Boxing Day Par-tay

Although Boxing Day is not a public holiday here in the United States we decided to introduce our American friends, and reacquaint non-American friends who have previously celebrating Boxing Day, with this public holiday celebrated in the UK. With as much traditional British boxing day fare as we could muster from Texas we partied away in weather that was more like a British summer's day than 26th December! In tune with our normal style there was LOTS of food including ham, chutney, pickled pears, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding (complete with flaming brandy), mince pies, shortbread, a yule log and more. Much fun was had explaining that the mince pies were indeed meat free and that the pickled pears did not contain any pickles!

Adam & Claire xxx

O Christmas Tree

Hope you have all had a very Happy Christmas. Apologies that this is a few days late but neither of us have been particularly well over Christmas so blogging had to take a back seat! Anyhow, we do hope you are all well and are enjoying the festivities.

Adam & Claire xxx

Adam & Claire xxx

Pre-Christmas Snow

The crazy Houston weather has been at it again...would you believe it but 10 days before Christmas we had snow here in Houston, Texas! Not quite a white Christmas but almost!

Adam & Claire xxx

Halloween

On 31 October we got the spirit of things by having a "Halloween" supper with sausages, mash, homemade baked beans and even Pumpkin Pie.



Our friend Ben carved the pumpkins.........

To create this amazing lantern......

Placed by our frontdoor they greeted the trick-or-treaters who enjoyed sweets, chocolate and Claire's Halloweeen cupcakes.

Adam & Claire xxx

Washington DC & Virginia

Update numero uno........


In October we took a trip to Washington DC and Virginia. We had a special reason for our fall trip north to meet with some old friends from Wiltshire, England; one of whom lives in Virginia. We spent 3 days in the capital city of the United States and 2 days in Virginia and enjoyed seeing so much of these beautiful places, made even more beautiful by the fantastic fall colours.



We saw so much....there are so many monuments in DC; too many to write about here, all unique and special in their own way surrounded by lovely green spaces through which we enjoyed walking.



We enjoyed exploring the Smithsonian museums, all free due to an amazing legacy by James Smithson who had never even travelled to the United States! They are superb myseums but there are so many we could have spent weeks exploring them. Of course we couldn't visit D.C. without a stroll past the White House - so much smaller than it looks in photographs or film and The Capitol which was a useful and fascinating lesson about the US government.

We explored Georgetown which was pretty, relaxed and with streets that reminded us of Europe. Finally we went to Arlington cemetery, the dreary, wet and grey day seeming most appropriate of the days to pay our respects. We walked miles and miles and miles.....


It was then onto beautiful Virginia to meet old friends for a special birthday party.

Adam & Claire xxx

"Postcard from Texas" blog editors are almost back....

Hello dear blog readers. You are probably thinking we have evaporated from planet earth or at least from "Postcard from Texas".......well almost. We have been mighty busy and mighty useless this Autumn and hence we have been useless at blogging. Sorry folks! However, this does mean we have lots to blog about so we are now on a mission to bring y'all uptodate a bit pronto (and before December disappears for another year)! Watch this space to read about fall fun in the United States.

Adam & Claire xxx

San Antonio

We've been off exploring again! Tom visited us for a week which was fantastic. Whilst he was staying we zoomed 250 or so miles west of Houston to super San Antonio, the 7th largest city in the United States (hometown Houston is the 4th largest city in the US).



Top of our to-see list in San Antonio was the Alamo. Orginally know as Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo was built in the 18th century has served originally as a Christian Mission, a garrison fort for the Mexican Army and Texan army, and a store house. Importantly, and famously the Alamo was place of the Battle of the Alamo when Mexicans attacked the defending Texans. Subsequently, at the end of the Texan Revolution much of the Alamo was destroyed leaving only a the main building of the mission and parts of the outbuildings. However, it was still an interesting visit.



We also enjoyed exploring other parts of the city and the Riverwalk.

Adam and Claire xxx

New York New York!

We have recently returned from a few days in New York City. This was not our first trip to the city as we previously visited in April 2006.

NYC was fab! We did lots of exploring including South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge, Soho, Greenwich Village, 5th Avenue, Wall Street (we did not see any crashes, although there was an Ambulance standing by) and of course beautiful Central Park. All this exploring saw us average 12 miles walking each day!

Exploring the wonderful Union Square green market was wonderful and we even brought some wonderful food home to Texas.

Adam & Claire xxx

Hurricane Ike

As you have no doubt heard, a few days ago, Hurricane Ike hit Houston. Fortunately, we were on vacation in Colorado which made things slightly easier. Although we were glued to the media!




We were directly in the path of the storm. However, we have been very very lucky to survive the storm with no damage to our home. There is some damage to the garden and fences but nothing to worry about. If the storm surge had been as high as predicted it is unlikely we would not have been as fortunate.


One of the many power cables currently out of use

Some of the many misplaced boats

Help on it's way........

Many of the nearby areas have not been so lucky and are thoughts are with all those people. There has been extensive flooding and wind damage. Everyone is working hard with the cleanup but it could be some time before life returns to normal here in south east Texas.


Adam & Claire xxx

Colorado

We have just returned from a fabulous 10 day trip to Colorado. You may remember that we visited the "Centennial State" earlier this year. Having seen the mountains with their winter cloak of snow we wanted to see the beautiful Rocky Mountains in summer too. We weren't disappointed!


Camping on the edge of the National Park we were ideally situated to hike and bike. We did both. Perfect. It was so wonderful to be in the mountains.


Thank you Colorado for another great vacation.


Adam & Claire xxx

Tropical Storm Edouard

We haven't blogged for a while, as here hasn't been much to report. However, a few weeks ago Tropical Storm Edouard made an appearance. Preparations were made, businesses shut and work cancelled. Fortunately, this was all a little excessive and the storm tunred out to be little more than a very wet and blustery day!

With lots of rain filling the local drainage ditches...

We are now hoping that any other Tropical Storms, heading our way, are similar!

Adam & Claire xxx

5, 273 miles and home

Here goes for summary of our roadtrip vacation. Sorry it's taken a few weeks to post this, however, life has been somewhat chaotic since we got home.

As you have probably gathered from our previous postings we really did have an amazing time. In 17 days we travelled 5, 273 miles, through 7 states and visited 5 national parks.

We were lucky enough to visit 5 National Parks (before you ask the Grand Canyon didn't have a sign like the other National Parks we visited). In American vocabulary it was "Totally AWESOME". Roll on our next vacation and more exploring this vast country.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather and had many warm, sunny days, however, you will see we did some variation. "Some" is an understatement...we had temperatures between 2degC and 43degC and had both sunshine and snow!

Adam & Claire xxx

NOLA

We recently had Claire's Mum visiting us here in Texas. Whilst here Claire and her Mum took a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana.

It was an interesting drive across many miles of swamp that seemed to go on forever and ever. Whilst in New Orleans we were fortunate enough to stay in the beautiful French Quarter. We also enjoyed visiting the Garden district and taking a boat trip on the Mississippi River.

Adam & Claire xxx

Moab

Continuing our stay in Utah we travelled from Bryce, to Moab, close to Arches National Park. One of the smaller US National Parks, Arches contains (no clues needed) lots of Arches! More stunning geological formations....

Adam & Claire xxx

Bryce Canyon

After the beauty of Yosemite we left California and started to return east. After driving through Nevada (lots more desert) we arrived in Utah to visit Bryce Canyon National Park.

Once again in our trip we saw stunning natural formations. The Hoodoos in wonderful hues of red and orange really were amazing, particularly in the early morning and evening. Walking in the canyon was great fun and enabled us to see so much more than was visible from the canyon's rim. In some ways, this less visited national park, was more stunning than the Grand Canyon.

Adam & Claire xxx

Yosemite

After the heat of Death Valley we continued into California to Yosemite National Park. We enjoyed five fabulous days in breathtaking scenery. Even the amazing photos taken by Ansel Adams fail to do this wonderful place the justice it needs. Our photos don't relay the scenery but it was still WOW, WOW, WOW!

We did some great walking, and due to lovely weather, enjoyed stunning views. Much of the northern area of the park was inaccessible due to snow blocking the high level passes. At least we have a good excuse for a return visit! On the other hand the time of year and melting snow was great as we enjoyed the HUGE waterfalls. Incredibly noisy and exherting great power they really were beautiful.

More soon.

Adam & Claire xxx

New Mexico to California

Early on Saturday morning we left New Mexico and headed west. We drove more than 500 miles, much of it through empty, but stunning, desert landscape.



After hours of tarmac we arrived at our planned destination of the the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Our first thoughts were "WOW" . Picitures in geography textbooks just don't do this natural wonder the justice it deserves. We were amazed by the shear size and scale. But we didn't just gaze in wonder. Yesterday we hiked into the canyon and were further impressed with where we were and what we saw.




We were fortunate enough to stay at the National Park Campsite on the South Rim. Lovely big pitches, lots of shade and firepits made it great spot. All we needed were mashmallows and we would have been back at Scout/Guide camp!


Today we drove on through Arizona and Nevada. Many more miles, much more desert. Had it not been for the difference in vegetation many of the mountains could have been in the English Lake District or Scotland, if a little taller.


This afternoon we arrived in Death Valley, California. Stunning geology, full of colour and pattern. We stopped at Badwater, at 282 feet below sea level it is the lowest point in the USA, and the location of the highest recorded temperature in the USA (56 degC recorded in 1913).


Adam and Claire xxx

Summer Road Trip

Today we started our vacation to explore some of the US of A. First, we had to get out of Texas! Travelling west on the I10 the changing landscape was interesting; from the flatness of Houston to undulating countryside and finally to mountains on the Tex-Mex border emerging from the plains.

After almost 800 miles we reached the Texas-New Mexico border. Yeah! A much easier journey than we had anticipated with good roads, and very little traffic. The rest areas were great and reminded us of the "aires" in France.

We've now stopped in New Mexico for the night. After all that driving it's time for sleep before lots more miles tomorrow.

Adam & Claire xxx

Since the MS150, to be honest, there hasn't been much to blog about. Adam has been back in France and that's about it. We've also been busy preparing for our vacation so you might see a few more blogs. More soon.

Adam & Claire xxx

We made it to Austin!

Yes, that's right, we successfully cycled to Austin and completed the BPMS15o. Yippee! So here is what actually happened...

Saturday

0330 Alarm clocks bleeping we crawl out of bed and into our gear.

0400 We drive to the team meeting point to load bikes, gear and ourselves onto and into trucks and trailers. Time to eat breakfast.

0515 Everything loaded we drive to our start point on the west side of Houston.

0600 We arrive at our start point.With 13,000 riders we're not at the main start but a much less congested location.

0640 Bikes ready, people ready and we're off. We enjoy the comfortably cool temperature knowing it will warm up later in the day.

0800 First rest stop. Speed is the essence so it's eat, drink, bathroom and off.

1000 Wind, wind, wind. It's a constant headwind. Combined with hills we're working quite hard. In need of more energy so we have a two minute roadside picnic. Further along the route we are cheered on by cheering, singing, bands and banter.

1230 Ninety miles done. One last push to get us to La Grange. Why can't that wind just move to our tails. Hey ho!

1315 One hundred miles after we started we arrive in La Grange. We're over half way to Austin. Tired but happy. Showers, food, rest and relaxation follow in the team tent. We feel very well looked after.

1600 Feeling sleepy but no shut-eye yet as supper is ready. Time to refuel for tomorrow's ride.

1830 Re-loading of trucks and trailers and off to find our lodgings for the night.

2000 Water, ibruprofen and lights out................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........................

Sunday

0430 Bleep-bleep. Time to rise and shine!

0500 Breakfast.

0630 Cold and dark we start cycling. It is mighty chilly.

0715 Sunshine is starting to appear and we ride up and down rolling hills. One way of warming up for sure! Lovely scenery so we must return one day for a proper visit. We even pass through a settlement called Winchester!

0800 Quick eat and drink.

0810 Bigger hills....we enjoy the steep (but short) hills through Bastrop State Park. Great fun.

0930 Out of the park we now have more distance behind us than infront and the terrain is much flatter.

1115 Not far to go but the last few miles into Austin are getting slower. The hills seem to keep on appearing!

1215 One hundred and eighty miles of pedalling completed we arrive, elated, at the Capitol in Austin. We made it! And in doing so have raised over $700 for the National MS Society. Thank you to those of you who have supported this cause.

So there you go, that was our weekend. It was the first such ride we have done but we really did have a fantastic time. Much of our enjoyment is down to our friends who organised and provided the logistics support and to our pedaling pals who kept us company along the way. Thank you!

Adam & Claire xxx