Our house, in the middle of our street.

Hello, it's been a while. Our absense has a great excuse though, we have been moving into our litle house. Our little house was built in the 1940s and for about 15 years sat empty and derilict until our landlord brought it and moved the rats out. He kept the house as it was, stripping and polishing all the wood in the house to keep it in it's original state. Boy, are we glad he did. It's beautiful. 148 Luzena Avene, Vacaville, California, 95688 is our address for any Vimto, HP Sauce and Branston Pickle packages to be sent to from the UK. Or for visitors.

We have been here about a week now. That week has been none stop looking and buying things to fill our house (It won't take too much) But we have a $50 couch from Good Will, a huge tv for watching soccer and NFL on, a great little $10 coffee table, 2 little rugs, 2 queen sized beds (1 for visitors, who's going to be first?) and the dining room set is on it's way. We still have the delivery coming from Maryland today too.

Our neighbours are all middle aged and extra friendly. The landlord popped over yesterday and gave us all the old keys for the house, so we have to figure out what doors they lock. Aelisa has been back at work 3 days now, so I am in charge of unpacking everything and cleaning the house, being a house husband isn't too bad but I cannot wait to get a job already.

Today is our one month wedding anniversary, we are off to Chilis to celebrate. 

Playing the waiting game

Cross them fingers for us.

Today is Saturday, which means noone works today or tomorrow. We are hoping Monday we will find out about our little house. We really hope it works out as it is perfect for us, perfect size, location, price and it is beautiful to boot. This hotel room is getting a bit claustraphobic now and we cannot wait to get out of here. Here is a picture we took while scoping it out yesterday. We cannot wait to sit in our rocking chairs and drink fine wine on a sunny evening on that porch.

As we have the weekend to pass before anything can happen we spent last night on a date, bowling and the eating the single best burger I have ever had at the Blue Frog Brewery (http://bigbluefrog.com/) I seriously did not wantit to end and came home too stuffed to move.

Today we went window shopping for things for our Casa. Washing machines, Tumble dryers, TVs and XBoxes, all essential stuff for a new place. As usual we became a little sidetracked and went to the mall to buy some clothes. The best prices for everything seem to be on Travis AFB as it is tax free. So everything is more or less in one place.

Tomorrow is NFL Sunday, so the entertainments sorted! Not to mention that we're going to head into the city to meet some of the locals...Aelisa's family, THE MEEHANS! Kaite's (Aelisa's stepmom) brother Mike is a multi-talented mister and we're going to go see his headlining stand-up show "Hey Monster-Hands Off My City!" Check it out here... http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/08/29/18689054.php ... or the whole act here... http://www.meehanbrothers.com/ . Those Uncles of hers are a very funny bunch.

To finish on a happy note 2 days ago 2 of our best friends gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Congratulations to Cara and Toff West on the birth of little James Francis 'Tripp' West. We wish you all the happiness this world can hold. You guys will be the best parents. We cannot wait to meet the little guy!

House.

Almost a week since we arrived in Fairfield, CA, a housing briefing and about 20 houses later we may have found our home for the next few years. In Vacaville, about 10 miles from Travis AFB we found a cute little (900 square feet) house that we both loved the second we walked through the door. An hour after we viewed it the application form was completed and we are just waiting to hear back from the estate agent now. The little blue house we previously mentioned became a 'No' once we walked around the area at night and an owner-less Pitbull tried to eat Blue.

We won't publish any details just yet as to not jinx it but as soon as we move in there will be photos. Until then we are still in the hotel, watching TV and trying to figure out what's going to happen the next few weeks/months.

We are free this weekend, anyone in the San Francisco area want to hang out? Let us know, if you aren't here you can at least Skype us...

Yo-sem-ite National Park and the last leg of the trip slash settling in to our new area.




Our 3700 mile route from coast to coast

 
Sorry we missed out writing about our last day on he road, but arriving in our new area in California it is a fairly busy time for us.

Me and Blue sniffing in Yosemite

The last day on the road we left Mamouth Lakes, CA and drove along Route 120 back up the Tiogo Pass to the cold and eventually hit 10,000 feet. We then drove the 40 miles through the park and saw some great lakes, mountains and mountains. Unfortunately, we only got to stop once as we had to get to our destination but we will return and make the most of the incredible scenery. It was then almost 4 hours until we got to Fairfield, CA the home of Travis Air Force Base and the home of the McEvillys for the next 3 years.



Possible house in Suisun City

Our first stop was the hotel, where Aelisa's supervisor from Walter Reed is staying. She has been extremely helpful in advising us on anything and everything we need to do to make life easier here. Once here we were both starving and hit up In-and-Out Burger for an Animal Style Double-Double and Cheeseburger....obviously. Yesterday was spent meeting Aelisa's new workmates and looking at two houses Suisun City. The first was a little small, it had very little back garden for the pooch to sniff around so it was a no-no. the second was lovely, blue 3 bedroom 2 bathroom place that is currently top of our wishlist. Blue loved it so much he popped a squat inthe backyard to christen it. Luckily there was a plastic bag flying by on the wind which we grabbed to clean up the poop and we left it in the wheely bin on the driveway.

Aelisa is currently out doing her things to start work and get us paid so we can get serious about this house thing. Since she left at 7am I have tidied our hotel room, bathed Blue as he was a bit smelly and I am about to look for houses in Vacaville for us to check out today. 

Almost there....

Today was a late start in Vegas, after our late night casino shennanigans we hit the road at mid day and aimed the car towards Yosemite National Park. After a short detour to Taco Time for some burritos and Mexi Fries (Not tots).

The drive was nothing short of breath taking. We drove through old gold mining towns in Nevada and down lots of straight roads with nothing much to see other than the landscape, which is O.K. by us. We hit the California border and that landscape changed, there were huge green trees, snow capped mountains, windy roads that Aelisa drove like she was on a roller coaster ride and the smell of pine in the air was pretty spectacular. Blue couldn't keep his nose from the open window and Aelisa exlaimed "I already love California, I never want to leave!" So I guess we are in the right place.

Oh to be here on a clear day

We went into Yosemite, allbeit briefly, via The Tioga Pass (it was cloudy today so the picture comes courtesy of Google), we saw the sun go down and came to Mamouth Lakes, 40 miles away, to stay the night. I arrived in shorts as it was 97 degrees in Vegas this morning, it is freezing at this altitude (9000 feet) and the car beeped at us because the temperature outside was approaching freezing (it was 36 degrees and freezing here is 32 for all of you celcius users)

It is going to be a long day driving tomorrow, but beautiful and a great way to end our trip. The next time we blog, we will be in a hotel which we will call home until we find a house, but the blogging will continue as I will be a house husband to begin with and there is only so much walking of the Beagle and unpacking boxes one man can take.

Total Miles: 3470.3

Luck Be A Lady Tonight

Jez's book coming in handy.

Hey all!



Well even though yesterday wasn't the furthest we've gone, it was definitely the most fun we've had on the trip. We drove about 250 miles from Flagstaff, AZ to (you guessed it) VEGAS BABY!! On the way, we stopped for lunch at Mr. D'z diner off of Route 66, suggested by the Road Trip USA book given to Liam as a going-away gift from his uni buddy Jez. I had a hot dog topped with melted cheese, hot peppers, and grilled onions and Liam had the usual bacon cheeseburger. We took our tourist pics and got back on the road.



Aelisa at the Hoover Dam



We then headed over to the Nevada border and went to check out the Hoover Dam. We would have gone down to the dam an

d walked across, but Blue wasn't allowed on it and we couldn't leave him alone in the car. It was a good thing too, cause the parking money he saved us came in good use later when we got to Vegas.

When we got to "Sin City" we met up with my old supervisor from AFIP to have some coffee and decided to meet up later for dinner...Vietnamese. Liams first PHO experience was a good one. He had the rare beef and well done brisket soup and I had just the rare beef soup. It was soooo delicious! But before we even went out for dinner, we settled in at La Quinta and had a litle play sesh with Blue where he accidentally head-butted me...my lips are still swollen and bruised.

After dinner we followed the Bernard family to the famous...Las Vegas strip. They were scoping it out to find the best spot for Mrs. Bernard to have a ladies night. We turned off and parked at The Paris and went for a short, but fun wander around the new strip. We walked through The Paris and headed outside to see the night life, and was it wild. We saw Santa Clause, human statues, all kinds of movie characters to include Woody, Storm Troopers, the Halo guy, and Bumble Bee (Woody...I tried to get Liam to take a photo with him for you, but we was being shy).



The Water Show at the Bellagio

We headed over the The Bellagio where decided to spend our alloted money on the penny slots. It was a lot of fun while it lasted. We both lost our first $10, but when we went again (Liam with another $10 and I with $6) it went a lot better. Liam lost his again, but I turned my $6 into $30, so I was happy. We then went outside to watch the famous water show outside The Bellagio which was choreographed to Frank Sinatras "Luck Be A Lady Tonight." Very appropriate. We went back to the Paris and headed back to the hotel.

On our way, we stopped at a gas station to get some gas, and Liam some Excedrin and a big ol' bottle of "Real Water" which Liam claims to be the second best water he's ever had behind the fresh French spring water he had where he actually filled his water bottle from the source on a trip with Joe. He talked about that water like he was mocking me for buying it, but insists it was a genuine love of the high-quality H2O.

When we got back to our room, we found a very excited and a literally pooped out pooch. He was so excited to see us. Momma took him out for a walk while poppa laid down, finished up his Real Water and tried recovering from his throbbing headache. We came back in, snuggled up, and went to bed...after a short play time with his favorite toy, of course.

Total miles: 3,062.3

The Grand Canyon and Good Beer

Hey y'all!

Family photo at the majestic Grand Canyon!

Yesterday was pretty eventful, starting with free hotel breakfast and relaxing in the hotel hot tub.  Then it was off to the Grand Canyon! It was an almost perfect day (until the rain started coming down and we had to leave). We took loads of photos that don't do the place any justice. It was the most immense scenery I've ever seen. It makes me excited to use our annual pass to all the National Parks across the US and see what other natural phenomenon await. 

Blue checkin out them condors!

Blue also got to have a sniff around the Canyon at a couple different areas. Amongst the amazing scenery that people paid to see, somehow Blue became the center of attention. He wasn't phased though. He knew that there were animals around to be sniffed out.

As we got to our last viewing area of the Grand Canyon, the clouds got very heavy and the air got pretty chilly as well. Blue was in the car and we headed back and literally the second we closed the car doors, the rain started coming down. It was perfect timing. We then left to get back to Flagstaff and had a very delicious dinner at the Beaver Street Brewery where I ate some firecracker gorditas and Liam some bratwurst and mash and some house brewed beers...he had the stout and I the raspberry ale. It was a great way to end a great day.

Although we stayed in the area, we still managed to drive about 130 miles. Today, we're hitting the road to Nellis AFB, Nevada...VEGAS, HERE WE COME!!

Total Miles 2646.3

What a day!



Alba, me and Kirky enjoying some get to know
you time in the back of the car. Alba us in my left hand,
Kirky, my right.

 Yesterday we set off from Rosewell, NM with an idea of the kind of day we expected. Long, straight roads, with not much to see and a pretty long, boring drive to Arizona. Boy were we wrong. US284 out of Roswell, while it was straight and long, some of the scenery was breath taking. After a few hundred miles we joined I-40, which in parts is some of histroic Route 66 to Albuquerque, where we stopped for lunch, with only the scenery being a pleasant suprise.

Within 20 minutes of driving after lunch we were through Albuquerque Aelisa produced a swift emergency stop as there were two small animals in the road, which turned out to be two Chocolate Lab puppies. We each grabbed one from the hard shoulder and piled them into the back of the car. The looks Blue gave us were priceless. These two pups were skinny and barely a few weeks old. They scarfed down two bowls of Blue's food and a bowl of water before helping themselves to Aelisa's chocolate milkshake, which flew all over the creme interior of the Passat. Quickly named Alba and Kirky, after where we found em the two pups were lively and got me filthy as I was elected to sit in the back and contain them. After some Googling we found a humane society in Gallup, NM who took them off our hands. Charging us $30 for the privelidge.

That wasn't all though folks. 60 miles from Flagstaff, we noticed some smoke in the air. Getting closer to the smoke it became clear that it was a truck on fire. This caused us to stop dead for about an hour while the incident was dealt with by the emergency services. During which time Blue got an impromtu sniff of the few green buts there were by the side of the road and Aelisa and I both met two very different guys called Dave. Aelisa's a 35 year old retired Air Force master sergeant. Mine a 20 something worked in a strip club, moving to LA cos that's where the money's at. He sure knew his soccer though.

Eventually on the road, we finally get to Flagstaff, in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. Which we saw some great lightening bolts. Taco Bell take away and the 2nd half of the Packers Saints game it was before an early night, after a pretty eventful day.

Today, the storms have stopped and we are taking it slowly, aiming to be at the Grand Canyon in time for some walking and sunset. Relaxed and ready to hit the road to the bright lights of Las Vegas tomorrow.

Total Miles: 2552.9

I am the only alien in Roswell, NM



Sun coming down over US84

After registering the car in Texas to avoid state income tax, replacing the battery (Thanks G) and cleaning it up ready for the road we managed another 550 miles drive on the road West from Texas yesterday. We crossed into another timezone, mountain time, which is 7 hours behind the UK. We saw nothing but windmills, oil drills and cattle ranches on the long, straight road US84. We did see a cool sunset and eventually decided to spend the night in civilisation, Roswell, New Mexico. Famous for the alien landings of 1947, but the only alien we have seen has been a Limey in a Chris Johnson jersey.

Our aim is to get to Flagstaff, Arozona today, by driving on some of Route 66. Flagstaff is a place which ranks high in both of our favo(u)rite places on the earth and see the Grand Canyon, letting the Beagle sniff out some wildlife. So it would be rude not to spend a few days there.

We know we have told everyone about this blog, but just let us know you have checked in with us on Facebook, please!

Total miles: 2081



Don't Mess with Texas!



He loves me really.

After a long 3 days travelling it felt GREAT to not have to wake up in a hotel room with the prospect of a day in a hot car. Instead we got up when we felt like it, hung out in our PJs until heading out for lunch at Chipotle, Pop Pop's favourite food to eat in texas. Come back home and relaxed some more with the Gordons. I watched my wife dance to soldier boy on the Kinnect and now we are chilling some more, looking at houses in Suisin City and Vacaville, California as well getting things ready for the movers to collect everything tomorrow so we can continue our journey as light as possible on Wednesday.

Tuckered out.

If there is one thing wrong with sitting still for so long it is that it gives you time to think and that I have been doing today. It has sunk in that I have left Redditch, the Unted Kingdom, my friends and my family for good. I am happy to be here and finally starting the next chapter of my life with the woman in my life but it's natural to miss everyone.

If I was in the UK I would be starting a career in teaching this week. I am thinking of everyone I know from Birmingham City University and English Country Schools who are getting ready to meet their classes tomorrow and grow up. Good Luck.








A long old days driving, worth it to see the folks.

Yesterday (Saturday) was one of the longest days of my (Liam) life and the only time I remember being so tired I literally cannot keep my eyes open. But it was a fun day, thats for sure.



Us with Aunt Holly outside her shop



It begun in Nashville, TN with a trip to Walmart (that's Asda Jonesy!) to spend $140 on Titans clothes, as I wouldn't get it cheaper anywhere else and it would be the only time I was in Tennesse. From there we drove a few hundred miles to Jonesboro where I ate my first Catfish with some of Aelisa's extended family. I was given a lesson by Uncle Bill, eat it with raw onion and Tartar sauce and it was pretty delicious. We then said hello to Aelisa's great grandparents before heading to Aunt Holly's shop called 'My Girlfriend's Closet' where she insisted on buyingus some more clothes.



Weiner, AR



We hit the road again at 6pm and drove through Arkansas to Texas to Christie and Garrett's house (They say hello to everyone who was at the wedding) where we arrived at 1am, straight to bed.

We were on the road for about 11 hours and drove more than I have ever done in one day before. But we had fun with it, sang songs with the wind in our hair, played the yellow car game and loved one and other.

Total Mile Count 1531 miles

Today was a great day too, tiring though. Started by going to church with the In-Laws and meeting some people, including a Pastor from Portsmouth. Then we hit the pool for some fun in the sun as it is Aelisa's brother's birthday on Tuesday. We ate lots of Bar-B-Q-ed food and chatted with some people we haven't seen for a while. It feels great to be in the same place 2 nights running with people we love. We will be here until Wednesday, getting a few things sorted and eating as much yummy Texan foods as we can.  as the movers are coming to take some things to California for us.

Love
The McEvillys x

I would drive 500 miles....



Bo with Lisa and Bill Graham



Our first real day driving yeilded almost 600 miles (Aelisa drove most of them and I played DJ) through the rest of Virginia and Tennesse. It was 105 degrees so the AC was used a LOT too, but it was a beautiful drive and the sunshine helped us smile. 

But it wasn't all hot and sweaty driving, we managed to visit the Grahams in Knoxville, TN for a belly filling lunch of hamburgers and hash brown caserole as well a chat about being a Limey abroad (Lisa is from Southampton) and we also swung by LP Field, home of the mighty Tennesse Titans as the sun was coming down before calling it a night in the home of Country music, Nashville.

Blue says Go Titans!

After spending another night in a Best Western herein Nashville, we are ready to find a Walmart for supplies and cheap Titans clothes and hit the road. Next stop, Jonesboro, Arkansas for lunch with some family before making a bee line to the Texas border for Jake's (Aelisa's brother) birthday party tomorrow. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKEMAN!

Total mile count 741.0

Roadtrippin...finally!



Route 304, West Virginia



We finally hit the road at 4pm yesterday, the late start didn't get us down too much though. With nice weather and beautiful roads through Maryland, Virginia and West Virgina, our main reason for trying to stay off of the motorways here, and a great sunset motivated us to put 200 miles on the clock and here we sit at 8am in Lexington, VA ready to get a full day of driving in. Until tomorrow.

Bring on Tennesse, go TITANS!

Total mile count 221.4

Pedal to the Metal

Hello readers, friends and family!

You can see who USUALLY writes our blogs and keeps everyone up to date on what's going on. To be fair though, I didn't have the password TO write for awhile, so it's not really my fault.

Liam and I tried to hit the road earlier today to avoid too much beltway traffic (the worst kind, as far as I'm concerned). We loaded up our belongings, the beagle and ourselves, went to get an oil change and found out that a good $700+ worth of work needed to be done to get good-ol' Keasby road-ready. SOO, here we are waiting for the car to get finished at the dealership.

Liam has almost completely forgotten about the wedding now that he's been reunited with Blue. As expected.

We were supposed to get to Knoxville, TN today to stay with some old Walz-family friends from MD (and one from WAY back in from Alaska) , but as it turns out, we're not going to make in time to see them tonight, so instead we're planning on having a nice lunch instead.

Here goes....

We landed in DC at 8pm last night, collected the dog and the car and headed back to the airport to collect Mr T.F Klein and finally got to bed at 2am (Thats 7am BST and made it 24 hours we had been awake and travelling)

Now it is 11am the following morning and we have packed up the car, the dog wonders what on earth is going on, and are about to drive 8 hours to Knoxville, Tennesse to stay with old family friends of Aelisa's tonight. I have no idea what the day will bring, but the sun is shinining, I have on my shorts and will be hauled up in a car with my 2 favourites allllll day long.

Liam x