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USA 2016
After four and a half months in the USA it is time to say goodbye to everything American including he Stars and Stripes flag which we have seen so much over the last few months. But what have we been doing over the last ten days? We have all heard the American terminology "fall" rather than calling the season autumn as we are more used too. We have spent the last ten days amongst the trees with the leaves definitely falling. We camped for three days at the beautiful Smoky Mountains Premier RV Resort. This purpose built camping ground had only been open about a year and the facilities were top class. The poor lady who took our booking just could not understand my accent - I must have spelt our surname four times, including giving her the alpha code then repeating that more than a couple of times then when I had to give credit card details she got even more confused. It was just about enough to say "don't worry about it, we'll go somewhere else" but we were really pleased we didn't. We were staying in the western edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and we were able to enjoy walking some of the closeby tracks. The colours of the leaves on the trees were beautiful - I annoyed Peter so much telling him to look at them. All he saw were leaves falling where I was fascinated with the variety of colours, shapes etc. The camp ground owner also ran a ATV (all terrain vehicle) adventure tours along the tracks of the surrounding hills. It was very tempting but at $US100 each for a couple hours each we thought we could give it a miss. After all we are going four wheel driving for a week in Northland in NZ in January along with Roanne and Roger and the children with the Kauri Coast 4WD Club so we have plenty of that type of fun ahead of us. The camping ground was out in the country and I must admit when we were driving there I wondered where we were going. On recommendation from the camp ground staff we visited nearby Gatlinburg, which reminded us of a mini Switzerland, although was much more touristy. The township was very busy - it seemed that many over sixties had taken group bus trips from the northern States for the last of the warmer weather. If you weren't wearing a lanyard with the name of a tour company you hadn't dressed properly today! There was a chairlift climbing up the surrounding hill painted orange to match the Halloween season. Beside the souvenir, candy and ice cream shops the boutique breweries dominated the area. We joined in trialling the Moonshine shots - just a couple of shots for me before I bypassed but a very popular activity (the drinks were served in shot glasses about an eighth the size of a normal shot glass so only a taste really). On Friday we packed up and drove through the mountains to meet Cam for the week-end in Boone which is close to quite a touristy area in the North Carolina section of the Great Smoky Mountains. We had been to this area back in June at the beginning of our travels and it certainly was quite different now with the change of season. Saturday was really cold and we spent most of the day wandering the hills admiring the colours of fall and then made our way back to the busy and trendy town of a Blowing Rock to find a cafe for a late lunch. Once back at the caravan Cam thought a campfire was absolutely necessary which took some determination as the bundles of wood sold by the camp office were very damp. However, determination combined with fire starters and charcoal soon resulted in a great fire and we were able to watch fellow campers enjoying Halloween activities even though the actual date for Halloween was still a week away. Sunday dawned a much warmer day and we made one last visit to the mountains before driving back to Durham which was about three hours east. With just one week left we spent Monday completely emptying the caravan before we delivered it to the RV repair company so that the necessary repairs to the hole in the floor can be completed (this was the result of the tread coming off a tyre early in our travels and damaging the inner guard and causing a hole in the floor). As the repairs require the sink cupboard unit, the wardrobe, and the shower base and probably the toilet to be removed we decided it was better to completely empty the van so these are now all boxed and safely at Cam's with no fear that the contents could go missing while repairs are undertaken. We were told that they had fifteen other RV's in for similar repairs so the company were completely happy when we said to add ours to the end of the schedule as long as it is ready for us by May next year. The caravan also needs to be winterised which is something we are not familiar with. Apparently all fluids are drained and replaced with an anti-freeze solution to avoid the pipes etc freezing. At the end of winter we need to de-winterise where the process is reversed. The entire process costs just under $US300 and we wonder about the necessity as Durham is not far different during winter than parts of the South Island of NZ and winterising never happens there. However, we don't want any issues when we return so winterise we will. After delivering the caravan for repairs, and receiving confirmation that the cost would be covered by insurance, we had the rest of the week to ourselves. So how did we fill in the time - Peter cleaned the car from top to bottom storing all our gear safely and leaving the car so that Cam can use it should he want. We packed after six months on the road - this took some doing as we are limited to one checked suitcase each of 23 kgs (British Airways seems to have the least checked luggage of any airline) and a carry on bag each. We visited Raleigh which is the city just thirty odd miles from Durham and spent an afternoon at the Museum of Natural Science which was very interesting, checked out the city centre and also some of the recreational areas. We cooked dinner some of the nights for Cam and his house mates Nick and Gienya and enjoyed having dinner together. We raked up leaves - let me tell you that when there are as many deciduous trees as there are in Duke Forest (the name of the area Cam lives in) and it is Fall there are always leaves to rake one sweep up and as soon as you think you are finished the wind blows a little and there are many more falling down. It is a daily task but yet you never win but it was good to get outside and do something. On Friday night Cam came home with Duke supporters tee shirts for us both and all three of us headed off to the Cameron Indoor Stadium to see the basketball - Duke playing a South Florida team with Duke the winners. It was a great atmosphere and we loved the experience, watching the cheer leaders and other entertainment and of course the game. We had previously been to the stadium as one of Cam's graduation ceremonies had been held there in 2010. The average American seems to have a culture of eating out very regularly and it would be very easy to follow suit. If not eating out there are many pre-prepared hot meals available in supermarkets ready to take home and eat. I don't think that we have repeated a visit to any one restaurant in Durham and it is a foodie city so there is plenty of choice. This week we tried a scrumptious upmarket pizza restaurant set in the old fire station and then on our last night we had dinner with Cam on the outdoor rooftop of a newly renovated hotel - The Durham. Needless to say Saturday was dominated by the final of the Rugby World Cup. Cam shares his house with his mate Nick and his wife. Now Nick is an Australian from Brisbane so there was always going to be rivalry and someone was going to be disappointed. The boys were each dressed in their team colours and giving advice to each other about the probable outcome. Added to that Peter and I are NZ citizens by birth and Australian citizens by choice however on this day birth won out and we fully supported the All Blacks and Peter didn't sway one way then the other. There were some tense moments, some referee advice from the room, but in all the majority of us were happy with the outcome. With Sunday being a wet drizzly day we relaxed at home knowing that soon we would be on our way and our US adventure for 2015 was finished. It has been an awesome time. We have travelled some 16,000 miles and seen more of the USA than many Americans. Added to our list of twelve states we have already visited during the first stage of our travels we have now visited another seven states (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas) and return visits to Tennessee and North Carolina. This is a huge country and although we have travelled a total of nearly 14,000 miles (22.500 kilometres). We really have only scratched the surface of the East Coast, we have been diverse in our adventures to both cities and country environments. We have travelled safely, have met many people and enjoyed spending time with Cam in his current part of the world. Will we do it again? Yes, at this stage we plan to return to the US next year. We will take the caravan out of storage, de-winterise it, service the car and after spending some time with Cam we will head towards the central states somewhere. No definite plans of where we will visit yet but God willing we will be back. So it was time to say good-bye to Cam. This is always the hard part but it won`t be too long before we see him again as he is planning to be in NZ in January. I remind myself that if he didn't live in this part of the world we would never have planned to visit for over four months and had the opportunities that we have had. It has been wonderful to spend lots of time with him, see his home, something of his work and meet some of his friends and better understand his life in Durham. He certainly doesn't need or want me to be around every day reminding him to make his bed, put out his washing, asking constant questions etc. Many times we are asked how do we manage with a child living overseas - our response is always that he is an adult, he has a right to make his own choices and for us it has a very big positive in that we get to visit him overseas in a variety of countries. How else would we have planned a holiday of four and a half months in the US. We wouldn't have. Thanks Cam for everything. Next stop is London - just for about thirty six hours and then onward to Singapore then Melbourne for a couple of weeks before the last leg of the trip back to New Zealand.
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