Tag: motorhome

A Year On The Road in The Independent – Pt 12 (The Finale)

Arriving at Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness Resort, the 84th and final
stop on our great Year On The Road RV adventure

All good things come to an end, as Chaucer once wrote, and, for us, it was arriving at Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness Resort on the 52nd and final week of our grand A Year On The Road adventure across the US (and back) by RV. It was the culmination of a 12-month odyssey to discover more about the country, and expand our travel-writing horizons beyond merely Florida. It was successful in that aim in every aspect, and it was exhilarating to finally be back in our home town, and enjoying the inimitable Disney hospitality (especially at this rural and laid-back resort that most Disney guests never see).

Our campsite set-up in Fort Wilderness, in truly idyllic rural surroundings

We had started our final month in Biloxi, Mississippi, and traveled east and south via Gulf Shores and Mobile in Alabama, and then Navarre and Tallahassee in Florida’s “Panhandle,” the extreme north-west of the state, which is full of fabulous beaches and eye-catching coastline. The final 270-mile drive south from Tallahassee took us back into familiar territory once again, and the iconic signage that lets visitors know exactly where they are…

Gateway to “The most magical place on Earth,” Walt Disney World Resort, Florida

Having set out from home on May 14, 2023, we walked back through our front door again on the exact same day a year later, having traveled more than 35,000 miles in our combination of Winnebago Sightseer and Ford Fiesta (our trusty tow car), a journey involving 23 states, 16 National Parks and a lifetime of memories. In many ways, we’re still processing where we went and what we saw (it was a LOT), and we still have the appetite for more, albeit it won’t be for a while! The full trip gave us more food for thought than the previous 10 years combined, while also serving to underline the benefits of home and the myriad of places that are right on our doorstep.

It would probably amaze most Magic Kingdom visitors to know that this is the vista little more than a metaphorical stone’s throw from the theme park!

Of course, having completed the journey meant we were duty-bound to conclude our exclusive journal series for the travel pages of The Independent newspaper, a roughly 17,000-word diary of road-going exploits across the most remarkable country in the world. It was a real pleasure being able to highlight the month-by-month narrative of our RV exploits, especially the awe-inspiring scenic nature of most of it, and we hope people enjoyed riding along with us, and are also inspired to try some of it for themselves, especially by RV. This truly is The Big Country, and there is so much more to see apart from the obvious. For now, it is time to relax and reflect – but we WILL be traveling again in future! To read the final part of our Independent series, see this link: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/road-trip-usa-mississippi-alabama-disney-b2688413.html

Our spacious and blissful campsite at Fort Wilderness, surrounded by nature

If you would like to go back and enjoy the previous 11 instalments of our epic trip for The Independent, check out these links:

Month 1, Florida to Minnesota: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/american-road-trip-usa-florida-minnesota-b2369256.html

Month 2, Minnesota to Montana: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/american-road-trip-usa-minnesota-montana-rv-b2398864.html

Month 3: Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/american-road-trip-usa-yellowstone-glacier-national-parks-b2415050.html

Month 4: Montana and Wyoming: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/american-road-trip-usa-montana-wyoming-b2438975.html

Month 5 Idaho and Utah: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/american-road-trip-usa-idaho-utah-b2467275.html

Month 6: Nevada and Southern California: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/great-american-road-trip-nevada-southern-california-b2503940.html

Month 7, Arizona: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/great-american-road-trip-arizona-b2533875.html

Month 8, Arizona to New Mexico: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/american-road-trip-arizona-new-mexico-b2598440.html

Month 9, New Mexico to Texas: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/road-trip-usa-texas-new-mexico-b2622047.html

Month 10, Texas to Louisiana: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/road-trip-usa-texas-louisiana-b2638398.html

Month 11, Louisiana to Mississippi: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/road-trip-usa-louisiana-mississippi-b2669174.html

RIP Ruthie, our faithful canine traveling companion

A Year On The Road in The Independent Pt 11

The Mississippi coast proved a true delight to travel along, with its long fringe of gorgeous beaches

Louisiana and Mississippi proved to be the perfect territory for the later stages of our epic Year On The Road RV adventure, providing rich cultural and recreational influences. From laid-back Lafayette to surprising Biloxi, we took the road less traveled and reveled in the sights, sounds and tastes of this pretty Gulf Coast region. And you can read all about it in the latest instalment of our exclusive series for The Independent, a story of crawfish, beignets and beaches:

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/road-trip-usa-louisiana-mississippi-b2669174.html

Waveland, Mississippi, was Ground Zero for Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and these steps are all that is left of the home that once stood on Coleman Avenue, where only one building survived the storm surge

This is the penultimate instalment of our unforgettable 35,000-mile road trip, which opened our eyes about much of the country and underlined the fact that the only real way to SEE America is to travel, widely, and off the beaten track. We would never have discovered places like St. Martinville, Kaplan and Waveland if we hadn’t been in our trusty Winnebago, and we absolutely adored this close-up view of the country and its many attractions. Stay tuned for Month 12, and a grand finale in our home stomping ground in Orlando…!

Like Louisiana, Mississippi served up some delicious food, like this succulent barbecue plate from the rustic The Shed in Ocean Springs

An Epic Year – And A New Book!

As we come to the end of another year in the life of two weary-but-happy travel writers, we are able to look back on a truly remarkable 12 months, culminating in the launch of our latest book, 111 Places In Orlando That You Must Not Miss.

Making sure our local Barnes & Noble store has a signed copy of the book!

Back in January, we were holed up in Donna, Texas, at the beginning of the homeward leg of our grand A Year On The Road RV adventure across the USA, taking a breather as we figured out the final four-and-a-half months of the trip. In the end, we continued with Plan B (our re-routed itinerary after discovering New Mexico gets a fair bit of ice and snow!) to travel the full length of the Texas coast and then hop through each of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama before returning to Florida. It all worked out well, albeit, we lost our beloved Ruthie the Rescue to an ongoing medical condition (and old age) in May.

A happy dog – Ruthie did so well on our big RV trip, but then faded quickly on our return home

The rest of the year has been devoted to getting our Orlando lives back in shape, catching up with work back in The Theme Park Capital of the World – and launching our new book. The 111 Places guidebook was a happy coincidence of a contact on LinkedIn flagging up an opportunity for us, and we were delighted to dive into a different side of Orlando, the non-theme-park side, for what is now our 52nd book. While part of an existing – and highly popular – book series by German publisher Emons, it gave us the opportunity to spread our wings and delve into a completely different side of The City Beautiful, one which doesn’t get a lot of publicity.

The 111 Places in Orlando team – us with photographer Kayla L. Smith

The simple fact is, there is more to this huge tourist destination than meets the eye – much more, in fact. There is a wealth of history, art and culture, as well as a thriving downtown district scene, and some unique restaurants. All of this, plus some of the quirky and offbeat places that most cities can boast, and more can be found between the pages of the new book, studded as it is with wonderful photography by Orlando photographer Kayla L. Smith. This is a book we are immensely proud of, and we hope everyone who buys it discovers something new, exciting and captivating about the city we call home. There are 111 stories just waiting to be discovered (along with another 111 that are linked to the main Places!).

How our epic Year On The Road adventure started – with driving lessons!

And that’s our (basic) story of 2024, at least for now. There will be more new adventures in 2025, although we don’t know what they will be yet. We are probably going to take a step away from our Brit Guide work for the immediate future, but there will be another edition in Susan’s Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World series in the not-too-distant future, plus more about our Year On The Road adventure. We’re hoping to get back to Europe for some (long) overdue travels there, and we also want to see more of the USA’s east coast. We do plan more RVing at some stage, but we might need an extended break first! In the meantime, we’d like to wish all our family, friends and followers the happiest of Holidays, and a peaceful and prosperous New Year –

Simon & Susan

A Year On The Road in The Independent, Pt 10

The mind-boggling SpaceX Starbase Complex in Boca Chica Beach, Texas

Our latest feature (Part 10 of 12) for The Independent is now online, highlighting the blissful winter section of our epic RV adventure along the Texas coast and into Louisiana, a 600-mile stretch of superb beaches, cute towns, and bayou wetlands. It included discovering Elon Musk’s Starbase, chic Corpus Christi, bustling Galveston and the surprising city of Lafayette. You can read all about it on this link:

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/road-trip-usa-texas-louisiana-b2638398.html

Watching the gigantic cruise ships leaving the Port of Galveston is a major attraction on Galveston Island

A Year On The Road in The Apopka Voice

We were recently interviewed by The Apopka Voice newspaper here in our little home town about our recently-concluded Year On The Road RV adventure, and had a wonderful and wide-ranging chat with Managing Editor Reggie Connell, who is also an RV enthusiast. The results of our chat have just been published, and we would like to thank Reggie and The Voice for such a well-written and positive feature. You can read it on the following link:

https://theapopkavoice.com/stories/exploring-america-apopkas-simon-and-susan-veness-take-to-the-road-for-a-year-long-adventure,102411

The Sights of the Bayou

The Bayou Teche in St Martinville, Louisiana on a gorgeous spring day

We’re resuming the video snapshots from our recent, and quite epic, Year On The Road RV adventure, picking up the trail just after we left coastal Texas and continued into Louisiana, where we encountered the pretty Bayou Teche in St. Martinville, just south of Lafayette. This is classic Cajun country, the region of Louisiana inhabited by the evicted French Canadian catholic people from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in the early 19th century. The sights, food, and culture are all original to the area, and it made for quite a contrast after the beautiful beach territory of The Lone Star state.

Check out the short video highlight here:

The Glory of Port Lavaca Beach

It’s been a while since we posted one of our snapshot videos from the big Year On The Road RV adventure, but here’s one that picks up the story along the Texas Coast, and the surprising, idyllic beach at Port Lavaca.

We were only here a few days, but the Lighthouse Beach RV Park proved a gorgeous place to stay, practically right on the city beach and with great views in each direction.

Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/8zABEpQEwb8

A Year On The Road in The Independent, Part 9

Our big year-long RV adventure has reached the ninth month of the epic journey in our exclusive series for The Independent, featuring the month-long stretch from New Mexico to the southwest Texas coast.

It includes time in superb Santa Fe, stunning White Sands National Park and the cowboy country around Las Cruces, as well as Alpine in Texas, the astounding Big Bend National Park, the city of San Antonio and glittering South Padre Island.

You can read all about it here: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/north-america/usa/road-trip-usa-texas-new-mexico-b2622047.html

Catch Our RV Journey on YouTube!

The journey itself might be over, and our “A Year On The Road” RV adventure is officially in the books, but you can still catch up with all the excitement and intrigue on our YouTube channel, which now has almost 100 snapshot videos of different aspects of the trip in the bag.

Javelinas! Jevelinas! Finally, we get to see Javelinas!

From Pictured Rocks National Seashore in Michigan to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, plus dozens of fascinating places and experiences in between, this is our chance to wow you with the visuals of this epic RV journey across 23 states.

Our latest contribution is all about those elusive Javelinas in Texas, but you’ll also find recent videos that highlight the vibrant Historic Market Square in San Antonio, Big Bend National Park and a stunning tequila sunset in New Mexico.

Check it all out on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5dY0TcznDGkOY8BQUkpQg

The stunning Natural Bridge Caverns just north of San Antonio featured in a recent snapshot video

A Year On The Road – The Final Maps

Back in Orlando again, it’s time to tot up the final mileage and trace our entire route (in 2 maps) around the US. We reached West Glacier, Montana, at our furthest distance from Orlando at almost 2,700 miles away, albeit we reached there via a distinctly circuitous route that involved fully 12 states!

The first 7 months saw us take in by far the biggest ‘chunk’ of our year-long route, including side-trips into Colorado and Southern California by car, as well as parts of Northern Arizona and New Mexico

The “return journey” from there was also far from a straight line, taking in another 10 states before completing what was essentially a giant circle of the Midwest, the North, South West and Southern states. For much of the last 5 months we were close to the Gulf of Mexico before coming back into Florida via Pensacola and the Panhandle area, where we were definitely able to relax a bit (albeit keeping more than one eye on staying out of the way of some seriously stormy weather).

The final five months took us from the heart of New Mexico down to the far south-western corner of Texas, then right around the Gulf of Mexico via Galveston, New Orleans, Biloxi and Gulf Shores

So, with no further ado and a bit of a fanfare – “Ta RA!!!!!” – our final mileage comes to, wait for it…35,186 miles since we left home on May 14, 2023. In our RV, Fati, we traveled a total distance of 9,846 miles, while in our trusty little Ford Fiesta, Nippy, we added a whopping additional 25,840.

Somehow, we’re all still in one piece, albeit Fati has been in for several repairs and 2 full services, while Nippy is heading for a fourth service today and has needed new tires, windshield wipers and two air filters (!). Needless to say, we are immensely proud of our Ford-engined Winnebago RV, as well as our little Fiesta, and they both now deserve a good rest.

Finally back in Florida, we spent a quiet week in a beautiful little RV campground in Milton in the Panhandle before turning south for the last leg of the year-long trip

Will we have more travels to report anytime soon? The debate is now on at Chez Veness! We DO have a fair bit of work to catch up on first, but there is already talk of an East Coast RV tour, as well as a possible trip out West to the areas we missed this time, namely Washington, Oregon and Northern California, as well as more of Colorado.

So, stay tuned for further travel bulletins, and, if you have liked and enjoyed our blogs, please leave us a comment and be sure to check out our YouTube channel for a series of snapshot videos of the trip on this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5dY0TcznDGkOY8BQUkpQg

Bye for now…!