Devall Travels

With a limited number of tickets for the main Thiepval commemoration we were going to be lucky to get any. So when our group was successful twice, winning four tickets, it was amazing. Now there needs to be some working out who will go with Cal and Trevor. I have begun looking at other commemorations in the area for those of us not lucky enough to get to Thiepval. More to follow.

We already have Ian and Paul joining the group and now Trevor Rice has signed up.

Over a period of weeks I have been in email communications with the hotel in Amiens booking the rooms, directly instead of using booking.com. The hotel is fully booked and we have most of the rooms currently: Central Anzac currently: David Robinson - single Ken Fulton - single Calvert Price, Neil Dalton, Ian Gardner - triple Elaine Constable   & Ken Sole - twin Paul Devall & Claire Devall - double Ian Jenkinson and another - twin Trevor Rice - double Thirteen of us going. The largest turnout ever.

The last hotel booking fell into place when my brother, Neill, booked us into the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook whilst he was staying there on his R66 trip. Coincidentally, before I emailed him, he had posted this card to us. According to Google maps, Scottsdale to Holbrook is 174 miles, but we will plan things to see en route. Such as the petrified forest and I'll be scouring the Rough Guide as well.

With quite a few blogs covering travels that Claire and I have done over the years it was getting too much to manage and so using the Blogger export and import tool, I have merged them here. Now almost only in one place. One blog won't export/import from its home location as apparently I have exceeded the number that can be imported.....  "Come back later" it says....

Looking at 2016. The chance to go to Norway fell through and so we have booked another trip to the US for earlier in the year, The way the timeshare "trading value" works means that after booking the US week, it leaves (hopefully) enough in the bank for another week. So I am looking at Spain later in the year , 2016. We like the Malaga area. It's where we have been before in October. It's warm, sunny and it's easy to chill. Let's see what RCI can offer. At the moment there a very few resorts showing their availability for October 2016. I will keep checking back over the next few weeks and months.

The Meldrews squad from the last two years have saddled up again for the trip in 2016. Added to the group for 2016 are Ian and Paul, both Laguna Ashford RAT members. This year is the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme and across the battlefield there are commemorations to mark the occasion. So far only the main event at Thiepval has published details and a ballot to attend the ceremony. We have all entered  and wait now until late November before we know if any of us has been successful. As the others come online we need to apply for those as well. I emailed the hotel with a list of members and asked for the same rooms again. Hopefully this year Claire will accompany me.