The next adventure has started HOME!!

Well we are home and it is just as wonderful as I could have hoped!!

Had 2 lovely days in Hunter Valley wine area. Stayed at a great place but you know what, we are wined out, toured out. The only real interesting thing about the place was that one of the wineries had a breathalyzer. I had myself put on the car insurance just for this part of our trip and I'm glad I did. The legal limit is .05 and that is not alot. Larry picked a straw out of a bin, inserted the straw in a slot in the machine and blew like crazy, waited for a few minutes and up popped .053. That really was OK because I was driving at this point but that was our second winery!! Most wineries also had a card that you could fill in and carry with you and record all your different wines you had tried. I think it just was to keep a person honest and not impaired. I don't recall the Okanagan caring how much you drank.

Arrived in Sydney, dropped our car, got picked up by our new friends from Port Douglas, had a lovely lunch with 'the girls', then Rick our Home Exchange friend arrived to pick us up. What treatment!! Back to Rick and Jan's to spend 2 nights. Lots of chat and wine. No driving!! We met Rick and Jan our very first day in Sydney and in the mean time they had spent 10 weeks in Mexico, Cuba and Vancouver at our house so they had met all the kids and babies. They had a marvelous trip. 2 or 3 weeks in Cuba staying at peoples homes. That seems so brave but then "drive" to Mexico, are we crazy. The trepidation is only the unknown!!

Had our last ride on the RiverCat. Took it from Rick and Jan's to the Toronga Zoo. About the only thing we thought we might need to see and it was wonderful. There is something about Zoo's, rain, big bucks and us!! Just like Australia Zoo, we had just laid down the cash of $88 for the zoo and ferry ride and the skies opened up. We had decided if it started to rain before we paid we would just shop or poke around Sydney rather then do the rain. The Zoo was wonderful. About the best one we have seen in our travels. We took a ferry to it and then a Sky Rail took us to the top of the hill and we proceed to walk down to the bottom seeing every animal in creation on the way down. Back to Rick and Jan's for a delicious farewell dinner.

On our last Rivercat trip, we sat with a couple from the US who were missionaries for the Jesus Christ Latter day saints. the first question out of the womans mouth was "Did I have a recipe for Nanaimo Bars"! She gave me a business card and asked to send it personal and confidential to Claudio so she would be the only one with the recipe. Of course, Larry says it was just a ploy to get our name so we will get a visit from the BC missionaries.

As much as we have been looking forward to going home, can you believe Tuesday morning I am on the internet checking if we should have chosen our seats and I realize that we leave at 1:15 and not 3;15. It was really no issue, we just hustled around and got ready and Rick and Jan drove us to the airport about 10:30am. Then, would you believe there was either a mechanical issue or a Qantas mechanical slowdown but we did not leave Sydney until 9PM. What a day. They fed us often but Sydney airport is doing renos and they had a fast food Japanese restaurant and a pizza/sandwich place open. Of course, missed our connecting flight from LAX so rather then get home at 4PM we arrived at 11:45. I had insisted that no one pick us up just because it was too late but wouldn't you know it Carli was there with a big hug and a little water in all our eyes!!

Anyway, we are home. Larry has got the truck on the road and then last night someone burgled our garage. Larry had the RV batteries on the battery charger so they took one battery and the charger. What a pain. Anway, its over. We now have super duper locks etc on that door but there is still the big garage door that I guess is vulnerable.

We got home June 10 and had our first home exchange people arrive on June 17th. Larry spent the week cleaning the trailer. We picked our Bundaberg home exchange people, John and Julie up from the airport, got them settled in our house, slept on the street in our trailer and then the next morning drove to Osoyoos to spend 5 days with all our family and lots of friends. It was super hot but wonderful.

I am back to work at Royal Bank and it too, is good. Although, I am working at North Vancouver branch. Right now we are staying with our friends Vivian and Merle in Coquitlam because we have more home exchange people staying at our place. We can go home on Wednesday and then we are home until September. It will be nice to stay put for a few weeks.

This will be my last blog for a while. We will head to Mexico with our RV the middle of October and I might start blogging again but until then Adios amigas.

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