Ciao!

At Sea, just south of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the toe of the boot of Italy.

We almost bit off more than we could chew. The flight to Toronto was uneventful. The passage between T1 and T3 in Toronto was a lot of walking and a short train ride--fortunately we had been able to check our luggage through to Rome, so we didn't have to deal with that too. The flight to London was good, but Laurel and I weren't together and were both in middle seats, so it wasn't great. We arrived in London at 0630 their time--about midnight body time, without useful sleep. A good English Breakfast and strong coffee perked us up a bit. The flight from London to Rome was good, except for the last half hour. The pilot said they had a "stiff breeze"--English understatement for a strong gale, torrential rain and an extremely rough trip down. Laurel was ill--motion sickness--from the ups, downs and sideways. We found the train tracks and bought the necessary tickets to get to Civitaveccia. The first train was OK--they had a scrolling sign saying which station was next, so we knew when to get off. We waited in the station--an outside covered affair with about 8 tracks open to the rain and covers over the platforms--built in the 1920s or so--beautiful iron works. As the train was pulling into the station, they changed platforms on us. Some people ran across the tracks and the train honked at them. With luggage, we had to go down stairs, through the tunnel, up stairs and onto the train. A wild rush; too much excitement!!! But we made it. A group of Nuns on the train said we had gotten on to the correct train. (I should point out that there were no railway workers to be seen anywhere along the trip--nobody checked tickets, not even the seller--and nobody to ask. All of Italy gets free train rides on Sunday???) Anyway, through the rain, wind and darkness, we went to Civitaveccia. A few hundred meters of dragging suitcases along wet cobblestones and our hotel beaconed at us. We were VERY glad to get there! 12 hours of sleep followed.

The hotel was great. Nice big rooms, marble everywhere. Typical European breakfast of breads and muffins, cheeses and meat, yogourt and coffee. The very first people we said hi to in the small breakfast room were from Winnipeg!!!! There were also Americans from California and Germany--they were working there in Germany... All nice folks.

We are booked into the same hotel for our intercruise night. Wonderful little town--we wandered and shopped for the morning--and stocked up on wine! It was windy, but no rain, and about 19C. We walked our suitcases down to the port and got on the ship. A couple of snoozes later, we watched the sailaway from our balcony. Very nice!!!. We had supper with the Americans from Germany--good conversation--and then to bed.

This morning was rainy again, but the sun came out as we went through the Straits of Messina, and its quite nice. We had the Cruise Critic get together and met the folks that we will be touring Egypt with. All in all, we're recovering from the travel and doing great!

Only 6 More Sleeps!

The travelling Baileys are nearly ready to hit the road, really the air and sea, but it's all travel! Our flight to Rome leaves Winnipeg on Saturday at noon. We hope the new grandbaby will have put in his/her appearance by then. Alene is getting very anxious and has convinced her midwife to induce her before we leave. I'm sure it will be OK as she was great with the others.

We are off to sea again...12 days on the Star Princess, travelling to Egypt, Athens, Khios (Greek Island), Istanbul, Kusadesi, and Naples. We board November 22 and disembark December 4. We will be posting to the blog about these exciting places and hope you will enjoy travelling with us! We spend one day in Italy and then catch a second cruise on the little Pacific Princess that takes us from Civitavecchia on December 5, to Florence, Monaco, Barcelona, Casablance, Ceuta, The Azores, and Bermuda. We will fly home from Fort Lauderdale Dec 22, just in time for Christmas.

Talk to you from Italy, Ciao!

Campground Hosts, Birds Hill Park, Summer 2010

We are very happy to be chosen to host the Campground at our favourite park. It is so beautiful and has many great activities. We get to help with special events (Bannock Baking over an open fire) and participate in hikes and other activities. The Park gives us a T shirt, name tag, a little training and a free full service campsite.

We are happy to be in one spot and have settled into our new 2010 Earthbound RV. It is larger than the old Terry and very comfortable. I have a great kitchen with lots of counter space!

We are not planning any trips until our big Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Transatlantic cruise in November. We may also go to Arizona for a part of the winter.

Ciao for now!

Home again!

Grand Lake RV and Golf resort is about half way between Gainsville and Ocala, FL. and it was pretty cool (relatively!!!!) there. So, we shopped a bit around both places and toured about--seeing a botanical garden: www.kanapaha.org and where John Travolta lives: www.jumbolair.com/.

Then, to home. It is 2000 miles, so we did 400 miles per day, which is pretty good with a trailer behind and winter. Day 1 we camped at a KOA just north of Atlanta, GA. Nice place, but they were just recovering from the big freeze. Day 2 was a private campground in Southern Illinois--nice, only a bit of snow on the ground. We paid particular attention to the weather forecast here and decided to go west, then North rather than north, then northwest. So, day 3 was a drive through St Louis and Kansas City then north to St Joseph where we hotelled it because there was snow on the ground and we had winterized the water system in the trailer in the morning. Day 4 was up to Watertown, SD--lots of snow around but the driving was OK. Going south on I29 were a lot of Manitobans! and a lot--probably a couple of dozen--wind turbine blades going south on special trucks. Boy are they big. And then day 5 into Winnipeg. No issues at Customs and only about an hour or two of bad winter driving. We were very lucky!

What did we learn? Well, Florida is expensive, but the trip was cheaper per day than cruising. Next trip South we'll probably book into places for a month at a time--one week is just not long enough to get involved in the communities. It is cold in winter, even in Florida--just not as cold for as long. We missed TV and Internet when we could not get it. We'll take the Honda's the next time--if M can figure out how to cover them and all the other stuff we take with us. We take too much stuff--that is a recurring and unresolved issue! And, we won't go over Christmas because we really missed all the family activities for that week.

Next trip: who knows! If we go anywhere other than Bird's Hill this summer as Hosts, we'll probably take the Beetle and BugHouse to Newfoundland. Then, it is off to crise the Eastern Mediterranean (Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt) followed by a southern transatlantic (Spain, Morocco, Azores, Bahamas). Stay Tuned!

Linger Lodge (Al Roker says it's the Weirdest Restaurant in America)

We left Naples with $28.00 from the busiest casino I have ever seen. Smokey and loud...we left with our little winnings and went to dinner at the Cracker Barrel. Good food and loud, too. I have been noticing the sound level and it seems different here, why I don't know. Chronic deafness, discourtesy, self centeredness, talking on cell phones, yelling at kids.....

Our next stop took us to the Linger Lodge and RV Park. The cold snap started so we mostly holed up indoors, shopped, and went on an expedition to Ikea. We had a site next to the Braden river, very peaceful, with many live oaks dripping with spanish moss. It has been there for 60 years and aspects of the park did show it! The restaurant was excellent, we tried ALLIGATOR....fried, tasted like fishy rubber. The place is filled with stuffed fish, animals, Gators, many snakes, and various antiques and military badges.

In the interest of getting closer to home we moved North to the Grand Lake RV and Golf Resort. Very big but nice with no trees but cable TV and nice neighbors. Abby has made a friend, Pepper, and is enjoying our stay. We are booked in here for a week and plan to ride our new folding bikes (Camping World purchase) and get ready to come home. We expect the weather to improve this week and we leave here for Atlanta on Jan 18...home by Jan 24 or 25!

New Years in Naples (not Italy)

We are at a nice park filled with snowbirds from all over Canada and the US. The first person we met was a woman who lived in Transcona in 1945...an Icelander from Arborg. She has been coming here for 25 years, lives in a little elderly park model and is a bundle of energy. Reminds me of Mom.

Naples is quite a ritzy area, the real estate is McMansions as far as the eye can see....many for sale. We drove around Sanibel Island yesterday and estimated about 1/3 of the newer houses are listed. It is a beautiful, touristy area with many places for rent and lots of little shops and cafes. We had a picnic on the beach but a cold wind kept it short. The sun was shining and many people were fishing, which is extremely popular down here. If you say that you don't fish they tend to question your sanity. We met a Sheriff in Marathon who offered to take us out and show us the best spots! Didn't take him up on it!

We had fun at our New Years party, dinner and dancing. We won the 50/50 pot, spent $5.00 and won $61.00. Paid for the evening.

Today we are off to the local Casino to see if our luck turns into a nice win there! Yeah right! The weather has cooled off considerably but the sun is shining and it is now 11c. We are moving tomorrow to a place called the Linger Lodge...very interesting website...so we shall see if it fulfills its potential.

Christmas in the Keys

It has been a while since posting, but we had a great time at Grassy Key. Christmas was strange without family but we attended a pot luck with the other campers. Our stay there seemed to go by in a flash. We enjoyed swimming in the beautiful pool and playing games with our new friends. The park is right on the Gulf on Mexico and is beautifully landscaped.

One of the best things about staying in a park is advice about places to see and things to do. We followed some good advice and went on an adventure to No Name Key to the NoNameBar and Grill. What a neat place, it has thousands of dollar bills decorated by patrons and very delicious seafood. We also got to see a few Key deer, which are small German shepherd size. They are endangered and so protected that the penalty for running over one is more than for hitting a person (not really).

We had a great visit with Mom and the Saskatchewan relatives in Miami the day before they embarked on a Carribean cruise. It was fun to see them. The trip to Miami was about 5 hours round trip but we saw some pretty country.

Our next stop will be Club Naples in Naples. We are just slowly working our way north.