Road Trip 2012 [Warning: image intensive]

[Hoffs]

Day One: With Amy [Ian James], about to start a "duck tour" of Boston. Smiles are difficult for me!



Back at the hotel with Amy and Mrs Hoffs.....



...and with Amy's fellow musician (plus all-round funny-guy and cola-quaffer extraordinaire) Joe.




Day Two: If you want to pick a technical argument with me in future, just remember that I'VE been to MIT.




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.




Day Six: Spectacular foliage in New Hampshire





Day Seven: On the way up Mount Willard, New Hampshire....



....and the view from the top.





Day Eight: A beached paddle steamer was just one of the exhibits at the quirky Shelburne Museum, Vermont.





Day Nine: With "Ma Bramwyn", ruthless ringleader of the notorious Silverwood Clan, in pastoral New York.





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.





Day Eleven: Walking with Reuggan and Mrs Reuggan in Ohio....



...and their dog, also called Emma.





Day Twelve: The Morning Crew dinner - Az, Becca, Hoffs, Iz, Reuggan





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.



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.





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.



...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.





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.





Day Twenty: Traversing the Rockies aboard the California Zephyr.





Day Twenty-One: Today it was the Sierras.





Day Twenty-Two: Sixteen states later, the end of the road (for me) in Frisco.





Miss Hoffs the Younger [Aurora] in Seattle





Both back home again in Blighty with Baloo, Rosie and granddaughter Georgina.

[Doive]

Need a thumbs up button!

[ii & Sabin]

Sweet

[UncleSham]

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.

[Wolfman]

Definetly a thumbs up!!!

[Tjalle]

Good stuff.
Thanks for sharing, Hoffs.

[Ian James]

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...

[Kael]

Great pic's Hoffs!!  Hope you hit the Canadian side of the Falls...much more impressive :p

[Ginsu]

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

[Troop]

It looks like you had a most excellent trip. That's a lot to see in a short amount of time. 

[Vortex]

Hmm, you never told me Aurora was hot!

I mean, um, good pictures, looks like you had fun!

[Ian James]

Hmm, you never told me Aurora was hot!

There's probably a good reason that he didn't 

[Reuggan]

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. 

It was a blast to hang out with you both. Glad you had a nice visit.

[Branwyn of Errol]

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*

[Sara Dale]

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.