Well, at long last we are about to board the plane for Europe. Today is Wednesday, March 10, and this morning we left La Tortuga “sittin’ on the dock of the bay” in Jacksonville, FL waiting to be loaded up and carried across the ocean to Zeebrugge, Belgium. Happily, everything went well during the process. Tomorrow we will fly to France, where we will spend the next two weeks or so with our terrific friends Daniel and Anne-Marie, along with their brilliant children Pierre, Rèmi, and Jeanne whom we met in South America. This wonderful family lives on the outskirts of Paris and they have graciously offered to host us while we await the arrival of our Tiger. They are even going to pick us up at the airport – and we are arriving at 6:30 in the morning. That’s real friendship. We’ve wanted to RV in Europe ever since we left home in 2001 and at last it is really going to happen. This first year we will most likely spend the first few months in the Benelux countries, along with some of Germany, Switzerland and northern France. Then we hope to spend summer in the British Isles. When it starts getting cold in the fall, we’ll drop down through France and southern Spain, and then cross over into Morocco. Those are the plans as of today; who knows what will actually transpire! As for beyond the first twelve months, we can’t possibly look that far ahead, but we certainly hope to see all of central and eastern Europe, the scandinavian countries, some of Russia and the middle east, some of Africa, and well, who knows? Last June we completed our first trip to South America in fine style. We had a wonderful experience and will enjoy reliving the memories of places seen, people met and lessons learned for a long, long time. We feel very fortunate to have been able to accomplish most of the goals we set for ourselves two years ago. From Colombia in the north to Patagonia in the south, South America opened itself up for us in a wonderful way, and we truly enjoyed our stay. We had always felt that coming to South America would probably be a once in a lifetime deal for us, but now we’re not so sure. Instead, having met many travelers who have returned again and again to continue their explorations of this large and varied continent, we believe that we may well do the same. If you are new to this web site, go to our South America page in order to link to the stories about the year we spent there; or you can click on this link to go to Central America with us and enjoy our stories from those lovely countries. As you have time, we hope you’ll visit some of the other sites listed on our Links Page to connect you to other travelers you might enjoy, and our own Our Vehicle page continues to expand with added technical information as it comes to mind. To check on our travels in North America, visit our US & Canada and Mexico pages and to see more Photos of any country, use the link at the bottom of any narrative page, or go to the Photo Album Menu. Finally, for fellow travelers, we have posted our detailed Camping Logs for Central America, and South America where you can see where we’ve stayed and get information on fuel costs, propane availability and shopping locations we have found during our time in Latin America. We hope you enjoy not only our travels, but your own as well! “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” ~ Maya Angelou

Well, at long last we are about to board the plane for Europe. Today is Wednesday, March 10, and this morning we left La Tortuga “sittin’ on the dock of the bay” in Jacksonville, FL waiting to be loaded up and carried across the ocean to Zeebrugge, Belgium. Happily, everything went well during the process.
Tomorrow we will fly to France, where we will spend the next two weeks or so with our terrific friends Daniel and Anne-Marie, along with their brilliant children Pierre, Rèmi, and Jeanne whom we met in South America. This wonderful family lives on the outskirts of Paris and they have graciously offered to host us while we await the arrival of our Tiger. They are even going to pick us up at the airport – and we are arriving at 6:30 in the morning. That’s real friendship. We’ve wanted to RV in Europe ever since we left home in 2001 and at last it is really going to happen.
This first year we will most likely spend the first few months in the Benelux countries, along with some of Germany, Switzerland and northern France. Then we hope to spend summer in the British Isles. When it starts getting cold in the fall, we’ll drop down through France and southern Spain, and then cross over into Morocco. Those are the plans as of today; who knows what will actually transpire! As for beyond the first twelve months, we can’t possibly look that far ahead, but we certainly hope to see all of central and eastern Europe, the scandinavian countries, some of Russia and the middle east, some of Africa, and well, who knows?
Last June we completed our first trip to South America in fine style. We had a wonderful experience and will enjoy reliving the memories of places seen, people met and lessons learned for a long, long time. We feel very fortunate to have been able to accomplish most of the goals we set for ourselves two years ago. From Colombia in the north to Patagonia in the south, South America opened itself up for us in a wonderful way, and we truly enjoyed our stay.
We had always felt that coming to South America would probably be a once in a lifetime deal for us, but now we’re not so sure. Instead, having met many travelers who have returned again and again to continue their explorations of this large and varied continent, we believe that we may well do the same. If you are new to this web site, go to our South America page in order to link to the stories about the year we spent there; or you can click on this link to go to Central America with us and enjoy our stories from those lovely countries.
As you have time, we hope you’ll visit some of the other sites listed on our Links Page to connect you to other travelers you might enjoy, and our own Our Vehicle page continues to expand with added technical information as it comes to mind. To check on our travels in North America, visit our US & Canada and Mexico pages and to see more Photos of any country, use the link at the bottom of any narrative page, or go to the Photo Album Menu.
Finally, for fellow travelers, we have posted our detailed Camping Logs for Central America, and South America where you can see where we’ve stayed and get information on fuel costs, propane availability and shopping locations we have found during our time in Latin America.
We hope you enjoy not only our travels, but your own as well!

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
~ Maya Angelou

Site Menu:
1. More About Us
2. About Our Vehicle
3. Photo Albums
4. Camping Logs
5. Links to Others
6. Mexico
7. Central America
8. South America
9. US & Canada
10. On the Edges:
Alaska, Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia, the Yukon

Travelin-Tortuga.com

Tales from the road less traveled

We are Rick & Kathy Howe and we’ve been enjoying life on the road for more than eight years. We spent our first six years roaming North America, from California to Newfoundland and Alaska to Mexico. In Summer 2007 we visited Alaska for the second time in order to begin a Pan American Adventure. Since then we have moved south through Mexico and Central America and all the way to the farthest tip of South America before returning home to the US in June 2009. We invite you to travel along with us, sharing both the good times and the hard times of this wandering life we love. See our More About Us page to... well, learn more about us.

Latest Updates
(March 2010):
1.New and more detailed information regarding our Tiger and its systems can be accessed via the updated Our Vehicle page.
2.Check out the new Map link on this page to show you where we are.
3.Our travels in the US & Canada can now be accessed directly via the US & Canada page, and...
4.A New Page, On the Edges will take you directly to our travels in Alaska, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and the Yukon.
Watch this space for upcoming reports on our European travels.

Where are we now?

We arrive in Paris at last.

Website created by:

Rick Howe

Text and photos by:

Kathy & Rick Howe