Back in USA for 2011

Red Lobster Feast

Bananas - 1/10th the price

We are now back in the USA for our 5th consecutive RV trip. Considering that we only planned to do just one 12 month RV trip around USA in 2007, it still amazes us that we are still coming back each year. Once we discovered that we loved the RV lifestyle in this country, it wasn't hard to plan to return for spring & summer each year for as long as our motorhome kept going. So here we are. We flew into LA airport to be greeted by blooming cherry blossoms, and then flew onto Kansas City where we picked up a hire car, and immediately proceeded to collect our RV out of storage. Thankfully the RV started as soon as Murray turned the ignition on, and we breathed a sigh of relief and appreciation. Our RV is 10 years old, and despite standing for 6 months at a time, it has started first time, every time. Although having had no sleep since we left Australia 30 hours earlier, we were on a high as we drove the RV out of the storage area. Oops, not so fast...we got out of the initial locked garage door, only to find ourselves locked inside the next grille gate. We thought the area was accessible 24/7, but apparently it gets locked up at 7pm. Hmmm. We had entered at 6.30pm and all the lights were on, and we did wonder why the lights suddenly went out at 7.15pm. Fortunately they have a 24 hr guard on the premises, and Murray was slim enough to fit out of a hole in the rocks beside the gate, and he alerted the guard who then came and let us out. Phew. I wish that I had taken a photo of us behind the locked grille! When I rang the storage office the next morning to advise that we had removed our RV and to take us off the books, the office lady had heard about our incident, and mentioned that the guard got a rap on the knuckles, as he is supposed to ensure that there is no one in the facility before he locks up! She said he won't make that mistake again - nor will we!

Making the most of our few days in a motel, we ate out at an Olive Garden (a nice Italian restaurant chain) and a Red Lobster (seafood chain). I felt right at home having a margarita and enjoying a favourite seafood trio of lobster tail, baked lobster mornay, and skewered garlic prawns.

After getting the RV serviced, we set out on the road south about 10am this morning, and remembered that the last time we took this road we had my younger sister and aunt travelling with us. Lovely memories. We passed some Amish buggies on the road and saw armadillos dead on the road - reminders that we were far away from home. The clincher was to walk into Walmart and see bananas at around $1.20kg (54c/lb) - due to the damage from floods and winds in north Queensland and areas of New South Wales where the banana plantations are, the price of bananas before we left home had escalated to almost $12/kg (~$6/lb). Come and visit Clairie!!

Petrol sure has gone up since our last visit here. We are paying $1 per gallon more, and they say it is only going to get worse as the year progresses. Today we paid $3.60 gallon or 95c/litre. Then again, back home it was close to $1.40 per litre ($5.30/gal) when we left, so it is swings & roundabouts.

We are now settled into an RV park in the Ozark Mountains - south of Springfield and about 25 mins north of Branson, Missouri. It is only a basic park, but it has water, electricity, sewer and free wifi for $7.50 per night. No cable TV but digital TV reception is great due to our elevation. Friends who we met 2 years ago in Wisconsin are in the site next to us. Yes, we knew they were going to be here, and we were all happy to meet up again and had a good chat sitting under the stars each with a glass of red wine. It was 30C when we arrived around 4pm, and is supposed to get down to 18C overnight. An abrupt change from the 8C we woke up to in Kansas City this morning!