_{Wishing all Americans a Happy Independence Day and as you clink glasses in celebration of the last farewell to those pesky Brits just think what you have missed … Queenie, claiming Benny Hill as your own, The Great British Bake Off, Football and proper Fish & Chips … oh well, perhaps some other time!}

 _{In honour of July 4th, I have dug out some fun facts which you may enjoy:}

• _{President Roosevelt served frankfurters to King George VI when he visited the US in 1939.}
• _{Nearly 90 percent of hot dog eaters choose mustard as their topping.}
• _{The world record in hot dog eating is 69 hot dogs with the bun in 10 minutes … that’s going some!}
• _{On average Americans consume 44 pints of ice cream per year, per person … that’s an awful lot of ice cream!}

_{We are now home, the motor home has been emptied, cleaned and put back in storage awaiting our next big adventure. Thank you for joining us and I look forward to seeing you around the middle of August when we will hit the road again … I’ll update the website once I know the dates but I would have thought around August 14th ‘ish!}

 _{Until then, stay safe, socially distance, wash your hands and wear a mask!}

_{The motor home in her new storage unit. Sadly, she was broken into at our last storage location … $10k worth of damage and all for a built-in GPS that won’t work and damage to internal cabinets that the thief couldn’t get open as the motor home sides were closed!}

_{The Blogging Brit}

_{Sorry for no blog yesterday, but we drove home and decided to empty the motor home in one concerted effort and that was the end of my evening!}

_{Since our lockdown began, we adopted yet another kitty whom we have named Latte! She is now just over four months old, completely adorable and purrs like a banshee the minute you look at her. We learned with Miss Cricket that kitties like to race around the place until they reach about six months old and are spayed. This is all well and good at home, but a little kitty running off the walls in a motor home becomes a bit much. So, this time around we kept our newly minted BFFs together (Miss Cricket and Latte) at home with a pet sitter visiting twice a day.}

_{It worked out pretty well until the last few days when Miss Cricket decided that she didn’t like the pet sitter and was going to hide every time she visited! So, pre-warned, Mike and I were able to remotely tap into cameras we have set up in the lounge and call Miss Cricket to ensure she was well and just misbehaving and that nothing was wrong!}

_{As you may recall, Miss Cricket is a Tortoiseshell kitty and they have what’s known as “Tortitude” … and she certainly does.}

Latte who is now just over four months’ old taking a break from chasing anything that moves!

Miss Cricket, Latte’s BFF – they chase each other around the house all day long. It’s cute to watch!

_{As I have mentioned, being in lockdown offered Mike and I the opportunity to revisit our ideas for our next home and we came to the conclusion that although we fell immediately in love with Northern Michigan, it would be for a summer home as the winters are long and snowy!}

_{Fredericksburg, Texas became an area of interest to us to potentially purchase a plot of land where we could build a home and have space to accommodate a separate building to house the motorhome, have guest quarters and what they call here a “shop” (aka garage with air-conditioning) where Michael can potter to his heart’s content.}

_{We like Texas and it has been a very good state for us. We want to get away from any tail-end issues with hurricanes and from the very hot summers. That said, here we are on July 1st, and because of the pandemic, we remain in Texas and are getting used to the intense heat, something which we have been absent from since we bought the motorhome.}

_{All this leads to a development called Hidden Springs some ten-minutes’ drive from Fredericksburg. Set on some 750 acres of rolling countryside, there are going to be 109 homes each on a minimum of five acres. The development will, most unusually, have a 30-acre fenced farm in the middle where they are now planting peach and apricots trees, vines and eventually vegetables.} 

 _{We shall see where all this leads …}

Hidden Springs: keeping six feet apart is a lot easier in this environment.