We were kindly invited by Jim and Melinda to join them at home and on two trips one to The Blue Ridge Mountains and the other to Washington DC. 'All by ourselves' we made it to Savannah & Charleston. They were great hosts and Jim had put a lot a planning into the various outings. We are deeply indebted to them for a great experience....& also to their friends Carleen and Ken who entertained us in Washington

At significant times I tend to think of the 'backdrop' at the time... and so it was with our visit to the USA. On the domestic front Jim is one of the lonely minority concerned about the use of fossil fuel in the US & uses bio diesel in his own car. On arrival in the US we were shocked at the 50% of domestic vehicles being SUV's. It is fair to say Jim & I share a (unreasonable ?) dislike of them. Just to show we were willing to understand the other person I convinced Jim to hire a SUV for our trip to the mountains. Our research showed they are no roomier than an ordinary car & use shed loads of fuel (sorry about that Jim!)  Closer to home the fountain used by the cats Slider & Traveller had packed up & we went through several to get the right one...on which the jury is out, but personally I like the bright lights! ( I still have a contract out on Traveller)

On a broad US domestic front, Hurricane Katrina had just caused death & misery & hurricane Rita came through while we were in Savannah.

 President Bush had announced one of his own lawyer as his next candidate for the supreme court & the ongoing misery of Iraq was getting attention. Also his apparent backing of 'Intelligent Design' was raising a few eyebrows...including ours. Visiting the White House & Senate only brought these things into focus. By and large we remained ignorant of UK domestic affairs during our trip, but comedy & shared UK comedians were discussed, so the death of Ronnie Barker was sad news.

How did we find America...We have been treated with such kindness & friendliness by everyone we met  (we will excuse the lady in the fast-food stand in Washington as a one off)....more than any other place we have been. As they say in South Carolina 'Smiling faces, beautiful places'

When we ate out we had some great grub & also some 'interesting' combinations....but the quantity! (that is apart from pancakes and puds which are a different thing altogether....see picture below of 2 experts choosing )