Entry #1 On March 17th (St. Patricks Day) we had a going away celebration courtesy of our bootcamp friend John Seltzer. He was kind to allow us to use his Zydeco party venue for celebration with family and friends. As always the band was great and the food sensational. There was a wide variety of food ranging from seafood gumbo to green cheese fondue. (We were also celebrating St. Patricks day) We had a chance to meet old friends we had not seen in a long time and did a little dancing. Now that the pre-trip celebration is over the preparation and packing begins...

Entry #2 Just wanted to let you know that we all appreciate your well wishes as we embark on this trip. Thanks for all your support. We also wanted to let you know that John Seltzer will be having another Zydeco party on April 8th (Easter Sunday). If you are looking for a great time, check it out! A copy of the flier is attached on the picture page. If you have trouble reading it you can call John at (650) 585-2293 if you want more details. Enjoy!

Entry #3 We have finished our first week on the road and everything is going well. We would have put something sooner on the site but we discovered that the website access at Death Valley is pretty poor. When we did find a Motel with Wi Fi but got the room without the Wi Fi . We could however get access from the car in the parking lot. Not the most conducive for typing, I think. Wi Fi could possibly stand for Wi Find. We started off at Santa Margarita Lake CA. We arrived about 30 hours late so skipped the hot tubs this trip. (Lisa managed to get a stomach flu and fever hours prior to departure, but is doing well now). In case anyone is interested, the hot tubs are ~ $10/30 min. just north of San Louis Obispo; the better campground at the lake is 0.2 miles past the KOA Kampground, and the raccoons still walk all over the cars. The lake is truly one of those Corona moments when watching the sun set over the lake. Tuesday found us going across CA passing through 2 national forests. Funny in Massachusetts a forest has trees, CA tended to have a different perspective. We stopped in Bakersfield, now a sprawling metropolis, to check out the sites we hear so much about. I could not find the old Burger Boy but the restaurants there proved more than adequate. We carried on to Death Valley via a small ghost town Ballarat the temporary home of Charles Manson, but way more famous for Seldom Seen Slim. When we were at Death Valley I guess you could say we were at the low point of the trip (282 feet below sea level that is). We had to look up at the marker on the cliff to see sea level. Scotty’s castle was worth a look, the man was basically a shyster who was such a good con, he convinced his first victim to build a vacation home there, where Scotty could entertain guests. OK it’s a bit more than that, the real owner Mr. Johnson, was a multimillionaire who had broken his back as a young man, he couldn’t explore the west as he wanted to, so lived vicariously through Scotty who seemed to have quite the gift of gab. We sort of missed Las Vegas, NV I would recommend for non gambling travelers the Diamond Inn across the street from Mandalay Bay for a cheap, convenient place to stay. We do plan on passing through Las Vegas, NM to make up for that. Ralph and I moved straight on to Lake Mead for the night. At this point with the last few nights of camping we needed a good clean up. The car also needed an overhaul by now. Since I was sick while packing, we hap hazardously threw together supplies. Surprisingly this was not efficient for travel. On Thursday we hit Utah. It started off in the boarder town of St George where I determined the engineers from Arizona did not want people to leave their state so they designed a double rotary traffic system at the Utah boarder to keep people in Arizona. There were 15 cars on the highway and ~200 at a dead stop on the rotary. St George, UT should be a cool city to visit someday, they have a great reptile house according to the billboard and I found out later that the Mormons were sent there to get their polygamist weddings performed via covered wagon back in the 1800’s. I liked UT so much, I made Ralph book a hotel for 2 nights, but in Mt. Camel Junction. We explored Zion National Park Day 1, Bryce Canyon Day 2 with a nice drive after not once but twice over Cedar Mountain since I didn’t read the map saying road closed for snow. That actually turned out great, we ended up meeting really friendly, conscientious people here, one guy we stopped to help on the road, but he had just pulled over to clean up someone’s trash. We also hit a very convenient 5 min. blizzard at the top of the mountain which cleaned the car off and also afforded us a picnic break while we watched the skiers. (We did not eat outside since we were in hiking gear of shorts and T shirts). Day 3, I was told we are leaving UT and heading back to AZ for a voyage through the Grand Canyon. The north side is closed for winter so we went along the south side. We made a quick stop at Pipe Springs National Monument prior to GC, and had 2 pleasant hikes. The first was a trail called Muupuk which is Paiute Indian name for owl. We saw an owl and crow arguing over a cliff ledge, it was a beautiful place and we later found out forbidden for hikers so I would not recommend others going there. The second hike was an informed trail designed by the rangers. That and the ranger led tour were very interesting. We hiked the trio of great canyons in 3 days. This gives 3 distinct perspectives. Zion is seen from the bottom, Bryce from the middle and Grand Canyon from the top. It never ceases to amaze us how great the U.S. national park system is and hopefully it will be well supported throughout the years. As usual please feel free the latest pictures. We hope you have all had a wonderful Easter.

Entry #4 We started our Easter in Flagstaff Arizona. No big celebration that day for us but we did get an extra special buffet at the local Traveling J. And we reached a milestone that day: the car turned 200,000 miles. Even better news we still do not have to push it yet. After we made to obligatory photo shoot of the event we continued on to the Petrified Forest before ending the day in Albuquerque NM. We later celebrated this joyous event with a hot fudge sunday. We had a great experience on the way to Santa Fe the next day. We stopped off at a small museum called Tinkertown along the Turquoise Road. It is a small exhibit of carvings and memorabilia that was started by a man as a hobby. As his creations grew he decided to make a small museum with his stuff. We thought it was great and as Job Bob Briggs would say: ¡§Check it Out!¡¨ Further along the Turquoise Rd. we found the ghost town of Madrid which is now taken over by artists. This was the third time I had made it to Santa Fe and the city center still retains its charms from the previous times I had been there. One note: do not let the modernization outside the city center discourage you. You have to get past it to get to the best. Next on the list: alien encounters. We stopped off at Roswell, NM home of the alien encounters. We had are pictures taken with the aliens. One thing that most people might not know is that is where Robert Goddard did most of his rocket testing in the 1920¡¦s and 30¡¦s. He originally started his rocket testing in New England but after he set a cabbage field on fire, he figured the wide open spaces of New Mexico would be better. We continued on to Carlsbad Caverns. The caves are magnificent and definitely a sight to behold. We could have definitely spent more time there. We also tried to adopt a bat named Floyd, but he had to stay at the cave. Then to Texas, San Antonio, a great little city. The Alamo is a great historical monument and if you are interested in how Texas separated from Mexico, it is definitely worth checking it out. The Riverwalk in the city has its charms and it is one of the things that make San Antonio unique. We spent a lunch on the Riverwalk enjoying the atmosphere before heading to Corpus Christi. I had never been to Corpus Christi and I definitely think it is a town that it overlooked. It is a beautiful coastal town and we took the opportunity to camp on the beach on Padre Island. It was windy but peaceful nonetheless. I was a bit nervous swimming due to many man-of-wars, but the ocean was definitely warm enough. We started early on the following day toward Houston. I was anxious to see Johnson Space Center having grown up following the Space Program. I saw mission control, the brain center of the Apollo Space program. There were also many exhibits from all the space programs including lunar rocks and actual rockets. If space is your thing, go for it. We stayed that night at the Texas-Louisiana border after traveling across the Gavelston ferry. We checked in at the welcome center for the Louisiana border. The people there were extremely friendly and they gave us a few pointers about the festivals that were happening at that time. Actually the rest areas in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi were all really nice. They had good people inside, were clean, and had numerous private picnic sites with wifi set up. The one in MS actually had free tours to the rocket center and the one in LA had boarded path over the bayou for a short run. We made it to the gates of the hotsauce festival in New Iberia. It wasn¡¦t very happening. So where did we go from there: The Tabasco Sauce Factory nearby on Avery Island. We saw how they make Tabasco Sauce and received our free samples. The owners of Tabasco also had a wildlife sanctuary next door which we checked out. You could see alligators, turtles and egrets. We also had a close encounter with a Copperhead. Fortunately no one was hurt. Funny, the alligators didn¡¦t bother us with their running around crossing our paths, but Lisa would not let go of the snake stick the rest of the hike. When we got back to the info center for the sanctuary and asked about the snake, these poisonous vipers were affectionately referred to as coppies, like they were long lost friends. That was so Australianƒº The next day we went to Ponchatoula. The Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula Louisiana celebrated what else: The strawberry. They had strawberry wine, strawberry bread, strawberry shortcake and a strawberry queen. They also served shark on a stick and gator on a stick. Who could ask for anything more? After a few hours and our fill of Strawberries we headed to the big easy, New Orleans. We had good timing for our arrival to New Orleans. We stayed at the Ambassador Hotel, only a few blocks from the French Quarter. The Ambassador Hotel is a reconverted Coffee Warehouse and we got a great rate, compliments of the Louisiana welcome center. Also, we arrived at the tail end of the French Quarter Festival. There was still a lot of celebrating going on. I had been to New Orleans 15 years ago and I will say that it has definitely improved since I have been there in spite of hurricane Katrina. I hope to back there again soon. We then continued on to our current destination: Biloxi, MS. We got a nice place on the beach to give us a little down time after our first two weeks of travel. It was also hit hard by hurricane Katrina and it still on the road to recovery. I think this is an overlooked area because it has beautiful white beaches. Once its recovery is complete, it should be a great place to go.

Entry #5 It has been a few weeks since our last entry and for those of you who have been waiting in dire anticipation, our apologies. We were hoping to make an entry before we left for Europe but preparations were a little more complicated than expected. We finished our cross country trip in Boston and the main highlights along the way included Scottsboro AL, Atlanta, Savannah, Charleston, The Outer Banks and Rehobeth Beach. What is so interesting about Scottsboro AL you ask? Well that is where all the lost luggage goes. They have a store there that sells all airline luggage that has been left unclaimed. Definitely an interesting garage sale with a strange touch of voyerism. It is amazing what people will pack. Alabama is also the home of the George Washington Carver museum. A pretty cool biochemist who is most famous for extracting 300 plus compounds from the peanut, but also extracted dyes and active pharmacuetical ingredients from plants. We tagged on a tour given to a bunch of high school kids from AL, we fit right in as a lot of these kids were bigger than us. We drove south to Atlanta via Tenn and SC so we got a look at the Smokey Mountains. We stopped in Marietta, Georgia (a fine town), met up with a man from Auz and drank coffee with our TimTams. This is a cool town just outside Atlanta known for the Gone with the Wind museum and Hemingways bar. I really liked the atmosphere of the bar. When we got to Atlanta we tried to check the world of Coca Cola. Unfortunately it was closed. So we went to plan B: Stone Mountain, a park that displays the southern tradition for the last two hundred years. There were old southern plantations, a paddle wheel boat ride, an interactive 4D bug movie, the mountain itself to hike up, blacksmith and glassblowing lessons, and a laser light show to top off the evening. We had a great position on the lawn for the evening consert and laser show, when the entire seventh grade for Atlanta joined us and literally surronded us. We learned what was cool and what was out, who was dating who and who liked who, incidently there must be a new superman show because he was definitely in! The kids were actually pretty fun to have around although within 20 minutes we were the only ones to think so. During the show they had so much energy, singing at the tops of their lungs all the nice patriotic songs (OK the show was a bit of a recruiting advertisiment). Savannah and Charleston still have their original charm from two hundred years ago. The most beautiful areas are those along the river and the ocean. Check em out. In Savannah, we took the 10 dollar city tour, the woman giving the tour told us how to save money at every restaurant, club, and store and was delightful to listen to. It was most interesting at the start of the tour when she let us know every possible way to leave the city as fast as possible after the tour got out. So after lunch we took the senic coastal road/ferry route to Charleston and camped approximately 5 miles away in the state park. The lines for even the walking tour were too long for us so we explored Charleston on our owe on foot and it was pretty cool because we were following a book I was reading at the time or just making up our own stories about each of the sites. It was a good book but sorry folks, we´ve already forgotten the title. We carried on up the coast route to the outer banks which is an unspoiled coastal area in North Carolina. It is probably unspoiled because, with the exception of Kitty Hawk (the sight of the Wright Brothers first flight), it is relatively unknown. We camped at the Frisco national park on Cape Haddress Island and when we woke up the next morning and went exploring, we found a 57 mile long pristine deserted beach. we couldn´t believe it! We walked parts of the beach before heading out to find out about the Wright Brothers. (It appears we are doing a space exploration journey backwards, starting in Houston at mission control, then space camp in AL, now first flight). The Wright Brothers memorial was cool, it was also the first day of the NC HOG convention and one of the older rangers had a great knack for telling stories and did a 1.5 hour presentation on the first flight which Ralph and I listened to with 50,000 Harley bikers. We then kind of started quickening our pace up the coast to MA. There was a small matter of preparing for the European part of the trip and the flight we had to catch from Boston. Going up the coast we really enjoyed Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. It is is a small beach town the still maintains its intimacy. We stopped at Virginia Beach earlier, but it wasn´t like Lisa remembered it except for the traffic so we left. But Rehoboth has always been my favorite tourist/boardwalk beach on the east coast. It now even boasts a QVC outlet store! After that, up to Boston, spent a great 3 days with the famiy, and then overseas preparation took center stage. Since we were not taking the car overseas we had to figure out what to take and what to leave behind. A tricky undertaking. Next Stop: London. Entry #5 Part 2 Europe We arrived in London on May 2nd. We took it easy for a couple of days for a little recovery. With our free time we did catch a show: We Will Rock You - The Music of Queen. Well worth watching if you are a fan of Queen or rock in general. After our recovery we took the Eurostar to Paris. Paris is definitely a chaotic city. Or as Lisa put it Paris is a pain in the ass! But it grows on you once you figure out its little quircks and get away from the popular sites, it has its appeal. We did cover such popular sights as the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, The Arc de Truimph and Versailles. We saw the Mona Lisa and Venos Di Milo so we can check them off and never go back:) But we more enjoyed the picnic and people watching in Luxembourg Gardens and the fountains of Versailles, with classical music! (Room to walk and enjoy the scenes). We took a cruise down the Seine River and sat in a cafe and talked in the latin quarter. We explored the new ultra modern area La Defence and attempted a trip to the grocery store-quite a challange as neither of us reads french. We went to a flea market and bargained with the vendors and to a farmers market to pick up food for lunch. Then we explored a suburb where Ralph went to first and second grades outside of Paris. It was here that this little boy around 10 came up to Lisa and started talking to her. After the non palesvouis frances got across, he went to his friends asking them to speak English for him, when this also did not work (no one spoke english) he came back to Lisa and spoke in loud slow French hoping she would take on this conversation, but poor child, we will never know what was so important for him to talk to Lisa about. The last night in Paris was a walk in the city at night. We explored the "City of Lights" or "City of Illumination".