one backpack a piece...

From November 2014 we (Jamie and Helen) will be hitting the open road and leaving Yorkshire behind for a year or so... capturing the highs, the lows and entering the unknown.

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13 months of traveling in 5 minutes... GO...

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London | York

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Surprise.. Home sweet home (New York-(old) York)

A red eye over night flight and that was the 32nd flight of our 13 month trip, we’d done full circle, kind of! Unbeknown to our families back in York we touched down in the uk, 9th December, I’d left them thinking we were still driving the coast. We had a very warm welcome home at a best friends in London, an afternoon of mulled wine and a fantastic roast dinner for lunch, gosh we had missed Yorkshire puddings, thank you Leonnie! We were even surprised ourselves with extra guests at the table for dinner, super fun. A couple of tube rides the next day, then the train to York station… we were back to the start… York to York with a few stops in between! Before jumping on the bus back to my parents we made time for a craft beer and Cornish pasty! We surprised my parents by just turning up… They thought we might be back on Christmas Eve, but alas our USA visa was on its way out so we figured coming home a little early was the next best thing.

We write this now all safe and sound on Christmas Eve thinking what a great year we have had, a truly once in a lifetime adventure... A few ‘out take’ photos to follow when we’ve scanned through the odd few thousand!

Happy Christmas!

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New York City

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New York City

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Our last few day (Jacksonville-New York)

Our final city in the USA, New York City. We were super lucky to be staying with my best friend Anna in Brooklyn for three nights. She took us on a great walking tour covering Manhattan bridge to downtown, stopping for dim sum in China town and back over Brooklyn bridge, just in time for an amazing sunset. The next day we hit the heights of the 102-story skyscraper, the Empire State Building, tallest in the world until 1970. The air was crisp and there was a slight haze over the thousands of building below the now 5th tallest building in the USA. We then explored Central Park and spent a few hours in the MET museum before checking out the Christmas market in Bryant Park and the Rockefeller centre Christmas tree. We started to feel pretty festive by this point! Meeting Anna for a fun evening of vodka and vintage ten pin bowling, we spent our last day getting the ferry across to the financial district, spotting the good old Statue of Liberty. We decided to pay our respects at the 9/11 memorial and when I was last there three years ago the museum was only in the early stages. Now a large museum has been created over some of the remains of the towers with memorials and stories of the events that day.

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NASA | Miami

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8300 miles (Key West-Jacksonville)

With only three nights left on the road we had to travel back up the keys towards Jacksonville. Taking longer then thought we only brushed through Miami making it to Cape canaveral... And with the weather not ideal for a beach day we drove to NASA space station. We were in luck and a launch was taking place that evening, what were the chances!! What a great place so much to see and do, we even went to space in a gravity simulator learning a lot about the new mission to Mars. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worst, we hung around hoping whist making a pasta dish in the rain but the launch was postponed until the following day so we didn't get to catch it. Having covered 8300 miles in total on our across America tour it was almost time to say goodbye to our rental car. One more man v food place in Jacksonville for some amazing meat sandwiches, a sort out of our camping gear... Giving a lot to Salvation Army and we were ready for our flight to NYC.

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Key West

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21 years ago (Everglades-Key West)

Time to hit the keys… I’d last visited Key West about 21 years ago when my uncle and auntie lived there so I was pretty happy to be heading down there again. Key West is situated at the southern most point of America, only 90 miles form Cuba by boat. The highway takes you across the keys including a 7 mile bridge, we drove around the island before heading to our campsite where we would enjoy a mini holiday. Due to the location of our campsite we picked up a couple of push bikes, first stop the beach! Then on to a sand carving competition at one of the hotels, pretty awesome what can be done with a few ton of sand! We caught the sunset at Mallory square enjoying a cocktail whist watching various acts including a fire juggler, I remembered being here all the years ago! Plenty of cool bars to choose from and so much live music, riding our bikes home a little tidily was fun! Our campsite allowed us to relax at one of its affiliates, a yacht club a short cycle away, private beach and pool for the day suited us just fine. We opted to stay a few extra days here, more beach time, sunset at Zachary fort and a few dives to finish the ‘holiday’ off perfectly.

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The Everglades

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Alligator Alley (Clearwater-Everglades)

Finally the sun was hot enough to park up at Clearwater and enjoy the beach in our swimwear! At Venice beach we caught the sunset and locals were dancing around to tribal music until it went dark. We cooked a moon lit meal by the river before we got some evening driving done to get closer to the Everglades, the largest subtropical wilderness in the USA. We left the coastal road around Naples where sands sculptures were dotted along the beach to swamp land. An alligator and lots of water bird were spotted on route, it is also home to manatee and the elusive Florida panther. Rocking up at a campsite early afternoon to enjoy the surroundings. Unbeknown to us there was a 'zoo' at the campsite... A collection of the owners reptiles, Jamie held a baby alligator and a snake, and we both held dodo the cheeky cockatoo, a very friendly bird!

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Panama City

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We love the coast (Grayton beach-Ocala)

Leaving beautiful Grayton beach behind we soon stopped when we saw a pier. We blagged our way onto the Pier at Panama City, if we were fishing or watching we would have been charged but she liked our accent! We encounter somebodies first catch of the day… A rather large fish! Hugging the coast we decided to cover some miles to make our way to warmer climates, up through Apalachicola national forest, where we came across a ford truck grave yard, then on to Florida’s capital, Tallahassee. That night we’d made our way right down to Ocala, because it was motorway driving we could make head way pretty fast.

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Big lagoon | Gulf Island national seashore | Grayton beach

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Over the bridges (New Orleans-Florida)

Driving through a few states would be the days mission to get across into Florida, we soon whizzed through Mississippi and Alabama and made it to Florida. Actually still cold we opted to get to a campsite, Big lagoon national state park full of board walks in the marsh land. We managed to collect firewood from round about and enjoyed a nice fire for the evening. Our drive to the south would involve a lot of coastal roads, first stop Gulf Island National Seashore, on a peninsula is an old base, never needed but was there to defend the bay. White sand had blown across the roads creating sand dunes either side, some beach car parks were even closed due to the sea capturing them and overloading them with sand. The oldest lighthouse in Florida and be seen across they bay. You know when you're in Florida when you drive over at least a 3 mile bridge and spot Dolphins, amazing! We arrived at Destin for a picnic on the beach. Another state park for the night, Grayton beach was voted number one for its lakes and sunset location. A short boardwalk and we were at the Snow White powder soft sandy beach just as the sun was starting to fade to orange and pink. A lone Herron plodded along the water front perhaps hoping to make an evening meal catch.

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New Orleans