We're just about Splendored out!

No great places to report on today - it's a grey, gloomy sea day and we're spending our time packing our 'ports' ... tomorrow morning at 7.30 we leave the Carnival Splendor. We'll be leaving behind lots of new friends, some of them very special, and some wonderful staff members (who come from 56 different countries, who work at least 13 hours a day on split shifts, with never more than 7 hours break ... and who earn ... wait for it! ... US$74 a month!!!) There are lots of things we'll miss, including the superb food, but we're looking forward to being on dry land.
What are we doing next? Well, first of all we're going to see Mickey ... Mickey Mouse! We'll spend tomorrow at Disneyland, then on Friday we'll catch the Texas Eagle, on our way to Minnesota, via Oklahoma City and Chicago.
We won't be blogging as much over the next couple of weeks, as it will be impossible on the train, and our friend MaryAnn Stellmach in Stillwater Minnesota doesn't have computer access. we'll do our best, though, and after we start driving back to Los Angeles, at the beginning of April, we'll try to be a lot more regular. We hope to drive first to northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota, but our plans will depend on the weather, which has been severe in recent weeks - there has been SO much snow in the US - sometimes in places that haven't seen snow for years.
Easter will, we hope, see us in the Black Hills of Dakota for a few days (although we'll be wishing we were in Paynesville, Viv, for Rick and Jill's wedding), and then we hope to head to Montana to the Little Big Horn. After that we'll go to Salt Lake City (where we hope to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practising), then into California, so that we can visit Yosemite National Park and friends at San Louis Obispo on the coast.
We're due to leave Los Angeles on Anzac Day ... and get home on the 27th April ... how's that for a 13 hour trip!
We've really appreciated the feedback from those of you who've been reading our blog - and thank all those who've kept us in touch with the news outside of our floating home - it would be very easy to forget that there's another world out there!
We'll be in touch!