Day Fifty One: California Here We Come...28/11/08

...and California here we are, or to be more specific, San Diego here we are. It took us a while to get out of Yuma today, because it was "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving. It basically means that every retail outlet in this fair country was having a major sale. Aidan being the bargain hunter that he is (we have a different word for him), was determined to make the most of this wonderful opportunity that was presented to him. So we got up this morning, punched the co-ordinates for JC Penny into the Sat Nav, and we were on our way. When we got there, he was only too pleased to discover that there was many other fine shops in the vicinity. We parked up, and away he went, taking Ronan along with him. Meanwhile, myself and Brian had only one thing in mind....breakfast. We left the RV park in such a hurry we didn't have time for breakfast! Well, to be fair the fridge was pretty empty anyway. By the time we were all set to go it was almost 1pm. We finally hit the road for San Diego, and here we are, east coast to west coast... mission accomplished. Obviously we still have lots more to do, and we'll be going inland again before we finish up in San Francisco, but it's certainly a milestone for this trip. We're going to be using Pacific Standard Time for a few weeks, which means for a while, we'll be 8 hours behind Irish time. We'll probably explore San Diego a bit more tomorrow, and we're planning to visit Sea World.

Day Fifty: Happy Thanksgiving...27/11/08

It's the last Thursday in November which means it's Thanksgiving. So Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!! Yeah... like it means anything to anybody back home. Well, it means about as much to us.. So basically today was like any other day. We hung about the RV park making use of the facilities. Ronan and Aidan spent the morning at the driving range, and Ronan keeps complaining about the blister he got from the driver. "Oh me poor wee thumb..." Shut up Ronan!! ...Well alright, I'm exaggerating a bit. Ronan is insisting that the blister is unblogworty... but I've nothing else to write about. We sat around this evening watching The Godfather II, and a new TV show Aidan has us watching. Oh.. we did sit through a pretty spectacular electrical storm last night. It provided much entertainment! We're moving out tomorrow and making our way to sunny California, this time we'll stay a bit longer. Destination... San Diego.

Day Forty Nine: Down Mexico Way...26/11/08

Well we finally did it... We crossed the border and stepped into Mexico. The RV park is only 10 miles or so from the border, and seeing as we are so close to California, we actually had to cross the state line before we crossed the International line. There is a border crossing checkpoint but we weren't stopped or checked on the way into Mexico, only on the way out. We crossed into a little town called Los Algodones, and boy was it different!! It was almost like we walked on to a third world movie set.. Los Algodones is a very rare little town, and the main line of business is dental care. I'm not kidding.. The town is only a few blocks in size, and there is almost 30 dental practices!! There is one street that consists entirely of different dental surgeries. The reason there is so many dentists is because apparently thousands of American and Canadian people come down each year to get their teeth done, as it is seriously cheap. Aidan took advantage of this and got his teeth professionally cleaned. There was a few dodgey characters on the streets so it didn't seem like a good place to take out an expensive camera. Apart from the dentists standing outside their surgeries advertising their services, the only other kind of "business people" were the street merchants trying to sell us... well mostly crap really. The town is really run down and it was obvious that most of the people running around us were living in poverty. It was hard to believe that the US was literally a 3 minute walk away. We spent our time in Mexico having a bit of fun haggling with the street merchants and then we went for a bit of lunch. We had a few chicken burritos... but I'd swear that the meat we were eating was definitely not chicken!! Although we were only at the other side of the border, at least we can finally say we've been to Mexico. It was certainly an experience anyway! When we go to San Diego in California we might actually head to Mexico again see how far the dollar can really stretch down there.

Day Forty Eight: South to Yuma...25/11/08

I apologise for the late posts. We're now in a town called Yuma on the border with Mexico, and once again the Internet is really, really slow!! We shipped out of Phoenix around noon and made our way south. After four hours on the road we arrived at our latest destination. We're now staying in a lovely golf course resort and it's even fancier than the one in Tuscon. There is a green right in front of the RV and everyone else around us has safety nets protecting their wind screens. We're just hoping there's no dodgy amateurs playing the fairways. That's exactly why we're staying off them.. Day forty eight was a travel day and we just spent the evening sitting around with a few cold ones.

Day Forty Seven: We Went to Church...24/11/08

Yup, as the heading reads... today we went to church. Not just any old church mind you... We woke up this morning and made our way over to the Most Holy Trinity Church on North 7th Street. In 1957, my late grandfathers brother, Monsignor Neil McHugh, built the church along with a rectory and the Most Holy Trinity Catholic School. Considering Fr Neily (as he was known to his family and friends) was a priest, I don't think he actually put brick on brick. But he was definitely the driving force behind the project. The community hall that is part of the complex is named after him. I have only vague memories of Fr Neily, because he lived in Phoenix and died more than a decade ago. I have to say though, it was really nice visiting the place. The current priest, Fr Bob Skagen, was more than delighted to meet us. He even offered to treat us to lunch in his favourite Greek restaurant. He was a very nice man, and we had a good old chin wag with the him, but we graciously turned him down. We spent the rest of the day driving around Phoenix looking for a place to buy tickets for AC/DC. We want to go see them in Inglewood California on December 8th. Unfortunately, every Ticketmaster outlet we went to had a different reason why we couldn't buy them there. (we want to see them in a different state for one). We're not beat yet though, it's two weeks from today and we'll find a way. We're leaving Phoenix tomorrow, and once again we're heading south for the border. This time we're going to a town called Yuma, where we intend to celebrate Thanksgiving. Well, we won't really be celebrating because we don't know much about it. I'm pretty sure it's something to do with turkeys and Indians. I'd say we'll probably just have a couple of beers...

Day Forty Six: Phoenix....23/11/08

Well once again we've done nothing, so once again, I'm stuck for anything to write about. We did hit the road this morning, and now as planned, we're in the city of Phoenix. Umm... we went grocery shopping, had a bit of lunch.... did some laundry. No really... there's nothing worth writing about. We're on holidays, which means we're not working. That's what really matters here. We can't expect every day to be full of drama and excitement. We'll probably head further into the city tomorrow, so maybe Ronan will get us in trouble again or something. That could be exciting!!

Day Forty Five: No Activity...22/11/08

We've learned to love our own RV again, and we're trying not to think about those luxurious mobile palaces we had the pleasure of boarding yesterday... We'll just be happy if our modest little wagon gets us to San Francisco by January. We spent the day doing absolutely nothing, and subsequently, I guess I've absolutely nothing to write about. We're hitting the road tomorrow and heading north. We're only going as far as Phoenix and it's not too far up the road, so I can't imagine we'll need to leave too early. I'm sure we'll have another one of our go slow mornings...

Day Forty Four: Tucson AZ....21/11/08

After four hours on the road, we're now in a town called Tucson (silent c') in Arizona. We're one state away from the east coast and we're only half way through the trip!! Mind you, we still have a lot of plans we need to fulfill over the next six weeks, so it's not like we're just going to be sitting on a beach in California for a month or so. As tempting as that is, we still have a lot of mileage to put up. Today was really just another travel day. The RV park we're staying in is like The Ritz of RV parks. It's part of a fancy country club, and there is orange trees and lime trees surrounding the RV. They have a few swimming pools, hot tubs, fitness centre, bar, restaurant... the works. The crowd that run the place also sell RVs. These are no ordinary RVs. We've seen these things in every park we've been to, and have often wondered what they were like inside. This evening, for one hour only, they parked about 15 of these things side by side with the doors open, allowing average Joe's like us to freely explore them. Now the RV we rented is a Class A', which is marketed as a luxury RV. It's more than comfortable for the 4 of us, but when that one hour was finished, we were really sickened returning to our so called luxury vehicle. The best way I can describe these things, is if you picture a big coach, like the new Bus Eireann buses. Now imagine that when the bus is parked up, you step in the door, press a few buttons, and the sides slide out to create more room inside. Now take out all the seats, put a few leather couches in there, a few leather recliners and a 52 inch flat screen TV. You have a fully operating kitchen with granite worktops and terracotta tiles on the floor. Move down the bus, and on the left you open a door to reveal luxury toilet number one. Open the door to the right and you'll find your washer and dryer. Move further down again, and you come to the master bedroom, with king size bed, wooden floors and a modest 32 inch TV. Finally, at the very back is the generously sized en suite. We were even in one that had an electric fire in the living room, patio doors and a slide out balcony. The balcony had a 32inch TV attached to the guard rail!! Sure why not... These things are fit for royalty, and there is one in the site next to me right now with some old couple sleeping in it. It's no wonder so many retired folk over here sell their houses to buy one of these things. They're probably far better than their homes... Mind you, the price tags we saw ranged from $200,000, right up to a cool $600,000, which would be just outside of our budget. You might be able to tell by now, I'm slightly bitter, and quite a bit jealous writing this post. Our RV is luxury?! It's made of bloody plywood and plastic!! And God knows we're going to need some amount of wood glue before we hand the keys back. We wouldn't need wood glue for granite work tops and tiled floors... Rant, Rant, Rant....blaaah!!!

Day Forty Three: Back to the Dunes... 20/11/08

As I mentioned yesterday, we planned to go back over to the sand dunes today, and that's exactly what we did. We motored on over there around lunchtime, but before we went down to the dunes themselves we made a quick stop at the gift shop. We all bought plastic disc style snow sleds that were clearly marked, "for use by children". We did feel slightly ridiculous buying them, especially seeing as the gift shop lady was laughing at us. But hey, we're never going to see her again, and we're on holidays... We drove on down to the dunes and stopped at the highest and steepest one we could find. We sure as hell felt like kids again, but we had our fun speeding down the dune. The only problem was climbing the damn thing again after we slid to the bottom!! Nearly bloody killed us... The sun was beating down on us today, and it wasn't long until we were completely wrecked. It was still early in the day, so we decided to go back to town and catch a matinee at the local cinema. We went to see the new Bond film, and it wasn't a bad oul show I suppose. After that we went to a Mexican restaurant called Margo's. With all the spicy food we ate the RV wasn't just the healthiest place to spend the evening.. Lets just say we had to keep a few windows open!! We're moving out again tomorrow and making our way into Arizona, which will be state number 12. So early to bed for an early start...

Day Forty Two: White Sands...19/11/08

We got the heck out of Roswell and made our way to a town called Alamogordo. It was a pretty short journey today, just over two hours. We're not too far from the White Sands Missile Range where the first ever atomic bomb was detonated. They still test missiles there on a regular basis, although I'm sure they won't let us anywhere near the place. Earlier today we went over to the White Sands National Monument which is adjacent to the missile range. It's 240 square miles of white gypsum sand dunes, which apparently can be seen from outer space. We intended to go sand surfing, but we got there pretty late so we'll probably go back tomorrow and see what we can get up to. It's a really cool place, walking over the dunes you'd almost think we were in the Sahara Desert. Although for some reason the sand is almost ice cold. New Mexico isn't as warm as some of the other states we've passed through, but it's definitely still warmer than a Irish summer. We've actually being going around saying things like "it's a bit chilly today". We're not going to know what hit us when we step off that plane in January!!!

Video Blog: Port Aransas + Fort Clark + Roswell

Day Forty One: ET Phone Home... and tell them to forget about Roswell... 18/11/08

We're parked up only ten minutes from the UFO Museum so we had a bit of a lazy morning. We made our way over there around lunchtime, and as we were pulling into the car park we were joking how we probably wouldn't even be inside for half an hour. As it turns out we weren't too far off the mark. I'd say we had walked through all the exhibits and back out the front door in little over 20 minutes. Yup, it was pretty much exactly like we imagined it would be. We learned that the museum founder was the mortician that apparently provided the coffins for the unfortunate little aliens who perished in the 1947 crash.... It was really just a place of pilgrimage for all the "true believers". In fact, we even overheard one of them say to her friend, "I can't believe people still don't believe". We were on our best behavior and saved all our jokes until we were back outside. Enough said about that. Seeing as it was still early, we decided we'd walk on up the street to the local Planetarium. We just figured it would be something to pass the time. It took us a while to find the place, but we discovered that it was at the back of an art museum, and the only way in was through the front door of the museum itself. We were greeted inside by an old lady who was determined to tell us everything that the place had to offer. I think she was a bit deaf because she didn't hear us when we inquired about the Planetarium. We stood and listened to her laugh at her own jokes for 5 minutes or more and being the nice lads that we are, we humored her and feigned an interest in the place. Although we were all really thinking, how the hell do we get out of this?! We learned when we were inside, that the Planetarium only has three shows a month!! We didn't want to just turn around and walk out the front door again. Admission was free so when the nice lady gave us a map of the place, we set out straight away to find the back exit. It didn't take us long to find it, although it really didn't look like somewhere we were meant to go. I guess Ronan wanted out of there more than the rest of us, so he pushed down the door handle and made his escape. The rest of us weren't three steps behind him. We were all glad to see the sunlight, but as we were walking back around the front of the building we were approached by a security guard clutching his walkie talkie tightly. He was less than impressed, and informed us that next time we want to exit the building we have to use the front door. Yeah right Mr Security Guard, there won't be a next time!! Of course we were very apologetic, but we decided it was best to just keep walking all the same. We must have set of an alarm on our way out. So although Ronan didn't get us in bother with any UFO folk, he still got us in trouble at the end of the day. It was bound to happen... We're heading a bit further down the road tomorrow to a town called Alamogordo, where hopefully we'll do a bit of sand surfing. All said in done, we did have a bit of craic in Roswell.

Day Forty: Roswell NM...17/11/08

We went with 'Plan B' today. We said farewell to the great state of Texas and hit the road for New Mexico, our 11th state. After 5 minutes on the road... we crossed into New Mexico. It was a quick departure from Texas, but we still had another 5 hours on the road before we reached our destination of Roswell. It was a largely uneventful journey, although we were stopped by Border Patrol again, and we reached the 5000 mile mark for the trip. As I said we're now in Roswell New Mexico. Most people would be familiar with Roswell because of the supposed July 1947 "UFO crash" that apparently occurred just outside the city. The story behind the incident (whatever it was) has spiralled out of control ever since, and has spawned a ridiculous number of conspiracy theories, including an apparent major government cover up. Personally, I think it's all a complete load of bul.. (sorry, I forgot this is meant to be a clean blog).. 'a complete load of rubbish. I'm not really sure why we're here exactly. I think it was Aidan's idea.. But seeing as we are here, we're going to the Roswell UFO Museum tomorrow. We're really just going for the craic, and of course to learn more about it so we have more fuel for our jokes. We're bound to run in to some real fanatics and "true believers", but I'm sure we'll show a bit of decorum and bite our lips. Although I'm really just speaking for myself. I can't vouch for the boys, and if anyone is going to get us in bother with the UFO enthusiasts, my moneys on Aidan. Ronan's betting on himself..

Day Thirty Nine: Parked up on a Sunday.. 16/11/08

It's a Sunday and we decided just to hang around the RV park for the day. We watched a couple of movies, a few TV shows and played a bit of poker. We're not parked as close to the Mexican border as we first planned, and there wasn't much else we wanted to do. We weren't allowed in the military park and the place we originally wanted to go to was booked up for the weekend. The reason we wanted to go there, was because they provided organised bus tours into Mexico, and we'd feel better doing that than making our own arrangements to cross from Texas. We're going to ring them first thing in the morning and if they still have no vacancies, then after two weeks, we're finally leaving Texas and making our way to Roswell in New Mexico. We'll just find another way across the border at a later date.

Day Thirty Eight: The Road to El Paso.. 15/11/08

On day thirty eight we hit the road again and continued west towards El Paso. It was another long road and once again the border patrol folk pulled us over and had a look around the RV. These guys were again more than friendly and more interested in how much the RV cost to rent for three months than finding any illegal Mexicans. We arrived in El Paso late in the evening, and by the time we got to the RV park the office was closed. They operate on a first come first serve basis, and when we were driving around to find a space to park we were chased down by a tough looking guy in a golf cart. It turns out the park is for military personnel only. Considering none of us are in the US military, he wasn't willing to let us stay there. He did give us directions to another place nearby. We didn't feel like parking up in Walmart for the night so we set off to find it. It was only 20 minutes away and we're now parked up in the hills above El Paso.

Day Thirty Seven: Down by The Rio Grande.. 14/11/08

The RV park itself was less than impressive, but it was understandable seeing as we were parked in a temporary facility. The real RV park was pretty much destroyed by September floods. It didn't really matter too much because at the end of the day we still had somewhere to park. We got up early on day thirty seven, packed our backpacks with water and sandwiches and did what we came to do. We went hiking... The Big Bend National park brochure had these wise words of advice for hikers... "If attacked by a bear or a mountain lion...fight back". Yeah, like we needed to read that!! We set off anyway and thankfully had no such encounters. In fact the only wildlife we saw were a few birds, and a larger than normal centipede. The eight mile hike through vast canyons and over steep hills was no easy task in the dry desert heat, but did we had plenty of water to keep us alive. We saw some absolutely spectacular views, looking down over the Rio Grande and across the river into Mexico. As enjoyable as the hike was, after 6 hours on our feet, seeing the RV on the horizon was a very welcome sight. We returned to the RV park to tend to our sunburn and rest our feet, and needless to say we did very little for the rest of the evening.

Day Thirty Six: The Long Road Through the Desert.. 13/11/08

Apologies for the lack of posts, but we've been in an Internet and mobile phone signal black-spot for the last few days. Day thirty six was really just a day of travel. We left Fort Clark just before lunch and made our way towards Big Bend National Park. It was a long but interesting journey.. Considering we were travelling along the Mexican border, it was no surprise that we came across a couple of Border Patrol checkpoints. We are four non-nationals travelling in a big RV, so it was inevitable we were going to be stopped at some point, and three miles from the border we were indeed told to pull into the side of the road. While one Border Patrol guard inspected our passports outside the RV, the other fella, along with his lovely dog had a thorough sniff around inside. They were actually more than friendly, and having found no illegal Mexicans or any other illegal contraband, they sent us on our way. At this point the GPS was telling us to "continue 167 miles", and we all decided it would be a good idea to get some fuel considering we were below the last bar on the gauge. However the further along we went, the more it became clear that there wasn't any gas stations around. After a quick check on the GPS we learned that the closest one was more than 100 miles away!!! So we were really sweating and this point, and it wasn't just the heat in the desert!! We were on this highway, and all we could see for miles around was scorched earth, hundreds of cacti and the distant hills of Mexico. No water, no phone signals and on the verge of running out of fuel.. It was the kind of situation we all joked about before we landed over here. Thankfully however, by the good grace of God and not a moment too soon, we stumbled upon a real shack of a gas station that didn't even register on any satellite. It was a hell of a lot more expensive than we're used to paying... but did we care!!!! Breathing regularly now, we carried on down the road and the final bit of drama we had was when we were taking a sharp bend, our Ragu sauce flew out of the press and smashed against the wall of the RV.. Spaghetti was off the menu for the night. We we finally got to the gate of Big Bend National park we were relieved to say the least and we all thought we could finally relax. The feeling was short lived however when we discovered that it would be another 50 miles before we reached the campground. It's a really big National park!!!!

Day Thirty Five: Davy Crockett lives on.. 12/11/08

The snooze button on the old alarm must have been pressed a dozen or more times this morning, so we didn't quite get the early start we intended. When we did get up, we motored about 7 miles down the road and entered a different world entirely. The Alamo Village, where John Wayne made his $12 million movie almost fifty years ago was like playground for 4 easily amused Irish dudes. We spent a good few hours wandering the village, and boy did we have a lot of fun doing so. Visiting such attractions as the Alamo Village in off season definitely has it's advantages. We pretty much had the run of the place and managed to do a bit of movie making of our own. (currently in post-production, so watch this space). We're not much into studying the history books, so on our return to the RV park we made a point of sitting down to watch the movie. It was strange seeing Davy Crockett (John Wayne) walk out of the same Cantina that we ourselves had visited only hours earlier. According to the movie, and yes we know that it's no history book, but in 1824 Texas was part of Mexico and it seemed the US wanted it back. The village we were exploring was made to imitate San Antonio, and within walking distance was the old mission where the famous battle of the Alamo took place. No more than 200 defenders were besieged in this mission by 4000 Mexican troops. Every single defender inside the walls of the mission was killed, including Davy Crockett himself. During the time we spent in Alamo village it was sometimes easy to forget that we were actually on a movie set and not the real Alamo. I have to say, the $12 million Mr Wayne invested in the movie was money very well spent. We also found time today to visit the Spring pool here in Fort Clark. Apparently originally made as a watering hole for horses, the pool has almost a million gallons of fresh spring water flowing through it every day. Tomorrow, we ride out once again and we're hopefully going to be staying in Big bend National Park. It's full of bears, snakes, scorpions and mountain lions, so it I'd say we'll have loads of fun there!!!

Day Thirty Four: The Wild West.. 11/11/08

That's right folks, we're in the wild wild west now!! We're in a small town called Bracketville, and as I mentioned we're staying in a resort inside Fort Clark. It's a military base dating back as far as 1852, but before that the land was occupied by Comanche, Apache and other Indian tribes. I'm sure we'll learn more about it tomorrow because we spend most of today on the road and arrived late enough. It's pretty cool around here. There are deer and wild turkey that freely roam the RV park, and when we went for a walk earlier there was a little armadillo running along the road beside us (before Brian chased it down a drain). The people, like in every other place we've been to, are more than friendly. We were invited to a "Pot Luck" here in the park. Basically everybody that goes brings some food and then they put it all together and have a big meal. We felt bad that we didn't go when the lady that runs the park brought us over a selection of home made deserts. Apparently she is going around telling everybody that our accents are "neat". We'll have an early start tomorrow because there is loads of things we want to do. The first place we're going to visit is Alamo Village. It was built as a movie set for John Wayne's' 1959 film The Alamo. I don't think it's an occupied village. It was purpose built to replicate a genuine old west village. There are no fake fronts or backdrops and all the buildings are real, so it should be fun exploring the place.

Day Thirty Three: Bundoran in Texas?! 10/11/08

Well as it turns out it was no trouble at all getting into town. We just hopped on a bus at the entrance to the RV park and away we went, with our cameras and video cameras in tow. The nice lady bus driver dropped us off right in the heart of downtown Port Aransas. But it soon became clear that the 25c bus fare was money that would have been better spent in the laundry room. What town?! All we found was a few surf shops and souvenir stores.. So yeah, it was basically like Bundoran, only warmer and minus the slot machines. There really wasn't many photo ops to say the least.. A picture of the boys posing beside a stand full of sunglasses wouldn't really be a keeper! Needless to say we didn't hang around long. We managed to somehow miss the return bus (she drove right past us), but we found a taxi and went straight back to the RV. You can guess how we spent the rest of the day. At least we got out of the park for a while... We're moving out again tomorrow and we're going to a place called Fort Clark. Apparently there is a lot of history to the place, and the Fort itself has been turned into the resort where we'll be parking up. So hopefully it'll be a cool place to spend a day or two. The next time we'll be looking out to sea will be from California...

Day Thirty Two: Chillin' on The Gulf of Mexico.. 09/11/08

As expected, we did absolutely nothing today.. Well at least nothing worth writing about. No photos, no videos , no adventure. Just chillin'.. It's so nice down here what else would we be doing. It's November and we're on the beach!! There's a constant breeze blowing in from the gulf but it's warm and pleasant, even at night. The waves that come crashing in would be considered great surf. It's just a crying shame none of us could stand up on a board if our lives depended on it!! It matters not, because it's great to be here all the same. Tomorrow we might actually venture into town to see what we can see. If it's doesn't take too much effort of course...

Day Thirty One: Port Aransas 08/11/08

Wow!! Day thirty one!! It just hit me that we're gone a month already.. It's passed so quickly it's really hard to believe. But I suppose it's day thirty one out of ninety, so there's still plenty to do and see... and of course to write about. Although I can't really say the same about today. We're still in Texas and we're still on The Gulf of Mexico. As I mentioned yesterday we're now parked up on an island called Port Aransas.. We hit the road about noon, stopped for supplies on route and now we're here. That's basically it. The island has an 18 mile stretch of uncrowded beach and we'll sure as hell make the most of it over the next couple of days. We went for a stroll this evening just to get the feet wet. We're pretty much parked as close to the beach as we need to be so we'll probably spend most of tomorrow there. I suppose this is a bit of a break down in the holiday. We've packed so much into the last thirty one days we're taking it easy for a little while. We'll be heading north west soon enough, and to be honest we haven't really planned our next step. I guess that's the beauty of living on the road... Who knows where it's going to take us.

Video Blog: NASA + Palacios

Day Thirty: Gone fishin'... 07/11/08

We didn't get up too early today and it was nearly lunchtime before we were finished with breakfast. We drove over to the other side of town and went fishing off Palacios Pavilion.. It was an absolute scorcher of a day and we could really feel ourselves frying up. Putting sun cream on in November is really quite a novelty for a bunch of Irish guys. We didn't have much luck so we motored on back to the RV park and had a bit of lunch. After we let the stomachs settle we went out to the pier here in the Marina and had another go. Once again we caught nothing.. We were just outsmarted by a bunch of tiny fish stealing our bait!!! After dinner we tried again, but I guess the fish weren't in the mood to be caught today. So basically we spent the whole day fishing and eating.. The steaks that the boys cooked up were really the highlight of the day. Although I can't deny that it's really nice breathing in the fresh sea air, sitting back with the sun on our faces and doing a spot of fishing. Even if we didn't catch anything we still had a good day. We're on the road again tomorrow and we're heading even further south. Apparently we'll be taking the RV on a ferry across to an island called Port Aransas, where we'll park up and probably indulge in more fishing, swimming and of course... sunshine.

Day Twenty Nine: Palacios.. 06/11/08

We had to scratch the Galveston plans because as I said, there is only one RV park on the island left standing after Hurricane Ike. It turns out it's booked up for the next few days. Undeterred we hit the road anyway.. We drove a bit further down the coast to a town called Palacios. We're getting closer and closer to the Mexico border. We do plan to cross into Mexico at some point over the next few weeks. Although we probably won't do it from Texas. We've heard it's not the safest place to cross.. We'll be passing through Arizona and of course we'll be in California too, so we'll have other opportunities. We're this close so we don't want to go home having not seen Mexico. For now we'll stay in Texas, and as I said we're in a town called Palacios. There is not really much to the town but the RV park is quite cool. It doubles up as a marina so we're a stones throw from the water.. The picture shows the view we have from the door of the RV. There is no beach but there is a small fishing pier. We managed to get the rods all fixed up and we did a spot of night fishing. The most common fish around here is the Hardhead Catfish. They are a bit hazardous to catch because they have three fins which are supported with a razor sharp barbed spine. The fin on their backs is toxic so if we we're cut by one we'd be in a serious amount of pain!! I should point out they're not life threatening. We'd just be screaming like little girls.. Aidan was the first to catch one, but he lost his hook soon after and of course he blames the fish. Ronan managed to catch two of them, and I guess I just was the lucky fisherman and caught seven. After numerous unsuccessful attempts we can finally say we caught some fish on this journey, and on The Gulf of Mexico too!! As there is not much else to do around here we'll probably just spend most of tomorrow down on he pier. Hey, we're on holidays!!

Day Twenty Eight: Remember, Remember the Fifth of November.. 05/11/08

Remember, remember the fifth of November.. Not because of Guy Fawkes, but because it's Aidan's birthday!!! We're still parked up in Houston and we haven't moved the RV or indeed hardly left the park for the last 2 days. Once again I don't have too much to write about. We just spend another day relaxing. For that reason we haven't seen much of a reaction to the election result yet. There was a few other residence in the RV park who, up until yesterday had McCain/Palin signs proudly posted outside their motor homes.. Today however, as you can imagine most have them have been begrudgingly removed. We celebrated Aidan's birthday with a couple of drinks in the RV, and after a few we went for a walk over by the lake. Aidan brought my fishing rod with him... He brought my rod because he broke his own in Virginia, he broke Ronan's in North Carolina... and yup, my rod met with the 'Aidan destruction factor' down here in good old Texas!!! Thankfully Brian didn't buy one for him to get his hands on. Happy Birthday Aidan!!! We're hitting the road again tomorrow, but we're not going too far. After an hour or so on the road we'll arrive in a place called Galveston Island, which is at the very southern tip of Texas on The Gulf of Mexico. Apparently there's not too much of Galveston left after Hurricane Ike ripped through there only 6 weeks ago. There is only one surviving RV park so hopefully we'll find a space there and park up for a couple of days. I'm sure we'll make the most of what the beach and the continuing good weather has to offer.

Day Twenty Seven: President Barack Obama... 04/11/08

We didn't do very much today. We didn't even leave the RV park. The boys spend the day by the pool and i spend the day glued to CNN... As I'm writing this, Senator Barack Obama has just been confirmed the 44th President of the United States of America!! Personally I couldn't be happier, and the boys share my feelings. As I'm sure do many of you back home... This blog is far from political, but I have to say, it's pretty cool being over here for this historic day in US and indeed world history. I don't have anything else to write about because we really didn't do anything. So all I can say is... Go Barack!!

Day Twenty Six: "Houston, the Eagle Has Landed".. 03/11/08

We were up good and early and made our way over to the NASA Space Centre (Center in American).. It opened at 10am and we arrived shortly after. We wanted to be sure to get our moneys worth out of it, but as it turns out it wasn't as expensive as we expected. Only $18 a head and I can honestly say, it was cheap at that. The term "value for money" definitely applies here. When we got inside we weren't really sure what to do first. There was loads of different shows and presentations going on, and we went into one called "Blast off".. It was very interesting, but I don't think I'll write a detailed account of it because I'm sure you can gather from the name what it was about. After the show we wandered around a few exhibits while we waited for the next NASA Tram Tour at 12pm. The 90 minute tour was very cool. I'd have paid $18 for this alone.. Our first stop was at a pretty average looking building. Looks can be deceiving though as this building is very special indeed... Mission Control. This is the building where every NASA space mission, past and present is controlled from. We were led inside and up 87 steps (we didn't count, we were told). We entered a small room and found ourselves looking down into the heart of the building. This was the original Mission Control, the room where every mission up until 1996 was controlled from. This was the room where those famous words were heard for the very first time.. "This is one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind".. The new Mission Control room is right next door but we only got to see a live feed of that on a TV screen. When we were finished there we hopped back on the tram and were taken across the campus to another building which serves as an astronaut training centre. This building is full of live sized and realistic simulators, designed to prepare astronauts for the challenges they'll face from the minute they "blast off" right up until the moment they come back down to earth. We were looking down over a bunch of highly qualified people going about they're every day work. There was even some engineers working on a prototype of the next Rover vehicle. The plan is to use the Rover to transport astronauts on the surface of Mars. Realistically however, it's going to be used on the next mission to the moon, scheduled for December 2020 (You heard it here first). At this point in the tour we're thinking, this is unreal! But the last stop really blew us away.. We were taken inside a huge warehouse to see an actual space rocket! It was the Apollo 18, which sadly never actually made it into space due to budget cuts. This thing is bloody huge though, bigger than the biggest jumbo jet and scary as hell looking!! Right at the very tip of the rocket is a tiny capsule where the astronauts are meant to sit.. Personally I'd feel a tad claustrophobic strapped into that thing with such an amount of power right under me. We finished back at the visitors centre and found ourselves with plenty left to do and see. There is too many things to write about, but we weren't out of the place until damn near closing time. Trust us to spend the whole day indoors when the sun was melting the tar outside. But we all agreed that it was a day very well spent, and hey... the sun will be melting the tar again tomorrow.