Woke up in our second 'Motel 8' in a row just outside of Memphis. We were pleasantly surprised by an 'ok' breakfast of toast and bagels. I had my second cup of tea of the holiday.. Lipton :P .. First thing I do when I get home is have a large mug of Yorkshire tea.
We took the car back to our memphis drop off point and bartered with the guy for the cheapest rate to keep the car till DC! It started at an additional $800 but we managed to try various drop off points and got it down to $240.. Still saving us about $400 on doing it all at once in Vegas. Definitely worth trying different options when renting a car for the long haul. Different states and areas have different drop off fees that vary dramatically and saving lots of dollars is definitely worth the extra hassle.
Once we had our dodge car and sally satnav (of course she's been named.. We made her have a British accent too, just so we don't get too homesick) confirmed all the way to our next major stop we headed off to Gracelands..The home of Mr Elvis Arran Presley!
On the way we stopped at a small boots shop at the side of the road thatwas full to bursting with cowboy boots, belts and hats! The friendly old couple were very helpful and I think we all got a little carried away withour want to look like a Texan cowboy! I bought some Lizard skin boots and snakeskin belt to go with the cowgirl hat I had already bought in NewOrleans! Steve bought some Lizard boots, snakeskin belt and hat like me andJenny couldn't decide so bought 2 pairs of boots.. Well one pair were onsale so its ok! All in all I think the shop people were very pleased indeed they didn't go for the early lunch break they had planned.. I won't say what our total bill came too :-O
At Gracelands we opted for the basic tour of the Gracelands abode..Complete with trophy hut and audio tour for the grand total of $28 .. Beinga tourist is expensive. The house was pretty crazy.. Mirrors and carpets onthe ceilings, indoor waterfalls, floor to ceiling phsycadellic wallpaper,tv room, snooker room, jungle room! We headed on through to where he recorded some of his songs and then on to the many many many walls of fame! This dude had a LOT of gold and platinum records, awards, wacky outfits,the works!
The tour gave me a new found appreciation for Elvis. my image of him before was a scary looking middle aged dude with crazy sideburns, but heyElvis was HOT in his younger years.. He fought for his country and gave alot of his time and money to charities!After our Elvis fix we put on our blue suaede shoes.. Oh no I mean cowboy boots and headed into Memphis City centre. This time we had moved from jazzin New Orleans to the blues in Memphis. The streets were filled with bluesbars and shops blaring out music. We stopped for some of the local delicasy of hickery glazed pork at the 'Pig' bar and cafe - Pork with an attitude!They had won hundreds of awards for their spit roast pork and mm we cantaste why!
We headed to the local park to listen to some live music in the sun andrest a while before getting on the road again. Memphis is meant to be thehome of rock and roll, where Elvis and many other famous artists haverecorded in places such as Sun Studios.. Our next stop off! We called inbut just missed the last tour so instead Steve bought the Sun Story CD sowe could listen to the likes of Johnny Cash and Elvis as we drove ontoNasville.
We had hoped to meet up with Box and the Military boys who were just overthe state border in Arkansas but they had to train late and we had to getback on the road.
Its now 9pm and we are just outside of Nashville. We just stopped at the 'old country store' where I got a traditional milkshake and some honey sticks.. Remember those? Jen bought us each a USA flag to say thanks for doing all the driving! One for outside the front door, one for ther livingroom and one to hang in the window just to make it clear to everyone welove America :) .. Maybe we will save them for our next themed party!?!
Hopefully off out in another music filled town tonight.. First need to find a motel..
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Day 17 - NOLA Jazz and Heritage Festival!
We left the Mexican influenced South and woke up in the French influenced NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) and it just so happens to be the annual jazz and heritage festival! We are doing well at randomly bumping into annual events in different cities, or maybe there is just always something going on in America's cities?
We headed to the French quarter for breakfast parking our car in a random local car park in the middle of the city. The friendly guy limped along to find us a space then proceeded to shout at us for wonky parking and not knowing English jazz singers whose names I don't even remember since he mentioned them earlier. I wasn't sure what to expect with N'Orlans but must say I was definitely impressed and would like to come back, probably forMardi Gras or to spend more time at the jazz festival.
The buildings were beautiful with outdoor rought iron balconies just like in the movies 'fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe' and the like! The small streets were filled with street performers, horse drawn carriages, local artists, palm readers and unique little shops selling alsorts of trinkits and 'antiques'.
I can imagine this place would be a lot of fun in the evenings with jazz filled bars selling hurricane and hand grenade cocktails! Unfortunately time is running out before we have to give our car back.. At 9am in Memphis, which is approximately 500 miles away.. Back to driving!
Goodbye Louisiana, hello Missssiiiisssssiiippppiiiiii!!
Just passing through on the way to Tennassee. Stopped for more steak, chicken and fries at Applebey's restaurant in Jackson. I think I've saved about $150 so far by having water instead soda and probably saved myself from having about 5 fillings! The free refills are dangerous..you can drink a gallon of pepsi without even realising!
Well now I'm up to date again and am writing this as Steve drives the last100 miles to Memphis. We haven't passed a car in about 15 minutes..Apparently if you only get a warning for speeding it doesn't get passed between states so Steve's back up to 100mph.
Just stopped for a bit of star gazing..there is no light for miles around so the stars are so clear.. Can hear crickets croacking in the grass or arethey rattle snakes rattling? Time to make a sharp exit!
It's time for a car nap.. Night all.
We headed to the French quarter for breakfast parking our car in a random local car park in the middle of the city. The friendly guy limped along to find us a space then proceeded to shout at us for wonky parking and not knowing English jazz singers whose names I don't even remember since he mentioned them earlier. I wasn't sure what to expect with N'Orlans but must say I was definitely impressed and would like to come back, probably forMardi Gras or to spend more time at the jazz festival.
The buildings were beautiful with outdoor rought iron balconies just like in the movies 'fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe' and the like! The small streets were filled with street performers, horse drawn carriages, local artists, palm readers and unique little shops selling alsorts of trinkits and 'antiques'.
I can imagine this place would be a lot of fun in the evenings with jazz filled bars selling hurricane and hand grenade cocktails! Unfortunately time is running out before we have to give our car back.. At 9am in Memphis, which is approximately 500 miles away.. Back to driving!
Goodbye Louisiana, hello Missssiiiisssssiiippppiiiiii!!
Just passing through on the way to Tennassee. Stopped for more steak, chicken and fries at Applebey's restaurant in Jackson. I think I've saved about $150 so far by having water instead soda and probably saved myself from having about 5 fillings! The free refills are dangerous..you can drink a gallon of pepsi without even realising!
Well now I'm up to date again and am writing this as Steve drives the last100 miles to Memphis. We haven't passed a car in about 15 minutes..Apparently if you only get a warning for speeding it doesn't get passed between states so Steve's back up to 100mph.
Just stopped for a bit of star gazing..there is no light for miles around so the stars are so clear.. Can hear crickets croacking in the grass or arethey rattle snakes rattling? Time to make a sharp exit!
It's time for a car nap.. Night all.
Day 16 - Houston we have a problem!?!
It is day 16 as I write this. Finally I have caught up with myself thanks to being able to type my blog on Steve's blackberry as we drive down the empty roads between towns. We have just passed into Louisiana from Texas and have ticked over the 2222miles mark, that plus the 888 miles we drove in the convertible brings us to a moving total of 3110 miles! We've certainly done the distance.
This morning we woke up in Corpus Christi and headed off early to Houston.We passed hundreds of 'nodding donkeys' of varying sizes. By nodding donkeys I mean oil drilling machines, pumping up the black gold that has helped make much of Texas so wealthy and the reason George 'doubleYa' Bush has been so apathetic towards the environment. Helping the big oil barons make more money by changing environmental laws to support the big corporates rather than.. well.. The environment! I have a couple of books on this and the damage he has done if anyone is interested..
We passed through many more nodding donkeys and no entry areas with big Exxon signs before finally seeing some wind turbines.. And by some I mean hundreds! Exxon showing they 'care' !?!
3 hours later we arrived at Houston and our next tourist destination.. NASA Space Centre! We learnt about how astranauts live in outer space.. If you thought my dads earth toilets were bad try pissing in a tube as negative pressure pulls it away from you! We saw some of the original space suits and went in a 3 minute stimulator that took us on a roller coaster through outer space.. Definitely not worth the $4 extra we paid for it.
We decided to eat in the space centre cafe. Jenny opted for the usual fried chicken and chips (I think we are having a competition as to who can eat the most fried chicken.. Not difficult considering the option is everywhere) and Steve and I got excited with the possibility of actual fresh vegetables and got a stirfry from the 'moon wok'! Before we left Steve realised he was running out of clothes and bought a new NASA T-shirt! Its a close call as to which is more touristy.. The NASA one or the free 'cold, smooth, wild' one he got in a bar in Austin?!!
After a whistle stop tour of NASA it was time to move on out for Louisiana. On the way we stopped on the side of the road to check out the 'everything that flies' stand .. An old local selling kites, flags and birds.. And caps.. Well I guess they kinda fly when its windy!?! He almost had his wife driving from home to bring Steve a Texan cap from the box he had left there as he did not approve of Steve's trendy skateboarder cap.. but we had along way to go so said our goodbyes and promised to do as he said and 'speak well of America when you go home y'hear!?' - of course... we bloody love this place!
So far Louisiana is much like Texas.. Long straight roads, occasional country stores selling cowboy hats and boots and lots of Craccer Barrels which is where we are stopping for dinner..
Biscuits..?!?!...Hobnobs, digestives, custard creams.. The usual subjects! So exactly why do they serve them with a full steak dinner? Because biscuits over here aren't like ours at all, but instead are a kind of cross betweena scone and a muffin.. Tasty? .. Not really! I'll stick to British scones, british muffins and good ol' traditional dip in y tea biscuits!
For my dinner I had 'chicken fried chicken' and no that's not a double mistype but a popular American delicasy! I think that gets double points.
Steve and I continued to swap driving through the darkness till about midnight and we were within 20 miles of N'orlans (New Orleans in local speek) and tried to find a place to lay our heads for the night. We managed to find our way to a scary area filled with late night partiers, dodgy deals behind cars and 'would only be found dead in' motels! We decided to make a sharp exit and headed closer to town until we found a decent, safe place for the night.
This morning we woke up in Corpus Christi and headed off early to Houston.We passed hundreds of 'nodding donkeys' of varying sizes. By nodding donkeys I mean oil drilling machines, pumping up the black gold that has helped make much of Texas so wealthy and the reason George 'doubleYa' Bush has been so apathetic towards the environment. Helping the big oil barons make more money by changing environmental laws to support the big corporates rather than.. well.. The environment! I have a couple of books on this and the damage he has done if anyone is interested..
We passed through many more nodding donkeys and no entry areas with big Exxon signs before finally seeing some wind turbines.. And by some I mean hundreds! Exxon showing they 'care' !?!
3 hours later we arrived at Houston and our next tourist destination.. NASA Space Centre! We learnt about how astranauts live in outer space.. If you thought my dads earth toilets were bad try pissing in a tube as negative pressure pulls it away from you! We saw some of the original space suits and went in a 3 minute stimulator that took us on a roller coaster through outer space.. Definitely not worth the $4 extra we paid for it.
We decided to eat in the space centre cafe. Jenny opted for the usual fried chicken and chips (I think we are having a competition as to who can eat the most fried chicken.. Not difficult considering the option is everywhere) and Steve and I got excited with the possibility of actual fresh vegetables and got a stirfry from the 'moon wok'! Before we left Steve realised he was running out of clothes and bought a new NASA T-shirt! Its a close call as to which is more touristy.. The NASA one or the free 'cold, smooth, wild' one he got in a bar in Austin?!!
After a whistle stop tour of NASA it was time to move on out for Louisiana. On the way we stopped on the side of the road to check out the 'everything that flies' stand .. An old local selling kites, flags and birds.. And caps.. Well I guess they kinda fly when its windy!?! He almost had his wife driving from home to bring Steve a Texan cap from the box he had left there as he did not approve of Steve's trendy skateboarder cap.. but we had along way to go so said our goodbyes and promised to do as he said and 'speak well of America when you go home y'hear!?' - of course... we bloody love this place!
So far Louisiana is much like Texas.. Long straight roads, occasional country stores selling cowboy hats and boots and lots of Craccer Barrels which is where we are stopping for dinner..
Biscuits..?!?!...Hobnobs, digestives, custard creams.. The usual subjects! So exactly why do they serve them with a full steak dinner? Because biscuits over here aren't like ours at all, but instead are a kind of cross betweena scone and a muffin.. Tasty? .. Not really! I'll stick to British scones, british muffins and good ol' traditional dip in y tea biscuits!
For my dinner I had 'chicken fried chicken' and no that's not a double mistype but a popular American delicasy! I think that gets double points.
Steve and I continued to swap driving through the darkness till about midnight and we were within 20 miles of N'orlans (New Orleans in local speek) and tried to find a place to lay our heads for the night. We managed to find our way to a scary area filled with late night partiers, dodgy deals behind cars and 'would only be found dead in' motels! We decided to make a sharp exit and headed closer to town until we found a decent, safe place for the night.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Day 15 cont... The Rodeo!
Think of how u would imagine Texan cowboys to be dressed..( Wrangler jeans,cowboys boats, checkered shirts, big belts with large belt buckles and ofcourse a cowboy hat) .. And you would have it exactly right! Now imagineabout a thousand in one place, along with cowgirls in the matching female equivelant! We arrived to an arena filled with cowboys and cowgirls only tofeel instantly out of place with our flipflops and Steve's manbag, but heywe're from England so its all ok!
The rodeo started with a local young country girl coming into the arena ona horse with a giant American flag, parading around as a country singersang the national anthem. This was followed by the cowboy compare gettingus all to bow our heads and pray to god and jesus and thank him that we were born American! Now those of u that know me well will know I am a definite atheist, and find it hard at the best of times when told to pray,but being told to pray and be thankful for being American... Well let'sjust say I couldn't keep a straight face and almost 'peed my pants' (said in deep south texan type accent).
After all the thanks to god and America it was time to get down to somereal action.. Bull riding! We watched Corey, Cole, Cody, jimmy, Joe and Jason and numerous other cowboys get battered around for less than 8seconds on big fat angry bulls! After the bull riding we saw some steerwrestling where cowboys gallup after the small cows and jump of their horses to wrestle the cows to the ground by their horns.. A real mans sport!!?!!
We had some more thanks for the top volunteers of the year..something aagree with (can't say I've ever volunteered for a Rodeo though.. Maybe Ishould add to my list.)
Inbetween events we were entertained by a clown and the cowboy compare whowere well a little less PC than you would expect in such public places, butwe are in the deep south! Jokes included the following..
Clown's joke - 'I got caught up in an armed robbery yesyterrday, the robberasked a guy if he'd seen anything to which he replied 'I saw it all' thenwas instantly shot dead. He then asked me and I said 'I saw nothing but mywife over there saw the whole thing!' - that was the joke.. Obviouslydidn't get on with his wife.
Other sexist jokes included 'wives say an average of 7000 words a day ofwhich approximately 6000 are ' are you listening to me?'
And the top unPC joke by the cowboy - 'they've been advertising missingchildren on milk cartons and it seems to have been working well. Do youthink if a tranvestite went missing they would advertise on cartons of halfand half?' - everyone laughed.. A lot! I was in shock!
Jokes aside the next event was definitely no joke! Ever seen any MuttinBustin? Know what it is? I'm guessin probably not. Muttin Bustin is a'sport' that children of between the ages of about 5 and 8 take part in.They basically get put on the bare backs of long haired sheep and have tocling on as long as possible as the sheep run around until they fall off!Yes this is actually a sport and yes parents get their small children to partake! - only in America!
Other sports of the night included the 'calf scramble' where slightly olderchildren are let loose with a bunch of small calves and race to be thefirst to catch a calf, battle it to the ground and drag it to the middle of the arena! All in the name of entertainment right?!!
We saw some bareback riding where a horse was injured, put to sleep anddragged off stage while the compare told us it was likely he would be putdown and that was the best thing and if it was your horse you'd want whatwas best and this doesn't happen very often and.. So he went on! Later hetold us the horse was put down.. Did we need to know? It started as just asprained ankle..was that really necessary?
And so we watched some more crazy rodeo sports, ate some more fried foodand then went home for the night! And that is how my first experience of areal American rodeo went.. Entertaining, shocking, educational!?! ... Aa you've got to experience everything once!?!
The rodeo started with a local young country girl coming into the arena ona horse with a giant American flag, parading around as a country singersang the national anthem. This was followed by the cowboy compare gettingus all to bow our heads and pray to god and jesus and thank him that we were born American! Now those of u that know me well will know I am a definite atheist, and find it hard at the best of times when told to pray,but being told to pray and be thankful for being American... Well let'sjust say I couldn't keep a straight face and almost 'peed my pants' (said in deep south texan type accent).
After all the thanks to god and America it was time to get down to somereal action.. Bull riding! We watched Corey, Cole, Cody, jimmy, Joe and Jason and numerous other cowboys get battered around for less than 8seconds on big fat angry bulls! After the bull riding we saw some steerwrestling where cowboys gallup after the small cows and jump of their horses to wrestle the cows to the ground by their horns.. A real mans sport!!?!!
We had some more thanks for the top volunteers of the year..something aagree with (can't say I've ever volunteered for a Rodeo though.. Maybe Ishould add to my list.)
Inbetween events we were entertained by a clown and the cowboy compare whowere well a little less PC than you would expect in such public places, butwe are in the deep south! Jokes included the following..
Clown's joke - 'I got caught up in an armed robbery yesyterrday, the robberasked a guy if he'd seen anything to which he replied 'I saw it all' thenwas instantly shot dead. He then asked me and I said 'I saw nothing but mywife over there saw the whole thing!' - that was the joke.. Obviouslydidn't get on with his wife.
Other sexist jokes included 'wives say an average of 7000 words a day ofwhich approximately 6000 are ' are you listening to me?'
And the top unPC joke by the cowboy - 'they've been advertising missingchildren on milk cartons and it seems to have been working well. Do youthink if a tranvestite went missing they would advertise on cartons of halfand half?' - everyone laughed.. A lot! I was in shock!
Jokes aside the next event was definitely no joke! Ever seen any MuttinBustin? Know what it is? I'm guessin probably not. Muttin Bustin is a'sport' that children of between the ages of about 5 and 8 take part in.They basically get put on the bare backs of long haired sheep and have tocling on as long as possible as the sheep run around until they fall off!Yes this is actually a sport and yes parents get their small children to partake! - only in America!
Other sports of the night included the 'calf scramble' where slightly olderchildren are let loose with a bunch of small calves and race to be thefirst to catch a calf, battle it to the ground and drag it to the middle of the arena! All in the name of entertainment right?!!
We saw some bareback riding where a horse was injured, put to sleep anddragged off stage while the compare told us it was likely he would be putdown and that was the best thing and if it was your horse you'd want whatwas best and this doesn't happen very often and.. So he went on! Later hetold us the horse was put down.. Did we need to know? It started as just asprained ankle..was that really necessary?
And so we watched some more crazy rodeo sports, ate some more fried foodand then went home for the night! And that is how my first experience of areal American rodeo went.. Entertaining, shocking, educational!?! ... Aa you've got to experience everything once!?!
Day 15 - Battle of the the Flowers!
Woke up in Austin and got back on the road to San Antonio. Stopped at Starbucks for our usual breakfast of venti skinny, no cream iced frappucino with an extra shot or for me a tall hot chocolate, no whip with cinnamonsprinkles! Still doesn't beat a fresh basil hot choc tho mum :)
We arrived in San Antonio planning to stop for a quick bite to eat on theriver walk before heading to our next stop of Corpus Christi! However we just so happened to turn up on the busiest day of the year the day of the biggest parade in America.. Or so the locals say! After all everything is bigger and better in texas!?! Confirmation from my Texan friend, Adam confirmed that it is probably not the biggest parade but they will be sure to tell you it is.
We stayed for a while and watched the high school ROTC's go by, includingkids in huge walking bands and kids with rifles! - Only in America!
After the high school students it was time for the big guns, hundreds ofpolice, military, navy and firemen go by as the crowds cheer at those thatare serving their free nation! - only in America.
The parade continued with various different flower filled floats, thesheriff, the city judge, the rodeo queen, the king of something and many flower princesses with jewel encrusted dresses flowing over crazy boots andshoes which you were occasionally able to see. Exactly when did America get a monarchy!?!
Before jumping back into the car we had a brief tour of The Alamo - ashrine to those who died defending it in the Texas war for Independence.
We found our way back through the flower filled crowds of people stopping for some haagen dasz ice cream on the way and drove for another 3 hoursback to the Coast.. This time the Southern one at Corpus Christi.
Now the next experience on our trip deserves its own entry in my blog socontinue on to find out what a real deep south American rodeo is like..
We arrived in San Antonio planning to stop for a quick bite to eat on theriver walk before heading to our next stop of Corpus Christi! However we just so happened to turn up on the busiest day of the year the day of the biggest parade in America.. Or so the locals say! After all everything is bigger and better in texas!?! Confirmation from my Texan friend, Adam confirmed that it is probably not the biggest parade but they will be sure to tell you it is.
We stayed for a while and watched the high school ROTC's go by, includingkids in huge walking bands and kids with rifles! - Only in America!
After the high school students it was time for the big guns, hundreds ofpolice, military, navy and firemen go by as the crowds cheer at those thatare serving their free nation! - only in America.
The parade continued with various different flower filled floats, thesheriff, the city judge, the rodeo queen, the king of something and many flower princesses with jewel encrusted dresses flowing over crazy boots andshoes which you were occasionally able to see. Exactly when did America get a monarchy!?!
Before jumping back into the car we had a brief tour of The Alamo - ashrine to those who died defending it in the Texas war for Independence.
We found our way back through the flower filled crowds of people stopping for some haagen dasz ice cream on the way and drove for another 3 hoursback to the Coast.. This time the Southern one at Corpus Christi.
Now the next experience on our trip deserves its own entry in my blog socontinue on to find out what a real deep south American rodeo is like..
Day 14 - Keeping Austin Weird!
We arrived in Austin for a late breakfast.. Pancakes, omelettes and sausageand egg! Unless you order pancakes everything comes with eggs and cheese..In fact u can even order pancakes with eggs and cheese! Cheese mmm myfavourite!?! Or Not!!
After Steve had finished chatting up the waitress we headed towards BartonSprings a natural pool where all the locals hang out, recommended to us by locals. Unfortunately it's closed on Thursdays so we headed to the next best place.. A naturally filled swimming pool surrounded by perfect grassy sunbathing areas. It was like swimming in Evian water.. No chlorine orother chemicals! We stayed for the afternoon catching some rays and feeding the local squirrels leftover cookies!
We decided to stay outside of town for cheapness and I was designated driver so we could go back in to party on the famous bar filled 6th street!It is crazy how many people drink and drive over here..everywhere is sovast and public transport so crap there isn't really any other choice..Well actually yes there is Don't Drink!!
We went for dinner at a mexican grill and Steve and Jenny tried a vitamin filled margarita and our awesome waiter told us if u feel like u want tovom when u think of drinking tequila you've been drinking the wrong tequila.. I've obviously been drinking the wrong tequila!!
Austin is famous for all its live bands so after dinner we headed to one ofthe many bars with live music. Blues bars, jazz bars, rock bars, pianobars. We opted for a kind of 80's cock rock bar! We were instantly greetedby some big muscly American military guys who were excited to be meetingtheir second lot of English in two days. We ended up spending the eveningwith Barrett, Brian, Box and their sargent whose name didn't begin with Bso I don't remember. The scary looking dudes were actually some of thenicest guys u can meet and told us if we stick by them there would be notrouble. :)
We walked past many bars that were offering 1 dollar drinks but insteadopted for the Coyote Ugly bar where the drinks are 'slightly' more due tothe supposedly sexy women dancing and shouting on the bar (exactly like themovie). I thought I could do a lot better and so with some persuasion from the military guys I did! Dancing on the bar with Jenny and the bar girls! I'd like to remind you at this point that I was completely sober.. I think it's the Bothamley blood in me! (I can see dad cringing as he readsthis :) )
After mine and Jenny's crazy experience we decided it was Steve's turn. As Steve had treated us to dinner, we decided to treat Steve to a body shot. Iwon't go into details of what this includes but wait till u see thephotos!!! We think Steve enjoyed it!
We moved onto a couple more bars with the military men, hearing somestories of their trips to Iraq and stop off in Dublin! Jenny had somepublic snogs with Barrett before it was time for them to head back to camp. They had basically spent a week at camp beating each other up as theylearnt various fighting and protection techniques and were being tested onit all at 7am. We said our goodbyes and planned for them to visit us in England and then it was time for us to go to bed too.
After Steve had finished chatting up the waitress we headed towards BartonSprings a natural pool where all the locals hang out, recommended to us by locals. Unfortunately it's closed on Thursdays so we headed to the next best place.. A naturally filled swimming pool surrounded by perfect grassy sunbathing areas. It was like swimming in Evian water.. No chlorine orother chemicals! We stayed for the afternoon catching some rays and feeding the local squirrels leftover cookies!
We decided to stay outside of town for cheapness and I was designated driver so we could go back in to party on the famous bar filled 6th street!It is crazy how many people drink and drive over here..everywhere is sovast and public transport so crap there isn't really any other choice..Well actually yes there is Don't Drink!!
We went for dinner at a mexican grill and Steve and Jenny tried a vitamin filled margarita and our awesome waiter told us if u feel like u want tovom when u think of drinking tequila you've been drinking the wrong tequila.. I've obviously been drinking the wrong tequila!!
Austin is famous for all its live bands so after dinner we headed to one ofthe many bars with live music. Blues bars, jazz bars, rock bars, pianobars. We opted for a kind of 80's cock rock bar! We were instantly greetedby some big muscly American military guys who were excited to be meetingtheir second lot of English in two days. We ended up spending the eveningwith Barrett, Brian, Box and their sargent whose name didn't begin with Bso I don't remember. The scary looking dudes were actually some of thenicest guys u can meet and told us if we stick by them there would be notrouble. :)
We walked past many bars that were offering 1 dollar drinks but insteadopted for the Coyote Ugly bar where the drinks are 'slightly' more due tothe supposedly sexy women dancing and shouting on the bar (exactly like themovie). I thought I could do a lot better and so with some persuasion from the military guys I did! Dancing on the bar with Jenny and the bar girls! I'd like to remind you at this point that I was completely sober.. I think it's the Bothamley blood in me! (I can see dad cringing as he readsthis :) )
After mine and Jenny's crazy experience we decided it was Steve's turn. As Steve had treated us to dinner, we decided to treat Steve to a body shot. Iwon't go into details of what this includes but wait till u see thephotos!!! We think Steve enjoyed it!
We moved onto a couple more bars with the military men, hearing somestories of their trips to Iraq and stop off in Dublin! Jenny had somepublic snogs with Barrett before it was time for them to head back to camp. They had basically spent a week at camp beating each other up as theylearnt various fighting and protection techniques and were being tested onit all at 7am. We said our goodbyes and planned for them to visit us in England and then it was time for us to go to bed too.
Day 13 - Who shot JFK?!?
As we awoke up in the light we found we were in Fort Worth about 30 mins outside of dallas. We drove into dallas city centre for breakfast at alocal cafe. The sun was hot and I instantly felt like a was burning.. At90F it turned out I was!
We went for a tour of the 6th floor museum..what was th Dallas bookdepository, where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I decided to do it properly and took the audio tour.About half way round I had tears running down my face as I watched thevideo and saw the pictures of one of America's great Presidents being shot.I can see why many Americans have suggested that Obama may get shot.. not because he is black but because of his forward, different, liberal ways of thinking..there are a lot of similarities to the things jfk was saying over4 decades ago.
After seeing some of the evidence I can see why there are so many peopleand books suggesting it wasn't Oswald that let of the fatal shot.. But then I'm quite sceptical about a lot of these things.. Who is responsible for sept 11th, was Princess Diana's death an accident? Did aliens really landat Roswell?
Moving on ... After seeing the grassy knoll and the 'x' spot where JFK wasshot we headed to see some bronze cowboys for photo opps before heading tothe library to use the internet. You get 55 mins free, tho u have to sharethe space with some of dallas's more crazy crackers giving u funny looksand comments.
After getting our facebook fix we headed out of dallas to meet Steve'scousin, wife and daughter for dinner at a true texan steak house..which turned out to be australian, oh well the steaks were still bloody good! Despite the kind offer of a place to stay at Steve's family's place for the night we decided to get back on the road and as close to austin as possible.
2.5 hrs into the drive it was almost 1am so we stopped at a random motel just outside a town called Troy for the night and decided to drive the rest of the way in the morning.
We went for a tour of the 6th floor museum..what was th Dallas bookdepository, where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I decided to do it properly and took the audio tour.About half way round I had tears running down my face as I watched thevideo and saw the pictures of one of America's great Presidents being shot.I can see why many Americans have suggested that Obama may get shot.. not because he is black but because of his forward, different, liberal ways of thinking..there are a lot of similarities to the things jfk was saying over4 decades ago.
After seeing some of the evidence I can see why there are so many peopleand books suggesting it wasn't Oswald that let of the fatal shot.. But then I'm quite sceptical about a lot of these things.. Who is responsible for sept 11th, was Princess Diana's death an accident? Did aliens really landat Roswell?
Moving on ... After seeing the grassy knoll and the 'x' spot where JFK wasshot we headed to see some bronze cowboys for photo opps before heading tothe library to use the internet. You get 55 mins free, tho u have to sharethe space with some of dallas's more crazy crackers giving u funny looksand comments.
After getting our facebook fix we headed out of dallas to meet Steve'scousin, wife and daughter for dinner at a true texan steak house..which turned out to be australian, oh well the steaks were still bloody good! Despite the kind offer of a place to stay at Steve's family's place for the night we decided to get back on the road and as close to austin as possible.
2.5 hrs into the drive it was almost 1am so we stopped at a random motel just outside a town called Troy for the night and decided to drive the rest of the way in the morning.
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