This is an eye that fell out of Lucy's goldfish. Originally his name was Goldie, now his name is One Eyed Willie (remember the character from the Goonies) !

These are not offshore lobster,notice Paul properly dressed for the crawfish culinary experience. Actually , I am multi-tasking , I found a wine beret for Memorial Day, 31st May and I just wet it and I am shaping it for that day!

Marty!, I don't care what Dominion Command says, I'm wearing the wine beret , the beret I wore when jumping with the Vandoos, Royal 22nd Regiment, 3 Airborne Medical Section!

Andy, Trish & Lucy, these people are not properly dressed for feasting on Mudbugs!

We told lies in the Legion yesterday, the best was from Andy, he told us he was showing a female army driver where her vehicle was located, she made a comment about his Scottish accent, she was very attractive, then she said she had a little Scot in her, Andy said he was thinking, "I wonder if she would like a little more Scot in her!" Later on I said the Scot must be coming out in me today, I only offered to buy a round when it was happy hour (&) a train was going by, drinks 75 cents cheaper! Trish bought a Kodak Digital 9.2 megapixels, , hard case, memory card, Easy share software and USB cable, all for $100. at the Wal*Mart! Should be a lot more photos on homesweethighway from now on! We went on the base with Andy, we seen the twin towers monument, with names of anyone related to 9/11 and Fort Polk. Jaquita brought us a couple of Mason Jars with the Apple Pie (recipe) in them, to be enjoyed throughout our time in the Sun! Andy is busy boiling up the Crawfish, (mudbugs) this will be our ultimate Louisiana experience!

If you followed us last Spring on( $99.00aday), you will know that our first line of defense in the camper is my Louisville Slugger and Trish's hatchet, we are thinking of obtaining a Bowie knife.
Andy & Lucy wanted to add to our arsenal, they wanted to lend us a 9mm which we would bring back in May, we declined gracefully, since we might enter Mexico and possibly Canada on the West Coast during our trip. It does go below freezing here at night, but up in the high 50's during the day, we shopped yesterday in T-shirts and sandals!

Bernie, not a problem with the truck, never burned an oz. of oil. Replacing a low beam today. That's it! Getting 12 miles to the US gallon! Dem Saints got beat by a field goal in overtime, still hope for the Superbowl though, hope their luck changes!
Haven't heard many comments from family or friends or followers on the blog, hope that changes in the New Year, remember when the year 2000 was so special , here we are almost a decade into it, and the world hasn't blown up yet! The Sun hasn't fallen out of the sky, it still shines and especially in the Southern US of A!

" Who dat? Who dat! Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" We are on our way to watch the NFL game at the legion, the Nawleans Saints are our team of course, our hosts forbid us to say the words Dallas or cowboys because they beat dem Saints to spoil their thirteen game winning streak, the hope here ,of course is that New Orleans may end up in the Super Bowl. The game is at the Superdome, famous for hosting thousands of homeless after Hurricane Katrina. The legions here are open bars during the week, but Sundays, it is members and guests only! Pot luck supper during half-time. Go Saints! Go Saints! Go Saints! Saints, Sunshine & SuperBowl! Yeh!

Boxing day, not a big thing in the USA, Lucy, growing up in Louisiana, never heard of it, of course, Andy being from Scotland is used to it! Big rugby day in the British Isles! The temp. is 55 degrees, T-shirts again, but I still wear socks with my sandals! Really chilling out after 11 days on the road, so relaxed with Southern hospitality, Lucy keeps offering food, Andy keeps offering a different drink, the Apple Pie moonshine was the best!

Here are the precious pit bulls that I can now feed cookies (dog biscuits) to, Trish !

That southern sunshine reflecting off our parked camper, no one following us for a week,at least ! Relaxing in Vernon Parish, LA!

Christmas morning, sunny and cold, but the temp. has climbed 13 degrees in the last two hours! Our stockings contained Louisiana T-shirts and we won't have to wait five months to wear them as we would at home! Also scratch tickets, so far we both won free tickets, maybe they will be big winners. Leesville lost it's water this A.M. Andy and the Army (Fort Polk) are standing by with water for the hospital! Andy made the mistake of answering his cell, had to go to the base and ready the tankers. He was back home by 10:30am , still standing by! He is also standing by the crawfish boiler, in shorts and T-shirt,watching the turkey cook in peanut oil, in the sunshine, without a Bud light in his hand. I put mine in a glass, don't want to tease him too bad!

There we are, right up there with Zeus & Zena, the precious pit bulls, that also welcomed us into Lucy and Andy's beautiful home!

Arrived in Leesville ,Lousiana Legion Christmas Eve @ 4pm , Andy , Lucy, Jim , Don, Renee', Jo , Linda Lea, the whole gang we met last April, were all there! Merry Christmas's all around and we left for our hosts home around 7:30pm. Christmas eve got merrier and merrier, our stockings were hung by the chimney with care, Trish hoped Santa would find us there! When the three hour log burned out ,we went off to our beds, visions of constant sunshine filled our heads!

Just washed the camper with the snow brush on my windsheild scraper, no other use for it down here! We watched river tugs go up the river last night, they sweep the water ahead of them with a searchlight, back and forth, quite a spectacle when they go under the bridge! Pouring rain,and high winds as we leave for Leesville, will be settled in Post 145, this afternoon, about a two hour drive to Leesville from Natchez. Merry Christmas to all our followers from Paul & Trish . We will blog later about our green ,green Christmas!

We are finally in Louisiana, Vidalia, home of Jim Bowie, in a campground looking at the Mississippi Bridge and a riverboat Casino, the American Queen, tied up in Natchez,Mississippi, tomorrow we will belly up to the bar at Post 145 , American Legion in Leesville,with friends we met way back in April! Hawks every-where today, our trip is truly blessed!
Yesterday morning, the campground roosters roosted us out early, but after empyting our shitter, taking pictures of the fowl ,including peacocks and peahens, goats, having showers, we got on the road by noon, but soon gained an hour crossing into Alabama!
Stopped in Clanton, Alabama at a Wal-Mart for the night! One of Paul's (short cuts) took us over some steep mountains, nearly as bad as the Alleghaneys. Wednesday, on the road by 7 am, Trish wearing sandals, with her newly painted toenails , me wearing sandals with socks, she just loves that!
Eight in the morning the Pit BBQs were started up in anticipation of todays sales!
We were in Mississippi for half an hour before we knew, same thing happened when we crossed from Tenn. into Georgia!
Stopped for lunch in Strickland, MS, only roadhouse for miles, a gentlemen stopped and asked if we were selling shrimp, Trish said no, he asked what were we selling, She said nothing, we are travelling from Canada, I guess we could have said Donair meat from the Windjammer, but we are taking that to Leesville, along with the secret sauce recipe from Maha!
We have one for Jeff Foxworthy, You know your a redneck, when you take out a window pane and stick your stovepipe out!!

The deer crossing signs look like ours at home, but someone took the time to put red noses on them. What's that about? This is the first day of Winter, we thought that happened on Friday, 14 inches of snow by Saturday. We drove completely out of the snow today, nice green grass and 53 degrees in Georgia. Staying at a KOA. For those old enough to remember the song, we passed by Wolferton Mtn. In northern Tenn. we seen a few snowmen, one was barbequing ,another was on the edge of a pond fishing! Passed a few pigs turning on the spit in the southern part of Tenn. with people eating outside.

Hummer, couldn't afford the leathers, so we are sneaking through the NorthWest corner of Georgia! Haven't had time to stop at any legions yet, so our first stop will be Post 145 in Leesville!

I was stopped for erratic driving in Maryland, good thing my birthday was in a motel, I may have been stopped for erotic driving!

We shut the heat off in truck and windows open this PM , Trish said soon it will be A/C on! Yahoo!!

Stopped for directions to KOA, first young guy gave us directions, then another said no, in your truck you should follow my directions, as we drove away, we heard the first guy say, your right,
I'm used to going there on my four- wheeler!

Trish is in her glory, we saw over 20 hawks today! Two and sometimes three at a time, Trish says they are welcoming us back to Old Virginia! We mentioned last year that Paul's ancestors came to Chezzetcook, N.S. from Virginia, they first came to Jamestown in 1607. Also we discovered a Crawford died at the Alamo, he was from Virginia. Small stores along the route sell No DoZ at the counters and many have Erection Correction pills!
We saw a beautiful Holly Tree in full bloom, must have been 10 feet high! We seen many cars buried on the side of the highways from yesterdays storm, the ploughs almost take their door handles off in some cases! One truck on it's roof. Highways are nice and clear today and everyone is shovelling out as we pass! Eggs Benedict for Brunch, used the toilet dump station at a Flying J truck stop, you can camp there free with (legal elec), but it was too early in the day.
The hawks are looking out for us, we found a state park, not open officially, but we have elec., hot showers in the mens only, don't know what Trish is going to do. And oh yes, free wi-fi! It is called Hungry Mother State Park! Believe me, we are the only people here, haven't seen a soul, across the street we did see two sheep and a turkey.

Mable Marley's husband was killed by Indians, she and a young child escaped over the mountain, they lived on berries for days, Mabel died and the child made its way down a brook to some houses, she could only keep saying, "hungry mother ",over and over, they eventually found Mabel's body, that place is called Mabel's Knoll, hence the name Hungry Mother State Park in Western Virginia!

Seems like we are blogging more than usual, that's because it comes with the room, the last two days! We usually have to search to find free wi-fi on the road, motels, libraries and businesses that have unsecured wi-fi! Three more days of driving, Knoxville Tenn., then Chattanooga, Tenn. then Huntsville, Alabama, then Jackson Mississippi , then Leesville, LA . Looking forward to a Cajun Christmas!

Darn, laundromat was closed due to storm, liquor store was open, 40 ouncer and Carolans Irish Cream, both for $24.00, Trish's cigs, 12 packs of 20 for $32.80. Settled in watching Wyatt Earp!
We will be on the road again very early Sunday morning! Through the Cumberland Gap to Tennessee, four days of sun are forecast. Oh Yeah, 12 cans of beer for $6.59!

Looking out our motel window in Amherst, VA!

Paul is 68 years young today, my mother brought me home Christmas morning. I have sisters 10 yrs and 12 yrs older than me, both still in good health, I had three mothers! My oldest sister was visiting from the West Coast a few years ago and wanted to visit Shelburne, when we pulled into town, she exclaimed, there 's the Loyalist Hotel, Mum and Dad and Elaine and I stayed there a few times during the war. My father was stationed in Shelburne throughout the war in the 53 Coastal Artillery. Mum would visit by train , they stayed in room # 1 and my sisters stayed in room #2. I figure I was conceived in room #1 on Easter week-end, 1941.
Trish was conceived in Conception Bay, Newfoundland in 1945, her mother travelled by train from Winnipeg to see her father stationed on a minesweeper in Conception Bay. We are both war babies!

Nice to see we are getting comments from the blog address on the back of the camper, the sign is pretty dirty just now, but still readable, getting a car wash tomorrow in Tennessee! We are storm stayed in Amherst, Virginia! We are in a motel, first showers in six days, been bird bathing up to now, Sylvia, Trish says she was just doing PTA on the road! Supposed to be a foot of snow, yes a foot , and that's how they talk on TV here, they speak English, none of that cm and mm stuff, also miles is nice! Were getting 12 miles to the gallon, that's an American gallon, costs about 60 cents a litre!

Wednesday night we slept under the Wal*Mart star in a town called Bethlehem, a little early for Christmas, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary! We also saw saw two hawks , Trish's angels! Many Amish buggy's slowed our progress in Pennsylvania. Saw a very large harvester, harvesting sunflower seeds, they are very black, shriveled and no petals, standing about four foot high. Cold and sunny again, six days in a row! Wonderful weather for travelling! Finally turned sharp left to the South yesterday, travelled West for a long time! Celebrated with some NS Blueberry wine and my daughter's luscious lasagna, no one makes lasagna like Karen, meat,cheese & spinach, meat ,cheese & spinach, layers and layers! Brian and Cathy, think of you when we sit at the WineSippers table each night! Brian and Dale, think of you when we eat the venison meat loaf day after day, Kraft Dinner tonight! Linda, Trish thinks of you as she travels with no bra, no make-up, no jewellery and when she strains the potatoes over the toilet bowl!
Met a Korean Vet in Granby, Conn, gave him our branch ribbon and pin for his bar!
Bethlehem had two Wal-Marts, we went to the one under the Eastern Star! We are more than halfway to Leesville , see you soon, Lucy and Andy ! W e are in Trish's favourite state, Virginia is for Lovers and tomorrow is Paul's birthday, and it looks like we may get storm-stayed Saturday. Boy, Oh Boy!

Another State, another Wal-Mart,and another very Sunny day,that's four in a row, travelling through New York and Pennsylvania today, Wednesday! A cop stopped me for erratic driving, someone behind us called him, I confessed, told him Trish was reading the map wrong and I changed lanes quickly, he said OK , have fun in Florida! Just crossed the Hudson River, over Bear Kill Mtn , seen a flock of swans in the river. Hi, this Trish, I was not reading the map wrong, Paul just doesn't like a woman telling him where to go!

Sleeping, shittin', shaving, shopping and saving, all at the Wal-Mart in Manchester, New Hampshire! Couldn't find any free electricity in Chester, NH, so settled in Bedford, suburb of Manchester for the night. Propane heat got us through a mild night! Back in Bangor, we talked to a guy about free elec., he pointed out an abandoned building , said he watched a guy all summer, plug his wheelchair in there and had a nap, while recharging. There was a cover over the plate when we checked it! Darn!
We have had three sunny days so far, we will have tans before we reach Florida!
Bought a 40 pounder of Glenfiddich and Cdn Rye for $44.00 in NH. The Cdn rye was $9.50!

Making our way through Maine, will be in New Hampshire in an hour, then no seatbelts required, cheap, cheap booze, Looking for a bottle of Crawford's Scotch! Trish took a small bottle of water from Front Harbour and hopes to dump it in the Pacific ocean in a few months. The only toll we ever pay is at the Saint John bridge, it's 50 cents and I usually just go right through!, this time a guy came running at us across three lanes of traffic, made me back up and cross two lanes of traffic so he could charge us 75 cents for a recreational vehicle. Gas right across the border is 17 cents a litre cheaper, that's including the exchange. Then of course, as soon as we filled up, we started seeing stations selling it even lower. $2.75 at the border and we seen as low as $2.59 a gallon (US) before we reached Bangor, stayed in Bangor last night, plugged in at an Irving Stn near the delivery entrance. There's UI, then there was EI, Trish and I are on IE, (illegal electricity). The beer truck showed up for a delivery at 5 AM, so we were on the road early! At dusk we watched for Moose, but instead almost hit a herd of turkeys crossing the hwy!

Our road trips always start with a Tim's, today was no different, two medium double,doubles and the new large tin to make our own in the States. Last year when we went to Texas we had a Tim's each morning thanks to Karen giving us a camping perk, plan the same this trip. We are in Amherst this evening and it is damn cold. Cross the border at Calais ,Sunday sometime!

This is a special post for Lucy and Andy in Leesville, LA.......We leave tomorrow, can't wait to get to your place and see your new home. Do you think Santa will find us there ? LOL
We will keep you posted by your e-mail where we are and what day we will be in Leesville. Send me your phone number to my email and we will call you as soon as we get into town.

Tomorrow, Saturday , 12 Dec 2009, we are finally going to be on the road, staying in Amherst tomorrow night then crossing the border on Sunday, heading for Leesvilles, Louisiana in time for Christmas. Hello to all our followers! We are taking donair meat, solomon gundy, dulse, maple syrup and other delicacies not all that well known in LA. Looking foward to that first drink at Post 145, American legion!

Out of our apartment tomorrow, then a few days of visiting relatives and friends before we get on the road, by the end of the week we will decide which day we are leaving Nova Scotia, can't wait!

We sent friends in Louisiana a video of Nova Scotia recently, they commented, why would you leave such a beautiful place to come here? We e-mailed them to say we only leave to visit beautiful people and to get away from snow and ice and freezing temps, it is 64 degrees in Leesville today, just about double the temp here! We are leaving the first week of lobster season here on the South Shore to arrive in LA for the mudbug (crawfish) season! We have never eaten crawfish!

Imagine getting "antsy" to move from a two bedroom apartment into a truck camper with less than 18 square feet of floorspace, and that's counting the toilet space. When we move around ,Trish calls it the "camperdance", hence her new e-mail address ! camperdance@gmail.com Just about one month from now, we will head South, we only drive during daylight and no interstate highways so it will probably be about a week before we settle somewhere in Florida, or should I say " Some Beach, Somewhere!" Paul's new e-mail address will be paul.crawford99@gmail.com Near the last week in November we will watch for a 'window of weather' that promises no storms for the eastern seaboard and then head out.

Trish has decided she doesn't necessarily want to see the Grand Canyon !

Our truck is a '97, we're thinking of trading up!

The camper fits OK. but at $99,900 ( that's without the hot tub ) a little out of our league!

Just a note that will be very short
We now both have a passport !

Paul wanted to hang himself, he was short

the 50 cents!

Just a short update to let everyone know we are slowly but surely getting things done in preparation for our next trip. We submitted our Passport applications and should receive the actual Passports in about a months time. Paul has been working on the camper, a few repairs that need to be done. 146 days until we leave for the USA.
We both know the trip will be an amazing adventure and we are really looking forward to spending Christmas & New Years in Leesville with Lucy & Andy.

We will be using the same Security Company on our next trip and that would be the Bungee Company.

For our own personal safety I have chosen to use a Hatchet if the need arises.

As an added piece of Security Paul has chosen the Louisville Slugger !

Photo taken in 2009 on our first trip to Texas

This is a REAL LONGHORN STEER

After getting down I really needed a BEER

Our Next Trip In Rhyme

One cold & rainy day
In 2009 during the month of May

To Nova Scotia we did return
Living with the cold we had to relearn

Slowly & surely we did see
The sun & the heat would come to be

As we both came out of our slump
Into plans for our next trip we did jump

A new blog Paul did create
New plans started to formulate

Home Sweet Highway is our blogs name
Adventure is our aim

Followers we have already
As we slowly but surely get ready

Back into the USA
For six months we will stay

My Rhymes of 2008 & 2009

One day in the Fall of 2008
As Paul walked at a pretty fast gait
In his mind a plan did formulate
Paul wondered in which way
We could drive into the USA
At $99.00 a day
So many thoughts of cannots & cans
Brought into fruition all our plans
Then were made a reality by our own hands
We allowed nothing to be a hamper
No mater how much we did scamper
As we treked the US in our camper
As at the end of each day we did set
The many sights we saw & the people we met
Were more than we ever thought we would get
As we drove from city to city
Though at times the highways rattled our sanity
Paul's long ago plans had become a reality

Welcome to a couple more followers, my neice Deb and her husband Roy along with our new friend from Texas, don't fall off that horse Bill, next time we are out your way, maybe we can meet in Luckenbach and you can show us how to ride the longhorn steer. San Angelo, I figure, was halfway across the southern states,next year we hope to get all the way to Californ- i- a!

Six months from today, we will pull out for points South, warmer climates! Canadians are only allowed to be out of the country for six months or we lose Medicare coverage. We will be booking on the CAT (ferry) from Bar Harbour , Maine to Yarmouth ,Nova Scotia the first week of June 2010, for our return. We are filling out passport applications , looking into prices for storing our furniture and thinking every day about the trip, we will leave when it is beginning to snow, but the purpose is to avoid the cold weather for six months, it's 2000 miles from Halifax to Florida and we will be doing it as fast as possible, but not on Interstates, they are too hard on the nerves. As before ,we will stop supper hours in American Legions or VFW clubs to have a wet and meet people. In the meantime we will enjoy six months of sunshine here in Canada's Ocean Playground. Even in Nova Scotia, I can remember many late November days lying in the afternoon sun ,falling asleep, while hunting, and some years you can still golf right up to December.
We have our first follower, Lucy from Leesville, Louisiana , we met Lucy in the Legion the day we left Texas, last April. We weren't in the Legion half an hour, when her husband Andy was out under my truck checking the starter and offering to repair it the next day, Jim was driving me around looking for a nearby campsite while Trish collected breakfast and cheap drinks. Lucy gave her eggs, which she had got from Paul, the Post Commander, then Don contributed sausage he had just made. Drinks were fifty cents off for happy hour and another fifty cents off if a train went by while you were ordering.

See the USA on $99.00 a day was six weeks in the sunny southern states, and we pretty well kept to budget, it was also a test drive, a shakedown cruise, we learned a lot and most of all, we learned you can spend quality time, in the Sun ,on the cheap. Groceries, beer, liquor and gas are much lower in the south and inexpensive campgrounds and free camping are available. Home Sweet Highway is our hope to miss one complete winter in Canada. We have six months to save and plan, get the truck and camper in top condition, then head for that border. We need to figure out how to do our income tax on line, get passports and build up the bank account. We plan to give up our apartment, and hopefully find a way to store our furniture cheaply or free.
Yes, we are dreaming, but dreams can come true. Seeing the USA on $99.00 a day was successful and Home Sweet Highway will be the highlight of our lives!