RV and other travels around the World
This post will continue on with our 11-day Italy tour with the SmarTours company. In today’s update I will cover the short trip from our Rome hotel to the Vatican City and our tour through the courtyards and buildings. Want to see what it looks like in this Catholic shrine? Was the Pope at the meet and greet? Read on and of course there are a few photos!
We left our Florida winter location on March 30th for our slow travel back to our home in the Virginia mountains. The drive is about 750 miles and while driving in the truck/trailer combination, I prefer to break the trip up into four segments, averaging 188 miles per moving day. That way we can be relocated and set up by 2pm and can go exploring.
One of our vacations from a strenuous retirement, is to take a cruise while we are already in Florida for the winter. This year I found a 6-day cruise on Royal Caribbean aboard the Jewel of the Seas. It was a good deal at less than $100 a day each for an inside cabin and it sailed out about 45 days from when I booked it. It was a beautiful warm week in late February and we had a surprise waiting for us on board! On to the Western Caribbean!
We had wanted to get back to this historic Cuban section of Tampa since a quick visit about ten years ago. Plus we had the benefit of having some family along with us. A beautiful warm day to have lunch and visit.
The Thanksgiving holiday is one of my favorites. Time with family and a healthy amount of great meals. It also is a time to reflect on what we have to be thankful for. From our freedoms living in this great country to our many blessings to our beliefs. It was a full house as our son and daughter-in-law from DC came to visit along with our local son and daughter as well. It was a great time!
We recently made our twice a year time back to the Hoosier mother land. Got to see the moms and some other family before we pack up and head to Florida to avoid the snow shovel syndrome. I’ve mentioned before about the 500 mile drive on this page. It makes for a long day, but great to see family and friends. On to the Indiana quick trip…
We have determined our route south this winter to Florida. No big loop to Louisiana like we planned last year. Just almost a straight south shot with a few stops along the way. Speaking of winter, the first day of fall has just passed by and the leaves have already started to drop. Our leave by date of December 1st is usually the end of the leaf raking. Today’s photos are unrelated to today’s post, but from last month’s festivals in the area.
In this post I will wrap up my comments and share a few more photos from our recent trip to Philadelphia, Pa. It was truly a content rich destination that I could expand on in a few more blogs, but it will be time to move on to another topic. The end of summer is about here and we do have some more travel planned before we close up the Virginia house and load the RV for travel to Florida.
This blog post update will focus on the final 2-3 days of our five day trip to this city that played a major role in the shaping of our country. We visited several museums, the US Mint, and attended a well known historic church.
This is the second part of our family reunion and the exploring of our first nation’s capital, Philadelphia, Pa. Pat and I traveled via Amtrak with our middle son, Ross, and arrived at the massive train station at about 2pm. In this update, I’ll cover the first couple of days in the city.
Continue reading “Philadelphia: Arrival, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall”