Mesa Verde

So this post should have been before Monument Valley but the blog didn't like it so here it is again. 

The usual morning routine took place in the van by 8 for a 20 minute drive from camp to the Mesa Verde visitors centre tickets acquired we had an hours drive up the mountain which made Myles very angry as yet again it was a beautiful winding road he couldn't ride a bike on!

Once at the top we had an hour before our tour started so we did a self guided tour to some of the old settlement from the 1200s

We had a good look around the houses and even got to go into the underground part down a ladder. 

We all met up as a group again ready for our tour. We were greeted by our guide Mary and she had the worst voice in the world. (If anyone has seen the South Park with Towlie it's that sort of a voice!)

Anyways she gave us a safety briefing that could rival the British. Don't do this tour if you don't like ladders, dark spaces, small spaces, heights, if you have a heart condition and there was more! She then explained how we would have to fit through a hole the size of her had. Well that was a laugh! 

We started the tour deciding we all wanted to go ahead, got through the gate an got the same message again giving people the option to go back before we go up the first ladder. The ladders were all wooden, 10ft high an surprisingly hot! 

We all got up to see the view, it was breath taking like a much smaller version of the Grand Canyon. We learnt all about the people that lived within the settlements, there was up to 30,000 at their peak. After this came the infamous caves which were the size of a hat. We could quite happily crawl and shuffle through with plenty of room which caused great amusement within the group. After this more ladders and then a group photo at the end. We didn't just use 1 camera everyone wanted one and there was about 9 photos taken! (Soon to be uploaded to the gallery) 

It was a really lovely and very interesting except the tour guides voice, but this made for a good laugh there after! 

Monument Valley

So after a 3 hour drive from Mesa-Verde we entered into Utah I would have something to say about this place however it is just desert. There are a few shrubs but that is about it. The mountains however are stunning and the ground is a vibrant red colour very much like mars! A little further down the road and we arrived in monument valley. We were speechless. I have seen photos of this place end even videos but nothing can do this place justice other than actually being there. The views, the colour and the incredible heat! We have never felt heat like it. We offloaded the trailer of the bits we needed for the night ahead, oh forgot to mention we were planning on sleeping under the stars away from any civilisation. Our off road vehicle arrived for the Jeep tour (which was actually a ford F350). We 

loaded up with our sleeping bags mats and ovecourse my camera! Lots of water later we were off heading straight for the desert. We had a native Indian tour guide that was a really nice guy and was showing us around the amazing natural structures. Driving deeper into the desert and getting sandier and loosing all sence of direction we came across a massive sand dune! Obviously the shoes came off and we ran around like we were 5 year olds, having races and rolling down it. Many mouthfulls of sand and bottles of water later we moved on to find our camp site. Our guide and his family had 

cooked us their typical dinner, it was a deep fried flatbread that was the size of a dinner plate. Looked a little like a massive Yorkshire pudding. It was filled with a layer of beans in a Mexican style sauce, topped with diced tomato, lettuce, onion, grated chesse and a big wedge of steak, heaven. It went down a treat with an ice cold coca cola. We were then entertained by the local music and tribal dancing which was great until we had to join in!! Fun and games over and we decided to call it a night as the sun set on the horizon. 

A bit of a breeze had built up and unfortunately it had clouded over so we couldn't see the stars, by the time we walked to the 4x4 and back with our bags it was very windy and it was picking up the sand aswell. Laura and me very quickly rolled out the mats and took shelter in the sleeping bags. By this time it was a fully blown sand storm, in the space of 5 mins it had gone from paradise to crazyness! Others were not so lucky in getting into their bags. Liam's pillow blew away and in the time he had taken to retrieve it his sleeping bag had taken off and his floor mat with it. This everyone found hilarious and couldn't stop laughing which was a bad move because we just got sand in our mouths. Our guide decided that this was going to get worse so called us to get in the 4x4 and we would head for his family's shelter, basically a mud hut. This was easier said than done in million mile an hour winds. I had the sence to put everythig inside my sleeping bag while I was in it and quickly get out and roll it to keep everything safe. Laura took the bags and pillow and I took the mats, again others were lacking in sence a little, Nicky lost her pillow and her shorts and were nowhere to be seen and as we were driving away Liam somehow managed to drop his phone out the side of the 4x4! That was found luckily. I also haven't  yet mentioned that this 4x4 has no roof, or windscreen, or doors, so you can imaging how we were getting sand blasted! We got to our hut after a 25 minute drive (we really were in the middle of nowhere) and legged it inside. This was much better however it was hot so we elected to leave the door open and got the occasional drift of sand on us. 

Eventually we managed to get a little sleep. At around 1AM I was awoken by the sound of a Laura needing the toilet. I didn't mind that much because I needed to aswell however this was no easy task as I had no idea where a toilet was and the sand storm was still fully under way. We ventured outside just wondering around trying to see where we were going and keep sand out of our eyes! We came across some buildings but all there was was a barking dog at which point I thought it a good idea to head back to the hut, we found a secluded area of sand that looked suitable and at the last second I could make out something that looked toilet like, GREAT SUCCESS! Laura went while I was on dog patrol and vice versa we ran back and went back to sleep. At somepoint in the night I was elbowed by Susanne but I didn't mind because she works for Audi and that made it ok. Just gone 5am and our tour guide came in saying it was time to get up, we dusted everything off and headed for a nice spot to watch the sunrise. Again speechless. When the sun was up we headed for some breakfast (only cereal) but there was Sunny D! Also we were on a mission to retrieve Nicky's belongings, I found the shorts and her pillow, the pillow was a bit of a climb ontop of some rocks, however the pillow case was nowhere to be seen... Then back to civilisation. Loaded up the trailer and went to the visitor centre to have a quick wash. I spent a good half hour deconstructing my camera and lenses emptied them of sand and have it a good clean, all seems to be ok though... Now back on the road heading for the Grand Canyon which again we are VERY excited about! Unfortunately the blog may only be updated after a couple of days as Internet is getting scarce out here!

Bye for now!  

Colorado

Hello all,

(Long blog post so if your reading this before work or school save it until your at work or when your home from school)!

This morning we awoke by the pool, which straight away brings me on to last night! After voting not to erect tents and to break into the pool we did exactly that. Gathering all the nights equipment we headed as a group down to the pool. We had planned this when we were swimming earlier so had cunningly placed a chair outside the pool wall. Ollie offered to hop over first to collect all the bags mats etc that we threw over. A couple of us then hopped over and went into the poolhouse. The manager of the camp site then turned up, we thought we were busted however he was just locking up the television room and Laura and me were evicted because we were pretending to do a puzzle! After he had left we climbed over and set up camp. We were warm dry and bug free not to mention on a lovely wooden floor which was a lovely change from desert sand! 

Morning came and we had slept brilliantly, best nights sleep since the hotel, the mornings procedure was the reverse of the night before. Breakfast done we were packed and on the road to Santa Fe which turned out to be the most interesting and the most boring place in the world depending on your view of art. There were many galleries and that was about it, it was a strange town it looked like we were in Spain the houses were very much like you would see in Spain or turkey. Laura's input for this blog was "the church looked churchy". we were used to seeing churches that look like warehouses but this looked like a proper church! 

We then walked up the road to see the oldest building in Santa Fe we took photos and posed in front of it with the group. Only to realise that this house was actually an estate agents and the house was next door 😔 I think it dated back to the 1600's either way it looked very similar to the office next door! We then split up as some wanted to do art galleries and others wanted to visit other places of interest. We however are British tourists and have little interest of these so we walked around aimlessly with a couple of others to waste the 2 hours we had to spare. We had a chat with a lovely man about his rather lovely Audi R8 which had broken down, I tried to help mend it but it turned out to be a dodgy battery and put the electronics on lockdown. So I left him to it. Time wasted and we were back on the bus down to our camp site in Colorado. Again we were at 39degrees so very hot, 5 hours I think it was today, which would have been ok but everyone seems to be ill. Some of the group feel absolutely fine some are sick some have an interactive backside and some just feel rubbish. Laura is the headache and I'm just rubbish. But hopefully it's just a 24 hour thing, probably the result of swimming in the river...

Eventually we arrived at our campsite and Nicky Ollie and myself cooked dinner as many of the group just went to have a lay down in the tents. Our driver Alex had a sleep in the bus. Tonight was a pesto pasta with garlic bread (plain pasta for the fussy ones) it went down a treat and was all eaten! Tonight we have put up tents as a BIG storm is heading in, we can see in the distance black clouds and fork lightening so have anchored down well expecting he worst. It's to be expected considering how humid it is here. Anyway I'm falling asleep writing this so ill attach a photo or 2 and wrap myself in the mosquito net, yes they are back.... Night night (Laura is already asleep bless her) love to you all miss you lots xxxxx

This is the view from our tent it's incredible, if you look closely on the left you can see the storm rolling in. 

If you prefer shorter posts please comment and say so. However the longer it is the more you can see what we have been up to! Let us know. If there's something you want to know then ask!!!

Roswell - Santa Fe

So today is Alien day. We jumped in the bus at the usual 8am after Liam found his phone in reception! Luckily it hadn't been stolen. 

So we had a 2 hour drive to Roswell. We had a bit of an intro to the town firstly seeing cut out Aliens in the sand as we approached. Even the street lights were in the shape of Alien heads. 

We jumped out the van and headed into the only attraction in the town the museum as it was called. It honestly looked like an awful alien convention haha. We had a read about the great Roswell Alien conspiracy how a 7 year old boy found all this metal after a big storm. After that the military arrived and it was in the papers that it was a UFO that was found. A day later the whole area was on military shut down and the people were told it wasn't a UFO that it was a weather balloon. A decade or so later one of the men spoke out saying it was a UFO that it was a big cover up and that they found aliens dead and alive. 

This was all very interesting and amusing to look at. After about an hour we ventured out into the heat looking for something else to do in Roswell. There was nothing it was such a sleepy cowboy town. We walked for about an hour looking for something to do and ended up in a scrapbook shop and a ford dealership and Myles found a rather nice shelby mustang.  So food it was, we met up with the rest of the group on the way back and had a subway. Laura had a meatball sub and Myles had a footlong BLT. 2 hours later It was time to get back on the bus and now were off to Santa Fe.   

Again the road was rather long and very straight. The scenery was a little more interesting as the colour of the soil changed and the already desert like ground became drier to almost just sand and rocks. Still no sign of a tumbleweed though...

Anyway we got to our campsite and it was still just as hot. So after taking bags out of the trailer we headed straight to the pool! Somehow the pool is a physics bending pool, the water was freezing! How that is possible nobody knows but after a deep breath a big dive and we were in. Ohhh so refreshing. We cracked out the water pistols I found under the seats and had an awesome time shooting eachother! We dried off and came up to make some dinner, tonight was bacon scrambled egg and American hash browns (basically grated potato) wasn't too bad but could have done with a little more. No tents were erected tonight as the plan is to break into the pool and sleep in the poolhouse. It's so hot here but luckily it's not as humid as before its more of a dry heat. Will let you know how tonight goes tomorrow morning, night night all...

Above is the crazy roads, below is the view from a fuel station heading to Santa Fé just to give you an idea of the dryness

!

And finally below is sunset over our campsite... Shame about the power cables.

New Mexico, getting hot.....

So we arrived in New Mexico as the green slowly died away as we were starting to enter the desert. The roads here are boring to say the least. You can look out to the hazy horizon and just see where the road meets the sky. A good 10 mins later and you get the exact same view! The odd oil rig or bush and the mountains change that's it! Although finally a real speed limit we are allowed 80mph not the stuuuupid 55 we are used to! 

Last night we arrived relatively late to our campsite after visiting the Carlsbad caverns. Which may I add were amazing! We travelled over 700ft down underground and it opened up into the 'kings palace' which is a massive void. The rest was a 1 1/2 hour trail through the caverns, have a look at the gallery soon ill upload the photos when I can. After doing this and coming up to desert heat at the surface we drove back to the campsite. We didn't have the energy to put our tents up, it was so hot so we elected not to bother, we put a tarpaulin on the ground a mat on that then our sleeping bags on those, this decision was copied with 7 of us all in a line! (Luckily no Elvis playing this time hurrah!) Nearly everyone was planning on sleeping outside!!

 We then took a drive back to the caverns to whiteness a bat flight. There was expected to be around half a million bats leaving the caves at 20:15 right on time some bats came out and then more and more. However in all it was unfortunately underwhelming, there was a few thousand came out but not the half million swarm, but that's nature unfortunately. We drove back to the campsite which was about 25 mins or so, we clambered under our net and snuggled down for sleep after Liam found his pillow and got it down from the roof. 

It got a little chilly at 2 ish in the morning so we climbed into our sleeping bags not waking up until I watched the sunrise at 5. Had another hour and a half sleep and got up for a wash. Today we are heading To head down to Roswell which is famous for the UFO conspiracy from the 1940's expected temperature is 40degrees! Looking forward to the aircon in the bus.....

I FOUND THE PANORAMIC PHOTO MODE ON MY PHONE!!! this is the view from the Carlsbad cavern.

Texas

So today we had a rather short drive only 3 hours or so. We stopped in San-Antonio  To have a look at the Alamo square, it was the scene of an intense battle that killed many people. We then had a river walk for a couple of hours. It's a river that runs through the city centre, through hotels and restaurants it was beautiful. The whole area is built around this river and there are stunning man made waterfalls dotted around. We had a little rest in one of the malls where the river runs through and WALL.E came out because his film was on! So he watched that for a little while. Later on we met up with our fellow tentists and had a short drive to our campsite. It's stunning here facilities are rather basic but we had a good swim in the warm river which was so refreshing after the 36 degree heat of the day. As for the rest of the day it's the same old story really dinner cooked by group 2 tonight which was a delightful chille con carné and smores for pudding. (I think that's how they are spelt) I would ask Laura but she's asleep! We have an early start tomorrow it's a long driving day about 9 hours however we change timezones again so it's infact 8 hours! We are starting to get more and more into the countryside now and the landscape is just getting better and better. Not long before the Grand Canyon now and other national parks! 

This is the view from our tent unfortunately it was getting dark when I took this but you get the idea! Wish you were all here too see it aswell as us... Hopefully ill get some time to do the gallery tomorrow and also update the WALL.E page, he really has been busy!

Bye from us for today xx

Things we don't like.

Things we don't like,

Tenting. Spiders, mainly tarantulas. Big flying bug things. Mosquitos. Liam. Lack of marmite. Tenting. New orleans ghetto. Supermarket layouts. Rednecks. Being in the back of the van. Tenting. Serious humidity. Hurricane winds.

After a long day driving through Texas yesterday we did all there was to do at NASA and headed off to our campsite. We were right next to a mahusive lake so were expecting Mosquitos, which is one of Laura's dislikes. Amazingly we got there and there was a lack of them just some jetskis blaring about on the water however there was a shriek from one of the girls so we all went to look and it was a rather large wild brown Texas tarantula.  It was eradicated.  Unless it can swim out of the lake. Anyway panic over we started to erect the tents and again there was a scream. Same procedure as before. We were not looking forward to tonight's tenting. After a rather good steak dinner and Liam's mashed potato which was really jacket potato texture we reluctantly headed for bed. 3am arrived and we were awoken by a light breeze, I got up to see what was going on, to peg the tent down and help rebuild others tents that had been destroyed also to put away all the cooking gear and boxes in the trailer. Tents secure and anchored down we aimed for some more sleep. We woke up when our alarm went off and got up to a beautiful morning over the lake, thinking last nights million mph winds were a dream. They weren't. Plants everywhere and things moved from people's RV parks. Had a lovely shower and returned to the tent to find it was being protected by a security guard. Yes it was another tarantula. Again after it was eradicated we packed up, had breakfast and are on the road again now.  So yes things we don't like and last nights interactive weather!

More from us soon bye... X

Houston Space Centre, Texas (NASA)

So we missed a blog day when we were in New Orleans. 

We stayed in the Ghetto and didn't do a lot other than going on the Mississippi River. 

Today we headed out of the ghettos of New Orleans to Houston Texas to go visit the Houston Space Centre (NASA). 

This was amazing we had half a day to explore we went to mission control saw space rocks, space food and lots of rockets and spaceships :)

A great day all in all! Oh the highlight was Liam and Myles going in the children's play area faster than I could take a picture and then getting told they were too tall to go in the ball pit!

Dinner tonight is steak and hopefully a bit of pool time to cool off! 

Sleeping under the stars with Elvis

So we came back from Memphis ready for bed and jumped in the tent, sleeping bags open time to settle down for another sticky night in the tent. All is quiet in the camp and we hear this loud buzzing from a bug or 2. Laura instantly goes mad thinking its in the tent. After a sweep ensuring there are no beetles or bugs in the tent we see it in the outside fly sheet and go back to sleep assured it can't get through the mesh. 

I was asleep and Laura half way there and laura feels something land on her so it got a  swipe off with a scream and i grabbed a torch to find the culprit. Behind my pillow is a horrible brown flying beetle that was about 30mm long and looked rather like a cockroach with funny legs and head! After a wack with my shoe it had a headache after 3 more it was dead. (Blooming resilient things) Out the tent it went and back to sleep. We could still hear a few outside the tarp so assumed our sweep had missed one. Back to sleep again. 

This happened 2 more times and the final straw was when Myles could hear one behind his head. That one got a good headache and we were outa there! 

Sleeping bags, pillows and mosquito net in tow we headed for the sun loungers by the pool awning. 

We got there to see Eigor half asleep listening to Elvis on a sun lounger. We explain what's happened and Ollie comes along and listens too. Eigor thinks its an amazing idea to join us sleeping outside and runs to his tent and returns with a sleeping bag. Ollie decides to check out his tent situation and then decide. We can see lights in his tent followed by some whacking noises. After 10 mins we had our beds for the night ready. Ollie returned with a sleeping bag after electing that the tent was a bad move so we all settled down for the night.

 We had sleeping bags on the bottom and wrapped ourselves in a mosquito net to avoid getting anymore bites as there has been LOADS. (This came with an overwhelming smell of repellant which is quite strong when it's on your face!)

So it's about 11:30 now were all tired and the Elvis radio station is still playing full belt. This got very tiresome we went to look for the source of power and it was padlocked shut. Bugger.  So Elvis sung us to sleep and never stopped the whole night...  At about 4am we got a little chilly and went inside the sleeping bags and we were up as usual by 6-6:30. 

Now if we didn't have Elvis that would have been a great nights sleep! 

So yeah that's our night that we spent sleeping under the stars with Elvis. 

We also subliminally know all the words to every Elvis song as they played non stop all night! 

Memphis

So we arrived in Memphis hot and a little shaken, it was our turn in the back of the bus! No air con and super bumpy. but at least it was only a short drive today. (3.5 hours) 

Lunch done tents up and it's off to Graceland Elvis' home. 

It was an audio headset tour that you follow around the house. It was one of the best tours we've done so far it was so interesting to see where he lived all the 60s/70s decor (carpet on the walls and celing a particulcar favourite of ours) All of his records and various outfits from his live tours. After we finished touring his house we snuck into Elvis' plane which was named after his daughter. We didn't have tickets to do this part so followed a big group in and snuck past to have a cheeky look! The plane was pretty good just like any other private jet with gold lined sinks... It was pretty cool and learnt that Elvis didn't like alcohol and drunk a lot of soft drinks, this meant he had 17 different kinds on board! Including an old bottle of Coke and Gatorade they had preserved in his drinks cabinet.

After that it was the end of our tour which meant no more aircon so it was a shortwalk back to the camp site and straight into the pool again. After pool time we were going out for a group meal in Memphis town. All in the van and we're off. We get an hour to have a look around the Main Street. (Beale street) We have a good look around the bars and shops found the local Hard Rock Café then we saw it..! The Fed Ex Forum! A huge Fed Ex stadium! (For those who don't know since Laura and I met we've been playing the Fed Ex game which is like yellow car but with anything Fed Ex, it started with vans and got bigger. Now were in America it's got INSANE!) so Myles saw it first so he got 1 million points and he's in the lead because he had 5 Fed Ex planes too. 

We moved on and headed back to our resteraunt for the evening. B B kings. 

We walked in and got I.D'd so no drinking for us tonight. Got our soft drinks as waited for the others to arrive. We got taken to our table which was right next to the stage. All the resteraunts in Beale Street have live Jazz and Blues music every night. We took a look at the Menus as the first band started. This was the best band we heard and it was amazing! It had a female black singer on main vocals and she was brilliant. We were all singing along enjoying the music and it was time to order food. Myles ordered a Hickory Burger which came with onion rings cheese and bacon all smothered in BBQ sauce. I ordered the same but a chicken burger, Josh and Liam ordered the soul platter which came with deep fried pickles catfish and chicken wings. Once all the food arrived it looked great! (Except the deep fried pickles they looked as gross as they sounded!) Our burgers were huge and we started to make our way through them whilst enjoying the music. Half way through it was the end of the first band and it was a little quieter so we could talk to eachother now. We both tried some catfish and oh my it was beautiful! After dinner the second Jazz band started, much more Authentic with saxophone players and instantly this old man was up dancing away. He looked like he was using an invisible Zimmer frame and we enjoyed watching him then he started to head for our table and asked our tour CEO to dance, she jumped up and started dancing with him so a bunch of us went and joined them dancing. After the song finished we went and sat back down. We listened to a few more songs and danced a few more times as well then it was time to head back to camp for bed at about 10. 

There's another story to come about our evenings sleep so make sure to check it out in our next post! 

This is us 'walking in Memphis!' Literally!

Nashville

So last night we arrived at our camp ground about 5ish rather tired to see our spot.. Wet sandy gravel :(

Tent up still no rain luckily and then onto dinner. We had stir fry which was pretty good so onto starting a fire for Myles which along with loading up the trailer has become his domain. Very damp ground, logs and sticks didn't make for easy foraging or starting the fire but after about half an hour got going enough to put the big logs over it to get it going properly. Asked for some help balancing the logs above the fire and Liam dropped it on top of Myles' tipi of sticks! >< 

It was still going just Hemming gave him a hand rebuilding and got it going again! We finally had a full fire and we were rather glad as it was getting a little chilly!

After it was s'mores YUM! 

We started to play articulate all writing famous names onto paper and grouping up trying to describe them without saying their name. A few names being Obama, the queen of England, Pamela Anderson, Lady Gaga and Myles' input of Lewis Hamilton of course! 

The second round we could only use one word with the same names and the last round which was the best you had to act it out. This ended up with Myles holding his fake boobs running around the camp fire being Pamela Anderson, the Queen being mistaken for Lewis Hamilton and the description of Lady Gaga being that crazy singer lady the ALEHANDRO. All good fun! 

Today we had a big long drive to Nashville it took about 5 hours and we crossed a timezone meaning we gained an hour :) 

So we arrived in Nashville and had a little wonder around the town took a look in the Hard Rock Café. After that we chilled by the river and took another wonder down a few side streets off broadway. We ended up in a Harley Davidson shop looking at bikes, popped into hooters and ended up in a HUGE retro sweet shop! It had all sorts of sweets and drinks very lovely and appetising! We carried on looking around the town taking in the sights and a living statue which Myles had a photo with. 

After this we came across all the One Direction fans waiting for a concert and decided to check the time and with 10 minutes till pick up headed back to the van. 

We got to camp to find out it was Jelly Stone campsite based on Yogi Bear. Everything was Yogi Bear themed from the toilet door signs to the big Yogi bear dressed up wondering the park... Tent up in the sweltering heat, bags dumped we all headed straight for the pool. We started with 3 of us playing piggy in the middle this then turned into 8 of us playing 'street piggy' in the middle which resulted in Eigor's shorts getting ripped and many people getting pushed and dunked under the water! 

We all got a little exhausted after a while and decided to play shoulder wars which equally didn't end well. Shoulder wars then developed into seeing if we could get 3 people on shoulders which we did with Alex, Josh and Nikki. Then we tried to make a pyramid with me on top! :S 

I sat on Myles and Liam's shoulders and they went on Josh, Eigor and Ollie's shoulders and we just managed to make the pyramid and get a photo! 

By the time it took to make the pyramid it was time to head back to camp for dinner and it was Myles' group turn to cook! On the menu today was burgers chips and corn on the cob! And oh my was it yummy, Myles took the manly position of making and cooking the burgers and everyone else prepped the table and cooked onions, chips and corn. 

After this we had a chilled evening chatting watching the fireflies around the camp site. 

Shenandoah National Park

6am start today tents down as we are moving on to Arlington Cemetery and Shenandoah for a hike. The Cemetery was mind blowing it had graves from anyone who served in any war in America    There were over a quarter of a million all lined up as far as the eye could see. We walked further in to watch the changing of guards at the tomb the unknown soldier. This was to honour all soldiers that weren't identified, there were 3 tombs one man from WW1,2 and the Vietnam War. The changing of guards was interesting. After this we walked past the JFK memorial and left for our next destination. 

Well that was the plan. Had a great drive there lots of good tunes from everyone's iPods as we headed for the national park. 

Soon as we saw the first sign for the park  ... Rain, again! Only spitting so we stayed hopeful and carried on up the road. 

Now the road was beautiful! Myles would have given anything even in the rain to be on a big touring bike up that road. It was constant banked corner after corner! Which was great until we got high enough to be in the clouds.. This meant no visibility and painfully slow in our big box minivan and trailer combo. 

But eventually we got to the top and by that time the rain was pouring! We ran to the visitors centre and had a look around at the information about the park as we couldn't see it through the clouds and mist.

Some of the others decided to hike anyways and a few of us were left with the keys, to hang around looking at the park. We had the better deal. They were soaked and muddy whilst we sat in the warm looking at baby deers! They were so cute, no bears though :(

After this we head to West Virginia for our camp spot for the night. So far no rain! Huzzah although predicted 80% chance of rain, boo.

Although Friday night is a hotel night so we have that to look forward to! Even if it is in New Orleans.....

Washington DC

So today was the hottest day we've experienced so far, we were expecting a thunderstorm over night but no such luck so we were stuck with the muggy weather all day. I can safely say neither of us have sweated so much! Backpacks were sweaty clothes had marks just gross! 

On a nicer note when we were in Washington we first walked to see the Washington monument but it was covered in scaffolding so that was a tad pointless no photos there!

So we moved on to the Lincoln memorial which was lovely had a few photos with Abe and cooled off in the lovely marble hall. 

After this a lovely walk around the Mall looking at war memorials it was time to head to the Whitehouse! Very lovely to look at but sadly they don't do tours around it anymore so we wondered around to the back of the house and found some protesters, the first lot was a load of left wing communists that want a total ban of guns and some hippies that want to ban drones and nuclear weapons, needless to say Myles had to put his point across but we shall move on from that swiftly... Anyways, after this we headed into the cheesiest gift shop which  was playing super patriotic American music and they had a $5 photo opportunity to look like you were sat in the presidents office and a guy dressed as Abe Lincoln HILARIOUS! 

More and more walking came as we went to the Capitol building in the heat of the day at 12. This caused a great argument by Myles and myself with the customs office that seemed to be there!

So we had to put our bags through scanners to get in that we have done before fair enough. This was crazy! We couldn't take in water so had to throw it out and any food regardless of whether it was opened or not. So we drunk the rest of the water, threw away a bagel and decided to risk it with the Nerd Wonka sweets as you can rush those babies in this sized box haha! 

Bag went through the scanner 'beep beep'

"Mam do you have any food in here" sigh no only an empty box of pasta. 

This was no problem. She continued to root through my stuff then came across a packet of headache tablets also fine. And then she found fruit pastels I didn't even know were in there! Still yes that's fine Mam. Until she found my bag from the airport which had makeup and a small deodorant. Oh no sorry mam all that has to go in the bin you can't have it in here. After a long discussion about how stupid it was that I could take it onto a plane and not into a silly building I decided to leave and not throw anymore of my stuff away and we left along with Susanna. 

How ridiculous that I can take things on a plane and not in a building! 

With that we were all pretty annoyed and decided to try and find the metro back to the camp. After an hour of looking we found it whilst getting an icecream -_-

After that and a bus we were back! Group decision get a drink an straight into the pool! Oh it was Heaven we spent about an hour relaxing and playing Marco Polo. Now we're back in camp just chilling thinking about what to do for dinner if we're even hungry :)

Missing everyone back home and glad to hear you're all enjoying hearing about our adventures in America. Amazingly we've had over 2000 blog views so thank you all for having a read through and your support!

Stay tuned for our next instalment! 

First day on our tour across America!

So day one on our tour across the USA.

We met all the people in the group we will be travelling with and everyone seems really nice and really up for it!

We did a fair bit of driving today and had an awesome cheesesteak in Philadelphia at our first rest stop. After a fairly long drive we tramped from New York through to New Jersey Philadelphia, Denver, Maryland, Baltimore to finish up where we are now in Washington. We had lovely weather all day and just as we went to put up the tents (yes we are tenting) we had a lovely shower of rain which wasn't that cold but got the tents up anyway. When we got dressed this morning it wasn't that warm so we elected for jeans these were taken off rather quickly when we got the tents up its so muggy here it feels like 100% humidity! We are just tucking into dinner now prepared by the food group (which included Laura) sat outside in shorts and a shirt and are lovely and warm. I've eaten the dinner (stopped writing the blog while I ate dinner) was a lovely garlic pasta in white sauce. I think we are going to light a fire in a bit and cook up some marshmallows! I think that's about it for the day so far will let you know tomorrow what we get up to as always, bye for now....

Photos are the group we are travelling with and are an amazing lunch! 

Arriving back in New York

Well this is going to be a fairly short blog post today as we spent pretty much all day on a coach. So ill pad it out with ramblings... 

We got to the bus terminal in Toronto with 2 mins to spare as you will read about in a post coming up soon, got on the coach and after a little relax an a calm down we settled down for the night shift. Waking up at the bus stops every hour or so and falling back asleep almost instantly. Crossing the Canadian/American border we got a rather friendly bus driver who we got talking to when we woke up in the afternoon. We got to New York all safe and sound and decided to brave the subway with all our bags as we thought walking 60 blocks was a little silly. Luckily Laura with her expert knowledge of pubic transport guided us there spot on and we only had to walk 6 blocks which wasn't much but with all those bags was a long way especially in the hot city sunshine! We found our hostel and checked in, found our room and looked at each other thinking this must be a mistake it's like a hotel in here! Lovely air con and recently refurbished! So right now we are siting waiting to meet all our tour companions which we will leave with tomorrow morning. Will let you know how it goes in the fullness of time bye for now :)

(Not such a short post after all)!

Greyhound Experiences

This blog is a little recount of our Greyhound coach experience thus far. I do have to say its a little kooky!
On our first trip leaving New York for Toronto we encountered some interesting locals. Firstly one guy who we thought may have been dead at one point, he got on the bus with us and was instantly asleep and didn't get up until Buffalo a good 5 or so hours away! He didn't move at all which was a little creepy. 
This didn't compare the the second lot of people we encountered. Stopped in quite a little village/town I suppose and on got like 9 Omish people it was crazy. They were speaking a language we didn't understand but it had strands of English within it. Strange, they hung around on the bus in all there old fashioned bonnets and black dresses making sandwiches on the bus you know as you do?! Until Buffalo Airport when they departed, shortly after this we made an extra stop at a hotel to let on some blind people. They sat right behind us while we were trying to sleep and they were SO loud! Honestly we didn't much care about their friend Mary's trip and some woman's funeral (we had been up since 3am it's the last thing we wanted to hear). Literally drove us nuts, Luckily they also got off at Buffalo Airport. The bus after that was very quiet and uneventful until we got to Toronto.

So our journey back from Toronto we expected to be a quiet drive to the bus terminal as it was late at night to jump on at 12am.
So we packed up and said goodbye to the cats and headed back into Toronto city to catch our Greyhound bus back to New York. Leaving at 10 to be there for 11.30 no problem you may think. Well that's what we thought at least. Unfortunately Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran decided to have a concert at the Rodgers stadium and kicking out time coincided with us getting into the city. It was GRIDLOCKED! Erugh Luckily Natasha with her local wisdom and magical 7 Series managed to navigate a different route going past the Ramen place we went to earlier in the week and got us on the bus with 2 minutes to spare! Cutting it fine but luckily we made it on the bus back to New York! Phew.

During this bus trip we had a 2 hour stop over at Buffalo Bus Terminal where we saw a very interesting fellow dressed as a teenage mutant ninja turtle with a turtle shell backpack and patterned hoodie.
Very interesting. After this it was another change before our last coach to New York, and finally after 4 coaches we got an official greyhound bus with leather seats and working Wifi! With these new comfey seats we fell asleep in second and were awoken to change coaches two hours later. At this point we were put back onto a ropey old trail ways bus but we got front seats so it wasn't too bad. After another snooze and a few more stops we got chatting to the driver who had done a lot of touring around America and other traveling around the world. This was a great time sucker and we chatted to him till we got to New York where he gave us our bags a firm handshake and sent us in the right direction for a subway to our hotel for the night. 

Overall impression of Greyhound busses a little odd at times but they do the job and get you where you need to go cheaply. Saying that next time we will fly to Toronto! 

Niagara Falls

After a great morning making and eating our first Tacos with Tash we gathered up our things and started the journey to Niagara Falls. We drove through Niagara which looked like a mini Vegas all hotels, lights and casinos! Last thing I expected to see when going to visit the falls.
We arrived at our hotel for the night, 'The Embassy' checked in and jumped in a lift up to our room. My gosh we didn't expect what we saw, the room was HUGE and the view just made it. The bedroom window looked right out over the Falls it was amazing. After a hour unpacking (Mainly staring out the window on the 29th floor) and having a glass of Ice Wine courtesy of Mummy and Rob ;] 

We headed downstairs and out to the falls. It was late afternoon/evening and a bit overcast so we took a slow walk down and had a look as the US and Canadian Falls. It was VERRRY misty and we all got a little damp looking at the Canadian Falls. After many photos and a lot of 'oooh's we headed back to the hotel for dinner at The Keg at 9.30.
Back at the hotel we all get scrubbed up and head down towards the restaurant we have heard so much about over the week. 
With high anticipation we get seated a row back from the window overlooking the falls and we can just see it with the lights now illuminating the Falls.
We took Natasha's recommendation and had Prime Rib Steak, 10oz for me and 12oz for Myles. 
Some warm bread arrived to warm us up ready for this huge dinner ahead we all had a little each trying to save space for whats to come!
When the steak arrived it was AMAZING it was incredibly tender didn't need chewing and cut like butter. No pudding needed we rolled out the restaurant with big smiles on our faces heading for bed. (This took a while as we ended up taking photos of the falls with all the lights on it!)

After a great nights sleep we woke up the next day ready to get out and explore the falls. First thing 7.30 we went for a lovely swim and then yet again time for food, All you can eat breakfast buffet. Don't mind if we do. 
All the usual trimmings were there including hot maple syrup [YUM] Everything was covered in syrup and we left with happy tums yet again (:
Another hour spent in the room relaxing, (Enjoying our last night of luxury for a while) watching the falls waiting for the mist to go down a little before we checked out and decided on what trip we wanted to do for the day. 

"Journey Behind The Falls" This trip was amazing we got given bright yellow bin liner jackets to stop us getting wet, HA! 
Then we travel down a series of tunnels heading to spots behind the falls and one just at the edge. (At one point behind the falls a tiny black fish had fallen in and was swimming in a little gutter!)

This was amazing we got soaked trying to take pictures but most of all it was truly beautiful, as we got down there at 12:40 the sun started to come out making all the mist and droplets glisten in the air. We made the most of our time and at 2'oclock headed back up for dry land. 
After perusing the gift shop finding a coonskin hat (I really wanted to buy one but it was $36?!?!!) It was now time to get back home, we stopped for a look at the whirlpools with ice cream and slushys then home again for our last dinner in Canada. Setskuo took us out for Sushi which we enjoyed trying. There were all different types that we never had in England and were far nicer than the stuff Myles had tried back home.


What a lovely trip to Niagara we couldn't have had a better guide and we just want to put a little thank you out to Natasha for putting us up and showing us all the sights around Canada you made it really special and we were very sad to leave!! 

Port Dover Beach

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Toronto, what a change from Monday!
After a relaxing morning Myles cut the grass for Natasha and we headed out for a bit of shopping followed by a trip to Port Dover Beach!
After a longish drive on SUPER straight roads doing about 40mph !?! (Such crazy slow speed limits over here, especially with a 5.0 litre engine to play with!!) We arrived at Port Dover Beach, it was so lovely and sunny we headed straight for the sand put our towels out and had a little picnic of cookies and coke followed by a quick snooze in the sun.
Myles and I woke up and went for a venture to test the water out. It was super clear and could see our feet for a long way but it was FREEZZZINGGG! we managed to get in up to our tummies after Myles dragged me in really deep! >:(
After some more sunbathing it started to cloud over and get a little cold to we packed up to go for dinner. We sat down and had Perch and chips which was delicious ^^

Very exciting day tomorrow were off to Niagara Falls!!

3rd day in Canada CN Tower

So for our third day in Canada we were graced with lovely sunshine!
We had a relaxing morning and lovely omelette breakfast with cheese, tomatoes, onions,peppers with Canadian Salami (YUM)
After this we ventured out to go see some lovely waterfalls and had a bit of hike around. 
The weather stayed lovely so we made the long journey into Toronto to go see the sights of the CN tower!
This was a bit more expensive than the Empire State but boy was it worth it!
In comparison the Empire State was a waste of money.. It was HUGE there was so much more to do and the views were much better!!
We wondered around the first observation deck and took some lovely photos then headed to the glass floor and outside observation and boy was it windy!! 
After spending a good hour looking out across Canada we decided to leave, well this didnt happen. We took the rocket lift back down to the ground floor past a Canadian moose statue and headed for the exit to be asked if we wanted to watch a 3D movie. Well why not? So we took our seats and watched a TOTALLY unrealated movie about the new 787 Dreamliner and how it was made. (Although they left out the part that they have all been recalled) Which was very interesting and very good 3D!

So we continued for the exit past photobooths gift shops food halls. To then be asked if we wanted to go on a simulator ride (Stimulator ride if you asked Myles) Why not we spent 60$ getting in lets make the most of it. 
It was about a log factory which again was totally random but it was a good laugh and we left a bit shaken up with wet legs. 
Finally we found the exit and met up with Natasha again. We headed off to Toronto Harbour for some drinks and watched the boats go by. We could also see the planes taking off and landing from Toronto airport. Lovely (:
After some drinks and a yummy b


ruchetta it was the time Myles had been waiting for all day. Dinner!
Today we were having 2 for 1 wings! These aren't like English wings which are the size of sparrows they were like Ostrich wings!! We had 4 baskets all in different flavours we had: Sweet chili, Smokey BBQ, Thai spicy and Buffalo butter. This made a grand total of 26 wings between the 3 of us! Challange accepted. All but the Buffalo Butter were devoured (Because they were too spicy for us :S)
So with a very happy Myles and a full tummy we had a wonder around the Quay side then back home and off to bed.

Arriving in Toronto Canada

So after an awufal nights sleep we crawled out of our bunkbeds for the last time at 3am.
We dragged ourselves downstairs and checked out, luckily to find a cab passing!so we hopped in and took a ride through Times Square to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. For the city that never sleeps it was pretty quiet, mind you I suppose it was as busy as a normal British town during the day!
5:15 Am the 12 hour bus journey started and we settled down to the long ride ahead. (Laura falling asleep in a matter of minutes) anyways many many hours later we arrived in Toronto to be greeted by Auntie Natasha who gave us a quick guided tour of the local area and took us for an awesome Japanese meal of ramen. Ramen basically consists of noodles in a rich meaty broth with layers of thick pork shoulder however was a bit put out because none of us could manage to finish it, it was HUGE!
After that we went for a walk around downtown Toronto to walk off dinner. a little but of a car journey back to Natashas house (in a rather luxurious BMW 7 Series) and we arrived at her house for the next few days. Photos below are our Tasty Ramen and the journey into Totonto, enjoy.....

Last day in New York

So after finding out that yesterday we had the leftovers from hurricane Andrea we didn't feel too bad about not doing much. This meant that we had lots to do today..

So to start with we walked from the hostel to Central Park which was 17 blocks if we went straight there! 

Had a wonder around the park taking in the lovely views. I had my first camera lesson trying to photograph some squirrels. 

Then we decided to head back to Times Square to catch a subway down to the Empire State but after getting down there we got scared and ran away decided to head backup to the hostel and then go from Grand central station. Another 30 blocks!

Once figuring out the subway system we headed downtown to the Staten Island ferry! 

This was overwhelming for Mr Myles he doesn't like public transport I think he's allergic! 

Finally we got off the tube and headed past the many men shouting at us to buy tickets to see the statue of liberty and looked for the free ferry around the statue. Surprisingly it was a HUGE building and the ferries held about 400-500 people. We arrived just in time for the 2:30 ferry. After some lovely shots we got the return ferry and went in search of the 9-11 memorial.

Of what we could see of the memorial well it kinda looked like a hole in the ground..

The que was MASSIVE to go look at it, we also didn't fancy paying to look at a memorial so had to peek through the fences and wandered down Wall Street. 

We then got the tube again back to the Empire State whilst being serenaded by a black man on the subway.  By this time our poor feet were getting a little tired. On the way to find the Empire State I walked a little close to a crazy homeless lady and she poked me with an Umbrella...

So empire state-building here we come! After paying $50!? (Crazy) we headed in the lifts up to the 80th floor then took the stairs to the top.

We were surprised at how little wind there was but Wall.E wanted to hold on..

After a few good shots and a nice look around we went back down the stairs to floor 80 a dead sight easier than coming up I must say. 

Once back down my tummy got the better of me and it was dinner time. First thing we see... Mc Donald's! After a long wait due to an incompetent waitress we got our burgers and litre drinks! 

We rolled out the door and it was time to head back home to the hostel another 30 blocks and its bed time.

Tomorrow 12 hours to Toronto! See you there!

 

First day in New York

Well after an interesting nights sleep we woke up thinking it was late, realising it was 5 o'clock, back to bed for us!

Then later waking up at a more sensible time we thought we would have a walk into central town to see what was around, heading straight to steak and shake which was recommended to us, with good reason I had a bbq steak burger and banana shake and Laura had a steakdog and an m&m's milkshake which she didn't even finish!! Then thought we would have to walk into time square and have a look around. It's amazing, the lights the people the traffic, everything, we had a look in the m&m's world and a massive toys R us outlet! After using up all all of our sugar from the shakes this morning we thought we would head back to the hostel to dry off. Oh we never mentioned its been pouring with rain ALL DAY! So jealous of your British sun right now! Photos on the gallery later.

We are here!

So after really rather good flight we are in New York! The flight was brilliant, good food comfy seats and top gear on the entertainment things, thanks Virgin! We got to the airport and EVENTUALLY got through customs walking out of the terminal feeling a little lost when we hear a bloke shout out busses to grand central station, so we jumped on that and after a good hour we were in central NYC. After getting our bearings and working out the road naming system we walked to our hotel and booked in, it's now 1 in the morning UK time now so we are off to sleep, bye for now...

Final post from Britain!

Sitting in the airport waiting to leave now. All checked in! Horrible woman behind us coughing her guts up! (Ew) 

COUGHS AND SNEEZES SPREAD DISEASES! 

We checked in quicker than expected and are 2 and a half hours early! Oh well it's given us some time to people watch and have a wonder around!

Our next post will be from New York...

02/06/2013 Leaving Party at the Woolpack

Well what can I say we had a fantastic time at our leaving party. It was so lovely to see so many people there to come say goodbye to us. Luckily we were graced with good weather for the BBQ!

A huge thank you goes out to Sadie and Rob for organising the whole thing its so sweet of you to do so and we had such a fantastic time! (Loved the balloons too!)




Grandma Wynne-Pedder

Myles and Laura in lovely cork hats from Selena and David



Nello cooking the BBQ

All packed and ready to go!

So after many hours of going through lists of what other people have taken on their trips and what is recommended that we take, we have finally done a final pack ready to fly on Thursday! I just have to sort out my final pack for all my camera gear and a couple of banking issues and we will be all set! 39 hours from now and we will be at 35,000 feet starting our adventure!!!