Travelling Viking....

Hi all, back from trip now.

Following an extremely interesting guided tour of the 60" and 100" telescopes, complete with a BIG vertical twin Fairbanks Morse engine being run up for us (Thanks Larry & Ken!!) we drove from Los Angeles to Boston the Pretty Way, via the VLA at Soccoro in New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Bryce's Canyon, Salt Lake City, Yellowstone, the Rocky Mountains, Denver, Nebraska & Idaho. Guided tour of Chicago & into Michigan to stay with Jim overnight - thanks Jim!!

On to Collingwood in Canada on Lake Huron, spending two nights with an old nursing colleague of Hazel's. Back into the USA at Niagara Falls, crossed upstate New York, Lake Champlain on the ferry, Vermont, New Hampshire and on to Nova Scotia, reaching Louisburg on the extreme eastern tip of the peninsula. Via Halifax, we returned to the USA again, running down to Washington for a day before returning to Boston. We spent three days vegging out at Rockport on Cape Anne above Boston & went whale watching on our penultimate day. It was excitingly rough, the whales were disobligingly absent, but they refunded our fare. So home from Logan International on the redeye, arriving LHR 6.30 am yesterday.

Travelling through 25 US States and 3 Canadian, we covered 9,800 miles (708 miles in one 12 hour day across Nebraska) and visited (we think) 10 national parks. It was a great month & I took over 1,300 pics which I have not sorted yet.

Petrol is about £1.50 ($2.95 average for unleaded) a gallon, motel accommodation varied from $65 to $119 for two per night. There will rarely be a better time for an American road trip - book now while the £ is so strong against the $.

Missed Sodbury - damn ...........

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

Welcome home!

I did reply to your email from Jim's but Blueyonder was bouncing your mail, so you probably didn't see it.

Yes, we are over there again this month for a few days, but further south this time, we are going to be in Phoenix for a week, hopefully warmer than the UK.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

Had not noticed you were missing :-))

You didn't miss me Martin? Tut-tut.

Obviously I must make more noise............

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,

"Kim Siddorn" wrote (snip)

Not sure you missed that much, other than the general pleasure of a day spent in the presence of so much old iron, highlight for me was probably seeing a Stuart-Turner 'K' for the first time.

Nick H