And the Journey Continues......... (Lisa)

Hello to anyone out there who is actually still checking our blog!

As some of you may know, we are still on the road. We spent a week in Asheville, finding the perfect rental house, but it won't be available until sometime during the first week in December. So, in the meantime, the vacation continues!

We've had time to visit some wonderful old friends (the Shaw family in Atlanta, Sean in Milledgeville, GA, and Stuart in Atlanta) and some wonderful family (Anthony's sister Elizabeth and her kids in Milledgeville). We are currently visiting Anthony's mother in New Orleans, where we'll spend Thanksgiving!

Today we had the full New Orleans experience, starting with a streetcar ride to the French Quarter, and Cafe du Monde (a coffee stand dating back to 1862) where we had beignets and cafe au lait. We walked through Jackson Square, and admired all the gorgeous architecture in the quarter. We had lunch at Johnny's Po Boys, a New Orleans institution. (Click here for info on Johnny's and the po boy.) It's all about the food, isn't it?

On our way here, we stopped to catch the LSU vs. Ole Miss game in Oxford, Mississippi. That was an experience (especially for someone like me who doesn't even understand the game). It was actually a lot of fun, and I kind of got into it! (By the way, LSU won - that's "our" team.) For those of you following such things, LSU is currently ranked #1 in the SEC. Yay LSU!

After Thanksgiving, we'll be leaving New Orleans (and the nice warm weather) heading for Indiana (and my family). Brrr. We're hoping to squeeze in a visit to friends in Chicago (why not?) also. We will be ready to settle in and never leave our house once we move in, let me tell you!

About that house: It's tiny (only one bedroom), but very cute. It has a front porch, and a deck that wraps around two sides of the house. It has a woodburning stove, and a view of the mountains! It's in an awesome neighborhood called Montford, which will be great for walks. It's walking distance to downtown Asheville and Greenlife Grocery. It's about a thirty second walk (literally) to the park where the Montford Park Players perform plays in their Shakespeare Festival from June through October. And there's a handy little nook in the house where our inflatable mattress will fit nicely, when you all come for visits.......... Oh yeah - it's on Gay Street. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) We'll post photos soon.

Stay tuned - we'll update you on our wandering soon!

Back in the USA (Lisa)

Well, we made it back to the good ol' US of A. It was a mostly uneventful journey - well, with the exception of our taxi in Belize City breaking down on the way to the airport. (A good samaritan picked us up and drove us the rest of the way and all was well.) It's a bit weird readjusting to the pace here after six weeks south of the border! But, we're doing our best to re-acclimate slowly. In the meantime, here's a list of some of the things we'll miss, and others we're happy to be done with:

Things we'll miss:

• $15 hotel rooms
• the turquoise waters of the Caribbean
• CD's being sold on the street for $2 or less (yeah, they're pirated)
• the sound of grackles (bird) in the morning
• fried plantains!
• fresh fish dinners for $6 or less
• meeting interesting people from all corners of the world
• Mayan ruins
• hearing the wacky Kriol language of Belize ("bwoi, you daag oagli!" = boy, your dog is ugly)
• candlelit dinners on Turneffe atoll
• howler monkeys!
• strolling through the streets of 500-year-old colonial cities like San Cristobal de las Casas

Things we're okay doing without:

• sand flies
• language barriers ("No hablo bien el espanol.")
• the constant worry about food and water making us sick
• having to put used TP in a trash can instead of flushing (Guatemala & Mexico)
• always having to track down a waiter to ask for the check (we were given the check without asking exactly TWO times in six weeks)
• milk from a box (very little fresh milk available)
• having to "do math" to figure out what things "really" cost (pesos, quetzals, and dollars, oh my!)
• really crummy quality TP and napkins
• worrying about botflies (go ahead, click on the link!) and malaria

Anyway, I'm sure there are many more things for the lists, but you get the general idea..... Overall, we're kind of happy to be back, and a little sad, too.....

We'll keep posting to this blog, as the adventure will continue. Phase one of our adventure is complete, now comes phase two: creating our new life in Asheville! Stay tuned.....