2011-04-29: Arches National Park

We spent a full day discovering Arches National Park.

Words can not express how impressed we were, and the picture you find here on the blogg does not really make justice to the real thing.

Skyline Arch - do you see the small people at the base?

The park has more than 2000 arches created in the red sandstone by erosion.

Turrent Arch

Turrent Arch has three openings. The biggest is 35 feet wide and 65 feet high.

Turrent Arch from different angle

Strange magnificent creations! 

Balanced Rock

It was an amazing experience to see what Mother Nature created.

The Spectacles

2011-04-28: Buena Vista, Colorado to Moab, Utah

Yesterday we spent most of the time in the car travelling through the high mountains of Colorado and arrived to a nice and warm Utah.

During our drive we past through Curecanti and Black Canyon.

Curecanti

It was an amazing drive, and every bend of the road stunned us with a new and fantastic scenery.

Black Canyon

Getting closer to Moab in Utah, we drove at the edge of Arches National Park, and followed the mighty Colorado River. It was sooo beautiful. We look forward to see the rest of Arches, and that is the plan for today.

2011-04-27: Arrived to a cold Denver

We left the wonderful Swedish spring with temperatures around 18 C, and arrived after 20 hours travel to a rather cold Denver. We went straight to the hotel, and fell asleep after a nice meal in an Indian restaurant.
We had arranged to pick up our mobile home (or RV as they say over here) in the morning. When we got our RV, we were really happy. The staff were very helpful, and we drove away with a brand new RV that will be our home for the next 5 weeks.

After a couple of hours at Wal-mart we got going. Our plan for the first day was to get to Buena Vista, and after a couple hours beautiful ride through mountains and plains we arrived to a camping ground we had selected in advance. They warned us not to connect the water, as they expected the temperature to be around -5 C during the night. No problem - we have heater in the RV, and blankets :-).

2011-03-28: Next adventure - USA and Barbados

We have temporarily given up our plans to buy a boat. The development around the Mediterranean sea has forced us to postpone any purchase at least in that geographic area. Our plan would have been to sail the Med for a while, and then go through the Suez channel. The unrest in many countries in combination with escalating piracy in the area south of Suez has made us think twice. At least one US and one Danish sailing ship has been subject to piracy during the last couple of months.
We probably need to start looking for boats in other areas, but that will be earliest this autumn.

We have decided to make one of our dream trips, and booked tickets to spend 7 weeks abroad - 5 weeks in USA and 2 weeks in Barbados. If we have a chance we will try sail in Barbados, but nothing yet decided.

During our time in USA we have rented a mobile home, and have made a huge list of places we want to see:

California:

• Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park
• Yosemite National Park
• San Fransisco
• Los Angeles

Wyoming

• Yellowstone National Park
• Grand Teton National Park
• John D Rockefeller Memorial Parkway

Colorado

• Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
• Rocky Mountain National Park
• Mesa Verde National Park
• Dinosour National Monument
• Colorado National Monument 
• Curecanti National Recreation Area 

Utah

• Arches National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Canyonlands National Park
• Zion National Park 

New Mexico

• Bandelier National Monument
• Taos
• Santa Fe

Arizona

• Grand Canyon
• Petrified Forrest
• Painted Desert
    
   We will start our trip in Denver, Colorado and it will probably look a bit like this:
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  We are of course very grateful for any suggestions about places to visit and things to see.

2011-02-03: Time to move

A couple of weeks ago we signed the contract to sell our house in Hofterup. A nice young couple will  be the new owners, and we hope that they will be as happy as us with the house and the lovely surroundings. There is no question about it - we will miss our house, but it is more practical for us to have an apartment in the future.

Today we pack all our stuff and move to Hästveda, which will be our base when we are in Sweden.

Regarding our near-term plans we have not really decided. What is decided is that we will leave Sweden again before end of February. Potential project are:

• Boat search in the Med area (we now decided for a catamaran - Lagoon 410)
• Sailing with our friend Kaj in Caribbean
• Travel around in US for a month or two, possibly in a mobile home

2010-12-20: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all readers

A week ago we came back to our home in snowy Sweden. It is beautiful, but very cold for us that have been in the tropical heat for so long time. Now we will spend Christmas and New Year with family and friends. Our plans after that are not 100% set yet, but we will continue our quest for a nice catamaran as soon as possible.

We wish all our followers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2010-12-10: Bangtao Beach, Phuket

We have spent a week in Bangtao Beach. Another nice place in Phuket. We love the fantastic beach and the clean water. After an upgrade we are also very happy with our bungalow - it is more or less on the beach and we have wonderful sea view.

The pool area at the hotel is magnificent, and we are almost alone to use it.

During the week there has been some celebrations. It was the king of Thailand, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyade´s birthday. The Kings birthday is celebrated all over the country with a lot of fireworks.

Also the kids in school honour the Kings birthday. Anne was invited to a dance show at Kem´s school. The girls were sooo cute and it was a fantastic show.

















Some more pictures from Bang Tao: BangTao