Happy Halloween!

This year we had a very unique Halloween, partly because it fell on the day before we are suppose to  move into our winter home in Spain and we are on the road going at a fast pace. We saw a cute picture of Daisy dressed in her witch costume at a Halloween party she went to just before we got there and we liked this cute pumpkin and goblins display we saw outside their campsite, so there are always opportunities to celebrate even on the road. We picked up a little pumpkin at the hypermarket too.

We decided to make our own celebration because we had our longest drive day yet because we wanted to get as close to our winter village as possible. We had a pretty grueling drive from about ten in the morning until almost seven as it is hot and loud in the camper. I think we have air conditioning, but we never use it. It reminded us of a long drive we once did in Baja, Mexico in a small camper with relentless sun and endless mountains and deserted desert landscape. We were planning on stopping at Mojarcar but as we got close, we thought we could go further, so I looked up a campsite in Almerimar which is about a half hour south of Allicante tacking on a couple more hours to our drive. We figured the more we did this day, the less there would be tomorrow and we were on a roll and in the drive groove. We are all excited about getting home
to our winter home!

But when we arrived fairly exhausted and drained and ready for a hot shower to wash off the road, we found our huge campsite no longer exists as a high rise is now on the beach in its place. Bummer! Mozart had been such a good traveler all day reading lots and watching DVD’s and playing games on her leapster.
After searching thru my various books frantically as the sun started to set and not finding anything close and asking and hearing there were no campsites  around, we debated whether to just camp at the side of the road somewhere or get a hotel.  Ever since we met that young Australian couple who camped at a highway stop and slept in their locked camper and someone entered while they were sleeping in the middle of the night and stole their GPS, we have been hesitant to camp outside of a secure campsite. Halloween night did not seem like the best time to test out the waters, tho it probably would have been safe.

So much to Mozart’s delight, we decided to splurge on yet another hotel and set off to find one in this
little beach resort that seemed to be in the middle of no where. We found a large holiday resort hotel
right on the beach with every amenity for quite a low price well under what we paid for that Best Western
in Provence (which even that was less than what we paid for dinner once in Burgundy). I hated to spend money on a hotel at this point when we are so close, but it seemed like the most logical thing to do. It reminded me very much of a place we once stayed on a winter vacation in Puerto Vallarta Mexico before Mozart was born, but there was hardly anyone here.

So it was quite a luxurious Halloween, starting with an incredible buffet dinner of every good thing you can imagine that DaVinci particularly liked. He is a man who loves food and was glad to have a big meal after
a pretty hard days drive. The breakfast buffet was included and we loved that too and Mozart said it won hands down on the best breakfast ever. It reminded me of the lovely big English style breakfasts we had on our trip to the UK that we really enjoyed.

After dinner we broke out the Halloween candy we had bought at the hypermarket and ate it while we watched the Nightmare Before Christmas on our laptop in our large room all snuggled together. Definitely a different kind of Halloween, but just right for us this year.

In the morning before breakfast we had the indoor pool and hot tub to ourselves and really enjoyed that escapade. It was a great way to start the morning and something Mozart had been wanting for a while. We knew we did not have too much further to go, so took our time and did not head out until a little past noon.