Hi everyone. Long time no blog! As I have received numerous requests to start a new blog since finishing "Gabriel's in a motorhome" I have finally decided to get off my bum and do it.
Please follow my new blog "Viva Las Karli" if you want to see me make a complete fool of myself every single day that I am in the US of A. The address is vivalaskarli.blogspot.com.
I hope you enjoy.
Love Karli xxx
Monday 20 August 2012
Friday 8 June 2012
Photos
Shano and his Bear Grylls knife, going on a bear hunt.
...doing something that looks a bit strange really, I am not at all sure what he is trying to do actually...
Grace as bear bait?
Shano in Nashville - note the look of pure excitement. Look harder!
Can you see the excitement now?
Bye Bye "B&H Special Filter Guy" and hello "Marlboro Man"
Shano's dream to see the Walton house.
This one is for you Ma and Pa.
Gracelene saying her goodbyes to Big Bertha.
Gracelene at her first Ice Cream Bar.
Us trying to get Shano excited about it.
Aunty Wendy, Grace took this for you. Lon, Grace thinks you look exactly the same!!!!The End....
Oh well I have been very, very slack the last few nights and didn't blog as I promised, as I have been eating, drinking and being very merry with the Connolly family here in Washington DC. Of course I was also unable to stop chewing Helen's ear off as I have had no-one to speak to for the last month except for Silent Shano, Gracelene and of course anyone I could get my hands on at the Laundry, showers or fuel stations. Times have been tough my friends and poor Helen had to take it for the team and she did a very good job of it!
Washington is just a really massive Canberra a far as I can tell. Everyone here seems to think that they are better than everyone else and what they need to get done and where they need to be is so much more urgent and pressing than what I need to do, to be, to go! Its all in the attitude. It is however, very beautiful and I like it. I am not sure I could live here because I simply do not have the same sense of entitlement as everyone else and I seem to be able to wait for things - I would NEVER be accepted. Ha!
Shano has been speeding around the place at incredible speeds since relieving Big Bertha of her duties. He has said his goodbyes and seems to be covering his sadness rather convincingly by accelerating from 0 to 80 mph in 5 seconds flat every time we cross paths with a traffic light. It was incredibly impressive and damn right miraculous however to witness Shano decanting our belongings from Big Bertha into our measly little ford focus. I watched in awe as he squished and shoved everything in - perhaps there is a bit of MacGuyver in him after all. That or he was a clown in a previous life and was in charge of packing the clown car full of 50 clowns. Now that is a disturbing thought.
As for Gracelene, well we haven't seen her since we arrived at the Connolly's 3 days ago. We occasionally hear squeals of delight from the playroom down the hall and she eats the food we put out for her so we know she is feeding. She, too, I suspect, is extremely excited to have company instead of only her two boring, mean, nasty, boring, horrible, boring, boring, boring parents.
So there we have it folks, the end of the road for Team Gabriel in the Motorhome of Mentals! Thank you so much for following our outrageous tour across the USA. It has been humorous, challenging and bloody great fun and I hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have. Also, I have attached a few more photos for you to laugh at before I sign off. Take care everyone and please come an visit if you can and we love you all.
PS - I will be starting another Blog soon so you can follow our year in the US if you can be bothered. I am sure it will be full of ways I have embarrassed myself, Shano and Australia in general. I will keep you posted. xxxxxxxx
Washington is just a really massive Canberra a far as I can tell. Everyone here seems to think that they are better than everyone else and what they need to get done and where they need to be is so much more urgent and pressing than what I need to do, to be, to go! Its all in the attitude. It is however, very beautiful and I like it. I am not sure I could live here because I simply do not have the same sense of entitlement as everyone else and I seem to be able to wait for things - I would NEVER be accepted. Ha!
Shano has been speeding around the place at incredible speeds since relieving Big Bertha of her duties. He has said his goodbyes and seems to be covering his sadness rather convincingly by accelerating from 0 to 80 mph in 5 seconds flat every time we cross paths with a traffic light. It was incredibly impressive and damn right miraculous however to witness Shano decanting our belongings from Big Bertha into our measly little ford focus. I watched in awe as he squished and shoved everything in - perhaps there is a bit of MacGuyver in him after all. That or he was a clown in a previous life and was in charge of packing the clown car full of 50 clowns. Now that is a disturbing thought.
As for Gracelene, well we haven't seen her since we arrived at the Connolly's 3 days ago. We occasionally hear squeals of delight from the playroom down the hall and she eats the food we put out for her so we know she is feeding. She, too, I suspect, is extremely excited to have company instead of only her two boring, mean, nasty, boring, horrible, boring, boring, boring parents.
So there we have it folks, the end of the road for Team Gabriel in the Motorhome of Mentals! Thank you so much for following our outrageous tour across the USA. It has been humorous, challenging and bloody great fun and I hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have. Also, I have attached a few more photos for you to laugh at before I sign off. Take care everyone and please come an visit if you can and we love you all.
PS - I will be starting another Blog soon so you can follow our year in the US if you can be bothered. I am sure it will be full of ways I have embarrassed myself, Shano and Australia in general. I will keep you posted. xxxxxxxx
Sunday 3 June 2012
The last night....
OK I am sitting here in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, watching Gracelene clumsily catch fire flies with a plastic bowl and a stick - hey she might just be McGuyver!!! Very funny indeed. Shano is flexing his woodchopping muscles for the last time with a swiss army knife in one hand and a tomahawk in the other - he is NOT McGuyver.
I am on my 5th wine and thinking how I am going to miss Big Bertha when we hand her back tomorrow and also how I can't wait to be able to pee in a normal sized toilet and go to the loo in the middle of the night without being kneed in the head by Shano as our legs seem to hang off the end of our bed. Gracelene has christened the evening by poohing her pants in the playground at the Shenandoah Valley RV park - all is right with the world.
I will write my final blog tomorrow night after handing back Big Bertha because who knows what could happen on the road to the handover!!!!!
Til tomorrow.
I am on my 5th wine and thinking how I am going to miss Big Bertha when we hand her back tomorrow and also how I can't wait to be able to pee in a normal sized toilet and go to the loo in the middle of the night without being kneed in the head by Shano as our legs seem to hang off the end of our bed. Gracelene has christened the evening by poohing her pants in the playground at the Shenandoah Valley RV park - all is right with the world.
I will write my final blog tomorrow night after handing back Big Bertha because who knows what could happen on the road to the handover!!!!!
Til tomorrow.
Saturday 2 June 2012
Observation of the day
OK, what is it here and the obsession with buffets? Does anyone have any clues? Everywhere we go there is the option to have the "buffet". Now the buffet usually consists of the following: Fried chicken, shredded chicken, canned beetroot, canned pineapple, canned corn, canned beans, mashed potato, cheddar cheese, shredded iceberg lettuce and 50 types of salad dressing. How much choice does a person actually need when it comes to salad dressing, really? I will say this however, the buffet option includes dessert and it consists of 6 different types of homemade pies. Oh my God. If you come to the USA and are confronted with the choice of a menu item or the buffet, get the buffet just for the dessert. You will not be disappointed! I promise.
Virginia is for lovers...
Virginia is for lovers or so I am told anyway. Today Shano fulfilled a secret desire he has held since he was a little boy (as if - we all know he was born at 40). He went to the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. OK, we merely drove through it but I'm sure it is exactly the same thing as attending it! As we drove, Shano looked longingly at all the military landmarks wistfully wishing he was and old boy from VMI and I was looking longingly at all the antique stores wistfully wishing we could stop for more than the obligatory 1 minute it took to read each monument plaque. Alas we drove on....
Thank heavens Shano wanted to make a full hour stop at the Appomattox court house where the civil war ended. In that hour as Shano perused the museum, Gracelene and I raced off into town to the antique shops. Unbelievable! Liss and Jess, as a trio we could have made a trillion dollars on the things that these people are throwing away as junk. No more Revolve for me, I am addicted to American Antique shops. I think I might audition to be the third Picker Sister or just start my own cable show called "Fatties With Finds". I think it could really be a hit. Anyway, Gracelene has had her first lesson in finding old crap and I expect her to go far! She has to have at least one positive thing to follow in my footsteps with as I sure as hell don't want her to marry a Military man or become 40 kgs overweight. Hey perhaps Grace and I could start a show together called "Gabriel Girls Grab a Bargain". Catchy eh!?
This great day of missed opportunities came to an abrupt end with Shano and I fighting in the car park of Macdonalds, whilst snitching the free wi-fi to find somewhere to stay for the night. All this was due to our previously booked RV park looking like a scene from Bad Boy Bubby. The give away was when we couldn't find the office through the long grass and car bodies and I distinctly recall someone yelling "Well don't you look purdy". As we reversed at great speed out, Shano was sure I had selected it and and I was certain that he had. Hmmmm. Team Karli or Team Shano - make your choice. Anyway, we eventually found a great spot only a mere 2 hours down the road and here it is we are, as I type. Thank God. For the second time this week I was beginning to practise my ability to squeal like a pig.
Thank heavens Shano wanted to make a full hour stop at the Appomattox court house where the civil war ended. In that hour as Shano perused the museum, Gracelene and I raced off into town to the antique shops. Unbelievable! Liss and Jess, as a trio we could have made a trillion dollars on the things that these people are throwing away as junk. No more Revolve for me, I am addicted to American Antique shops. I think I might audition to be the third Picker Sister or just start my own cable show called "Fatties With Finds". I think it could really be a hit. Anyway, Gracelene has had her first lesson in finding old crap and I expect her to go far! She has to have at least one positive thing to follow in my footsteps with as I sure as hell don't want her to marry a Military man or become 40 kgs overweight. Hey perhaps Grace and I could start a show together called "Gabriel Girls Grab a Bargain". Catchy eh!?
This great day of missed opportunities came to an abrupt end with Shano and I fighting in the car park of Macdonalds, whilst snitching the free wi-fi to find somewhere to stay for the night. All this was due to our previously booked RV park looking like a scene from Bad Boy Bubby. The give away was when we couldn't find the office through the long grass and car bodies and I distinctly recall someone yelling "Well don't you look purdy". As we reversed at great speed out, Shano was sure I had selected it and and I was certain that he had. Hmmmm. Team Karli or Team Shano - make your choice. Anyway, we eventually found a great spot only a mere 2 hours down the road and here it is we are, as I type. Thank God. For the second time this week I was beginning to practise my ability to squeal like a pig.
Friday 1 June 2012
Squeal like a pig.....
Oh man what an exciting few days we have had. After my disappointment at not being able to
go “Zip Lining” through some state park in Tennessee, and having to pass on
Dollywood (yes your eyes do not deceive you, Dolly Parton has a fun park in
Seiverville, Tennessee called Dollywood).
I had my heart set on it but couldn’t convince Shano and Gracelene to
come with me and I thought it would be
pretty desperate of me to go alone (although I was still a little tempted I
have to admit). It is just that people
look at you funny if you go to children's places on your own. Heaven forbid, I have been known to attack an
old man or two when they were looking suspiciously alone around a children’s
playground - only of course to then
realize they had grandkids on the monkey bars.
Ooops. So Dollywood was out to
the question and in an attempt to appease a tantrum throwing Karli, Shano
suggested Tubing (or Toooobing as it is pronounced here) – as in my last
post.
Unfortunately, the weather was not conducive to fulfilling
my dream of becoming a world champion tuber.
Oohhh, I hear you say. Please, I
am sure I was saved from having severe gravel rash on my arse as it dragged
relentlessly on the bottom of the rocky stream. I have seen it happen before
and it is not a pretty sight. Trust me.
Well in lieu of that, Shano decided on a scenic route to our
next location. Let me tell you about
Kentucky- it is amazingly beautiful with its rolling green fields, white
fences and huge farmhouses. The kind of
place you can see yourself just moving right into. Now let me tell you about the OTHER Kentucky
that Shano and I discovered. One wrong
turn and we found ourselves cruising the Deliverance Highway to Hillbilly-ville, whilst listening to Toothless FM.
Picture Deliverance meets Wolf Creek and back drop it with a little
banjo music and you will pretty much have it.
Oh dear God. Lord knows I was
terrified for our lives. Every time
Shano slowed down to turn a corner I would lock the doors and tell Grace to
hide under a towel. OK so maybe a slight
exaggeration but you get the picture. I
was very pleased to see the main interstate stretch into view on the horizon. Phew! Boy did we dodge a bullet.
After that ordeal, we made sure we didn’t follow any thin
grey lines on the map and headed to Virginia.
We were happily driving along singing some crappy Alan Jackson song (I
am slowly learning all the words to a number of crappy country songs – ssshhhh
don’t tell anyone) when our blissful broadcast was interrupted with a weather
announcement: a tornado warning!!! What
the……? For those of you who have been
following the whole blog, you may recall how I forced poor Shano to abort all
Kansas sightseeing due to my paranoia about tornados. And now 3 days from the end of our RV trip we
are faced with a tornado warning IN VIRGINIA, right where we happened to be.
Come on! Well needless to say, I
am still here to tell the story and there was no requirement to ditch Big
Bertha and hide under a bridge or chain ourselves inside a barn (reference to Twister,
the worlds most realistic movie/documentary about tornados- please note sarcasm). Funnily enough I do feel a tad
disappointed. It just goes to prove that
crap will follow you anywhere – especially if you are scared of it. xxx
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