Tic Toc Travels

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Around the 7,000 mile mark...

Guten Tag!

Why am I greeting you in German, you might be asking yourself... Well we are currently in Dutch Pennsylvania...and in fact it was named 'Dutch' Pennsylvania because those that came here were from Switzerland actually spoke Deutch and everyone misheard, thus it is now 'Dutch'. There's some new knowledge for you, because lets face facts, you ain't gonna learn much from our photos!

It dawned on me that a picture of our route might be helpful...so since the last blog, this is what we have done...

We last met when we went to Six Flags in San Antonio - just getting over that motion sickness...now lets go onwards and eastwards

AUSTIN, TEXAS

Megs in the Capitol building in the capital of Texas, Austin.
Sorry I made you look like a 5 year old sitting on the floor but I felt you were the only one who could get away with being 'related' to Texas....

I kinda feel like Ty from Extreme Home Makeover was involved in the building of the new Capitol...

Before...

After...

Every city seem to have Segway tours....genius...

Out and about for the nightlife - Megs was confident we'd do some two-stepping...

Tim and John talking about good times...

John and I two-stepping!

Side-saddle Rodeo...

Tim went swimming with water-moccasins (snakes) and nutria (water rat)

Meanwhile, Megs and I did an America's Next Top Model photo shoot...

We said goodbye to Megs until New York City and moved onto the next state...

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Odds and Ends got together to make schweet music...

Street performers

Our local hang out...

To be fully immersed in the Jazz scene we thought we should indulge in a cigar...just so our parents can't blame one for leading the other astray, here we both are having a puff!

Swamp tour!!

Tim seated next to the 'captain' of the air boat

They enticed alligators to us with marshmallows...hmmm...not exactly what we had in mind...

Baby gator!

NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI

Treated ourselves to staying at a plantation...as you do....

Closest we've come to sighting a real bear...sad times for Timmy

Just south of Memphis is Clarksdale, the 'birthplace of the blues'. This is Morgan Freeman's bar. He wasn't there...gutted.

OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI

The moment just before the real Judge of the court came in - oops! He was taller than Tim, but mighty impressed we were from the real Oxford so was very pleasant...!

I spotted a car graveyard whilst driving...

Arkansas is the only state that we drove into just for the sake of saying that we were there...we've stayed in every other state for at least 2 nights!

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Of course there's a replica Parthenon with a 42ft statue of Athena in Nashville....why wouldn't there be....
(Fact: This location was used in Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief)

The Grand Ole Opry is the longest running radio show in the world, starting in 1925 - 2 hours of varied country music - twas ace.

Check the bass player's tie - yes it's a cactus.

SOUTH CAROLINA, NORTH CAROLINA, VIRGINIA...

Blue Ridge Parkway

Constant singing of 'Teddy Bear's Picnic' and 'Bare Necessities' did not produce any bears.

Bear hunting...

Zero visibility

Sadly 80% of our drive was fog covered...however it meant that the animals weren't expecting us! We saw a dozen deer and a young cougar.

WASHINGTON D.C.

The United States Capitol Building

Inside the Capitol

Suburbs were basically Fulham-esq!

D.C. Metro

Hostess with the mostest, Shona (friend from uni) had us to stay and let us tag along to Saturday night out in D.C.

Lincoln Memorial is MAHUSIVE

Turns out we were here during cherry blossom season! This is the Tidal Basin and the Washington Memorial on the right...

Jefferson Memorial.
We know pretty much all of the American history. Test us.

LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

So we've come to Amish country to rest up before New York...3 nights surrounded by horse and carts, handmade quilts, cheese, beards and black hats...very peaceful...

We're back on 14th April - so look out for real blogging in the form of cups of coffee and dinner parties (if you're inviting, that'd be ace as we're living with the rentals...)

TTFN

Tic Toc xxx

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Howdy Y'all

The Open Road

Hey Folks,

It's been a while since our last blog - I wish I could give excuses of 'we were held up in a Texas jail' or 'we've been practising our Bear Grylls skills in the Arizona desert' but needless to say, our only excuse is that we've been having too much fun. So in order not to use up your monthly quota of reading (which is what the description of the past 2 weeks would take!) I'd like to walk you through a few choice photographs!

Monument Valley, Arizona

When people ask me what my favourite part of our USA trip is so far, this is the place that I say...

Four Corners

This is me 'hopping over' to Colorado from Arizona!

The 4 states that meet are Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Durango, Colorado - this bar was kept in the fashion of the 1800's - women were in corsets, suspenders and fishnets and the men wore waistcoats and bow ties...raw deal if you ask me...

Tim's bear hunt is kinda lived out as we see these beautiful bears at one of many amazing art galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Just as we leave Debbie's college room-mate, Kathy, we see this little fella in the driveway...at this point might I note that in this elegantly decorated house in the desert of New Mexico, they also had 3 dogs, 2 cats, 1 feral cat, 4 snakes, 19 tortoises and about 6 lizards (1 of which was a bearded dragon which Tim held), gazillion fish and thousands of cacti (they have a cactus farm). A great stay.

Elk City, Oklahoma - on our drive from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City we stopped for 'gas' and what should we come across but a horse stopping traffic. But of course...

So, to Oklahoma City we went for family fun! My cousin Jan was to be wed and being one of 20ish in the bride's immediate family - fun and games was to be had...

Aunt Donna, Uncle David and Cousin Allison

Father/Daughter dance

Aunt Kim, Allison and me

Cousin Tony, Aunt Ronda, Uncle Jay

The morning after the night before trying to capture photos of many birthday boys and girls!

To Texas! And what must one do in Texas but the RODEO!

Tim sporting a new cowboy hat and shirt

Megan (our hostess with the mostess) fighting for her share at the petting zoo at the rodeo!

A decked out goat - one choice of dozens of food establishments at the Rodeo

A 'brick' of fries. Yes we ate them. Yes we are slowly becoming the size of small trailers...

Finding out about the produce...and from which parts we eat of the cow! Tim asked him about Maccy D's...ask him for further details...

Cowboy wellies. Why not?

The gals - yes I too have purchased a hat...

True Texans...

Fried chicken, pork and veal hotdog and a sausage on a stick. Nutritious and delicious.

RODEO!

Just to include the kids they make them grip onto sheep and then see how long they stay on for....when asked what technique he uses, this kid answered 'I jus' howld ow'n' and when asked how he practised, the commentator asked whether he had a sheep at home 'No, just mai dawg'. Priceless

Just waiting to catch the bulls

Jump off the horse, onto the cow, et voila - it's on the floor....

Eight seconds you have to stay on...not a single one did - it was a-mazing!

Barrel Racing - like it says on the tin - you race around barrels...

First place 30 youth under 20 on the dirt, surround them by 'volunteers' in cowboy hats, let loose 15 cows and stir. Once the youth have caught a cow, drag back to chalk square and receive a round of applause.