A beautiful day at the Japanese Garden in St Mawgan, Cornwall

I have neglected my blog for far, far too long. I would like to think that it is because I didn't have anything to say, as in. "If you've nothing to say, say nothing"; truth be told I just couldn't get my self motivated.

I read constantly and am sure that I am a born and bread consumer. I soak up other people's output without the urge to replace it. What could I do to get myself writing again? I have asked myself this many times and at last I think I have come up with something.

As word has slipped out to Cathy about the destination, I can now refer to something big enough to bring me back to blogging. Later in the year we are going to be visiting the United States of America. It's 31 years since my parents and brothers visited our Uncle and Aunt in Utah. I stayed at home to take mock exams, foolishly in my opinion; I missed time with some wonderful people and failed most of my mocks wishing I was abroad. To compound things my birthday was during the month they were away. But hey that was then and this is now.

We spoke about it and said I could go once exams were out of the way but then life got in the way and I never made it. Both aunt and uncle have passed away now and I do regret not getting there. This year we aim to rectify that by making it the destination of a celebratory 50th birthday trip for Cathy.

The birthday trip is the catalyst for a long overdue visit to see some great people and places.

The bit that Cathy now knows ahead of her birthday, due to a friend's
accidental slip, is that we are visiting relatives and friends. There is a second half, that also includes friend visiting that I am not divulging till Cathy's birthday on 26th March 2010.

Even the preparation for the trip is exciting. I hardly knew how ignorant I was about the size and layout of the USA. I casually mentioned to someone about meeting and felt a little foolish when it was explained that it would involve a drive 6 hours one way.
What can I say? The UK is quite a few inches from the US in an atlas so I haven't directly compared. My thoughts would always stray to the US of my childhood when I looked across the page. Images of Californa, the Banana Splits, New Mexico and Petrocelli, the streets of San Francisco, cities pounded by Columbo, Mission Impossible, the Rockford Files. So much colour in a black and white world. It was all so exotic for a Cornish lad in a small fishing village that formed the engagement ring in Mounts Bay. (I think it still is).

I have started to conduct research into the places we will be visting and that's almost as exciting as the travel. Also various stages are fun milestones such as, flights booked, visa process sorted. I'm already at the: why didn't I do this before stage!

It's going to be some trip and there's so much yet to define. We are pushed to cram everything in now, goodness knows how people manage to get the time to travel even further afield.