It is Sunday 7th July. We have woken up to a very murky New Zealand winters day which is day two at home from our trip the USA. It is 7 degrees Celsius compared to plus 40 where we had come from. It is good to keep all the blankets on during the night. No sweat running down your chest. Val has gone to the FASNZ Board Meeting in Tauranga, back on Friday. Charlie and Gibson moved in the day we got back and show no signs of leaving. School tomorrow. On the trip back I found the contrasts in security between the two counties are huge. We had done all the x-rays of bags, shoes etc, at San Francisco, and then for the full body x-rays. The man said look at the photo. I looked at the photo, look at the photo, I said I am looking at the photo. He said no you are not . Then I noticed the photo of a guy with his hands above his head with his palms facing out. I forgot you had to do what the photo was doing. I was just looking at his face, like in NZ when you do a retina scan. I had done it before but I had forgotten. Arriving in Auckland it was straight into the machine with the electronic passport straight through Agriculture, no food or plants. Straight to customs, nothing to declare, no. Straight out through gate five without a single x-ray on anything. Admittedly we were not boarding a plane. But I remember it taking nearly 2 hours to get into the US. Obviously they are worried about something. The whole thing at home took 15 minutes. I will probably live two years longer without the radiation passing through me. They say Air Travel is the safest way to travel. I read this morning a 777 plane, same as our plane, crashed and burnt at San Francisco Airport, where we left from. Scary. On the US adventure we only ended up sleeping in the RV for 26 nights due to our problems. We also only did 6,500klms instead of the projected 8,000klms. But as I have said before we never wasted a day and saw a lot of different things we would not have seen if the mechanical failures hadn’t happened. The frustrations we had are a distant memory and all the good things have risen to the top. Most of the trip wasn’t pre-planned or pre-booked which would have made it a nightmare. We just winged it and it mostly worked out. We had a rough plan which not much of that worked out. A lot of Americans wanted to know what I thought of the high US petrol prices, as I was filling up the V10 gas guzzler every second day. They haven’t much to worry about at 95c Litre. They also wanted to know what we pay for Gas in NZ. When I told them our prices were about $8 a gallon, they nearly fell off their seats. I get back here and it is $2.23 a Litre, $8.45 gal. Thinking about our time in the US and all the people who made our stay really special, especially in Wisconsin. Steve and Tricia Nielson, Robb’s sister and brother in law, above and beyond, Scott and Jen, Penny and Mike. Hanging out with Tricia, Jen and Penny was like taking your own entertainment troupe with you. We had a lot of laughs. Robb’s Mum June spent 3 full days with us giving us the tour of Green Bay from her perspective. Coming from Chicago but having lived in the area and been part of the community for so long she knew what we would be interested in. Even Robb’s niece, Kristen gave up a day to be a driver for us. Junes not a young chick anymore but she takes a bit of keeping up with. We spent 3 days in Door County staying at the Nielson Cottage on the banks of Lake Michigan. A morning on the firing range I had a first and something I have always wanted to do, use an assault rifle and hand guns. Once I got my eye in I soon got the hang of it. It is not easy to shoot a handgun and be accurate. Scott Smet gave me some good advice. If a guy sticks a gun in your face and says get in my car, just run away and zig zag a bit. The chances of him hitting you are not that great. If you get in the car you will die. I have taken that on board, Scott. A tour around the coast to all the villages in the bays was a great way to spend a day. On that Sunday we got back to Sturgeon Bay, where the Nielsons, Smets and Penny and Mikes boats are parked, to see the aftermath of one of the huge concrete counterweights on one of the drawbridges, had come down on a brand new 43Ft Motorhome. Absolute chaos until it was all cleared away. I read later the Lady controlling the 2 drawbridges has been stood down pending an investigation. A great long weekend and I also managed a bit of shopping. Some of this recap is probably a repeat of past blogs as I have forgotten what has been said. To all you small American businessmen I met that were complaining about Abamacare for businesses with staff 15 and under, I see you have a two year reprieve. You will be happy, you can vote Democrat next time, see, they do care. There is one thing about Americans that we could emulate in New Zealand. Be patriotic for our country. We don’t know how lucky we are. The freedoms and protection of citizens we have is equal to any of the best countries to live in on the planet. The USA has got some things wrong that needs some work. I can say this now as they can’t hold me at the border. Their light switches are back to front. They need a metric system not imperial. Their toilets need to not fill up with water so you watch all the bits swirling around before it is gone down the shute. They drive on the wrong side of the road, if they changed that we could import more of their RV’s. They operate on 110 volts instead of 240, so we have to change the wiring in the imported RV’s. I still don’t understand why you can’t get on a Trident Submarine Base with a New Zealand Drivers licence for ID. What have they got to hide? If they fix a few of these problems they could be a great nation. As this is the rap up of the 40 days and 40 night RV trip around the USA , thanks to everyone who was interested in following our triumphs and mishaps. We dodged a few bullets along the way especially the gas explosion. It could have been worse had the gas built up more. Val could have been going to the Tauranga FASNZ Conference with a knew hair piece. It still is a great way to see a country, take your house with you. At the start when Val said nobody is going to read this rubbish I nearly gave up , so thanks for the interest, both of you.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 23:50:11 +0000
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