Around the world 2010


Christmas was over and a new year had begun.  The year just gone had me thinking about my next round the world trip and come January it was time to start doing the research.  Where did I want to go that I haven't been before, and still be able to visit family and friends, without needing 12 months to do it all in.

The Canadian train trip was definitely on the list again and New York for more than 1 day this time.  Las Vegas was also a consideration as I didn't get to do the Hoover Dam tour last time I was there.  Ok, now I've got 3 places in mind, England being the 3rd one of course, that's the place I have to go to if I want to visit family.  Don't worry friends, I haven't forgot about you, you'll be coming up soon, keep reading.

I have always had a fascination with autumn leaves, memories of my childhood, walking to school through the crunchy sycamore and horsechestnut leaves down Station Road, have always remained, so the obvious choice was to do an Autumn (Fall) tour of New England in the USA, especially New Hampshire and Vermont where all the photo's are taken to produce those stunning jigsaw puzzles we see on shop shelves.  Now the mission was to find a way to get around Boston, Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont in the easiest and most reasonably priced way possible without having to drive myself, I'd only get lost and most likely drive on the wrong side of the road, so, an organized tour was the most obvious choice.

February has arrived and I've now booked myself into TAFE to learn French.  I thought, after my embarrassment in Quebec, I'd make sure I wasn't going to get stuck again.  During the first term I started to think back to the time in high school when our class went to Normandy & Brittany for a 2 week holiday.  All the photo's I took had been chucked out when we left England for Oz, so I decided to add in a tour, taking a similar path to the one I did as a 12 year old, just to see how good my memory still is.  Of course I expect things will have changed dramatically in 44 years but some things don't change, Mont St Michel for example, it hasn't moved, it hasn't grown or shrunk but maybe the road isn't quite as steep as I remember it.  The search was on again for an organized tour.

This is where it got difficult.  The original plan was to go clockwise around the world, but, the tours all finished in mid October, which now meant I would have to leave Perth at the beginning of July, tax time, and I wouldn't get to see the Autumn colours in New England.  Stick her in reverse and we're now going anti-clockwise around the world so I can be in the right places at the right times to see and do what I want to do.  Easy hey.  Oh no, not so fast there, now we've got the problem of the tours overlapping and as creative as I am, I have not mastered the art of being in two places at one time.  Back to the drawing board? More like the A4 note pad, page 10 coming up, and the year planner, complete with wipe on-wipe off pen.  By about page 15 I had it, all I had to do now was make sure Brad, my travel agent had it too.
Instead of 10 weeks I'm now travelling for 13 weeks to allow time to visit some friends, unfortunately not all though.  Toronto, South Carolina and Idaho all found their way in but I had to forgo a visit to Michigan this time round.

By the time I finish this trip I will have visited 11, and passed through another 8, of the 50 American states.

Anyway, enough about the planning, let's get started with a short tour.
Just a few minor instructions first - turn on your speakers, give it some time to load, follow the directions in the image



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