Philadelphia was the only place we were going to on our round the world trip that we had already been to before. Our friends live just outside Philadelphia in a town called Plymouth Meeting, and as we were driving in, Elaine started to remember places she had been many times and it was all a kind of coming home feeling! We spent a long weekend in Plymouth Meeting, enjoying spending time with our friends talking about our adventures so far. It was great to be in a home again, and simple things like enjoying a home cooked meal and watching the [View Full Entry]

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We took the Amtrak train to Charleston and unfortunately our host fell through so we booked ourselves into the Notso Hostel for the two nights. It was an unusually laid out and run hostel with check in for only a couple of hours in the evening and only 2 showers and toilets to service everyone but it served the purpose of accomodation. The next day we walked into the downtown area from our hostel and passed a farmer’s market on the way with plenty of cute stall etc. Downtown area was a stark contrast to the neighbouring residential areas with it’s [View Full Entry]

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This morning has been wonderful so far. I got up and had breakfast with Aaron before he left for school. And Whitney was up just in time to see me get on the road too. I think they got a significant amount of rain last night, so hopefully it washed off some of the bugs that are on the front of my bike. I don’t even try to keep the bike looking clean and shiny, especially with frequent rain riding and storms at night. I found out I was their first visitor to their place since their wedding. I found a [View Full Entry]

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Danger, danger danger......thats right triple danger......there were not one, not two but three matthews' in the grand old USA at once. For ten days no less which to be honest was no where near enough but what can you do! And in keeping with the triple theme there are three pages of photos to this blog so be sure to scroll through to all three of them!!!! Rach took time out from her "im going to take 9 months off and enjoy europe and the world" trip to accompany mum who herself decied to take a refreshing 6 weeks off and [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, August 19, 2008 The Reunion Today was the ultimate climax to our adventure. We had great fun in Europe and driving there was an adventure. But spending the day in Greenville at the BMW Performance School was a top thrill for me and Jackie. As I reported yesterday, we drove from Atlanta to Greenville, SC and spent the night at the Marriott. The drive was about two hours, about 100 miles. After our endurance driving in Europe, this was nothing. We drove up in my Toyota Highlander, with Ursula at the GPS. After a nice breakfast, we followed a van [View Full Entry]

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Monday, August 18, 2008 Hello family and friends, Did you think that our journey was over? No way. There is still one important last step. It is time to re-acquaint ourselves with our new, or almost new, BMW. We had bonded with our new car in Europe and now really miss seeing and driving her. We have been back to the USA since Saturday, June 28th. Tomorrow we will spend the day at the BMW factory in Greenville, SC. There is a complete day planned for us. We start at 8:00am and finish at 3:00pm. It should be great fun touring [View Full Entry]

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Location: Lake Jocassee in the Cherokee Foothills about an hour or so west of Spartanburg, SC There's nothing like a large, blue, glistening lake to bring out the fish in us all. This past weekend, after "X-files Friday" (which the movie was good, lots of Mulder and Scully but sadly not 'x-filish' enough for this x-philer...yes, I'm pathetic, I know the lingo and it just wasn't the same without The Lone Gunmen and the Cigarette-Smoking Man) I tried to unwind and get a good night's sleep Friday night. On Saturday morning, I showered and got out of here around 10:30am or [View Full Entry]

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I can hardly believe that I have been home an entire year! The way I know this is only because we go the beach every year. It is the highlight of my year; it’s better than Christmas. This year we went to Edisto Island. We stayed further down the island on the sound. It was different. More wildlife then I remember. There were no waves, which was kind of weird. We stayed in a funny house where the kitchen and den were on the top floor. We shared a duplex with Ball Family on the other side. We brought our boat [View Full Entry]

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08:15hrs and the 16 hours are over, and the greyhound dumps me at what looks like a roadside shack. Welcome to charleston greyhound station..... A staggering 100m within the city limits and 8 miles from where I need to be. Taxi!! What a taxi driver tho.. A black ex navy ghanian Jew...oi vey what a mix. The NotsoHostel was right on the edge of downtown charleston and was a typical wood boarded wide verandered house. The nice people there let me dump my stuff and sleep before the check in time of 5pm, a sweaty 8 hours away. Yes charleston is [View Full Entry]

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Wow, the past few weeks have gone by incredibly fast and I have just under 3 weeks left here before I move on again to my next big adventure before making my way back to Alaska (which is in itself another adventure). It's going to be a busy 3 weeks though as this weekend I take off for Wilmington, NC to see my cousin, go scuba diving on a couple wrecks *smile*, tour around the campus that I spent 5 months of my life at, and sit on the sunny beaches of North Carolina again. Then next weekend is my Advanced [View Full Entry]

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