Goings on in America
Moon Song
Laura & Alan Grayson
Wed 20 May 2009 21:17
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Well after a very exciting time in Bonaire we moved
the boat to Curacao and put her in the Santa Barbara Marina Where I'm sure she
is now feeling very neglected. We came back to the states in late Feb for
Laura's mum's 80th birthday party. We were hoping for a family get together but
the Philips family dynamics being what they are put an end to all that. In fact
the only other sibling that turned up was the one we figured was not going to
show. Anyway we had a good time and that is all that really matters.
We then spent the next 2 months looking for
something to buy that would be close to Laura's mum and we ended up
looking for B&B's in a small town 22 miles from Betty called Fredericksburg,
Texas. This is a town that was built up by the Germans way back when, and even
today has a strong German influence. We had a fine selection of places to choose
from as this is a very touristy town and there are about 200 B&B's there. We
looked at one that was a Victorian style mansion another that was a farmers
Sunday house. The German farmers had a house in town that they would use so they
could go to church. This farmer was obviously very wealthy as the house had 5
bedrooms. The pick of the bunch for us was a place called Queen Anne, which was
a 1929 era built house which had 5 rooms in the house and a converted garage all
of which had been done up very nicely indeed. Well we ummm and arrr'd for a
while but decided not to pursue this avenue, for a couple of reasons. 1st Laura
did not want to give up the boating life and a B&B would have meant a full
time year round business, NOT acceptable at all. 2nd 22 miles might have been
just a bit close to the mum in law, nah just kidding. So we abandoned that idea
and moved on.
I had a heartwork retreat in the end of April that
my sister was coming over from Dubai to attend and just by coincidence there was
a RV Park workshop being put on by a broker in Tennessee at the same time so
Laura drove to Tennessee in our new car , (yes see how committed to being
land lubbers we are) which is a Subaru Outback, god what a great car. Anyway
while we are having fun at the heartwork Laura was learning all the good stuff
about owning and running a RV Park. She came back all excited with a couple of
good possibilities, so we had a good couple of days in Austin with my sister
before dropping her off in Houston and heading north. All the parks we are
looking at this year are in the northeast US. The one park that really caught
Laura's attention got an offer put on it 4 hrs before we could get there and man
did we try to get there. It was a 18hr drive and we left Houston at 6.00pm and
made it there at 5.00pm the next day. This park we fell in love with as soon as
passed the gate and man you cannot believe the disappointment when we were told
the owner had accepted an offer just 4hrs before hand. This is probably the only
park we have really wanted and we missed out by 4 hrs.so a few bottles of wine
later and a good sleep and a small hangover we moved on. This park was in
Indiana and since then we have seen about 6 parks in 4 states. I'm actually
starting to think that I can say I've seen a fair bit of the US by now. We saw
one other camp that does everything we need it to do, ( make enough money so we
can spend 4-5 months on the boat) but we are going to have to put everything
into it to get which means we might have to spend the 1st winter at the park,
not a really enjoyable prospect as we now consider ourselves warm weather
bunnies.
Right now we are parked at a picnic area on our way
to see Niagara Falls. We are so close that we have decided to take the day off
and check the place out. Will let you know what it is all about in the next
paragraph.
Well we checked out the Falls, pretty impressive...
Lots and Lotsa water. Not as impressive as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The
Canadian side is so much better then the American side. I figure the Americans
don't even think it is a tourist destination. The town is all rundown and I
can't even see anything touristy here. While on the Canadian side there are
flash hotels, casino's and plenty of touristy things to do.
Then we get to crossing back into the states,
Christ I'm so sick of this shit. Of course we get selected for the random
computer check... Pull over here sir and let me break out the rubber gloves.
After sitting in the waiting room for 15 mins, Miss Personality comes out to
pull the bus apart, The only highlight was she is scared of cats, Perfect. 2 of
the little buggers should make her day. Anyway after she has broken a drawer and
pulled the cover off the speaker she lets us go. Another guy checks our
passports and asks for my green card. After looking at it he tells me I should
keep the green card and throw away my passport. Luckily my brain was working
much faster than usual and I told him I should probably keep the passport as it
makes it much easier to escape this hell hole..... Whoops.. out come the
rubber gloves again. The whole deal winds me up, They make it out to be one
big prison and no time off for good behavior either., getting pretty tired of
the whole deal.
Ok so we are at the library looking for more
opportunities who knows where we will end up next.
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