Goings on in America

Moon Song
Laura & Alan Grayson
Tue 26 May 2009 16:40
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.