Motorhome News from North America 29 19th November - 3rd December 2006 ‘Georgia on my mind’ Tourism is vital to the economy of most towns we visit on our journey south, and a rich history of colonisation, civil war, slavery and international trade make for a pot-pourri of interesting places to see and opportunities to learn. We often remark there is some danger of reaching the point of ‘tourist attraction’ saturation after so many months on the road. Such was the case at Beaufort in South Carolina (this one pronounced ‘boofoot’ to distinguish it from the Beaufort in North Carolina, pronounced 'bowfort'), a town boasting finely restored historic houses from the 18th and 19th centuries. Regrettably, they made it difficult for us to park: a 9ft height restriction at Visitor Information, ‘Parking for busses only’ in ... read more

Motorhome News from North America 27 26th October - 7th November 2006 From The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia all the way to North Carolina The Blue Ridge Mountains - The Skyline Trail - Shenandoah River - Alegheny Mountains - West Virginia - Lexington - Suffolk - Jamestown - North Carolina - Cape Hatteras - Pamlico Sound - Kitty Hawk - Roanoke Island - The Outer Banks - Lake Mattamuskeet - New Bern How y’all doin’ today? Many States across North America have ‘Visitor Welcome Centres’ along the highway as you enter. We find them an essential source of information. The Virginia centre out of Washington DC provided all we needed to get us inland through the Blue Ridge Mountains and back out to the coast over the next week or so, with copious details of ... read more

Motorhome News from North America 25 4th October - 14th October 2006 Massachusetts - from The Berkshires to Boston, Rhode Island and Connecticut Life is like a slippery fish; you must take a grab at every moment lest it escapes. It was late when we passed through Williamstown in the northwest corner of Massachusetts - too late to stop by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to view their fine collection of Renoir paintings. That’s one we missed, slipped off the hook so to speak, but our love of all things arty took us the following morning to Stockbridge, further south, the archetypal New England town of beautiful white houses, tasteful shops, tall churches and elegant hostels, surrounded on all sides by magnificent tree-lined hills - to The Norman Rockwell Museum. Stockbridge, Rockwell’s home for ... read more

Motorhome News from North America 23 13th -23rd September 2006 The south coast of New Brunswick - and back into the USA Back in New Brunswick at last; a smooth new road, hard-hatted workers in orange boiler-suits, heavy rollers, lorry loads of tarmac and happy flaggers and bright-red cones at the border, as if to say, ‘Welcome to a new world.’ It didn’t last of course; the roads soon degenerated off the main highway, rolling, rising and falling, a switchback on a patchwork of bodged repairs, tarmac pools black as a stormy sky, rocking our poor motorhome from left-to-right and up and down, and making driving distinctly uncomfortable. “What’s a flagger?” you ask. Well, I’ll tell you. A flagger, male or female, is employed at road works to wave at passing motorists with an inconspicuous lollipop ... read more

Motorhome News from North America 21. 20th - 31st August 2006 Newfoundland Gros Morne National Park, Cornerbrook, and back to the mainland; Louisbourg and Cape Breton Highlands ‘The past lies as much in realm of the imagination as does the future.’ Paul Zuker Another day, another week, another message bringing news of travellers in a far-off land. Ours is not intended to be so much a diary of events, but more an endeavour to capture our observations, our memories and our experiences of the past within the imagination, much as one would in a photograph. The future is the challenge in the hands of the planner, the dreamer - whichever way the stick floats or the wind might blow, the anticipation of another day, another tomorrow. You might have wondered why we should want to share ... read more