Although I have traveled extensively throughout Asia, Europe and the United States, I have never been to the continent of South America. So in March/April of 2013 we flew to San Jose, Costa Rica for a 10 day Easter break holiday. The small country of Costa Rica in Central America has often been referred to as "the happiest place on earth." I am not sure whether this holds true or not, but we certainly saw a lot of happy looking people when we were in the capital city of San Jose which is also the economic and political heart of the nation. Our flight from Orlando, Florida by JetBlue took only 3 hours and because of the two hour time difference, we arrived in San Jose just before noon. The airport was smaller than what I ... read more

In February I started writing about this road trip but only covered Mississippi. We were also in Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama. Here is the travelogue about the rest of the southern states we visited in July 2012. As this was going to be a rather long trip, we rented a car from AVIS and left Orlando around 9 in the morning, intending to pass through Georgia on our way to Alabama where we planned to spend the night. GEORGIA After crossing the state line into Georgia, we stopped for a while at a Visitors Welcome Center to pick up some maps and brochures. I would like to mention here that I like this about the USA, where there is always an Information office for visitors when you travel from state to state. Free coffee ... read more

A couple of years ago, we went to Silver Springs Nature Park which is located in the city of Ocala in Florida. Ocala is a quaint little town where horses are bred, and it is known as the "horse capital of the world." It took us only about an hour from Orlando to drive to this park. Being a weekend, there were a lot of people on this nice day. A car show was also being held there which added to the atmosphere. Although the weather was quite hot we enjoyed going around the place, and saw a lot of fauna in their natural surroundings. We took two short river cruises, both times in a glass bottom boat and we could see different species of fish and amphibians underneath the boat, not to mention the alligators ... read more

In September 2011 we rented a car from Hertz, and went for a week long road trip. Our starting point was Santa Clarita in Los Angeles county, the city where my daughter and family live. This entry is about our travels and stops in these two Western states of the US. California to Oregon We were planning to leave my daughter's house early in the morning, but couldn't do so as the Hertz people told us to wait until they called us to pick up the car at their office in downtown Santa Clarita. They called us only around 10 am, and one of their employees came to fetch us. After completing all the paperwork at the Hertz office we took our rental car back to my daughter's house to load our luggage. We didn't have ... read more

Some years ago, while on a visit to my old friend who lives in the city of Terre Haute in Indiana, USA we traveled to Chicago one time by car on a weekend. It was my first trip to this great American city, and I enjoyed it very much. We left my friend's house around 8 in the morning on a cool November morning. There were five of us, including myself in the large van; my friend, his wife, their eldest son John, and my friend's brother Winston who was also visiting from Australia. John did most of the driving. The distance from Terre Haute to Chicago is about 300 kilometers or about 185 miles, and John said the driving time would probably be a little over 3 hours. It actually took us three and a ... read more