InvictaMoto's Family Travels

On the recent "Part Un" where we didn't quite get to all of the planned stops, I am looking at another trip next year to pick up where we left off! The date is penciled in for 4th and 5th July 2015.  A few days after the 99th Anniversary of the mass slaughter on the Somme. More later!

A couple of write-ups. Thiepval http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-somme-weekend.html http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/somme-weekend-part-deux.html If you have an account of the weekend, please let me know and I can get it up here. Any pictures?  Then email them to me and I can create a page.

I had a long look through booking.com to get a hotel for the two nights after we arrive and before we go to the apartment at Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda. In the end I have booked a hotel in Clearwater Beach that offers "free cancellation, pay later" terms. So many hotels in the US don't have these options. Most with free cancellations still take the first night up front. Between now and the cancel-by date this will change, a few times, possibly. After the apartment week we have a few more days to fill and places to see. Maybe a cross country trip to Spaceport USA?

We liked the Gulf Coast for the sunset and all the quiet resorts we looked at. The Atlantic Coast was okay, but we are drawn back to the Gulf..... I logged into RCI.com and did a search and found a two bedroom at Fisherman's Village had become available. Knowing Claire had said she'd go back. I booked it. It has been 5 days waiting for the official confirmation. They have allocated us unit 20. Not 37 as we had hoped but now we have to see where 20 is. Facing the marina or the bay? The timeshare is Saturday to Saturday. So we arrive on Thursday evening about 6pm and we have two nights to stay somewhere before we go down to Punta Gorda.  And more ideas to mull over for the 5 nights after the Punta Gorda week is over.

As we ended up with more places to visit than I am looking at Part Two in April next year. Planning to start soon.

Okay. Not everyone is tooled up with all the "must have" paraphanalia. So..... How will we avoid getting lost. On shorter local runs we use the "drop off" system. This employs a "marker" at junctions to show the way to go. Usually this is the second person in the string of riders.  It usually works pretty well. And I feel we need to give it a go after we leave the A26 near Arras. It will be more difficult on this trip with 50 miles of toll motorway at each end and a our 150 of French country roads in between. But we are men and one woman!! I suggest we agree a maximum speed limit on the motorway before we land in France. A speed that is comfortable to everyone. Personally I like to get a move on and with the toll road limit at 130km/h, that seems perfectly reasonable as the maximum speed. My cruise control will keep that, dead on! On the D roads we may encounter some local plod and I suggest we keep around the limit of 90km/h unless signed otherwise. As fo...

As the boat departs at 0735, Cal suggests that we meet at Dover Eastern no later than 0650. Yes it is early!!! We usually assemble just inside the entrance to the port after you come off the roundabout. This is convenient for the A2 and A20 as they meet at that roundabout. Ride in and the terminal building will be to the right. Assemble there for Group Photo 1!!  :)

Had a look at the hotel in Santander and noticed the address was first floor. I have stayed in hotels in Madrid where they are a floor or two in an older block where there are apartments above and below.  Okay when using public transport but I like to have the bike at hand. So I have made another change. The new hotel is traditional from the ground up, has parking and wifi and is only a few pounds a night more that the first. So now only five weeks away....

More research on hotels left me looking to replace another one. Maybe the Ávila, selection was a bit rushed but with parking always a problem in these old cities. In the end I opted to cancel the hotel and switch our allegiance to the Parador. Another one. The Parador is situated inside the walls and it comes with a car-park! And as older people we can claim a small discount. So. How many more changes? Dunno!!

In the last post I said that we had only been back a few weeks and we were looking to next yeat... Well. It didn't take a lot of thinking.  So I booked the air fare. I have been checking Skyscanner for a couple of weeks and fares are hovering about the £610 to £625 level except one that seems impossible to book at £567. In the end we decided not to wait for that and booked LGW to Tampa with Travelup who we used last year and who handled the Air Canada up-cock very well. Gatwick to Tampa is a daily flight and so I am keeping fingers crossed that British Airways don't make any changes. To keep the fares down we have booked Thursday to Thursday.  On Friday and weekends the fares rocket. The strange thing is that Tampa is much cheaper that either Orlando and Miami? Next the job is to find a timeshare. This year we have only one week to use and so the other days will allow us to travel around see things. On the 2015 list are Epcot, Spaceport USA and maybe some of the mid-Atlantic c...

Slight re-alignment and removing a couple of waypoints for smaller sites that we can shave off to save time before the lunch stop at the Tommy Cafe.