That's All Folks!

We are now back in leafy Surrey and for both of us, for the moment at least, the last three months seem like a dream. We can’t believe all we have done and seen and everything is still a muddle in our heads. I am really glad I kept this blog going as it will be a reminder about just about everything.

The journey home went well although we spent Monday night without sleep as the flight from Boston to Dublin (where we changed planes for Heathrow) was only five and a half hours, so by the time the drinks trolley had gone down the aisle and dinner was served there was only a couple of hours of the flight left, not enough to have a good zzzzz. We landed in Dublin around 5am local time and finally got to Heathrow at 8am and we were home by 10am. Terry had a couple of hours sleep yesterday afternoon, but I managed to stay awake until around 9.30pm, then went to bed and slept for 10 hours. We both feel fine today.

Leaving Boston Airport

Summing up:

We:
slept in 37 different beds
stayed in 19 different hotels plus the cruise ship
travelled on 17 trains, not including various subways
spent almost 100 hours travelling on trains
visited, or travelled through, 22 different states not including BC and Alberta in Canada and Washington DC (which is not a state)

I have:

taken just under 1000 photographs
travelled between 35,500 and 40,000 miles (including day trips etc)
(Terry will have probably travelled more by the time she gets home to NZ)
….. and it has cost me? goodness knows, I have yet to work that one out!

Favourite place:
Probably New Mexico (Santa Fe and Albuquerque) and we really enjoyed Chicago and New York.

Least favourite place:
It has to be Dodge City although we are both pleased to have been there.

What did I like best?
Surprisingly enough, the clean Americal loos, sorry - 'restrooms'! (not the paper - see below). Especially the availability of tissue seat covers and more especially the loo (we can't remember where) where you could push a red button and the loo seat revolved and the new section was covered in fresh, clean cling film!
Free coffee refills
The viewing lounges on the Amtrack trains

What did I like least?
The paper plates, the styrene cups and the plastic cutlery (just how much waste is generated daily by all that stuff being thrown away?)
Seeing the poor cattle baking in those grassless, shadeless 'fields' in Dodge City and being fed loads of crap to be fattened up before travelling a couple of miles down the road to the meat processing plant.
The thin, crappy (pardon the pun) loo paper - tissue paper is stronger! It's good to be home to the good old Andrex! (Sorry to be personal!)

Best memory – all of it!

To those of you who have followed this blog, thank you for taking the time reading it, and to Terry’s friends and relatives the next section of her travels here in the UK and Eire will be blogged by the lady herself on http://terry-terrystravels.blogspot.com

That’s all folks! Thank you and goodbye
(until my next holiday!)