Well I am happy to say it all worked out and we have now been back in the UK for 5 days, but the weather !!!!! Oh for Dallas and 90F!!
We had a lovely weekend with Tim, but picking him up was an experience. It seems Dallas wants everyone to pay for their airport so there is a toll to pay for going there which is payable when you leave. However, muggins decided to set the satnav to avoid tolls, but the problem is there is no way of doing that without going round and round in circles, with the satnav thinking it is avoiding the tolls by taking roads that are there but either closed because of road works or only open to airport vehicles. In the end I gave up and told it to use the toll road!! Will know not to do that in future!!
Anyway having picked Tim up we took him back to the RV where we showed him around and how the powered bunk worked as this is where he had decided to sleep. We then had a meal and watched the progress of Irma on the TV all the time wondering if it would delay our return to the UK.
On Saturday Anne wanted to go shopping before she returned to the UK, but Tim and I were not very interested in that, so we went to visit a Gun Show in Lewisville. Well that was quite and experience, almost every gun you could think of from a .22 revolver to a 3 inch smooth bore cannon firing steel balls!! Plus about every kind of knife under the sun, as well as bayonets, stun guns, various sprays (pepper, mace etc.). If you could think of it you could buy it there!! Took us about 3 hours to walk around all the exhibits. As we left Tim spotted another gun store that was advertising a virtual shooting gallery to use for practise. So we had a go!! Very interesting as you used a laser sighted hand gun to practise at shooting various targets.
We then went back and picked up Anne before going out for a meal for the evening.
Sunday saw us take a trip down to the Fort Worth stock yards, one of the few working stock yards left in Texas. It had some very interesting Western gear shops (everything from boots to Stetsons!!) and a live longhorn cow drive. On the day we visited there also was a vintage and custom car display.
Interesting place with lots to do and we will have to go back again if we can.
On the Monday we took Tim back to Dallas airport for his return to Vancouver, paying the toll this time, and then looked at the TV to see what devastation Irma had caused to Florida. Orlando airport had been closed since Saturday, but they were hoping to reopen on Tuesday, so we kept our fingers crossed and started packing.
Tuesday dawned and we completed the packing and American Airlines was still saying we were ticketed to Orlando and the flight was on time, so we put the RV and Spark into storage and stayed overnight in a hotel near to Dallas Fort Worth airport.
On Wednesday we caught the shuttle to airport and sat in the lounge waiting for our flight. At that point I was phoned by Expedia to say that our hotel in Orlando had cancelled our room due to water damage. Managed to re-arrange another room at a different hotel and kept our fingers crossed that our flight was still on.
Well it was, and we boarded it and flew into Orlando on Wednesday afternoon. I must say from the air it looked remarkably undamaged considering a hurricane had blown through only 3-4 days before, perhaps some extra water standing around. And so it proved when we landed and got the shuttle to our hotel, odd trees down and lots of leaves and branches around but not much else.
And then on the Thursday we began our two hop trip back to Heathrow, Orlando to JFK New York with Delta Airlines, and the JFK to Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic, arriving at Heathrow at 6am.
After getting a hire car to Burnham we quickly sorted ourselves out in order to get ourselves back up to London to see our new granddaughter on the Sunday. Anne is now staying there for 4 weeks helping our daughter Caroline.
So the first part of our adventure is over, but we are due back in Dallas on the 1st November to continue our expedition, and early in 2018 we will start the journey north up the West Coast to visit Tim in Vancouver.
So my next post will not be until we return, I hope these posts have not been too boring!!