Craters of the Moon N.P, by Dan

written by Dan

After an all you can eat pancake breakfast (Dan 6) (Barney 1) (Abigail 2)
(Jimmy 8) (Bree - did not get up in time!), we headed on across Idaho. We stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument. Poor Bree was not feeling the best and lay down on the sofa in the RV, occasionally popping her head up for a quick look, that’s why I am writing this short blog.

Craters of the Moon is a barren area of lava flows, cinder cones (mini volcanoes), and volcanic tubes. This is an arid region, and the meager rainfall is quickly siphoned away through the loose volcanic soil. Historically uninhabited, and unused except for hunting, and trapping. It was called "Craters of the Moon" because, it was imagined that this is what the moon must look like. (Yes I stole that bit from a web page).

As it was a very small place to visit, the kids finished their junior ranger programs and we headed west towards our next town which was Stanley. We had already done a lot miles so we stopped when we noticed a little ranch in the middle of the mountains, so we stayed there the night. It was beautiful and there were still signs that they had a lot snow there, including the hundreds of snowmobiles that were available for hire during the snow season.

The next morning we made our way to Stanley which was a lovely little town that was recommended to us by lots of people. The drives continue to be an amazing part of our trip. Everywhere seems to has such stunning views, and what’s more, they seem to be different. Many days we travel a lot and it makes such a big difference to stay off the big interstates and pick the longer scenic drives.

We are now in Nampa after filling our boots in an all you can eat restaurant and will be heading into Oregon in the morning.

OK not too good at this blogging! Forgot to post it. We have now been in Oregon for a few days and have made our way over to the coast (Newport). From here its straight down the coast Rd to San Francisco . Our first night in Oregon we stayed in the middle of a national forest. When we got there we were the only ones in the whole area, we thought more would turn up but nobody did. It was kinda scary sleeping in the middle of the forest all by ourselves. After a lovely fire we headed off to bed and it was not until the middle of night that we worked out why we were alone. It was COLD. Summer has not turned up in Oregon yet, instead we woke up to snow.
From what I have seen of Newport is a lovely place and we will be checking it out today.

The rest of the Idaho photos are here.

American People.... (by Dan)

If I ask folks back home what they think of America and it its people they (in most cases) talk mainly of a crazy bunch of people with a bad president, that love junk food. They see them as a very dangerous people that would knife you for a few dollars.

Into my ninth week and my eighth State, I will share with you what I have found so far. I feel inspired to share with you what (staying away from the big cites) my perceptions of people here are like.

I got off the plane nine weeks ago and took a ride with a jolly dancing cab driver. The next morning the staff at the RV hire place were very kind and did all they could to give us the best possible RV for our trip. An amazing couple, Pat & Jim drove all the way to the hire place to meet us a treated us like their sons & daughters for 10 days (See Brees older blog posts on Florida)

From there we have continued to meet the nicest, friendliest, sharing people possible. We went to Georgia to a maximum security prison where all the inmates and staff were very nice, and where we met a lady called Lesley who went out of her way to help Bree set up the visit over a period of many weeks previously.

The people of Alabama greeted and us treated us well, they were very interested to hear all about our family and Ireland.

In Mississippi and Louisiana we were welcomed, especially in the places that were effected by Katrina. These people were really pleased that we came to spend a few dollars and see first hand the effects of the terrible hurricane.

People in Texas treated us like long lost family the second we walked in the door in certain places making us feel really at home, in fact warmer than being at home.

The people in New Mexico walked the extra mile with kindness and friendliness, if they saw you arrive in a town they would greet you and introduce themselves. Great down to earth people, really pleased to see you.

At present we are in Arizona and it just keeps happening. After speaking to a lady for a few minutes one night I had an offer to take my family to her house for Sunday dinner and baths! She treated us so well, cooked amazing food and had a wonderful family.

In general I have met the most thoughtful, kind, and interesting people possible. People that appreciate and enjoy life, with good values, people you could talk to for hours about things that matter, family, nature etc.. people that don’t want big yellow M’s coming to their towns, people who watch the stars and ignore the rubbish on TV. People who I could mix with and get along with just fine. Sometimes I feel like an alien in my home town in Northern Ireland. In a way I feel one of these little towns is more than my home, even though I only just passed through it.

In fact the only cross people I have met are only cross with the running of the country. They would say to me “everyone hates Americans at the moment , we are hurting real bad, thanks for coming and thanks and for the nice things you have said”

Its so easy to get an opinion of a place by a weeks holiday or something that you have read in the newspapers or watched on TV. I am not saying I know it all after a few months, but from what I have seen, this place is amazing. Don’t get me wrong, it must have more than its fair share of nut cases and after all statistics don’t lie, this can be a dangerous place to live. But if you keep out of the big cities, America would get my vote for a friendly place to live.

Don’t even get me stared on the beauty of this place. I could write a book on that one. The national parks are everywhere and are breath taking. Going back to the people, the staff at the state and national parks are passionate about the parks in a real and genuine way. The children are given activities to do and the staff are so friendly to help and so pleased when they see them learn.

The USS Alabama (late blog post by Dan)

Dan wrote this blog post a few weeks ago in Alabama but it was on the wrong laptop and its only now that I've managed to copy it onto this one. So, sorry its late, but here is our blog post from Alabama....

Today we took a trip to the war ship USS Alabama and all had a great day out. It was a full on memorial park with battle ships, planes, tanks and submarines. The city of Mobile seems to be a very industrial place and it was no surprise that many of the ships were built in that area. We took a turning off an 8 mile bridge to get there which was a little strange ( if you took a turn off all the bridges I know you would be in big trouble). And once again great thanks to Louise for getting us there quickly and free from maps.

After having breakfast in the car park we headed straight for the battle ship which cost us the equivalent of about £15 for the whole family which was great value. The ship was amazing, there were three self guided tours which you could go on and we did them all, and that was just the battleship. You could walk through lots of rooms and touch almost everything, it was fascinating to see all the different rooms and get a taste of what it must have been like to be at sea. With the exception of the officers, life aboard a warship would have been, lets say “compact” and it was very interesting to see how they lived their lives.

Anyone that knows me would guess that I spent the entire day talking about how much organizing would be involved taking a warship to sea over long periods of time with a crew of 2500 men aboard, and how much supplies and equipment you would need. The ship had aboard a doctors, dentist, barbers, hospital, bakery, massive kitchens, stores for weapons and uniforms, as well as temporary prison cells, darkroom for the photography, printers and pretty much everything you could think of. Even the hospitals had a mix of doctors specializing in almost every field of medicine.

I could go on about it all day because we learnt so much about the day to day running of the ship and the manpower to work there.

During the day we took a break from the ship and made our way the large submarine. This was a lot smaller but you did get to go inside and walk the whole length of it. After going down some stairs you are met with a door about four feet tall and almost the same width and thickness, you almost had to crawl into it. Bree was a little anxious as she is quite claustrophobic but she did really well. There was not much room inside which gave you taste of how difficult it would have been to be at sea in it. There must have been tens of thousands of different knobs, levers and switches and it just made you wonder how they ever build them. It seemed like the most complex thing on the planet.

The kids really enjoyed the day and even barney who had his little legs walked off him loved it. There is so much to see and explore there its impossible to be bored. It was cold today though, felt like home when the wind blew.

As we are heading closer to New Orleans we are staring to see the total devastation left by hurricane Katrina. They had on display many photos of the damage caused at the park. We were looking inside an aircraft carrier full of planes from different wars and presumed that the damage on world war two planes were from wear and tear over the years. They turned out to be mint condition planes before the hurricane ripped its way though the place.

All wars are such a shame, some are necessary and some seem pointless but in all conflicts there are the innocent people who suffer and I could not help looking down the barrel of the huge guns and thinking of the ships sometimes tragic past and the loss of lives because of mankind’s evil and greed.

On a lighter note most of you know that I m quite a friendly guy, well it does me no harm over here. All the women in the shops think I am just great. All day I hear “ hi sweetie” “hey honey” “bye Hun” “what you say there darling” I could get used to that. Twice I have been in a bank where four women have all tried to help me at the same time. If you are lucky you might get a grunt at the tills in sunny Banbridge.

Tomorrow we head for Mississippi for four days before heading on to New Orleans in Louisiana. No camp site booked this time we will just see what happens when we get there. Bye for now.

(written several weeks ago by Dan).

A blog post written by Dan

A blog post from Dan...

Well it’s about time I wrote a little piece on this fantastic blog that my wonderful wife is writing.

This morning I woke early and went for a walk, a short distance away is Mexico Beach. At 7.30am this morning the sky was bright blue, the sea was in and the white sands are almost too white to look at without sunglasses. It does not get much better than this. Today we are just relaxing and enjoying the sun. We have no traveling to do for 4 days and even then we have allowed a further 11 days to see the gulf coast before we make a start on Texas.

Well there is no much point me writing about what we have been up to as Bree is doing such a wonderful job so I will just tell you what I have learnt so far on my trip and what’s been really good.

Luke was perfect on our 10 and a half hour plane trip, anyone that knows him will tell you he can be a real handful.

Everyone we have spoken to so far has been really nice and friendly, kind, and generous. Pat and Jim who met us at the RV rental place gave us the perfect start with help, hospitably and support. Others have invited us for dinner after talking for just a few minutes.

America is a beautiful place. We are in no hurry so we are taking the small roads and soaking in the countryside.

Our Sat Nav is the best buy I have ever made, without it we would have our heads in maps half of our journey. Now we type in the exact campsite and drive. Her name is Louise. She has only stopped talking to us once so far and we still did not get lost.

Food is really BIG over here. They advertise on the motorways all the fast food places just as you are turning off. In the UK they advertise the great things to see!

Also they have drive through mini supermarkets and even drive through ATMs.

We went to an all you can eat restaurant for just over a fiver including steaks! Luke paid 90p for as much food as he could eat. (And he did) the price includes deserts.

Driving an RV on a different side of the road for the first time was hard, Bree must have said a hundred times “ get over, get over” now it’s a lot better, we have done 1200 miles already.

You don’t need to keep any cupboards tidy in an RV because 15 seconds into your trip everything goes where its wants to anyway (even more so if I am driving)

The RV has cruise control, I have never used this before but it’s so cool. Just set the speed and the RV does the rest. You still have to steer though!

Emptying the poo (yes it has to be done and seems to be my job) is easy and nothing like on the Robin Williams movie”RV.”

I don’t want to come home.

I am trying to drink less fizzy drinks but Dr Pepper is as low 9p a tin.

When a shuttle takes off it burns half a ton of fuel a second.

The space shuttle flies at four miles a second once its picked up speed!

Going to a maxim security prison in America and visiting someone on death row is an experience I will never forget. My first memory is seeing the miles and miles of razor wire sparking in the sun.

All the parks and expensive things to do are waste of money, the best things, and the things that the kids will remember are all the free stuff we will do. There are so many state parks over here with outstanding views and educational things to learn about.