Day One: With Amy [Ian James], about to start a "duck tour" of Boston. Smiles are difficult for me!
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image0.jpg)
Back at the hotel with Amy and Mrs Hoffs.....
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image1.jpg)
...and with Amy's fellow musician (plus all-round funny-guy and cola-quaffer extraordinaire) Joe.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image2.jpg)
Day Two: If you want to pick a technical argument with me in future, just remember that I'VE been to MIT.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image3.jpg)
Day Three/Four/Five: With Joe's parents (and Emma the retriever) in a rain-drenched Maine. He's a retired Air Force pilot, so much more interesting to talk to than cruddy musicians.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image4.jpg)
Day Six: Spectacular foliage in New Hampshire
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image5.jpg)
Day Seven: On the way up Mount Willard, New Hampshire....
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image6.jpg)
....and the view from the top.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image7.jpg)
Day Eight: A beached paddle steamer was just one of the exhibits at the quirky Shelburne Museum, Vermont.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image8.jpg)
Day Nine: With "Ma Bramwyn", ruthless ringleader of the notorious Silverwood Clan, in pastoral New York.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image9.jpg)
Day Ten: At the awe-iinspiring Niagara Falls (US side). It made me wonder what it must have been like for the first natives/pioneers to come across them, to hear the immense roar in the distance and then to be greeted by such an amazing vista.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image10.jpg)
Day Eleven: Walking with Reuggan and Mrs Reuggan in Ohio....
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image11.jpg)
...and their dog, also called Emma.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image12.jpg)
Day Twelve: The Morning Crew dinner - Az, Becca, Hoffs, Iz, Reuggan
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image13.jpg)
Day Fourteen: A personal highlight for me was a visiting the USAF museum in Dayton and seeing the phenomenal B-70 (above). The picture doesn't properly convey its true enormity.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image17.jpg)
Night-time view of Cincinnati during a dinner cruise on the Ohio river, with the MLB playoffs taking place within the stadium. An awful lot of dejected Reds fans filed past our hotel in Kentucky that night and the next.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image14.jpg)
Day Fifteen: As a fan of WKRP in Cincinnati during the 80s, I'd always fancied seeing Fountain Square. For anyone familiar with the show, I had a huge crush on Bailey Quarters, sans those horrible glasses.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image15.jpg)
...and the river cruise had revealed the location of my favourite culinary establishment. Actually, they seem to have gone downhill considerably. I don't remember any particularly attractive waitresses in either of the ones we went in, and the San Francisco one had closed down.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image16.jpg)
Day Eighteen: After over two-thousand miles on the road, we finally ditched the car in the Windy Misty City. I didn't like Chicago and the weather was lousy. It was the one day of the trip I really didn't enjoy.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image18.jpg)
Day Twenty: Traversing the Rockies aboard the California Zephyr.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image19.jpg)
Day Twenty-One: Today it was the Sierras.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image20.jpg)
Day Twenty-Two: Sixteen states later, the end of the road (for me) in Frisco.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image21.jpg)
Miss Hoffs the Younger [Aurora] in Seattle
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image22.jpg)
Both back home again in Blighty with Baloo, Rosie and granddaughter Georgina.
(https://www.gilfane.com/Files/Roadtrip12/Image23.jpg)
Need a thumbs up button!
Sweet
nice , having lived near chicago i can say its a shame you didnt see it on a good day . we had at least 3 a year ...
cant say i really miss it except there was always something to do . they almost always had some festival going on somewhere and the bus / train system was pretty efficient. buy a day transfer ticket and you could get on or off either, whenever you wanted, as many times as you wanted.
we never took a car . it would cost you more to park it than you'd spend at the fest.
Definetly a thumbs up!!!
Good stuff.
Thanks for sharing, Hoffs.
Awesome :) BTW, I'm not a cruddy musician, I'm f'ing awesome :)
Also notice that Hoffs has the exact same expression on his face in every picture...
Great pic's Hoffs!! Hope you hit the Canadian side of the Falls...much more impressive :p
Well it is nice to put a face with the voices I hear so much everyday.
Well most of then, Becca never talks ... hehe
Nice photos of the landscape.
Also have to say: HI Mrs. Hoffs
It looks like you had a most excellent trip. That's a lot to see in a short amount of time. :)
Hmm, you never told me Aurora was hot!
I mean, um, good pictures, looks like you had fun!
Quote from: Vortex on October 24, 2012, 03:07:16 AM
Hmm, you never told me Aurora was hot!
There's probably a good reason that he didn't ::)
Quote from: Kael on October 24, 2012, 12:42:00 AM
Great pic's Hoffs!! Hope you hit the Canadian side of the Falls...much more impressive :p
I told him to hit the Canadian side, but after thinking about it, I told him it might be better to stay in the U.S. They had already let him in once, he didn't need to press his luck with another border crossing. :D
It was a blast to hang out with you both. Glad you had a nice visit.
I'm so glad that you had a safe and enjoyable trip. And thanks for posting the photos. Mt. Willard is about one of the best hikes in the White Mts. for casual visitors as it is relatively easy and the views (as you saw) are excellent for a small mountain.
*Goes back to stirring her cauldron*
They were wonderful pictures. We really enjoyed them. If... if you ever do come to Florida you need to go to the space center down at Cocoa. Ed and I went a few years ago to watch one of the last shuttle flights and toured the center, Awesome!! They have a ride there that simulates the shuttle taking off. Come in the winter the weather is much better.
Quote from: UncleSham on October 23, 2012, 09:21:24 PM
nice , having lived near chicago i can say its a shame you didnt see it on a good day . we had at least 3 a year ...
cant say i really miss it except there was always something to do . they almost always had some festival going on somewhere and the bus / train system was pretty efficient. buy a day transfer ticket and you could get on or off either, whenever you wanted, as many times as you wanted.
we never took a car . it would cost you more to park it than you'd spend at the fest.
A large part of it comes down to my dislike of large cities, or more to the point crowds. I am not a great fan of New York or London for that reason and I would generally rather avoid somewhere altogether, no matter what the attraction, if it means having to negotiate a throbbing mass of other people. But it was too crowded, too noisy and too expensive and there were panhandlers all over the place. Add to that the foul weather - there was zero visibility at the Sears tower and we had to queue for an hour in drizzle to get into the Art museum - and I really didn't much enjoy it.
Quote from: Branwyn of Errol on October 24, 2012, 03:57:58 PM
I'm so glad that you had a safe and enjoyable trip. And thanks for posting the photos. Mt. Willard is about one of the best hikes in the White Mts. for casual visitors as it is relatively easy and the views (as you saw) are excellent for a small mountain.
*Goes back to stirring her cauldron*
It was good to meet you and a nice break on what was a long day of driving. This was the first time we had been to NY state other than in and around the Big Apple, and the countryside was beautiful. I hope the meal you had been cooking turned out okay and was delivered on time. :)
Quote from: Reuggan on October 24, 2012, 02:08:08 PM
Quote from: Kael on October 24, 2012, 12:42:00 AM
Great pic's Hoffs!! Hope you hit the Canadian side of the Falls...much more impressive :p
I told him to hit the Canadian side, but after thinking about it, I told him it might be better to stay in the U.S. They had already let him in once, he didn't need to press his luck with another border crossing. :D
It was a blast to hang out with you both. Glad you had a nice visit.
Haha. You are not far off the mark though! We seriously thought about going over but didn't fancy the thought of facing the US border people again. They always seem especially intimidating and the one in Boston was particularly bad this year. I'm sure US people have no problem zipping over the border for a little while, but we thought they may be suspicious of foreigners who do it for what would have been just a couple of hours at most.
And it was a great couple of days thanks. We visited Berlin again the day after we left and couldn't resist another meal at the Amish place.
Quote from: Sara Dale on October 24, 2012, 04:10:00 PM
They were wonderful pictures. We really enjoyed them. If... if you ever do come to Florida you need to go to the space center down at Cocoa. Ed and I went a few years ago to watch one of the last shuttle flights and toured the center, Awesome!! They have a ride there that simulates the shuttle taking off. Come in the winter the weather is much better.
We've been to Florida quite a few times already actually, naturally it was THE place to go when the kids were younger. We visited the Kennedy Space Center on one of the visits.
Sweet Hoffs!
Your a class act.
Hope you enjoyed your stay in the states.
Did u get to see our Grand Canyon?
Nice looking family....
Wow, nice pictures, and a very nice telling of your adventures.
It is nice to be able to see so many of the people, and to be able to put a face to the names that come up on my computer screen.
And I must say thank you for sharing it with us.
P.S. - and she is right, if you ever come to Florida, you will want to come in the winter.
Quote from: Mansbeth on October 25, 2012, 03:01:37 PM
Sweet Hoffs!
Your a class act.
Hope you enjoyed your stay in the states.
Did u get to see our Grand Canyon?
Nice looking family....
Not on this trip, but we have been there in previous years. Certainly an impressive sight.
It looks like you had a wonderful adventure. : :)