Update - Wednesday 13th May

Hi, you may all be wondering where we are!  Well as I write this Richard and I are at 38,000 feet on our way to the USA for a five week holiday starting in Florida.  However let me start by giving you a quick resume on what we have been up to since we left Mary H at Newbury in October last year.

We started off by taking the caravan to Kent, East Sussex and West Sussex in October.  We were joined by Penny and Jim in their motor home.  We had a lovel time and even managed to catch up with Karen and Ian Bingham who used to have Tacet but are now living in Kent.

Christ's College Cambridge

Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

Dungeness Lighthouse

Beachy Head

In December Richard and I went to London to visit the Maritime Museum in Greenwich and finished off the day on the London Eye in the dark.

London in the dark

Christmas was the first one in our new house and we had all the family staying, it was a wonderful occasion and a special one - but more of that later.

In March we again took the caravan for an outing going to Suffolk and Norfolk along with Penny and Jim.  It seemed to be very windy but we didn't have much rain.

Sherringham 

Kings Lynn

Mary H wasn't being neglected during this time as Richard has been very busy updating the galley and taking the bold step of painting the ceiling cream - no going back!  We have new work tops, cupboard doors, hob and oven in the galley and I now also have a freezer - I can't wait to use it.  We have also gone over to pink accessories!!!  The roof outside has also been painted and we have a lovely pram cover too.  So lucky old Mary H!

Richard and I were due to  3 weeks on Mary H taking her from Newbury to Hampton Court after Easter but my Mother had a very serious stroke on March 30th.  Penny came up and she and I spent the next four weeks backwards and forwards to the hospital in Worthing until Mother sadly died on April 25th.  Richard and Jim had started the journey with Mary H to Hampton Court but had to abandon the boat on the Thames and come home for a few days when Mummy died.  They continued their journey and got back home for the funeral which was last Friday.  The reason I said that Christmas had been a special one is that it was our last with one with Mummy.

You may wonder why we wanted to have Mary H at Hampton Court well we stayed on her last night before travelling to Heathrow this morning.  Also our plan for the summer is to really explore the Thames and hopefully complete the Basingstoke Canal!  We always seem to use the Thames as a bit of a motorway to get from A to B so this time we are going to do it very slowly - starting our exploration west of Windsor as we both know the east side well.  We are going back to Ham Manor at Newbury again this winter - Richard has more jobs to do on the Mary H upgrade!

So here we are starting on a five week holiday in America.  We are staying with friends in Florida for 10 days then flying up to North Carolina and visiting the Smokey Mountains and then the Outer Banks finally taking the train up to Washington and New York.  I will be blogging while we are away as I want to keep a record of our travels so watch out for Millie Makes Three in America!

Oh yes - don't worry about Muffin he is at home with house sitters.  We felt this was a better option than sending him to doggie hotel for all that time.

Please excuse the layout off this post.  I put the photos on at home, wrote the words on the plane and I just can't get the two to go together properly!!!