1 Year on......

Exactly 12 months to the day......May 14th 2011, we flew across to L.A for our epic 6 month tour of the United States! Now we have settled back in Ballarat, and after getting back on our feet again renting for 6 months we have purchased a house.
Renovation city.......!! Picked the house up cheap enough and have done a lot of hard work and modernised it.
This next picture is of the beautiful red carpet  it had in it when we purchased it......... then the next one is the after reno' shot.

And of course Jackson's new room!

Heading into our Australian winter now. It's going to be a real shock to our systems this year as we managed to avoid it between the 2 countries for the past 18 months. That's a quick update from Oz. Have started to re-read our diaries from the trip tonight to remember what we were doing 12 months ago, and each day the great people we met!

Stay warm!
Team Connor Oz.

We're home!

Pictured - Our new house!

Up at 5am - off to airport in Washington DC. Five hour flight to LA then a 9 hour stop over. Board next plane at 8.30pm. Fifteen LONG hours back to Australia! Kids slept as they were small enough to curl up on the seats.

Picked up by a welcoming Nan, Pa and Aunty Jo from the airport.

Great to see family and friends again.

Pictured here is Kenny enjoying his first of many meat pies for the weekend.

We also feasted on Fish, Chips and Dim Sims. All the foods we missed whilst away.

Then off up to my family for the remainder of the weekend to do more of the same - eating and catching up.

Started the gigantic task of moving all our furniture into our new house - rental at this stage.

Straight back to work for me on the Monday and school for the kids. David doing the big job of getting us settled in to the house.

End of an epic journey for us, but I can truely say - "have lived the dream!"

Life's not about the destination - it's all about the journey to get you there.

Goodbye and farewell - for now. Stayed tuned for the novel or coffee table book or the motion picture, not sure which way we will go!!!!!

Team (back to reality) Connor!

XOXOXOX

If you have followed us on the blog, over our journey and we haven't shared an e mail, as such and if you would still like to keep in touch, drop us a line at scoop.julia@gmail.com

Redskins game and Goodbye USA.

Well, what was suppose to be a happy ending, didn't quiet go to plan. I headed off to see my beloved Redskins play, (first real NFL regular season game). Was overwhelmed by the tail gate parties happening in the car park, most had been there all morning, with the game starting at 1pm. For those back home, roughly 70,000 people having a big party before the game, what a sight. Managed to get plenty of good photos before the game started but after that it went down hill. Had a bad seat behind a concrete pole, skins played terrible the whole game and beer cost $9 a bottle but loved the atmosphere immensely and would go back tomorrow, just not at $130 a ticket!!!!!!!!! For those not in the know, pictured above is Sav Rocca, ex AFL player. (Australian Football).



Now to the bad part. Saying good bye to the USA and all our new and life long friends we have made along the way. Where do we start, those who gave us advise on what to see and do, those who took us in and gave us a home cooked meal and a bed and those who locked us in their basement and wouldn't let us go!!!!!!!!!!!!(lol).

Mike and Becky - Thank you for the good times at Yellowstone and letting us experience Thanks Giving.
Che and Laura - For cooking the best brisket ever and welcoming us into your circle of friends Larry,Rhonda and family.
Roman - For being the most inspirational and strong person we have met. A credit to yourself, your family and country.
Driftwood, Florida week 35 - What can we say..........Awesome times and we hope to be back one day!!!!!!!
Randy,Pat,Justin,Deborah and family- Generous hospitality, great bed and great pancakes.
Tom and Carol - For the wine and sending the pins home for the kids.
Charlie and family - Good times and great steaks. Helped make extending our time in Florida, so much easier.
Bill and Millie - Thanks for another home cooked meal, we so desperately needed.
Chris,Anne,Karine and Benny - Thanks for finally letting us out of the basement. Great 2 day visit that turned into 10 and could have been more, if we had time. Thanks for the use of the GPS, saved major headaches driving in New York.  Also for the lovely Brazilian family meal.
And of course to all those at home who kept in contact.

We could honestly go on forever about the love and support you have all given us on our epic journey, with the only way of really saying thanks, is if you are ever in Australia, let us repay the kindness by offering you an air bed, in our tent, were we will be living for the next couple of years, to finish paying off this trip!!!!!!!!!! In our minds we have made life long friends, who will always pop up in our conversations at home and when relaying our stories to family and friends  or anybody who will listen.

Some more of Julia's useless information (lol)
* 5 1/2 months       * 48 states     * 50 hotels/resorts     * 6 camp grounds        * 19,000 miles -  30,600 kms.
* 2 hire cars      * Countless hours of school work       * roughly 35 cases of beer (give or take 10)       *Tampa has a Bay (family joke)        * We have managed to see and photograph all buildings in our blog header  picture          * 6,000 photos

We leave the USA tomorrow, Tuesday and arrive in Australia on Thursday (local time) with one very tired Koala. We will post once we arrive home safely for those interested.

All our love, Team Connor USA / Australia XOXOXOXOX