Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: This Is The Life OR A Tale of Woe (delete as required)

Root canal surgery, rain, no wifi, swingeing fines from New Zealand – still, sand flies, mosquitoes, noisy neighbours, dragging a 26-foot, six-and-a-half ton truck across large parts of North America, including the very scary highways of Southern California, car parks, fat people. We’ve had our share of problems and hardships, I can tell you. There, that’s for the pessimists among you. But really it’s been a gas from start to – well – now.

As we approach the first anniversary of leaving the UK (21^st Sept) we are just about to complete our fifth house sit. This is Susan and Jamie’s New England ‘cottage’ in Cohasset. The small matter of six bedrooms in an acre of land with a wraparound porch and views over Massachusetts Bay. Gillie sat on the porch on Sunday listening to an omnibus edition of The Archers and was transported to heaven…

We have loved all of our house sits – and all for different reasons. This one has us looking after two lovely old dogs – Sally the sweetest German Shepherd and Bear – sort of a hairy Rottweiler – named for obvious reasons when you see the pix, as well as Tigger the cat who lords it over them in the house, but is fair game as soon as he steps onto the porch.

Anyway, it’s fair to say that our misfortunes have paled into insignificance – touch wood - compared to the wonderful experiences we’ve had in all four countries. Obviously we hope that these will continue so that we can tell you all about them over the coming months. Strange to think that roughly six months from now we’ll be boarding a plane in ‘who-knows-where?’ to make our way, temporarily, back to England and all you lovely people. Then what?

We have now found a way to watch UK tv as if we are in our sitting room in Fleet. Just in time for the six-week festival of excitement that will culminate in Chris Robshaw lifting the Webb Ellis trophy at Twickenham on 31^st October. That, and successful Bittorrent downloads (???) and we’re set up for the next part of our adventure which will take us around New England to hopefully catch the Fall (their word) colours, before a brief stint back here then onto Washington DC and the south. Having a bit of trouble finding somewhere to stay over Christmas – Florida is the intention – but sure we can solve that.

After the loveliness that was Bar Harbor, we moved on to Scarborough (!) and had a couple of very pleasant days sitting on York Beach(!) Then, excitement after excitement, we bought two bikes !!! That night, staying in the very hot and humid Wompatuck State Park, I put the bike rack on the back of Molly Too and set the bikes up ready to explore Cape Cod for the Labor Day weekend. Gillie’s is a very fetching shade of pastel bluey-green and mine is a more manly blacky-browny-black (black) sort of colour. Suffice to say they are quite excellent and enable us to be much more adventurous in exploring our surroundings.

We had a great weekend at Cape Cod, where Rob & Lynette, Dylan, Kathy and their little girl Agnes were also staying and we had a couple of lively evenings featuring lobsters, which Dylan and Rob cooked (too squeamish), Wellfleet oysters – apparently the best you can get on the east coast – a very successful barbeque (if I say so myself [smug look – ed.] and two large boxes of empty bottles, some of which have already featured on Facebook – see below if you’re not an FBer. Little Agnes was very taken with Molly Too as Peppa Pig also has a camper…

On the Sunday we had a great day at Gull Ponds – three connected kettle ponds made by big lumps of glacier a few years (millennia, actually) ago. It was beautifully calm and warm and much hilarity was had by all watching each of us trying to climb into and out of the little rubber dinghy with some measure of dignity (and failing dismally, it has to be said).

We said goodbye to our friends who made their ways back to New York and Fleet and we wish Dylan and Kathy all the best for their new baby, due in November. We know the name and gender, but we’re not saying, just in case it’s a secret.

As we didn’t have to be in Cohasset until the Thursday evening, we spent a couple more days in Cape Cod, on the beach, providing lunch for the swarms of sand flies. On our way out, we detoured to visit Provincetown, a very pretty and buzzy little town that once again inspired Gillie to keep her sketchpad firmly in one of the many cupboards where it has spent its entire life during this trip.

Since we’ve been in Cohasset, the barometer has been up and down like a whore’s drawers on a Friday night, but it’s back to being beautiful again now, just as we prepare to leave for our tour of New England. (Gillie’s taken an age to add her bit, so we have already left and are currently in Vermont.)

With the wonder of the interweb and many thanks to Dylan, we have now bought TunnelBear – a truly wondrous app that allows us to watch – live and iplayer – UK tv!! So England v Fiji was a live reality. Many campers in Cozy Hills Campground gave me some funny looks as I shouted incoherently at the computer every few minutes. I did manage to restrain the language and only called the ref a wanker once – not very loud. Not sure what Gillie has left to write about but time to relinquish the keyboard. Love to all. Keep the comments coming #carrythemhome. Xxx

PS Oh dear me, I don’t know where the time goes, but I just haven’t had time to do my PS until now (Sat) when Andy did his last Sunday!!

As he says, we are now in Vermont, after two wonderful days meandering up and down the leafy lanes of New England. (I’ve always wanted to come to Vermont, ever since I was 12 and heard Mel Torme (who?) singing ‘Moonlight in Vermont’! Andy says he’s going to play a version of it to me later, but won’t tell me who it’s by…what’s the betting it’s by Frank Zappa!!) It’s Captain Beefheart from ‘Trout Mask Replica’! – ed.

Anyway it’s just so beautiful here, the trees are starting to turn and the small towns are picture perfect. Yesterday as the radio played ‘Sergeant Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band’, we sang along at the top of our voices, marveling in our good fortune. However (this is for Lynette’s benefit) it hasn’t all been a bed of roses. Last Monday I had my temporary filling replaced at a cost of $450 (£300)!! No wonder these pesky dentists can roam the world killing lions etc.

Also, during our last night at our Cape Cod campsite, we both woke at about 1.30am to the sound of police sirens. “They sound a bit close” we said to each other. The next thing we knew, lights were flashing outside our camper, with a screech of brakes and a voice shouting “Please don’t shoot me.” We put our heads under the duvet and pretended this wasn’t happening. Everything went quiet, cars drove away, lights disappeared and then it was morning. “Did that really happen?” we said to each other. We decided that unless we were dreaming the same dream, it did. We told this story to our house sit hosts and they said “Welcome to America!!”

The weather is still gorgeous and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will continue until we head south again. At the moment we are not that far from Canada, which feels very weird, as it seems ages ago since we left. We’re looking forward to another couple of days in the gorgeous house in Cohasset, next weekend, as we love those dogs (+Tigger) and then on to Washington DC. We’ve just finished watching the Kevin Spacey version of ‘House of Cards’ so can’t wait to see the White House in the flesh!!

Bye for now, love to all. Gillie XX