InvictaMoto's Family Travels

A bit of measuring and re-planning and so the last part of the out sees a different plan emerging. Point 11 is Combe Laval and 12 is the Resistance Museum.

With the MyRouteApp (MRA)  window open and alongside it Booking.com I have started to work out a route back from the Vercors. I have left it in the base mode and so it will pick up the fastest route.  I can set the "no tolls" option on the TomTom on the day of travel if I want to . I don't usually plan fuel stops but given the plan is to go by bike and realistically butt ache and fuel become more important after 150 miles (Pepé's range is about 180 to 200 miles)  and that some of the routes are looking a little bereft of waypoints for petrol/gas stations I have used the "zoom in" and "PO"I for fuel in MRA more extensively that ever before. If in the end we go by car (Corsa or Insignia) both have a far greater range that the bike.  I can more than likely remove the fuel stop waypoints.  Insignia has a cruising range of about 600 miles to the tank and for peace of mind I tend to fill up when the gauge gets towards a quarter f...

For quite some time I have been thinking about a return to the French Alps. We were there back in 2004 or something like that. We stayed in Jausiers near the foot of the road that takes people over the Col de la Bonette. Europe's highest driveable pass. I have seen so many pictures of the Combe Laval D76 road that I have begun looking on how to get there and back in a week. Or depending on when a slightly extended week. It's a "must ride" road.  I'll get the Alps/Passes book out to see what other decent passes are in the area that we have never done. There will be quite a few. This is what I have so far: With Claire now doing three days a week at work and me off all of August we can have a 'long' week on the trip. We also have to get Reggie booked into the kennels for his holiday. That will be quite urgent as they fill up quickly.

It would seem that August isn't the best time to head to France. Why? Because every other bugger is going. Or usually do.  Plus of course the French are great at the "staycation" themselves. Sitting for hours at motorway confluences and toll stations. The Doomsayers are claiming that once the UK leaves the EU on March 29th that anyone with British passports will be unable to travel to any of the 27 remaining countries. We'll see. I have been planning anyway. I decided that I need to ride the bucket list Combe Laval. ( https://travelguide.michelin.com/europe/france/rhone-alpes/drome/saint-jean-en-royans/combe-laval ) It's about 700 miles from home. Now to work with MyRouteApp to work out a quickish route out and then more relaxed ride back. At the moment it is ride rather than drive. 

I had a look on booking.com after I had planned a few trips out from when we are in Weston FL.  We do like to have a trip down to the keys, but to go to Key West needs more time and also hotels are in the "sell a kidney" bracket.   So I had a look along the Keys and booked at Marathon Key. Reasonable price and 8/10 star review, plus it has free cancellation and nothing to pay upfront.   So the plan is we can call in at the  Dolphin Research Centre  or  Theater of the Seas  on the way down as they are nearer the mainland.  We can decide that later. I stopped at the  Theater of the Seas  way back in 1991 when I was "doing" Florida on a Kawasaki Z750 factory custom twin.  I have a picture that I can look out where I was sadly cuddling a sealion!   So another bit of planning coming together as hotels starts to release their dates and room rates to the booking sites.

My list of things to do before we go is one less item shorter after today. ESTA/VISA -check Travel Insurance - check Apartments booked - check Flights booked - check Hotel night before fly - check Hotel in Miami - check TomTom sorted - check Airport parking - check Car Rental in FL -  I have decided to have a look at getting some routes planned to get from airport to hotel and to and from the different resorts that we are staying in. With the TomTom maps getting bloated again there wasn't enough internal storage to get the UK & Europe maps and the USA maps on together.  So I had to buy a new micro SD camera for the Canon 1100D and then I could use the 32gb from there in the TomTom.  The new one was 64GB that should mean a few thousand pix!  The counter on the top of the camera body stops at 9999. The last time I tried it the whole unit froze but this time it simply asked to format the card and it works.  I deleted the USA maps f...

Not the BSB meeting itself but Devall attendance. From April I will change contracts to a teacher style "term time only" contract.  That means that all my holiday is in school holidays but I get twelve equal monthly payments a year.  I'll lose a few pounds in salary but will have more time off. As a result, if it don't happen when I am off I can't go. Neill has decided to cancel as well as he doesn't want to go on his own and may go to Aragon for the MotoGP instead.

So here we are in the new year. It's 2019 and I have a small list of things that I need to get sorted as soon as possible. The hotel in Miami for the first night is booked and that was done ages ago. I like to check on booking.com or indeed Trivago to see if any  more come online that offer the same ratings for a better price.  None so far! When we are in Weston for the second week, I have been looking at places to go.  Weston isn't the most exciting place!  We both like the Keys but even in April the hotels are pretty expensive. I guess the northerners are all still there escaping from the cold in the northern states? So that's something to look at again over the next three months. Car-hire. Always on the update list.  The rental prices seem to ebb and flo like the weather.  One day expensive, next not. I found clearing cookies from the laptop or desktop seems to alter things too. Travel insurance is still to look at. I a...