Just got home from 2 months in the USA

[Baz]

I had promised to take the two grand kids, (9 & 11) to Disneyland. This holiday was supposed to be 7 days, but it ended up being 7 weeks.

We left Sydney on 10 Dec on a Qantas A380, great airplane, and arrived in LA the same morning, even though we left Sydney the same afternoon.

Two great days at Disneyland and California Adventure and then flew across to New York for 4 days. There we visited all the attractions, 9/11 Memorial, Empire State Building, Manhattan Cruise, Carriage ride and Ice Skating in Central Park, FAO Swartz Toy Store. The two highlights of N.Y. were the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City featuring the 'Rockettes' and walking around N.Y. on 'Santa Saturday night' where all the college kids get dressed up as Santa and pub crawl the City. Thousands of pissed Santa's everywhere having a great time.

We then flew to Orlando and had 5 days at Universal Studios, Sea World and Kennedy Space Centre.

After that hectic 5 days we slipped over from Orlando to Port Canaveral and boarded the new Disney Fantasy for a fabulous 7 night cruise over Christmas of the Bahama's, Grand Cayman, Costa Maya and Cozumel in Mexico.

We then went back to Orlando and as there was my family of 7, we rented 2 x 30 foot motor homes with V10 Ford motors which returned and average of 8.5 mpg.

We then travelled to The Everglades where we had a great time flying around the swamps in an air boat. Next day we were in Miami Beach then Key Largo.

Then we had New Year's Eve in St.Petersburg, next day onto Panama City.

As we left Tallahassee, we were pulled over by the Mid City Highway Patrol and issued with 2 x written caution for 'Not moving left from Lane 1 whilst doing 70 mph and passing an stationary emergency vehicle' which in this case was the cop who pulled us up. Apparently this is law in Florida and California. If you can't pull left from lane 1 because of traffic, you have to knock 20 mph off your speed and remain in lane 1. Neither my son nor I knew anything about this law.

We travelled across Mississippi, Georgia and into Louisiana where we visited the 'Oak Alley Mansion'. The giant American Queen Paddle Steamer had just pulled up on the Mississippi River to visit 'Oak Alley'. The majority of it's elderly male passengers were dressed as soldiers from the Civil War, both Union and Confederate and there wives dressed according to the period with their hooped skirts and bonnets. It really made the visit to this historic place quite special and unique. We spent the next 2 days in New Orleans.

Then we headed north up through the guts of Alabama to its capital Montgomery where we chased up the history of Martin Luther King Jr., and the civil rights riots that occurred here in 1963.

We then travelled north through the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee to Nashville, then onto the Vanderbilt's Mansion 'Biltmore' in Asheville, North Carolina. It is the largest family home in the USA with around 250 bedrooms, 50 bathrooms, bowling alley etc., etc., and sits on 8,000 acres.

After that, we drove down through South Carolina to St.Augustine in Florida where we were invited by the First Coast Cobra Club to the home of it's principal member Tom Wells. We enjoyed a great home cooked lunch and three Cobra Club members turned up in their Everatt Morrison and Backdraft Cobras. These were mostly 351 ci Ford's bored and stroked out to 427. Tom's Everatt Morrison was a little different. It had a 460 Ford bored and stroked out to 8.5 litres. I thought this was pretty cool until I saw his Mercury Zephyr Station Sedan in the garage which he is restoring. It has the same motor as his Cobra, but taken out to a ridiculous 9.1 litres. I am probably the only Aussie with complimentary membership of the First Coast Cobra Car Club. Their club sticker is proudly displayed on my wind wing.

That night we drove back into Orlando and dropped the R.V's off next morning. That was 13 nights and we had done 5,000 klms in the R.V.'s.

We then flew back to L.A. and rented another 2 x 30 foot R.V's and drove to Phoenix, Oak Creek, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff ( snow and minus 20 ), Hoover Dam, Las Vegas (Shelby Museum, Las Vegas Speedway and Nascar experience, Exotic Cars Driving Experience where I had a track drive of a 2012 SLS AMG Black Gull Wing Merc Coupe - 6.2 litres twin cam V8, 402 mm ceramic front brakes with 6 piston calipers. What an awesome machine.)
Also enjoyed watching the F18's taking off and dog fighting over the Nevada desert around the speedway area.

That night we ate at Maggiano's Italian Restaurant on the 'Strip'. We also tried out Battista's Italian Restaurant on the recommendation of Leroy17 from the Gold Coast. Thanks Leigh. It was great. After a couple of days in Vegas, we travelled across the Mojave Desert, stopping at Peggy Sue's Diner near Route 66 for lunch then onto Visalia, Placerville, San Francisco, Monterey, 17 mile Drive, Pebble Beach Golf Course, Hearst Castle tour then LA.

Another 5,000 klms. Total R/V drive = 10,000 klms in 26 days. We managed to visit 14 States during our travels.

Now home for a rest. Haven't driven the Cobra yet, but its high on my bucket list after I get the house back in order. Didn't see many Cobras or such during our massive trip. Only saw one going across Florida along a crappy road in The Everglades plus the 3 that turned up at Tom Wells home in St.Augustine. Other than that, saw three Vipers, one flattened raccoon, three flattened skunks and a few unflattened live deer.

We flew out of LA on the 25th January and arrived in Sydney last Sunday on the on the 27th, totally missing Australia Day.

Hope I haven't bored you,


Baz