makes sense - easy to defend, warm in winter, cool in summer,

We spent the night in the carpark below - only people there again. It was a cold clear night, so the stars were incredible,but so cold that the water pipes in the van were frozen the next morning. We thawed out and drove down to Pinos Altos, once aprosperous silver mining town - even had their own Opera House - now sadly derelict.

Across the road was the old trading post / museum21 years later, Google street view shows that nothing has changed....!

Wild West country now - Silver City of Billy the Kid fame, then on to Tombstone..

...where the Gunfight of the OK corral is re-enacted at noon each day.There are numerous small ghost towns dotting the area...