Finally in the Rockies and boy oh boy how scenic it is. Sadly not much opportunity to pull over and snap pics.
Ian.
The Real Wilkini
Postcard from America: Day 6 – Off to see the Dinosaurs
its Sunday and we’re geading out of Colorado into Utah to get ready for a day of dinosaur spotting on Monday. Today we ‘only’ have a six hour drive through the Rockies.
Easy, as long as my dodgy stomach holds up. Today will be simple unfried foods. Wish me luck…
Ian.
Postcard from America: Day 5 – The Road to the Rockies
The first of our long days of driving completed successfully in just over twelve hours including stops for breakfast and the Sternberg Natural History Museum before hitting our overnight stop off in Fort Collins and the Red Lion Inn which has had reviews but initial impressions are that th as are either outdated or plain wrong.
Ian.
Postcard from America: Day 4 – Close but No Cigar
Toured the Budweiser Brewery and got a free drink too. The your was also free so very good value for money.
We then headed off to Kansas City hoping to get a tour of the Harley factory but missed they nap your of the week by 30 minutes. Damned shame as we couldn’t possibly have been on time without missing the Bud tour.
Then used the flaky car satnav and went to an American Indian museum which sadly got converted to a municipal swimming pool and Ice rink TEN years ago. A really nice fellow called Him there helped us out and let us use the internet on a proper pc 😆 so get a off to him along with a letter to his boss when I return.
Anyway time now for days and drinks out before we need off tomorrow on our first all day travelling as we leave Kansas and got the road to the Mike High City of Denver.
Ian.
Postcard from America: Day 4 – My Buddy, My Buddy
A damp start to Day 4 as we need off to the Budweiser Brewery before a 4 your drive to Kansas under the USAs heatdome!!!!
Ian.
Postcard from America: Day 3 – Oh My Goodness Oh My Goodness
Today we left Columbus and headed to St Louis. With a motel booked we decided to go eat after our drive via Indianapolis and boy oh boy was that an experience. I’m sure I’ll never eat ribs as good as the ones I had in Pappy’s Smokehouse.
Annoyingly while driving through Indianapolis I missed the chance to capture a drive by photo of the Colts stadium. Then we’re sure we see a corpse in a tarpaulin left on the I70 on our drive to St Louis.
Only trouble we’re having is paying for gas as the pumps demand a cup code for authorising the cars and the other option is to prepay but as yet we’ve no idea how much fuel we need to fill up and with gas prices getting by as much as 30c a gallon even if we knew how much we needed working that into dollars accurately is not easy. Adelded to this each time the attempt to pay at the pump fails my credit card gets locked. The immediate solution is to pre-pay in $10 blocks which costs is extra time.
Ian.
Postcard from America: Day 2- Hey ballers
After a quick breakfast at Friendleys we headed west to Ohio and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Initial thoughts were that it was a bit may and not much was on display but that was a misconception as the place was Tardis like. A great day out was had by me and I don’t think Louise was too bored either.
Overnight in Columbus was disappointing though as we had too little time because of the blasted satnav in the Hyundai Genesis which was about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. Sadly our late arrival in Columbus resulted in me missing out on dining at Schmidt’s Sausauge Haus 😠.
Ian.
Postcard from America: Day 2 – Good Morning America
The start of our second day here in the USA and a picture of our chariot for our roadtrip outside our first night’s resting place, Red Roof Motel, Danville, PA. Today we’re heading to Akron,Ohio and the American Football Hall of Fame.
Ian.
Postcard from America: Day 1 The Eagle Has Landed
Landed safely in the USA didn’t get a Ford for a Hyundai😠 still a very nice car but wanted something by American not an import. Getting to Danville is proving to be a bigger adventure than I hoped not least because it took 3 hours to get out of NYC. Hoping for clearer roads from this point on.
Postcard from America: Day 1 Manchester Airport
Through traffic on M60 & check-in drama as apparently you need an address for your first night in the USA. Hotel.com app on the phone to the rescue. Now to the plane, which is already 1 your beg me schedule. Hey go who cares when you’re in holiday?
I’m So Excited!
With just 9 days left to go before my wife and I set off to New York for our 25th Anniversary USA Road Trip I’m getting both excited and nervous. My biggest concern is the car hire, if that goes wrong the whole trip goes up in smoke but I’m sure that won’t happen, right? At least if the agent I have used lets me down, we have a credit card and if that fails me Id have had bigger problems with the trip anyway. I’m hoping to sneak an upgrade from the Ford Taurus to 
something a bot more sporty but if I can’t make that happen the Taurus is a very good second place and for our length of trip probably more comfortable anyway.
The next worry is my health, I’ve been relatively healthy since coming off of the night shift working pattern until April when I lost half a tooth eating a pizza and have spent the last 3 months trying to get it sorted, that is now bodged by my dentist who has put a short term filling in which I’m hoping will last closer to the 2 years he estimates and not the 2 weeks that I fear. Then last Thursday evening I started to come down with a cold and that has now kicked in and I can barely speak as doing so makes me cough my lungs up like I used to before I gave up smoking some 9 years ago, yes folks it was really that long ago I gave up the even weed, not THAT WEED, I meant tobacco which apart from alcohol and adreneline is the hardest drug I’ve ever consumed, yep I’m a real life party pooper.
Anyways that me just sharing my immediate thoughts prior to me embarking on a day of world class sport watching and hoping that 2 out of 3 will give victory to 2 British sportsmen (Lewis Hamiltoin and Andrew Murray) and having to suck up to the French as Id rather see them win Euro 2016 than the Portuguese.
Have fun folks 🙂
And we’re out!
The BRemain/BRexit referendum has done and remarkably the British people chose to leave the EU. Before anyone asks, yes I voted to leave, my reason for this was nothing to do with immigration, because I don’t think our exit will fix that problem, nor was it financial because I think much of our trade is done with non-EU countries and while some of that is via EU membership we’re still a major global player and I think we stand to gain as much as we’ll lose, it’s the old swings and roundabouts scenario.
My reason for wanting out was because the EU would never go as far as I believed it should which was a truly United States of Europe, one leader, one central governament, one currency, one set of rules and all be one big happy European nation. Now that may surprise people who know me because I am a proud Englishman and I always refer to my nationality as English despite being declared British on my passport. However no EU member state was ever going to allow the EU to go as far as 100% unity and most people throughout Europe want to hold on to their nationality, their traditions and their laws. The fact that many EU countries are now hearing calls for their own referendums really show that this national pride is there across the EU. My belief with anything is that if you’re not committed to go into something fully you may as well not bother at all.
Interestingly, this whole thing isn’t something new, no seriously. Sure we may be the first member to leave the EU but cast your mind back to your school days and think about your history lessons. There once was a king who fell in love but sadly that king was already married to his deceased brothers wife. He begged the Pope to nullify his marrige but the pope denied this request. The king was angry, he took decisive action and declared that he would make himself the head of his own religion and by doing so give himself the power to end the marriage. That king was of course Henry VIII and while it hasn’t all been smooth life carried on and now the two branches of Christianity live side by side (in most communities) and everyone gets on swimmingly.
It will be an interesting journey as we invoke article 50, David Cameron was right to give us time to make that move and the French and German governments can whine all they want about us delaying that step and not having a fully committed leader, its pointless rushing in and making a bad decision in replacing Cameron and why should he be the guy that negotiates how we leave when he isn’t going to be around?
There will, I’m sure, be many more political casualties joining David Cameron who quit within an hour of the results being announced. Will Boris Johnson become Conservative party leader and our Prime Minister in October? Will we get an election before October? What becomes of Ireland and Scotland? Will we get a 2nd referendum?
So many questions to be answered in the next few nervous months.
