Once again we got up late – beating our personal record by all sleeping ‘til well past noon. Having had all of the traditional Christmas festivities the day before, Christmas day was free for sitting around and doing nothing.
At around 3, Dana, Juliette, Kai, Nick and Nick went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, leaving Mac and myself to sit and vegetate. For once, we took the opportunity to do the opposite and went running around suburban Knoxville which was an experience in itself – it was classic middle American suburbia – straight out of American Beauty but the real highlight was unclogging the arteries.
The others returned about 3 hours later with differing reviews of the film and we sat down to a very satisfying dinner of leftovers from the night before. We then sat down for more poker which, despite the constant Nerf and BB gun related interruptions courtesy of the two new doctors, was again very enjoyable, though definitely to some more so than others.
‘Til next time
Jez
Note: The only reason I have written the vast majority of the blogs recently is the laziness of the others.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Nashville back to Knoxville
After the antics of the night before, we were surprised to wake up with only minor hangovers and ready to hit the road back to Knoxville. The drive back was largely uneventful, save for the obligatory stop at Subway (though some of us were forced to opt for Maccas due to Subway overload), some real talk, and a thorough recount of the previous night’s events.
Once we got back to Knoxville we made a detour to Walmart for some last minute Christmas shopping. Once we managed to find everyone (which was no small task) we made it back to Dana;s to wrap presents, call home to Australia and prepare ourselves for the massive Christmas Eve feast that was to follow.
Dinner did not disappoint with more ham, turkey, stuffing and mashed potato than even Starvin’ Marvin could ever want. After dinner we swapped all of our presents, including the Kris Kringle gifts that we had bought one another (the BB gun that Wonders bought for Cleland being the highlight – though bound to cause all sorts of problems), sung happy birthday and had cake for Kai’s birthday we headed out to a local Knoxville sports bar for a couple of cheeky drinks with Dana and his sister Juliette. However, there was not a great deal happening and turkey coma was starting to take hold so we soon headed home. Once there, we settled down in front of some high-quality Chuck Norris movies (Carl’s present from Cleland). Despite the excellent dialog, plausible plot and highly entertaining sound effects (Adam West ie retro batman would’ve been proud) we all eventually succumbed and most of the team didn’t make it to the end. All in all it was another great day and another huge thanks to Dana and his family for giving us such a super Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
Jez
Once we got back to Knoxville we made a detour to Walmart for some last minute Christmas shopping. Once we managed to find everyone (which was no small task) we made it back to Dana;s to wrap presents, call home to Australia and prepare ourselves for the massive Christmas Eve feast that was to follow.
Dinner did not disappoint with more ham, turkey, stuffing and mashed potato than even Starvin’ Marvin could ever want. After dinner we swapped all of our presents, including the Kris Kringle gifts that we had bought one another (the BB gun that Wonders bought for Cleland being the highlight – though bound to cause all sorts of problems), sung happy birthday and had cake for Kai’s birthday we headed out to a local Knoxville sports bar for a couple of cheeky drinks with Dana and his sister Juliette. However, there was not a great deal happening and turkey coma was starting to take hold so we soon headed home. Once there, we settled down in front of some high-quality Chuck Norris movies (Carl’s present from Cleland). Despite the excellent dialog, plausible plot and highly entertaining sound effects (Adam West ie retro batman would’ve been proud) we all eventually succumbed and most of the team didn’t make it to the end. All in all it was another great day and another huge thanks to Dana and his family for giving us such a super Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
Jez
Knoxville back to Nashville
Hello All,
Celebrity blog post here from none other than the lovable half-caste, dana. Quilt if you will. So I will fill you in as to what happened with our night out in Nashville, when we welcomed our very own sickboy to the country – god only knows how he cleared customs.
We disembarked from Knoxville on the afternoon of the 23rd after a hearty bout of laser tag and some delicious burritos from Salsaritas. As far as the laser tag went, a highlight for myself was teaching these boys a few free lessons, not to mention listening to the fuming wonder-doctor at the end of the game explaining how much he wanted to pistol-whip some annoying 12 year-old who beat him.
We loaded into the Trailblazer for the 2 and a half hour drive back to Nashville to meet Cleland. I have no idea how, but we managed to keep my presence here the USofA a secret. I decided to hang in the car while the boys went to pick him up and very unsuccessfully tried to duck my head under the window (ostrich style – if I cant see them then they cant see me) upon their reappearance at the car. Nonetheless, I jumped out of the car and the sickdoc was surprised at the general event. We proceeded to go and find a hotel for the night before our antics were to begin. After passing the airport for the 3rd time we managed to track down a Best Western in downtown Nashville and checked in for four boys with two double beds (heads were turned). I was there on the premise that I was the tour guide so they were alright.
After some Bud Lights in the room (and I agree with Dooges – they are in fact no different from sex in a canoe), we descended upon the honkytonks and sports bars of downtown Nashville. On first viewing, it appeared that Nashville on a Tuesday right before Christmas was dead -hardly anyone around. We asked a few people and, despite some chants by a select few of us, we unfortunately did not end up at hooters for dinner. Rather a sports bar down the road served as our launching point for the night.
After a hearty meal (Mac had a salad), we headed back up to the strip to hit up a bar called the Stage. Seemed like a real good time southern country music Honkytonk, though a little quiet for our tastes. After we had a few beers there, we headed across the street and I think we can all agree that this is where the night really began.
The bar was called the Big Bang and they boasted a big banner in the window advertising duelling pianos. Not really knowing what to expect we climbed the stairs to see two pianos facing each other and about 30 or so people sitting around them. We soon realized that this place worked through song requests and the two dudes playing piano had a bloody impressive repertoire. Immediately loving this idea we began to request everything from the Hey Jude to Free Fallin’, all accompanied with the standard $1 tip. This was well within the realm of possibility as the piano guys busted out with some Eminem and Michael Jackson along the way – so they were up to any request we had to throw at them. We had joined up with a group of locals at this stage and this is where the wonder doc decided to prescribe some Advance Australia Fair on his request sheet - and slipping an extra $4 along with it to make sure it got noticed (apparently doctors can get away with anything). Needless to say, this was a ridiculous demand and we all made sure he heard about it, but more about this later. Thing then took a turn for the worse as Mac was taught 4 locals how to dance like a true gypsy greyhound with his patented dance move – the shoulder roll. The trip had plunged new depths of embarrassment.
Before long, after some punishing attempts at the “Aussie Aussie Aussie” from the dudes on the stage, we were being called onto the stage to regale the audience with Advance Australia Fair as per Wonders’ ridiculous request. Naturally the piano men were assured that Carl was able to play it on piano while we sang – needless to say that of the five of us, Marv has the least musical ability – somewhere between Helen Keller and a drunk aardvark. Once they realized that Mac couldn’t play chopsticks if his life depended on it, he was relegated to join us as they started up some good-ole aussie Acca Dacca while the five of us belted to the rafters. Unfortunately, only Jez and myself knew the words so the others’ singing consisted of oooooaarrrberrrsheerrrtraaaaaapssssseeerrrshep –SHOOK ME ALLLLLLLL NIGHTTTTTT LOOOONNGGGGGGG!!!!!. And then followed my personal favourite point in the evening - Buzz attempting to shake hands with the blind piano player as we left the stage. For a few moments he thought the old dude was barring him only before coming to his drunken senses.
Realizing that they could never top our performance, the bar soon closed and we headed across the street back to the Stage bar. At this stage (no pun intended), the place had livened up a bit. Following a few cheeky dances, a “JD and coke” with Mac and some locals, and doctor Wonders being accused of being a dirty liar on every front, we headed back to the hotel at closing time. Nick promptly passed out in a drunken stupor in all his clothes on top of all the quilts (and no I don’t mean me). He then gave us an encore musical performance with some snoring that even monty could be proud of. We all passed out in due time before enjoying a well and truly hungover ride back to Knoxville the next morning. Day Carl did not approve.
And with that I leave you. It was short but sweet and I wish the boys the best of luck with the rest of the trip, and I am happy to post bail for one, or all, of them when (not “if”) the time comes.
Dana
Celebrity blog post here from none other than the lovable half-caste, dana. Quilt if you will. So I will fill you in as to what happened with our night out in Nashville, when we welcomed our very own sickboy to the country – god only knows how he cleared customs.
We disembarked from Knoxville on the afternoon of the 23rd after a hearty bout of laser tag and some delicious burritos from Salsaritas. As far as the laser tag went, a highlight for myself was teaching these boys a few free lessons, not to mention listening to the fuming wonder-doctor at the end of the game explaining how much he wanted to pistol-whip some annoying 12 year-old who beat him.
We loaded into the Trailblazer for the 2 and a half hour drive back to Nashville to meet Cleland. I have no idea how, but we managed to keep my presence here the USofA a secret. I decided to hang in the car while the boys went to pick him up and very unsuccessfully tried to duck my head under the window (ostrich style – if I cant see them then they cant see me) upon their reappearance at the car. Nonetheless, I jumped out of the car and the sickdoc was surprised at the general event. We proceeded to go and find a hotel for the night before our antics were to begin. After passing the airport for the 3rd time we managed to track down a Best Western in downtown Nashville and checked in for four boys with two double beds (heads were turned). I was there on the premise that I was the tour guide so they were alright.
After some Bud Lights in the room (and I agree with Dooges – they are in fact no different from sex in a canoe), we descended upon the honkytonks and sports bars of downtown Nashville. On first viewing, it appeared that Nashville on a Tuesday right before Christmas was dead -hardly anyone around. We asked a few people and, despite some chants by a select few of us, we unfortunately did not end up at hooters for dinner. Rather a sports bar down the road served as our launching point for the night.
After a hearty meal (Mac had a salad), we headed back up to the strip to hit up a bar called the Stage. Seemed like a real good time southern country music Honkytonk, though a little quiet for our tastes. After we had a few beers there, we headed across the street and I think we can all agree that this is where the night really began.
The bar was called the Big Bang and they boasted a big banner in the window advertising duelling pianos. Not really knowing what to expect we climbed the stairs to see two pianos facing each other and about 30 or so people sitting around them. We soon realized that this place worked through song requests and the two dudes playing piano had a bloody impressive repertoire. Immediately loving this idea we began to request everything from the Hey Jude to Free Fallin’, all accompanied with the standard $1 tip. This was well within the realm of possibility as the piano guys busted out with some Eminem and Michael Jackson along the way – so they were up to any request we had to throw at them. We had joined up with a group of locals at this stage and this is where the wonder doc decided to prescribe some Advance Australia Fair on his request sheet - and slipping an extra $4 along with it to make sure it got noticed (apparently doctors can get away with anything). Needless to say, this was a ridiculous demand and we all made sure he heard about it, but more about this later. Thing then took a turn for the worse as Mac was taught 4 locals how to dance like a true gypsy greyhound with his patented dance move – the shoulder roll. The trip had plunged new depths of embarrassment.
Before long, after some punishing attempts at the “Aussie Aussie Aussie” from the dudes on the stage, we were being called onto the stage to regale the audience with Advance Australia Fair as per Wonders’ ridiculous request. Naturally the piano men were assured that Carl was able to play it on piano while we sang – needless to say that of the five of us, Marv has the least musical ability – somewhere between Helen Keller and a drunk aardvark. Once they realized that Mac couldn’t play chopsticks if his life depended on it, he was relegated to join us as they started up some good-ole aussie Acca Dacca while the five of us belted to the rafters. Unfortunately, only Jez and myself knew the words so the others’ singing consisted of oooooaarrrberrrsheerrrtraaaaaapssssseeerrrshep –SHOOK ME ALLLLLLLL NIGHTTTTTT LOOOONNGGGGGGG!!!!!. And then followed my personal favourite point in the evening - Buzz attempting to shake hands with the blind piano player as we left the stage. For a few moments he thought the old dude was barring him only before coming to his drunken senses.
Realizing that they could never top our performance, the bar soon closed and we headed across the street back to the Stage bar. At this stage (no pun intended), the place had livened up a bit. Following a few cheeky dances, a “JD and coke” with Mac and some locals, and doctor Wonders being accused of being a dirty liar on every front, we headed back to the hotel at closing time. Nick promptly passed out in a drunken stupor in all his clothes on top of all the quilts (and no I don’t mean me). He then gave us an encore musical performance with some snoring that even monty could be proud of. We all passed out in due time before enjoying a well and truly hungover ride back to Knoxville the next morning. Day Carl did not approve.
And with that I leave you. It was short but sweet and I wish the boys the best of luck with the rest of the trip, and I am happy to post bail for one, or all, of them when (not “if”) the time comes.
Dana
Day 1 in Knoxville
We woke late – really late (it was almost noon) and after a delicious breakfast of waffles and fresh fruit (big thanks to Jan!) and wandered down to the mall to do a little Christmas shopping.
Unsurprisingly, American malls do not differ greatly from their Australian counterparts apart from being significantly bigger. We did have a little shopping to do though so we spent a little time wandering, bought some little gifts for one another and then headed back to Dana’s place to take it easy.
We managed this exceptionally easy task well – playing pool, watching TV and doing laundry. The one lowlight was Wonders’ discovery of Dana’s brother Kai’s extensive collection of Nerf weaponry. Despite his advancing years and newly acquired status as a doctor he took great pleasure in continually firing foam artillery at everyone and everything. Simple things, simple minds…
At about 6, Dana’s parents had some friends around for a cocktail party at which time we said the obligatory G’Days, answered questions about Australia and generally tried to stay out of the way.
Following this, and with nothing much to do, we decided to play poker which gave Carl the chance to continue his fine form from Vegas. The game was largely uneventful and we all went to bed very glad to have had a quiet, cheap and driving-free day.
‘Til next time,
Jez
Unsurprisingly, American malls do not differ greatly from their Australian counterparts apart from being significantly bigger. We did have a little shopping to do though so we spent a little time wandering, bought some little gifts for one another and then headed back to Dana’s place to take it easy.
We managed this exceptionally easy task well – playing pool, watching TV and doing laundry. The one lowlight was Wonders’ discovery of Dana’s brother Kai’s extensive collection of Nerf weaponry. Despite his advancing years and newly acquired status as a doctor he took great pleasure in continually firing foam artillery at everyone and everything. Simple things, simple minds…
At about 6, Dana’s parents had some friends around for a cocktail party at which time we said the obligatory G’Days, answered questions about Australia and generally tried to stay out of the way.
Following this, and with nothing much to do, we decided to play poker which gave Carl the chance to continue his fine form from Vegas. The game was largely uneventful and we all went to bed very glad to have had a quiet, cheap and driving-free day.
‘Til next time,
Jez
Memphis to Knoxville via Nashville
We awoke at a reasonable hour and headed to see the one and only sight that Memphis has to offer, the home of Kitschy Americana – Graceland – Home of Elvis. After paying our admission fare and standing in a freezing cold line for about 20 minutes, our tour of Graceland began. After looking through his house, which was really weird and listening to various stories about his life, we were promptly back on the road and ready to head towards Nashville. It is fair to say that Graceland was not my favourite tourist destination. At all. Apparently I’m the only one that didn’t like it.
But first, despite repeated protests from yours truly, at the decree of Marvin McIntosh we headed to IHOP (the international house of pancakes) where he proceeded to gorge himself over the obligatory game of BB. After playing cards for a couple of hours, we loaded into the Trailblazer and headed towards Nashville, home of country music and “our Nicole” and “our Keith”.
En route, we made a stop at Ross’ Discount Clothing warehouse to find some cheap warm clothes as the mercury had hit 32 Fahrenheit and was dropping rapidly. Whilst I managed to buy a flock of ducks masquerading as a jacket for the bargain price of $60 (marked down from $225), Wonderboy was somewhat bamboozled by the magnitude of options and settled on some thermals.
As we drove in to Nashville, Carl was charged with trying to find us a place where we could eat fried chicken near downtown Nashville. He managed the fried chicken OK, but the place he found for us to eat was a full half hour outside of Nashville. He and Emily just don’t seem to get along. After another massive healthy meal – half a fried chicken, 3 scones and 4 supersize glasses of pepsi each – we proceeded to play more cards while we killed time and worked out whether Dana had made his flight or not.
After working out that he had made it, we went to the airport, got him and then commenced the drive to Knoxville. Needless to say, the drive was filled with chat – much of which centred around a bizarre argument about the relative stupidity of smoking and drinking. Apparently I was being argumentative – an opinion I disagreed with and was prepared to argue with.
We eventually arrived at Dana’s mum and step-dad’s place where we said our hellos, played a couple of games of pool and crashed – happy for the follosing things:
1. The sheets we were sleeping on was not plastic
2. The roof over our head was not of the motel 6 variety
3. There was no chance that drifters would pilfer all of our worldly possessions during the night
4. That the next day would involve exactly zero driving
5. And that there would only be a maximum of two of us in any given room.
That’s all for now,
Jez
But first, despite repeated protests from yours truly, at the decree of Marvin McIntosh we headed to IHOP (the international house of pancakes) where he proceeded to gorge himself over the obligatory game of BB. After playing cards for a couple of hours, we loaded into the Trailblazer and headed towards Nashville, home of country music and “our Nicole” and “our Keith”.
En route, we made a stop at Ross’ Discount Clothing warehouse to find some cheap warm clothes as the mercury had hit 32 Fahrenheit and was dropping rapidly. Whilst I managed to buy a flock of ducks masquerading as a jacket for the bargain price of $60 (marked down from $225), Wonderboy was somewhat bamboozled by the magnitude of options and settled on some thermals.
As we drove in to Nashville, Carl was charged with trying to find us a place where we could eat fried chicken near downtown Nashville. He managed the fried chicken OK, but the place he found for us to eat was a full half hour outside of Nashville. He and Emily just don’t seem to get along. After another massive healthy meal – half a fried chicken, 3 scones and 4 supersize glasses of pepsi each – we proceeded to play more cards while we killed time and worked out whether Dana had made his flight or not.
After working out that he had made it, we went to the airport, got him and then commenced the drive to Knoxville. Needless to say, the drive was filled with chat – much of which centred around a bizarre argument about the relative stupidity of smoking and drinking. Apparently I was being argumentative – an opinion I disagreed with and was prepared to argue with.
We eventually arrived at Dana’s mum and step-dad’s place where we said our hellos, played a couple of games of pool and crashed – happy for the follosing things:
1. The sheets we were sleeping on was not plastic
2. The roof over our head was not of the motel 6 variety
3. There was no chance that drifters would pilfer all of our worldly possessions during the night
4. That the next day would involve exactly zero driving
5. And that there would only be a maximum of two of us in any given room.
That’s all for now,
Jez
Vicksburg, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee
We rose at sparrows fart (which unlike there southern hemphissphere cousins is closer to 9:00) to fulfil the promise to our selves to stay fit by running. One mile down the road our shortness of breath and abundance of jiggling bits comfirmed our suspicions that we are out of shape.
We hit the road at 10 and continued our way north along the Mississippi toward Memphis. We stopped for lunch in at subway which continues to be our cheapest and healthiest option. To put in in perspective a pound of carrots costs $3.50US (Close to $10Aus a Kilo), while a foot long sub including Tax is only $5.35 US. We’re now well and truly off the beaten track and our hosts are becoming increasingly naïve/curious. Our conversion with our subway lady went something like this.
Subway Lady – Y’all not from round here sir.
Nick – What did you say……..(repeat) Aw no we’re from Australia
SL – yo wee I could wake up next to that accent (chorus of large African American women laughing)
SL – y’all sound like that crocodile man.
Nick – steve Erwin
SL – ya thats him, Y’all a kin to the crocodile hunter that amazing
Nick – Pardon…….(repeat)what related? no .
SL – Can I stay on your floor if I come to Australia.
Nick – Of course my mobile number is 6268641984, and my name is Carl McIntosh, I’m a chemical engineer.
We continued into Memphis but missed the exit and where shot out the other side into a completely different state, Arkansas. After returning to Memphis we visited the tourist information centre to get further directions. After a few words of warning from Elizabeth, the tourist advisor and a 10 minute tourist drive of down town it became apparent we were not going to be wandering around Memphis, We made our way to Motel 6 and spent an hour playing BB (Cards).
After reading the Lonely Planet book we were hoping that Beale st Memphis would be similar to 6th st, Austin. Although it was interesting it wasn’t the same. We made our way to Pig on Beale, another BBQ joint, where we shared the Love Platter for two. The platter consisted of; a full rack of ribs, half a chicken, pulled pork, spiced chicken wings, half a loaf of bread, corn on the cob, coleslaw, potato salad, onion rings and two cups of BBQ sauce. Coupled with this it was $1 pint night. Words can not describe the pleasure that we experienced over the ensuing three hours.
We rolled out of the Pig on Beale and made our way to Red Rooster a local bar. We enjoyed a few more beers and a live band before retiring for the evening.
Note: After being left out of \writing the blog for a few days I would like to clear up a few points. At no time have I claimed to be a doctor for any reason
Cheers
Nick
Editor’s Note: That final comment from Wonders is an utter fabrication
We hit the road at 10 and continued our way north along the Mississippi toward Memphis. We stopped for lunch in at subway which continues to be our cheapest and healthiest option. To put in in perspective a pound of carrots costs $3.50US (Close to $10Aus a Kilo), while a foot long sub including Tax is only $5.35 US. We’re now well and truly off the beaten track and our hosts are becoming increasingly naïve/curious. Our conversion with our subway lady went something like this.
Subway Lady – Y’all not from round here sir.
Nick – What did you say……..(repeat) Aw no we’re from Australia
SL – yo wee I could wake up next to that accent (chorus of large African American women laughing)
SL – y’all sound like that crocodile man.
Nick – steve Erwin
SL – ya thats him, Y’all a kin to the crocodile hunter that amazing
Nick – Pardon…….(repeat)what related? no .
SL – Can I stay on your floor if I come to Australia.
Nick – Of course my mobile number is 6268641984, and my name is Carl McIntosh, I’m a chemical engineer.
We continued into Memphis but missed the exit and where shot out the other side into a completely different state, Arkansas. After returning to Memphis we visited the tourist information centre to get further directions. After a few words of warning from Elizabeth, the tourist advisor and a 10 minute tourist drive of down town it became apparent we were not going to be wandering around Memphis, We made our way to Motel 6 and spent an hour playing BB (Cards).
After reading the Lonely Planet book we were hoping that Beale st Memphis would be similar to 6th st, Austin. Although it was interesting it wasn’t the same. We made our way to Pig on Beale, another BBQ joint, where we shared the Love Platter for two. The platter consisted of; a full rack of ribs, half a chicken, pulled pork, spiced chicken wings, half a loaf of bread, corn on the cob, coleslaw, potato salad, onion rings and two cups of BBQ sauce. Coupled with this it was $1 pint night. Words can not describe the pleasure that we experienced over the ensuing three hours.
We rolled out of the Pig on Beale and made our way to Red Rooster a local bar. We enjoyed a few more beers and a live band before retiring for the evening.
Note: After being left out of \writing the blog for a few days I would like to clear up a few points. At no time have I claimed to be a doctor for any reason
Cheers
Nick
Editor’s Note: That final comment from Wonders is an utter fabrication
Thursday, December 25, 2008
New Orleans to Vicksburg, Mississippi
After three big days in New Orleans today was a much required quieter driving day. We drove along the 61 North, from New Orleans to Vicksburg, which follows the Mississippi river and passes through several plantations and smaller towns. Mississippi is all about farming and the fields are endless, unfortunately being winter the fields currently look more like mud plains than actual crops.
During the drive we stopped at a local roadside restaurant where we got to hear some real twangy southern accents and also sample more of the local foods. Jez was the most experimental having the fried green tomatoes sandwich.
An important event of the day was Wonders vet class graduating. He was now officially a docter, a fact we have being using to impress the locals on his behalf. Although he asked us to stop referring to him as Dr Wonders or the Wonder Docter, Jez and I know deep down he loves it. Anyway, to celebrate Wonders had visions of cruising down the Mississippi in a gambling steamboat and if we were lucky we might even be able to pay for our hotel room with poker winnings. Unfortunately we were very disappointed. The steamboat at Vicksburg was anchored permanently, did not offer poker and everyone there looked like they were gambling their last dollar. Needless to say we made a quick retreat to find some dinner which to my delight was another barbeque.
Real Talk: One southern specialty type of barbeque is pork ribs, these ribs are very slowly cooked in a pit and can be ordered wet, dry or pulled. Wet means they are served dripping in bbq sauce, dry means they are marinated in dry herbs while pulled means the meat is pre-stripped from the ribs for you. The general consensus amongst the boys is that dry ribs are the best.
Sidenote: Unfortunately the blog is not allowing us to download photos at the moment. Besides not being able to view all the different sites along the way you have also missed the slow development of Jez’s beard. Differentiating himself from the naturally clean shaved Wonders and myself, Jez has been slowly growing his facial hair and under the”it would be rude not to” code this will continue till Nashville.
Bye for now and missing you all
Carl
During the drive we stopped at a local roadside restaurant where we got to hear some real twangy southern accents and also sample more of the local foods. Jez was the most experimental having the fried green tomatoes sandwich.
An important event of the day was Wonders vet class graduating. He was now officially a docter, a fact we have being using to impress the locals on his behalf. Although he asked us to stop referring to him as Dr Wonders or the Wonder Docter, Jez and I know deep down he loves it. Anyway, to celebrate Wonders had visions of cruising down the Mississippi in a gambling steamboat and if we were lucky we might even be able to pay for our hotel room with poker winnings. Unfortunately we were very disappointed. The steamboat at Vicksburg was anchored permanently, did not offer poker and everyone there looked like they were gambling their last dollar. Needless to say we made a quick retreat to find some dinner which to my delight was another barbeque.
Real Talk: One southern specialty type of barbeque is pork ribs, these ribs are very slowly cooked in a pit and can be ordered wet, dry or pulled. Wet means they are served dripping in bbq sauce, dry means they are marinated in dry herbs while pulled means the meat is pre-stripped from the ribs for you. The general consensus amongst the boys is that dry ribs are the best.
Sidenote: Unfortunately the blog is not allowing us to download photos at the moment. Besides not being able to view all the different sites along the way you have also missed the slow development of Jez’s beard. Differentiating himself from the naturally clean shaved Wonders and myself, Jez has been slowly growing his facial hair and under the”it would be rude not to” code this will continue till Nashville.
Bye for now and missing you all
Carl
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Day2 in New Orleans
Rising at 11, feeling relatively well compared to previous mornings, we started the day with a healthy breakfast of Coco Pops and milk. Unfortunately, contrary to our previous thoughts “Half and Half” Milk was not in fact halfway between full cream milk and skim milk, but halfway between milk and cream. Another breakfast of champions. Keen to make the best of our last day in New Orleans, we headed into the French Quarter where we checked out various museums and Wonders pretended to be an art connoisseur, interested in buying a $17,000 painting. However, after closer consultation with his fellow connoisseurs it was determined that they were approximately $16,995 short.
New Orleans is also known for its haunted houses and Voodoo culture, so our next stop was the Voodoo Museum. This consisted of a single A4 handout and three ordinary sized rooms consisting of skulls, bones, voodoo dolls and various potions. Our entry fees had not been wasted however when we met the current voodoo witchdoctor – Mr John T. Martin – Druid and Voodoo Priest, who had an unhealthy passion for large snakes. Although his 350 lbs, 25 foot, 30 inch girthed boa constrictor had recently died, he did introduce us to his three year old albino green tree python. It was remarkably affectionate apart from what we were told is an unhealthy fetish for big toes. This did not bode well as we were all wearing thongs and we beat a hasty retreat.
Keen to satisfy our culinary cultural curiosity we headed to get ourselves some Po’Boys for lunch. Jez was the most adventurous – trying fried catfish, while Carl and Nick stuck to the simpler option of mixed meats. After wandering over to Frenchmen St, which only really differed to the rest of the French Quarter in the higher incidence of facial tattoos, we jumped on the streetcar and headed back to the hostel to gear up for a big night.
For the first time in a long time, our promise to our bodies of exercise was upheld and the three of us went running along the canal and blew some quickly accumulating cobwebs out of our systems. We then returned home where Jez caught up on some blogging and Carl and Nick went and got food and drinks for the night. Head chef Wonders created what Carl has described as a “Rogan Josh delicacy – minus the delicacy” courtesy of the good people at Patak’s which we washed down, not with bargain Coronas as we had thought we had bought, but with extremely effeminate Coronitas. Well fed, we headed into town with our new friends – Matt from Texas, Kristin from Arkansas and Lordy and Teeny from Melbourne. Starting at the Spotted Cat on Frenchmen, we listened to some local jazz before making our way to the bright lights of Bourbon St. There, feeling very generous – Jez bought a round of test-tube shots for everyone which, we were somewhat surprised to learn, were to be served from the bust of a large African-American cocktail waitress. Post test-tube shots, things moved downhill quickly with hurricanes being introduced for the next round. This was bad enough, but Wonders took things to a whole different level by buying them in “big gulp” form – which amounted to McDonalds super-size cups which would’ve been approximately a litre.
From this point, the group disintegrated somewhat, though all made it home safely. However, none made a direct journey. Jez drunkenly slept in an unoccupied room at the hostel, Wonders made a detour to walk through some wet paint at the hostel and Carl got his Tarot cards read on the street. He was told that he was currently travelling, will be poor in the near future and that this will change when he starts working. Insightful stuff.
Either way – we had all very much enjoyed our last night in the Big Easy and were looking forward to some quiet(ish) days on the road to Tennessee.
‘Til next time
The boys on the road
New Orleans is also known for its haunted houses and Voodoo culture, so our next stop was the Voodoo Museum. This consisted of a single A4 handout and three ordinary sized rooms consisting of skulls, bones, voodoo dolls and various potions. Our entry fees had not been wasted however when we met the current voodoo witchdoctor – Mr John T. Martin – Druid and Voodoo Priest, who had an unhealthy passion for large snakes. Although his 350 lbs, 25 foot, 30 inch girthed boa constrictor had recently died, he did introduce us to his three year old albino green tree python. It was remarkably affectionate apart from what we were told is an unhealthy fetish for big toes. This did not bode well as we were all wearing thongs and we beat a hasty retreat.
Keen to satisfy our culinary cultural curiosity we headed to get ourselves some Po’Boys for lunch. Jez was the most adventurous – trying fried catfish, while Carl and Nick stuck to the simpler option of mixed meats. After wandering over to Frenchmen St, which only really differed to the rest of the French Quarter in the higher incidence of facial tattoos, we jumped on the streetcar and headed back to the hostel to gear up for a big night.
For the first time in a long time, our promise to our bodies of exercise was upheld and the three of us went running along the canal and blew some quickly accumulating cobwebs out of our systems. We then returned home where Jez caught up on some blogging and Carl and Nick went and got food and drinks for the night. Head chef Wonders created what Carl has described as a “Rogan Josh delicacy – minus the delicacy” courtesy of the good people at Patak’s which we washed down, not with bargain Coronas as we had thought we had bought, but with extremely effeminate Coronitas. Well fed, we headed into town with our new friends – Matt from Texas, Kristin from Arkansas and Lordy and Teeny from Melbourne. Starting at the Spotted Cat on Frenchmen, we listened to some local jazz before making our way to the bright lights of Bourbon St. There, feeling very generous – Jez bought a round of test-tube shots for everyone which, we were somewhat surprised to learn, were to be served from the bust of a large African-American cocktail waitress. Post test-tube shots, things moved downhill quickly with hurricanes being introduced for the next round. This was bad enough, but Wonders took things to a whole different level by buying them in “big gulp” form – which amounted to McDonalds super-size cups which would’ve been approximately a litre.
From this point, the group disintegrated somewhat, though all made it home safely. However, none made a direct journey. Jez drunkenly slept in an unoccupied room at the hostel, Wonders made a detour to walk through some wet paint at the hostel and Carl got his Tarot cards read on the street. He was told that he was currently travelling, will be poor in the near future and that this will change when he starts working. Insightful stuff.
Either way – we had all very much enjoyed our last night in the Big Easy and were looking forward to some quiet(ish) days on the road to Tennessee.
‘Til next time
The boys on the road
Day 1 in New Orleans
We awoke late and very very dusty, nursing what was without doubt our biggest collective hangover of the trip. Given it was already well after midday we decided food could not make us feel worse, so we headed down to the shops and bought 4 litres of Gatorade, panadol and a can of soup – breakfast of champions! Following this we jumped on the streetcar and headed into the French Quarter to have a wander. The most interesting thing about the streetcar ride was seeing the levee down on the river. Once we got to the French Quarter we spent a couple of hours just wandering around and as anticipated it was pretty cool - lots of little art galleries and antique stores interspersed with endless souvenir shops.
All of the walking was getting a bit much for our hungover bodies so we decided to sit down at the famous Café de Monde and watch the jazz being played out the front. We also tucked into the famous beignets – which are basically fried croissants with piled icing sugar – afternoon tea of champions. The amount of icing sugar involved is hard to express – there was literally almost as much sugar as there was pastry and by the time we were finished, our table looked like some sort of white Christmas nativity scene.
We went back to the hostel to continue the hangover recovery, do some washing and cook dinner. Wonders was again in charge and again the menu consisted of stag chilli and rice – dinner of champions! After recruiting one of the dudes from the hostel (John / Eric from Wisconsin, dependent on whether you were looking at his real or fake ID) we headed to a place called the Howlin’ Wolf in the warehouse district to watch what we anticipated would be some classic New Orleans jazz – featuring our new friends from Lafayette. Walking there was a surreal enough experience in its own right, given the thickness of the fog and the abundance of abandoned buildings but we arrived, due to Wonders impeccable sense of direction, with no dramas.
Unfortunately however, our expectations of an evening of jazz were way off the mark and the first three acts were death metal, hip-hop and punk. It was weird. We did get to go backstage for a little while, though there was not a great deal to see – apart from the dudes from the bands smoking a pipe. Other highlights of the night included getting given free jumbalaya and taking turns in wearing a poncho – it was that kind of night. The guys that we were there to see (The Can’t Hardly Playboys) turned out to be really good but despite Carl’s inexplicable desire for more beers, sense prevailed and we headed home.
Until next time,
Jez
All of the walking was getting a bit much for our hungover bodies so we decided to sit down at the famous Café de Monde and watch the jazz being played out the front. We also tucked into the famous beignets – which are basically fried croissants with piled icing sugar – afternoon tea of champions. The amount of icing sugar involved is hard to express – there was literally almost as much sugar as there was pastry and by the time we were finished, our table looked like some sort of white Christmas nativity scene.
We went back to the hostel to continue the hangover recovery, do some washing and cook dinner. Wonders was again in charge and again the menu consisted of stag chilli and rice – dinner of champions! After recruiting one of the dudes from the hostel (John / Eric from Wisconsin, dependent on whether you were looking at his real or fake ID) we headed to a place called the Howlin’ Wolf in the warehouse district to watch what we anticipated would be some classic New Orleans jazz – featuring our new friends from Lafayette. Walking there was a surreal enough experience in its own right, given the thickness of the fog and the abundance of abandoned buildings but we arrived, due to Wonders impeccable sense of direction, with no dramas.
Unfortunately however, our expectations of an evening of jazz were way off the mark and the first three acts were death metal, hip-hop and punk. It was weird. We did get to go backstage for a little while, though there was not a great deal to see – apart from the dudes from the bands smoking a pipe. Other highlights of the night included getting given free jumbalaya and taking turns in wearing a poncho – it was that kind of night. The guys that we were there to see (The Can’t Hardly Playboys) turned out to be really good but despite Carl’s inexplicable desire for more beers, sense prevailed and we headed home.
Until next time,
Jez
Friday, December 19, 2008
Lafayette to New Orleans
We awoke customarily late and were undecided as to what we should do for the rest of the day. The resolution to this problem was as simple as it was random – we would go to the world’s one and only Tabasco sauce factory and then on to New Orleans.
But first – after days of saying that we would do it and not actually having done it we took the Trailblazer for a bath, in the form of a drive-through carwash. Everyone was excited by this prospect except for gentleman John, who took an absolute pounding up on the antenna – but still managed to hang on, even though he lost his flag – he’s such a trooper!
The Tabasco factory on Avery Island was as strange as expected – we got to see an infomercial about the history of Tabasco and how to make it, and then got a tour of the factory itself which Carl (the budding engineer that he is) particularly enjoyed. We then went on to the shop where they had free samples of all sorts of Tabasco related products – including Tabasco Coke which was just weird. We predictably gorged ourselves and then hit the road, bound for New Orleans.
After a brief detour in which we found out what a sugar cane plantation smells like and that the yellow bowl restaurant was closed, Carl had another subway sub that was bigger than his head, Prentice called about 6 times, more real talk and we made it to New Orleans safely.
After spending about half an hour cruising around the city and trying to sort out our accommodation, we checked into the India House hostel. New Orleans is a crazy place – on the one hand, it’s obvious that it used to be, and to a degree still is a huge party town, but on the other the lingering effects of Katrina are still blatantly obvious. There are still heaps of houses that are boarded up and in some places whole streets that are completely unoccupied. Apparently when Katrina hit all of New Orleans’ gun shops got completely looted and almost none of it has been recovered. That combined with the fact that abandoned buildings make a good place “for crackheads to hang out” according to the guy running the hostel – we were kinda on edge.
To ease our fears (and those I’m sure of our readers) we got drunk and hit the town with some of the other people from the hostel. We did the touristy thing and hit Bourbon St and were not disappointed. Carl’s dancing was once again a highlight. The one downer however was Wonders getting separated from everyone as we left the pub. He had no money, Carl wasn’t answering his phone, my phone was out of action due to my own poverty so he had no option but to walk home which he reckons took him close to an hour. This was spectacularly at odds our trusty lonely planet guidebook which recommends: “New Orleans has a high violent-crime rate; it’s not a city to be careless. Spring for a cab to avoid dark walks” Carl awoke to find the following message : “hey dickhead – I’m dying here. Duck you 2”. Great road trip memories.
Until next time,
Jez
But first – after days of saying that we would do it and not actually having done it we took the Trailblazer for a bath, in the form of a drive-through carwash. Everyone was excited by this prospect except for gentleman John, who took an absolute pounding up on the antenna – but still managed to hang on, even though he lost his flag – he’s such a trooper!
The Tabasco factory on Avery Island was as strange as expected – we got to see an infomercial about the history of Tabasco and how to make it, and then got a tour of the factory itself which Carl (the budding engineer that he is) particularly enjoyed. We then went on to the shop where they had free samples of all sorts of Tabasco related products – including Tabasco Coke which was just weird. We predictably gorged ourselves and then hit the road, bound for New Orleans.
After a brief detour in which we found out what a sugar cane plantation smells like and that the yellow bowl restaurant was closed, Carl had another subway sub that was bigger than his head, Prentice called about 6 times, more real talk and we made it to New Orleans safely.
After spending about half an hour cruising around the city and trying to sort out our accommodation, we checked into the India House hostel. New Orleans is a crazy place – on the one hand, it’s obvious that it used to be, and to a degree still is a huge party town, but on the other the lingering effects of Katrina are still blatantly obvious. There are still heaps of houses that are boarded up and in some places whole streets that are completely unoccupied. Apparently when Katrina hit all of New Orleans’ gun shops got completely looted and almost none of it has been recovered. That combined with the fact that abandoned buildings make a good place “for crackheads to hang out” according to the guy running the hostel – we were kinda on edge.
To ease our fears (and those I’m sure of our readers) we got drunk and hit the town with some of the other people from the hostel. We did the touristy thing and hit Bourbon St and were not disappointed. Carl’s dancing was once again a highlight. The one downer however was Wonders getting separated from everyone as we left the pub. He had no money, Carl wasn’t answering his phone, my phone was out of action due to my own poverty so he had no option but to walk home which he reckons took him close to an hour. This was spectacularly at odds our trusty lonely planet guidebook which recommends: “New Orleans has a high violent-crime rate; it’s not a city to be careless. Spring for a cab to avoid dark walks” Carl awoke to find the following message : “hey dickhead – I’m dying here. Duck you 2”. Great road trip memories.
Until next time,
Jez
Sealy to Lafayette via Houston
We awoke late at the Ranch Motel having missed our opportunity to go for a run. Although our good intentions didn’t count for anything, given the horror movie style of our lodging we were happy to be alive. We headed to the Johnson Space Centre on the far side of Houston and once again were blown away by the Americans’ love of highways. Carl’s ability to negotiate the freeways is improving but we still find ourselves making deals with god.
The Johnson Space Centre was mind-blowing. We’d been told it was a must-see and we certainly weren’t disappointed. We only had about 4 hours, so we had to ration our time: we did the tram tour of the facilities, which was freezing, saw the Houston control centre and the building of computers dedicated to the piloting of the Apollo missions, the mainframe of which had less power than our mobiles. We got to wander through the astronaut training room and were lucky enough to see a group of astronauts, fully kitted up in their space suits, being put through their paces. We saw one of the last three Saturn rockets responsible for the Apollo missions laid out on its side and spent the rest of our time wandering around, looking at moonrocks and old space capsules. We also learnt a lot about the international space station which is equivalent in size to a 5 bedroom house (real talk) and the plans to go to Mars by 2030.
We left the Space Centre and headed towards Lafayette – the Cajun capital of the deep south. After booking into the blue moon saloon, Lafayette’s premier nightclub / youth hostel, we went and had our first meal of the day. The time by this stage was approximately 8:30 and Marvin was starvin’. We gorged ourselves on gumbo, buttered bread and deep-fried cornbread. We then made our way to a little jazz bar we had noticed on our way into town for some quiet beers and cards. After several hours of BB, Abita Amber Ale (Louisiana’s local brew) and a three-piece jazz band we started talking to some of the locals and quickly got ourselves an invite to see their band play in New Orleans. At about 2 we retired. It had been a quiet night.
Note: The days travels were once again punctuated by several phone calls from Preno and much real talk. For examples of real talk – please visit ________ for R. Kelly’s take on real talk. (Please note that this hyper-link thoroughly violates the PG rating that we have been trying to maintain so click it at your own risk – it is pretty horrible)
Missing you all in Australia,
Nick
The Johnson Space Centre was mind-blowing. We’d been told it was a must-see and we certainly weren’t disappointed. We only had about 4 hours, so we had to ration our time: we did the tram tour of the facilities, which was freezing, saw the Houston control centre and the building of computers dedicated to the piloting of the Apollo missions, the mainframe of which had less power than our mobiles. We got to wander through the astronaut training room and were lucky enough to see a group of astronauts, fully kitted up in their space suits, being put through their paces. We saw one of the last three Saturn rockets responsible for the Apollo missions laid out on its side and spent the rest of our time wandering around, looking at moonrocks and old space capsules. We also learnt a lot about the international space station which is equivalent in size to a 5 bedroom house (real talk) and the plans to go to Mars by 2030.
We left the Space Centre and headed towards Lafayette – the Cajun capital of the deep south. After booking into the blue moon saloon, Lafayette’s premier nightclub / youth hostel, we went and had our first meal of the day. The time by this stage was approximately 8:30 and Marvin was starvin’. We gorged ourselves on gumbo, buttered bread and deep-fried cornbread. We then made our way to a little jazz bar we had noticed on our way into town for some quiet beers and cards. After several hours of BB, Abita Amber Ale (Louisiana’s local brew) and a three-piece jazz band we started talking to some of the locals and quickly got ourselves an invite to see their band play in New Orleans. At about 2 we retired. It had been a quiet night.
Note: The days travels were once again punctuated by several phone calls from Preno and much real talk. For examples of real talk – please visit ________ for R. Kelly’s take on real talk. (Please note that this hyper-link thoroughly violates the PG rating that we have been trying to maintain so click it at your own risk – it is pretty horrible)
Missing you all in Australia,
Nick
Austin to Sealy
After a big night we all rose with dusty heads and only just before mid-day. With half the day already gone we made unambitious plans to head to Sealy, a town on the outskirts of Houston. Before heading to Sealy we had a feed at our new favourite lunch spot (wholefood markets) and dropped Zelts of at the airport whose time on the road trip had to sadly end. Cheers Zelts for the good times, some more bad dance moves for the repertoire and introducing us to random country music that you would only find here in America.
On the way to Sealy we detoured past San Antonio where I also got an interesting phone call. Wonders’ being the polite guy he is never says no to exchanging mobile numbers with people he has met along the way, the only thing is he decided it prudent to give my number when it involves the more interesting characters. On this occasion the callers on the other end of the line would only say “Great White Shark” in a bad Australian accent repeatedly.
Moving on, we where mainly in San Antonio for the Alamo. Real talk time…the Alamo was initially a missionary outpost later fortified for the war with Mexico. When Mexico attacked the Alamo back in the 1830’s it sparked a chain of events which eventually lead to the U.S.A acquiring a lot of its now South West States. After cruising around the Alamo we went on the river walk. The river forms a large loop with cafes and restaurants on either side of the river. Here we had another average American coffee and Jez his very fancy hot chocolate.
We arrived in Sealy about 8 and checked into the Ranch Motel which would have not been out of place on a horror film set. Keen to spend minimum time at the ranch we set of for dinner and found a decent Mexican restaurant. We all had a large Mexican feed with refried beans and rice and all and went to bed with a full stomach and glad to have a quiet night.
Cheers
Carl
On the way to Sealy we detoured past San Antonio where I also got an interesting phone call. Wonders’ being the polite guy he is never says no to exchanging mobile numbers with people he has met along the way, the only thing is he decided it prudent to give my number when it involves the more interesting characters. On this occasion the callers on the other end of the line would only say “Great White Shark” in a bad Australian accent repeatedly.
Moving on, we where mainly in San Antonio for the Alamo. Real talk time…the Alamo was initially a missionary outpost later fortified for the war with Mexico. When Mexico attacked the Alamo back in the 1830’s it sparked a chain of events which eventually lead to the U.S.A acquiring a lot of its now South West States. After cruising around the Alamo we went on the river walk. The river forms a large loop with cafes and restaurants on either side of the river. Here we had another average American coffee and Jez his very fancy hot chocolate.
We arrived in Sealy about 8 and checked into the Ranch Motel which would have not been out of place on a horror film set. Keen to spend minimum time at the ranch we set of for dinner and found a decent Mexican restaurant. We all had a large Mexican feed with refried beans and rice and all and went to bed with a full stomach and glad to have a quiet night.
Cheers
Carl
Monday, December 15, 2008
Day 2 in Auston
We awoke late and bleary-eyed after an epic night. After a thorough recount of the previous night’s events, Marv (Carl) and Hippo (Zeltz) were predicably hungry. This was despite the copious amounts of BBQ and pizza that both had consumed the night before, but regardless, we headed out to get food. Thankfully, we were able to find Wholefoods market which was essentially a supermarket and foodcourt rolled into one – so we ordered some much needed healthy food, grabbed prime people watching seats and cast our eyes over the best that Austin had to offer. After tearing ourselves away from this thoroughly enjoyable pursuit we went for a wander through the many and varied Op-Shops, antiques stores and cowboy-boot shops that were on offer. The highlight was Allen’s boot store which offered literally thousands of pairs of boots, including some that cost in excess of $6,000US. Deciding that this was out of our price-range, we went down to the river to watch the bats (apparently there are millions of them) fly out from under the bridge at sunset. In reality, it was a flop. Whether this was because the bats had all migrated or whatever – there simply were no bats.
By this stage, Marv was hungry again so we went in search of more BBQ. We were not disappointed to find Ruby’s BBQ where we loaded up on more delicious Texas meat (sloshed in nutritious BBQ sauce). Carl was absolutely stoked by this prospect and proceeded to order the biggest item on the menu and then supplement it with an additional side dish. Upon his amazing completion of this meal, Carl decided that he “wasn’t that full” so we decided to have a couple of beers in our motel room before hitting the town for Zeltz’s farewell party.
We started our night off by playing a couple of games of pool and drinking cheap beers which was all well and good until we caught the eye of two young ladies, one of whom was relatively attractive and the other of whom was a punisher. After her telling us that I looked like a vampire (?) and that Carl looked 19 (understandable) we decided that it was time to go so we pushed on to the next pub. We were somewhat sidetracked en route to buy 8 shots for $8, but managed to find another place that was to our liking. I should clarify – when I say “to our liking” I actually mean – probably the best place in the world. We spent the majority of our night here, chatting to an increasing number of locals, dancing on the open-air dancefloor and getting progressively drunker. We did make a brief detour to catch up with Dean Mac at another place across the road which was also pretty good, but quickly returned. When the pub shut at 2 we joined the throng of people on the streets – and continued to chat with random people. In between times we tried to bargain down the price of pizza. It was at this point that Zeltz attempted to make the pizza more palatable to CENSORED by saying “here comes the aeroplane”. By this stage it was about 3, so we got a cab home – thankfully for us the cabbie was very knowledgeable and he regaled us with his wisdom regarding where the best places to eat out are in Texas and all about American women. By the time we got home we were wiped and proceeded to pass out, thus drawing a close on probably our best day of the trip so far.
That’s all for now.
Jez
By this stage, Marv was hungry again so we went in search of more BBQ. We were not disappointed to find Ruby’s BBQ where we loaded up on more delicious Texas meat (sloshed in nutritious BBQ sauce). Carl was absolutely stoked by this prospect and proceeded to order the biggest item on the menu and then supplement it with an additional side dish. Upon his amazing completion of this meal, Carl decided that he “wasn’t that full” so we decided to have a couple of beers in our motel room before hitting the town for Zeltz’s farewell party.
We started our night off by playing a couple of games of pool and drinking cheap beers which was all well and good until we caught the eye of two young ladies, one of whom was relatively attractive and the other of whom was a punisher. After her telling us that I looked like a vampire (?) and that Carl looked 19 (understandable) we decided that it was time to go so we pushed on to the next pub. We were somewhat sidetracked en route to buy 8 shots for $8, but managed to find another place that was to our liking. I should clarify – when I say “to our liking” I actually mean – probably the best place in the world. We spent the majority of our night here, chatting to an increasing number of locals, dancing on the open-air dancefloor and getting progressively drunker. We did make a brief detour to catch up with Dean Mac at another place across the road which was also pretty good, but quickly returned. When the pub shut at 2 we joined the throng of people on the streets – and continued to chat with random people. In between times we tried to bargain down the price of pizza. It was at this point that Zeltz attempted to make the pizza more palatable to CENSORED by saying “here comes the aeroplane”. By this stage it was about 3, so we got a cab home – thankfully for us the cabbie was very knowledgeable and he regaled us with his wisdom regarding where the best places to eat out are in Texas and all about American women. By the time we got home we were wiped and proceeded to pass out, thus drawing a close on probably our best day of the trip so far.
That’s all for now.
Jez
Day 1 in Austin
We woke early, keen to beat Jez to the bathroom.
The day was shaping up to be a long trip across the flats of western Texas 420 miles in total. We where on the road by at 8:30 am and made our first of four fuel stops for the day. We stopped at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for an early lunch late breakfast. Our second stop for the day was Sonora caverns where we hoped to have a tour of the caves. Unfortunetly the tour was going to take the best part of two hours. Being pushed for time we where force to pass.
Back on the road we started the first of many on road games. The first was the Disney number plate game for instance; 368 DGE – the Devil Goes to Everest – “He’s not such a bad guy” (All movie titles require a advertising tag line). But our favourite game was our own creation, “Real Talk”. Named after the popular catch phase of Tuscon frat boys, “Jez was that you, what have you been eating, real talk”. The game involved telling each other something that the other three will not know. For instance everyone know knows the refractionary temperatures of crude oil, and that turtles can breath through there anus under water.
Our most anticipated stop of the day was at the famous Texas BBQ house “Salt Lick”, for an early dinner. We chowed down on beef brisket, texas sausage, marinated ribs, homestyle BBQ sauce, pickles, onion, vinegrette coleslaw, and mustard potato salad (take a moment to wipe the drawl up).
We finished our drive into Auston and after perusing the main strip booked into our hotel. After a few quiet beers we caught a cab into 6th street Auston. 6th street is 4 blocks of wall to wall pubs interrupted only occasionally by all night pizza slice shops. Auston is the music capitol of the south and most bars feature live music in addition to $2 beers and $1 shots. At 10pm every night the streets for 4 blocks are blocked off and the party spills from the bars into the streets. The night was awesome! Auston is awesome we plan to spend the next month here.
Just a quick note; we have been listening to a lot of country music over here and below is a link to our favourite song, Watching you by Rodney Atkins.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=oqYUns2YQik
Later Nick
The day was shaping up to be a long trip across the flats of western Texas 420 miles in total. We where on the road by at 8:30 am and made our first of four fuel stops for the day. We stopped at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for an early lunch late breakfast. Our second stop for the day was Sonora caverns where we hoped to have a tour of the caves. Unfortunetly the tour was going to take the best part of two hours. Being pushed for time we where force to pass.
Back on the road we started the first of many on road games. The first was the Disney number plate game for instance; 368 DGE – the Devil Goes to Everest – “He’s not such a bad guy” (All movie titles require a advertising tag line). But our favourite game was our own creation, “Real Talk”. Named after the popular catch phase of Tuscon frat boys, “Jez was that you, what have you been eating, real talk”. The game involved telling each other something that the other three will not know. For instance everyone know knows the refractionary temperatures of crude oil, and that turtles can breath through there anus under water.
Our most anticipated stop of the day was at the famous Texas BBQ house “Salt Lick”, for an early dinner. We chowed down on beef brisket, texas sausage, marinated ribs, homestyle BBQ sauce, pickles, onion, vinegrette coleslaw, and mustard potato salad (take a moment to wipe the drawl up).
We finished our drive into Auston and after perusing the main strip booked into our hotel. After a few quiet beers we caught a cab into 6th street Auston. 6th street is 4 blocks of wall to wall pubs interrupted only occasionally by all night pizza slice shops. Auston is the music capitol of the south and most bars feature live music in addition to $2 beers and $1 shots. At 10pm every night the streets for 4 blocks are blocked off and the party spills from the bars into the streets. The night was awesome! Auston is awesome we plan to spend the next month here.
Just a quick note; we have been listening to a lot of country music over here and below is a link to our favourite song, Watching you by Rodney Atkins.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=oqYUns2YQik
Later Nick
Tuscon, Arizona to Van Horn, Texas
Tuscon, Arizona to Van Horn, Texas
Hello Everyone,
With Jez having done majority of the blogging lately I thought I better chip in and help him out (Carl here). Travelling from Tuscon to Van Horn was a big driving day in which we started in the state of Arizona crossed New Mexico and finished two hours past the border of Texas. We rose early for the big trip and were off before nine thirty only to realise 15 minutes later we had left invaluable supplies of food and beer behind. On our second departure we finally left the road runner hostel and its interesting characters behind for good.
The first six hours of driving where across the arid and cactus covered plains of Arizona into New Mexico towards out first main destination of the White Sands National Park. On the way we made two stops. First was our favourite lunch destination Sub-way, which Wonders assures us provides all the fresh vegetables we need each day while the second stop was a quirky antique shop selling fireworks. Excited by the prospect of legally being able to light up the night’s sky with some big explosions we brought $20 worth of sky rockets and bungers. Unfortunately we had to pass on the more elaborate “Battle Ship” and “TNT” packs.
Appropriately, just before reaching White Sands we passed through the military missile testing range. A large flat plain surrounding by small mountains it is the perfect area for testing explosives and has been used numerous times for nuclear missiles. We finally reached White Sands National Park at 4 pm with only an hour of sunlight remaining. The parks, as the name suggests, consists of rolling white sand dunes made from gypson. Besides being beautiful the major appeal for us was being allowed to slide down the dunes on plastic discs. Having slid down the dunes (Jez and I defeating the two Nick in the dune slide challenge) and watched the sun set with a few beers we headed off for El Paso.
El Paso is a fascinating city just inside Texas and right on the Mexican border, we arrived about 8 and ate at a mexican restaurant called “Tap” eight blocks from the border. Neither waitress spoke English so we all had a go at Spanish, Wonders mastered the language quickly saying “Per Favore” when the meals were delivered. We arrived at our final destination at 11 exhausted from a big day in the car. Tomorrow we complete the journey to Austin.
Cheers
Carl
Hello Everyone,
With Jez having done majority of the blogging lately I thought I better chip in and help him out (Carl here). Travelling from Tuscon to Van Horn was a big driving day in which we started in the state of Arizona crossed New Mexico and finished two hours past the border of Texas. We rose early for the big trip and were off before nine thirty only to realise 15 minutes later we had left invaluable supplies of food and beer behind. On our second departure we finally left the road runner hostel and its interesting characters behind for good.
The first six hours of driving where across the arid and cactus covered plains of Arizona into New Mexico towards out first main destination of the White Sands National Park. On the way we made two stops. First was our favourite lunch destination Sub-way, which Wonders assures us provides all the fresh vegetables we need each day while the second stop was a quirky antique shop selling fireworks. Excited by the prospect of legally being able to light up the night’s sky with some big explosions we brought $20 worth of sky rockets and bungers. Unfortunately we had to pass on the more elaborate “Battle Ship” and “TNT” packs.
Appropriately, just before reaching White Sands we passed through the military missile testing range. A large flat plain surrounding by small mountains it is the perfect area for testing explosives and has been used numerous times for nuclear missiles. We finally reached White Sands National Park at 4 pm with only an hour of sunlight remaining. The parks, as the name suggests, consists of rolling white sand dunes made from gypson. Besides being beautiful the major appeal for us was being allowed to slide down the dunes on plastic discs. Having slid down the dunes (Jez and I defeating the two Nick in the dune slide challenge) and watched the sun set with a few beers we headed off for El Paso.
El Paso is a fascinating city just inside Texas and right on the Mexican border, we arrived about 8 and ate at a mexican restaurant called “Tap” eight blocks from the border. Neither waitress spoke English so we all had a go at Spanish, Wonders mastered the language quickly saying “Per Favore” when the meals were delivered. We arrived at our final destination at 11 exhausted from a big day in the car. Tomorrow we complete the journey to Austin.
Cheers
Carl
Tucson Arizona
It was now obvious. Our middle aged, unemployed, drifting and toothless housemates at the Roadrunner Hostel officially hated us. Not only had we scorned their offer of “free” seafood pasta at the hostel for some $70 pizza’s, but we had managed to achieve what we can only assume had been somewhere towards the top of their things to do list since arriving in Tucson.* That is, crashing at the house of some authentic University of Arizona college girls.
On stumbling back into the hostel at 10am and gorging ourselves on some free waffles (some of us more than others) we were given a hot tip by Cody, a good youngish bloke who worked at the Roadrunner who we bonded with over many non baby-boomer things and our fell sets of chops. Apparently the best thing to do in Tucson was the hike at Bear Canyon. Despite nursing severe hangovers, being in poor physical condition and having an extremely varied amount of sleep to each other the night before CENSORED, the time had come for some exercise. And boy were we excited!
However our excitement was tempered on reading the single piece of paper that the nice lady at the visitor center casually slid under our map. It informed us that the “The Bear Canyon area is infested with Mountain Lions”. It contained such pearls of wisdom as not to run from the lions, shout loudly if you see one and that 9 out of 10 of those attacked are in fact children. Armed with this knowledge we decided to make sure we never let Nicholas Wonders out of our sights.
The hike was fast-paced and actually quite long (at around 8miles, which scholars believe is around 34 kilometres). The frenetic pace of the walk was due to our fearless leader Carl, who was surely forging ahead under the logic “the faster we get back, the quicker I’ll get more food”. Despite this, it was a great walk, it exposed us to some truly amazing countryside and also satisfied our inner desires to take copious photos of catci. Australians 1. Mountain Lions 0.
The nights festivities consisted of a good old fashioned cook up prepared by Nicholas “Chorizo” Wonders before checking out the Tucson nightlife. I think we can all agree it ended up being a fizzer. Not only did we get barred from a number of establishments for not having our passports (in no small part due to Carl “Baby Face” Macintosh) but I think we all moved that fraction to snapping in the face of unrelenting Australian accent impressions by American Girls.
Who are we kidding? We love it.
Nick Z
*Actual things to do list found at Roadrunner Hostel
1. Make new young friends
2. Get job
3. Clean dentures
4. Offer seafood pasta to young girls, stay at house.
5. Don’t get too settled, keep drifting
On stumbling back into the hostel at 10am and gorging ourselves on some free waffles (some of us more than others) we were given a hot tip by Cody, a good youngish bloke who worked at the Roadrunner who we bonded with over many non baby-boomer things and our fell sets of chops. Apparently the best thing to do in Tucson was the hike at Bear Canyon. Despite nursing severe hangovers, being in poor physical condition and having an extremely varied amount of sleep to each other the night before CENSORED, the time had come for some exercise. And boy were we excited!
However our excitement was tempered on reading the single piece of paper that the nice lady at the visitor center casually slid under our map. It informed us that the “The Bear Canyon area is infested with Mountain Lions”. It contained such pearls of wisdom as not to run from the lions, shout loudly if you see one and that 9 out of 10 of those attacked are in fact children. Armed with this knowledge we decided to make sure we never let Nicholas Wonders out of our sights.
The hike was fast-paced and actually quite long (at around 8miles, which scholars believe is around 34 kilometres). The frenetic pace of the walk was due to our fearless leader Carl, who was surely forging ahead under the logic “the faster we get back, the quicker I’ll get more food”. Despite this, it was a great walk, it exposed us to some truly amazing countryside and also satisfied our inner desires to take copious photos of catci. Australians 1. Mountain Lions 0.
The nights festivities consisted of a good old fashioned cook up prepared by Nicholas “Chorizo” Wonders before checking out the Tucson nightlife. I think we can all agree it ended up being a fizzer. Not only did we get barred from a number of establishments for not having our passports (in no small part due to Carl “Baby Face” Macintosh) but I think we all moved that fraction to snapping in the face of unrelenting Australian accent impressions by American Girls.
Who are we kidding? We love it.
Nick Z
*Actual things to do list found at Roadrunner Hostel
1. Make new young friends
2. Get job
3. Clean dentures
4. Offer seafood pasta to young girls, stay at house.
5. Don’t get too settled, keep drifting
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Grand Canyon to Tucson
We awoke bright and early at the insistence of old-man Wonders and rugged up and headed outside to see the sun rise over the grand canyon. Despite the cold it was well worth it, because the views were absolutely spectacular. However, given it was absolutely freezing, we were in no way prepared for a hike and after a quick breakfast we hit the road bound for Tucson, which promised to be a good fun uni town, given it has the University of Arizona smack-bang in the middle of it.
It’s just a well the uni is there otherwise Tucson would be challenging Bakersfield as the least attractive place in the world. We checked into our hostel and got a rude shock as all of the other patrons were middle-aged men who were basically drifters and one of whom, Carl was disturbed to find out (as he was sleeping below him) was basically a drug addict and had spent time in prison.
After calling some mates of Tom and Will, who had studied over there, we went and met up with a group of guys and girls at a dive called the Shelter which was good fun. We then went back to some of the girls’ place in a big group to play drinking games, the highlights of which were Carl trying to describe the word “misprint” as being “like a false start” and then paying the pizza man $140 for 2 pizzas. Luckily for us the pizza man was a good bloke and came back and returned it once he realised. Despite the continually terrible attempts of everyone we were with to imitate our accents, a good night was had by all and we decided, on the promise of a huge night the next night, to stay another night in Tucson.
That’s all for now
Jez
It’s just a well the uni is there otherwise Tucson would be challenging Bakersfield as the least attractive place in the world. We checked into our hostel and got a rude shock as all of the other patrons were middle-aged men who were basically drifters and one of whom, Carl was disturbed to find out (as he was sleeping below him) was basically a drug addict and had spent time in prison.
After calling some mates of Tom and Will, who had studied over there, we went and met up with a group of guys and girls at a dive called the Shelter which was good fun. We then went back to some of the girls’ place in a big group to play drinking games, the highlights of which were Carl trying to describe the word “misprint” as being “like a false start” and then paying the pizza man $140 for 2 pizzas. Luckily for us the pizza man was a good bloke and came back and returned it once he realised. Despite the continually terrible attempts of everyone we were with to imitate our accents, a good night was had by all and we decided, on the promise of a huge night the next night, to stay another night in Tucson.
That’s all for now
Jez
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Vegas to the Grand Canyon
G'day
Having woken at around midday feeling very much worse for wear after a weekend of CENSORED, CENSORED and CENSORED we were well satisfied that we had "done Vegas" though certain members of the touring party may have more accurately concluded that Vegas had done them.
After a typically healthy breakfast/lunch of fast food we gathered the newest member of our touring party Nick "Hippo" Zeltzer, a friend of mine from Mac Bank, loaded up the close to overflowing TRAILBLAZER, and hit the road for the Grand Canyon.
The definite highlight of the trip was driving across Hoover Dam, which the Wonderboy was quick to tell us, is one of the 7 industrial wonders of the world. We suspect the reason he knows this is that he was a part of the construction team, but regardless, he certainly was knowledgeable.
This also marked our departure from Nevada which was welcomed by all, though did cost us an hour as we changed time-zones.
As we cruised through the Arizona desert, we were impressed by the increasing number of cacti, but were a little worried as it got colder and colder and darker and darker.
Eventually, despite Carl's attempts to send us way off course with his unique brand of spatial logic, Emily managed to find her way to the Grand Canyon, by which time it was very dark, very cold and soon to start snowing.
Thankfully, the Maswik Lodge was warm, dry, had food and was cheap(ish) - though god knows what the manager thought of us when the four of us checked into a room with two double beds...
Thankfully. that was about it for the night as the boundless enthusiasm of Wonders had decreed that we would all get up bright and early for sunrise the following morning - what's with old people and getting up early?
That's all for now.
Hope you're all safe and well.
Jez
Having woken at around midday feeling very much worse for wear after a weekend of CENSORED, CENSORED and CENSORED we were well satisfied that we had "done Vegas" though certain members of the touring party may have more accurately concluded that Vegas had done them.
After a typically healthy breakfast/lunch of fast food we gathered the newest member of our touring party Nick "Hippo" Zeltzer, a friend of mine from Mac Bank, loaded up the close to overflowing TRAILBLAZER, and hit the road for the Grand Canyon.
The definite highlight of the trip was driving across Hoover Dam, which the Wonderboy was quick to tell us, is one of the 7 industrial wonders of the world. We suspect the reason he knows this is that he was a part of the construction team, but regardless, he certainly was knowledgeable.
This also marked our departure from Nevada which was welcomed by all, though did cost us an hour as we changed time-zones.
As we cruised through the Arizona desert, we were impressed by the increasing number of cacti, but were a little worried as it got colder and colder and darker and darker.
Eventually, despite Carl's attempts to send us way off course with his unique brand of spatial logic, Emily managed to find her way to the Grand Canyon, by which time it was very dark, very cold and soon to start snowing.
Thankfully, the Maswik Lodge was warm, dry, had food and was cheap(ish) - though god knows what the manager thought of us when the four of us checked into a room with two double beds...
Thankfully. that was about it for the night as the boundless enthusiasm of Wonders had decreed that we would all get up bright and early for sunrise the following morning - what's with old people and getting up early?
That's all for now.
Hope you're all safe and well.
Jez
Monday, December 8, 2008
Road Trip Intro
+156.JPG)
Now that we have been on the road for a week it has been deemed necessary by the touring party to introduce the key member of the touring party – both human and non-human.
The first and undoubtedly most important member of the trip is the Chevy Trailblazer. There was a brief discussion about giving it a name but it was ultimately decided that its stature transcends gender and that simply “TRAILBLAZER” was more than enough of a name.
The second most important member of the touring party is Emily – our British-accented GPS unit. Though she sometimes struggles a bit on the freeway and had some fairly major troubles pronouncing Yosemite National Park (she seemed to think that Yosemite rhymes with vegemite), she has successfully navigated California and promises to be invaluable as we blaze a trail across the US of A.
The third member of the touring party that needs introduction is gentleman Johnny, our Koala mascot who is clinging bravely to the antenna. Though his forward facing side has been taking an absolute battering in the smog, fog and haze (and undoubtedly even more so when we get into snow), he continues to doff his hat to all from his perch on the antenna and we hope that he can cling on all the way to New York.
Now turning to the human members of the touring party, we will proceed in age order:
Name: Dr Nicholas Ivor Wonders BVSc BI MS (Guinness World Record Holder)
Age: 37
Traits: Belying his status as the elder statesman of the touring party, the Wonderboy has been by far the most enthusiastic member of the touring party thus far. This may be in part due to his morning diet of a Berocca and a Panadol, which seems to get each day off to a flying start. The social butterfly that he is, he has been going up and randomly introducing himself to everybody he can find, from Motel 6 employees , to random people at hostels, to random tourists on Alcatraz Island.
Name: Carl James McIntosh
Age: 24
Traits: Mac can be identified by a number of fairly obvious indicators. Firstly, his patented dancing style which has become known as the shoulder roll; secondly, his physical likeness to Vanilla Ice; thirdly, the fact that he is always hungry and lastly, his wardrobe which consists of three items of clothing – 2 grey hoodies and 1 pair of jeans (which he somehow manages to squeeze into the world’s largest suitcase – the man is an engineering genius). He is so averse to wearing any other items of clothing that he is prone to throw them on the ground in fits of rage. Despite these occasional outbursts, Marvin McIntosh is definitely the voice of reason on the tour and can be depended on to be concerned about the well-being of the other members of the touring party if and when they need it, and occasionally when they don’t.
Name: Jeremy Philip Atkin
Age: 23
Traits: What can we say about this man, he has become unaffectionately known as ‘The Metabolic Man”. He is a stickler for the rules and relishes enforcing them. Every day he wakes up with the knowledge that he is the crudest Australian within spitting distance. Jez’s two greatest passions in life are Jez FM DJing and Sports. Both of which he can pursue endlessly on the road
There will of course be a number of others who will be making guest appearances on the roadtrip including James “The Chump” Glenday, Nick “Buzz-Monkey” Cleland, Simon “Dr Phil” Monteath and David “The Wizard” Prentice.
Name: James Robert Glenday
Age: 22
Traits: The foremost trait of the chump is vanity. The man takes half an hour to shower and considers a full length mirror a travelling necessity. He has been our guide around California for much of the first week, having been here for the past few months on exchange. He knew San Francisco top to bottom and was an ideal host and tour guide. He has been playing up his Australian accent for all that it is worth and has made a lot of friends in his time in the country which he was more than happy to introduce us to. It’s a shame that he could not continue on to Vegas with us, but with a weekend at Lake Tahoe with all of the other exchange students already planned it’s hard to blame him!
Rules and Regulations:
There are only three real rules which are being enforced on the roadtrip. The first is that under no circumstances can the word M-I-N-E be said. The second, is that as ambassadors of all things Australian, and aware that a certain member of the touring party may have caused some offence early in the trip with his language, a swear jar has been implemented – with a 25c punishment issued for every indiscretion. The third rule is that if something is suggested and the phrase “it would be rude not to” is uttered, then it must be done.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Back to Nature
6th December 2008
Today we woke up with sore heads after the previous night on the party bus. We left San Francisco sad to leave Glenday and his housemates behind. Big thanks to Apartment 1J (Glenday, Sigrid, Lovisa, Ivor, Dan) for letting us crash on your floor, we hope you liked being introduced to rum and the many photos.
Torn between driving to Lake Tahoo, Yosemite National Park or just going straight to Vegas we decided to get in touch with nature and visit the national park. After three hours of driving. most of which was on long winding roads, we finally reached our destination. The park was beautiful with its large rocks and valleys. We ventured down into the valley stopping at all the possible viewing points and went for a small walk.
+114.JPG)
From the park Jez took over driving duties and took the winding road to Fresno, from there we took the CA 98 to Bakersfield. On asking the receptionist at our classy Motel 6 what the local sites where she quickly informed us "nothing" and that her move here was out of stupidity. After this glowing endorsement we decided to stay in and have a cheap eat.
Tomorrow is Las Vegas!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Hey guys.
Another interesting day and a proud day for Australia. Carl was in charge of the days frivolities and as such very little happened. To be fair the day revolved around five dollar subway, berocca, horse tranquillers and 8 hours of driving.
We awoke at 8:30 after 12 hours of sleep (cumulative), and keen to gorge ourselves on the complementary pancakes at the hostel. They were awesome. We were on the road by 9:30 and were sad to see the last of SLO (san luis obisbo). We drove north along the pacific coast highway for a couple of hours until we arrived at Herst castle, play ground to the media magnet someone herst and basis for the movie citzen kane. Unfortunately they force you to park five miles from the castle and pay for a 2 hour tour, being short on both money and time we elected not to participate.
Back on the road we stopped at one of the elephant seals breeding grounds. At this time of year the males are busy marking their ground and the females are yet to arrive. As such there was a little misbehaving but not too much. But these guys are big, the largest would have been pushing 3000 kilograms.
From there the road to monterray is spectacular. It hugs the coast cliffs, swerving in and out and up and down. We went from sea level to 2000 feet and back several times. As the driver for the whole day (Nick) I was loving the James Bond driving experience. Unfortunately 30 miles short of monteray it proved to much for carl’s stomach and we had to stop (it was probably the pancakes).
Monteray is described as a city of Ferraris and yachts but we were in a rush and settled for 5 dollar footlongs. For the next three hours carl and jez slept leaving nick to practice his karaoke and defensive driving, a lethal combination of sports.
We arrived in San fran 2 hours before we were to meet glenday and spent the time perusing san fransicsco state uni’s grounds. After settling in at the chumps we where taken on a night time tour of san fran. James very kindly took us to all his favourite night time date locations and usual make out locations, needless to say the view largely explains chumps success in the USA. Carl was left to drive as chump navigated us up and down the famously steep streets of san fran including lombard.
It was an awesome day but we were all exhausted.
‘Til Tomorrow,
Nick
Another interesting day and a proud day for Australia. Carl was in charge of the days frivolities and as such very little happened. To be fair the day revolved around five dollar subway, berocca, horse tranquillers and 8 hours of driving.
We awoke at 8:30 after 12 hours of sleep (cumulative), and keen to gorge ourselves on the complementary pancakes at the hostel. They were awesome. We were on the road by 9:30 and were sad to see the last of SLO (san luis obisbo). We drove north along the pacific coast highway for a couple of hours until we arrived at Herst castle, play ground to the media magnet someone herst and basis for the movie citzen kane. Unfortunately they force you to park five miles from the castle and pay for a 2 hour tour, being short on both money and time we elected not to participate.
Back on the road we stopped at one of the elephant seals breeding grounds. At this time of year the males are busy marking their ground and the females are yet to arrive. As such there was a little misbehaving but not too much. But these guys are big, the largest would have been pushing 3000 kilograms.
From there the road to monterray is spectacular. It hugs the coast cliffs, swerving in and out and up and down. We went from sea level to 2000 feet and back several times. As the driver for the whole day (Nick) I was loving the James Bond driving experience. Unfortunately 30 miles short of monteray it proved to much for carl’s stomach and we had to stop (it was probably the pancakes).
Monteray is described as a city of Ferraris and yachts but we were in a rush and settled for 5 dollar footlongs. For the next three hours carl and jez slept leaving nick to practice his karaoke and defensive driving, a lethal combination of sports.
We arrived in San fran 2 hours before we were to meet glenday and spent the time perusing san fransicsco state uni’s grounds. After settling in at the chumps we where taken on a night time tour of san fran. James very kindly took us to all his favourite night time date locations and usual make out locations, needless to say the view largely explains chumps success in the USA. Carl was left to drive as chump navigated us up and down the famously steep streets of san fran including lombard.
It was an awesome day but we were all exhausted.
‘Til Tomorrow,
Nick
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
LA to San Luis Obispo
Howdy,
Tuesday was our first official day on the road and we set out from Palais de McIntosh and headed north along the Pacific Coast Highway. The first hour or so was spent on various superhighways which were roughly the equivalent of stacking Victoria Rd, the Harbour Bridge and the Princes Highway side by side and often on top of one another.
After we got a bit further north we had our first WalMart experience. It was a little bit disappointing really - I thought a BB gun would be much cheaper than $20...
Anyway - we made it as far north as Santa Barbara for lunch which was much nicer than any of the beach towns in the OC - the absence of thick fog/smog was a welcome change and the locals were all pretty friendly.
With the help of Emily, we eventually made it to San Luis Obispo and checked into the hostel where we met a fairly strange mix of people including this one pommy bloke who had been working on a farm in canada, found a bike in a rubbish tip and decided that he was going to ride the bike to Mexico and was about halfway there.
Given that it was our first official night on the road we decided that it would've been rude not to get out on the town and we were lucky to find out that it was $2 dollar pint night at the local uni pub. Our night took a further turn for the better when we met Mike who had the truly terrible job of working for a brewery and took it upon himself to offer us samples of their produce. Better still was the fact that Americans seemed to like the accents - even though most of them seemed to initially think we were English. Suffice to say, a good night was had by all.
That's all for now.
Hope you're all well.
Jez
Monday, December 1, 2008
USC Trojans Rule!
Saturday 1st November
There was little time to recover from a big Friday night in Hollywood with a college football game beckoning. The game was USC vs Notre Dame which has traditionally been a big rivalry and promised a big crowd. The boys and I were not dissapointed.
Arriving at 1:00 pm we got to experience our first tailgate, which involves a massive gathering of all the fans eating, drinking and catching up before the big game. Everyone we met informed us that drinking before the game is essential to help the game time pass more quickly, something Jez was maybe a little too happy to embrace.
At the end of the tailgate the USC marching band played and then lead the fans into the stadium. The stadium can only be described as impressive with 90 000 spectators dressed in red all supporting their team.
Unfortunately the game was a bit of a fizzer with the trojans thrashing Notre Dame. In this time however Jez managed to fit in a quick snooze and Wonders asked surrounding supporters plenty of questions.
From there we hit the local bar called 901, patrons included former USC players who now play in the NFL and plenty of college students. The night ended with a stop at Wendy's for a bunch of their delicious 1 dollar burgers.
Orange County, aka Smogville ... by James Glenday
I woke this morning, to the highly unpleasant smell and sound of Nicholas Wonders' moist farts ... my proximity to which was defined by the cramped surroundings of our stylish 77 dollar Motel ... a blanket of thick soupy fog/smog that had inundated the California south coast overnight greeted us and it was a shock to discover the beautiful surroundings we had experienced the night before had melted into a haze of car fumes, fog and hot air (most of it coming from Jez's mouth) ...
no sooner had we arrived back at Laguna Beach when CENSOREDattempted to CENSORED ... afterwards we ventured to an enormous and very stylish shopping mall, found some spray paint and drove to Huntington Beach …
Huntington Beach international surfing museum was slightly no frills but the pier and beach made up for it …
Seal cove was next … possibly the ugliest place I have seen in my entire life … downtown Baghdad undoubtedly possesses more charm … there are certainly more Seals there anyway … Long Beach was also equally unimpressive … we concluded the day perusing some dodgy backstreets CENSOREDthen dropped me at LAX ... (I have school in the morning) … the boys have returned to the house of McIntosh, where no doubt Carl will be rubbished for not completing his daily report … however stay tuned for his account of CENSORED … I daresay it could make some of best reading of the trip … assuming that is, Carl has learned to use spell check …
From LAX, CA, this is James R Glenday, guest appearing, for the Roadtrip USA blog …
no sooner had we arrived back at Laguna Beach when CENSORED
Huntington Beach international surfing museum was slightly no frills but the pier and beach made up for it …
Seal cove was next … possibly the ugliest place I have seen in my entire life … downtown Baghdad undoubtedly possesses more charm … there are certainly more Seals there anyway … Long Beach was also equally unimpressive … we concluded the day perusing some dodgy backstreets CENSORED
From LAX, CA, this is James R Glenday, guest appearing, for the Roadtrip USA blog …
PS: The photo is from beautiful long beach at about 3:30 in the afternoon
Sunday, November 30, 2008
First Post - 1/12/2008
Howdy,
Welcome to the first of what will be many posts from the road. I am typing this entry from just south of Laguna Beach sitting on the floor of the budget lodge in dana point, california - seriously - dana point. There should be an update everyday so if you are really keen then you can keep up to date with our exploits on a day-to-day basis - more likely - the only person that will read the posts will be the person who has written them so this may end up being a fairly redundant exercise but it will at least be a record of our adventures.
Anyway, today was our first real day on the road - after having woken up feeling very dusty after watching the trojans last night - we left casa del McIntosh at about midday we headed south towards Newport Beach. To be honest it was a fairly uneventful day but it was good fun nonetheless - Laguna Beach and Newport Beach are much as they look on the show but there was a massive shortage of people under the age of 50. We had a pretty good feed at a classic all-American diner and have spent the night hanging out in the cheapest room that "Emily" - our english accented GPS - could find.
Stay tuned - tomorrow we'll be cruising around the OC so if television is to be believed, it should be a pretty eventful day.
Til Then,
Jez
PS: The photo is of sunset at Laguna Beach
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)