San Francisco/Yosemite

Everyone I've spoken to says San Francisco fast becomes their favourite city and I can see why the Americans like it, it's very European! There are lots of steep hills to encounter when walking round the city though. I very nearly had a heart attack on a few of them!

We decided the best way to see the city was by renting bikes. Yes, me on a bike. I'm the girl that cycled full speed into a barrier in France and nearly beheaded myself, I cycled into a stationary car, numerous lamposts, I even nearly spilt my head open after just wobbling off my bike going round a corner. So cycling was a brave decision. Luckily I came away from it unscathed (apart from a very sore bum!).

We cycled along the main roads, then down to the Golden Gate park which was beautiful! We went right down to the beach and Seal Rock. Saw no seals but struggled with the vertical hill up to the bridge. Having to get off a bike and push is humilating at the best of times, it makes it worse when you get a golfer shouting "Aren't you supposed to cycle it?!" at me.. although he went beetroot when I then said "Aren't you supposed to get it in the hole?" His friends loved it!

When we finally reached the bridge, it was so foggy that you couldn't even see the bloody thing!! It lifted when we reached the other side and we managed to get a nice view of it. Coming down the other side to the ferry was thankfully mostly downhill. Seeing two guys on a tandem trying to get up the steep bit I was coming down was absolutely hilarious! Far too much effort involved! We made it to Sausalito, felt like we were cycling in Southern France, then caught the ferry back.

The sight of the vertical hill on the other side to get back to the bike rental made me almost cry. I could barely push the bike to the top! Definately on the verge of having a heart attack! It was awful! It was then made worse that the promising downhill was actually too steep to cycle down almost pushed me over the edge, literally!! We realised later we'd actually cycled 20miles which was an achievement and apart from my incredibly sore bum, I absolutely loved it!!

We also visit Alcatraz! (yes, let the criminal jokes begin..) It was good and interesting to see but the whole tour was so sugar coated that it was almost a holiday camp, even Al Capone was almost a stand up citizen! But contradictory facts aside, was amazing to see and walk round it!

From San Francisco, we headed to Yosemite, where we staying in the BUG hostel. It was practically a campsite, had a nice cafe and even had a Health Spa which turned out to be very cheap. Was nice to come back from a hard days walking in Yosemite to a hot bath, hot tub, Sauna and fancy showers! Yosemite itself was very surreal! El capitan was unbelievable and the waterfalls were insane!

Standing on the Valley floor in one if the meadows and looking at the surrounding scenery began to feel increasing like sonething from the Sound of Music. Really liked the park itself after not really knowing what to expect, it was just ruined slightly by all the people! I'd hate to see what it's like mid july!

Overall, San Francisco is expensive and very european and Yosemite is beautiful but far too overcrowded!

Coast Starlight!

On our return from Hawaii we had a rest day in Seattle, then we got the Famous Coast Starlight train down from Seattle to San Francisco.

When we got to the train station we seemed to attract attention because of our backpacks and the fact that we were the youngest there by a good few years. We got speaking to a couple who were interested in our trip and after hearing we were going to Emeryville the lady said she was sure that they had made a film called Emeryville Horror. She went on to say it was about the Emeryville whores.. Her husband patted her gently on the head, chuckled and actually said that she was thinking of something else but they might make one now we were going! So funny! I later saw them stumbling up the train, she had her fingers hooked into the back of his jeans shuffling behind him being towed along. Brilliant!

The train was amazing, we had a tiny cabin to ourselves with two fold out beds. We got given free champagne in our cabin on arrival as well as coffee and juice etc. The train had a Parlour Car for drinks, a dining car, an obervatory lounge, a cinema and even had a shower!! We spent the afternoon wine and cheese tasting then had a steak dinner which was pretty good.

We had someone to fold our beds down for us and it soon became apparent that this was the difficult bit! Once they were down, we had a foot of space in which to move. I was in the top bunk, which was VERY clostrophobic, I could touch the ceiling with my elbow and even then not fully stretched out. I even had to be strapped in with Cargo straps through the night incase I fell out, which would typically happen to me!!

We had a massive breakfast as well the next morning which set us up for our trek into San Francisco!

Casual trip to Hawaii..

After the homeleness of the Beagle, I was pretty sad to be back in a hostel in Seattle!

We stayed in the Green Tortoise which is across the street from Pike Place Market. The reviews make out this place to be amazing but I'd go with Average at best!

We went up the Space Needle, wandered round Pike Place Market, just managed to catch them throwing the fish which is definately a talent! We had a coffee in the first ever Starbucks and caught a ferry over to Bainbridge Island for the afternoon.
Predictably it rained.

We weren't too upset about the weather as our next stop was a cheeky trip to Hawaii, we had managed to get cheap flights out to Honolulu when we were in Nashville.

The flight was very budget, a six hour flight with no food, entertainment or leg room! The free mai tais sweetened the deal slightly!

We staying in Wakiki for the whole ten days we were there. Food and drinks were so expensive, the $8 loaf of bread was a breaking point for us, so we bought food in bulk for the week and cooked our own food! Accomodation left little to be desired as well, but Hawaii is Hawaii!

Spent all the time baking on the beach. It became a bit unbearable at 35°c everyday, all you could concentrate on was the sweat literally running off you which meant reading was impossible. Floating around in the sea soon sorted that problem! You weren't short of entertainment however, the beach was full of overenthusiastic Japs trying to impress their girlfriend by surfing which ultimately ended up by ending up face first in the shallow part of the water. I even witnessed a Small child running out of the water, planting its face in the sand, then running after the other kids in the water barely able to see through all the sand caked on its face! Comedy Gold.

We obviously found time to appreciate the odd Mai Tai (would be rude not too) and the live music! It wasn't quite the imagined white sand, deserted beaches, more tacky tourist central but it was so much fun!

Wasn't too sad to leave, my skin had started to blister in the heat and I'm looking forward to California which is fast approaching!!

The Beagle

This part of our trip definately deserves its own post on here.

We landed in Seattle to pick up another car, and drive almost straight out to Idaho. The drive was amazing. No snow!! The green fields and trees were a welcome sight. Felt like home.

When we reached Cottonwood, we were a bit early but what an amazing sight to turn the corner and be greeted by a giant beagle who was accompanied by two smaller ones. Very surreal.

Heading into the shop we had a warm welcome from Frances and Dennis and their dog, Sprockett. Immediately felt like home! They have another part of the business where they make wooden carvings of dogs using a chainsaw then handpainting them. They were absolutely amazing, struggled with the desire to empty my entire bag and just fill it with wooden dogs!

They gave us the key to the Beagle, recommended dinner places for us then left us to explore.

The outside might be amazing, but it doesnt even begin to do the inside justice. We discovered dog shaped biscuits, a full fridge, handmade granola, muffins, bread, the list goes on! The headboard of the bed had dogs carved into it. Then trouble started when we discovered the attic full of games and puzzles.

We spent a very enjoyable evening playing beagle-opoly and doing jigsaws. I slept in the attic which is designed for children, inside the nose was a shelf with cusions and fairy lights so I managed to squeeze myself in here, for maybe a not so peaceful nights sleep because I couldn't straighten my legs, but can you say you've slept in the nose of a Beagle? Well I can now!

The morning brought mixed emotions. From disbelief of being in a Beagle to being sad that we had to tear ourselves away from this magical place! Its funny that all the little homely touches, feeling so welcomed by Frances and Dennis and having Sprockett to bother, made me feel really homesick for home comforts and the dogs. Really didn't want to leave! Just shows how good it really is here.

Thanks to Dave Gorman for bringing us here, Frances and Dennis for having us and giving us probably one of the most unique memories we'll get from this whole trip.

Its an absolute Hidden Gem!! Anyone who considers coming to America, don't even think twice about heading to the Dog Bark Park. It was worth every second of the 13 hour round trip we made!

Not everyone can say they've been in a Beagle!!

Snow, Snow and more Snow.

The flight to Denver can only be described as an experience. When we got to the airport, a massive Blizzard started. We presumed the flight would be cancelled but oh no. We boarded then sat in a 2 hour queue of planes waiting to be de-iced, with the heating on in the cabin full blast! Sure enough, eventually de-iced it and we took off after a fleet of 20 snowploughs cleared the runway. This definately puts the Uk to shame, if so much as a snowflake falls, thats it, game over.

So we made it, picked up another hire car. This was also an experience. After being sat on a boiling plane for 5 hours with little movement, the guy in the rental place actually had the cheek to tell me I had to pay £145 extra because the car I rented wouldn't make it into the mountains. After I asked for the Manager, he actually had the cheek to change his tune to the actual reason which was, and I quote, "you will go 35mph up the mountain while other cars pass you". No sir, you have not seen how quick I can get a Skoda up Finghall Bank. Patronising B......Anyway to top it all off, we found gross contact lense solution in the pocket of the very dirty Dodge we got.

Nevertheless, we made it into the Rockies. Didn't anticipate the change of Altitude however, I suffered from Altitude sickness after heading up the top of a very big slope. I spent a good twenty minutes lying upside down on a frozen rock near the top of a mountain praying that I didn't look like a tasty bear snack and working out how I could fashion a sledge out my jacket to get down. Once I got over it, we had plenty fun playing in the deep snow at the top of the mountains. I managed to make a successful Snipe trap in which a Snipe ended up waist deep in a snow drift much to her surprise!

As much fun as the Snow was, waking up to 3ft of snow on the morning we were supposed to head to Yellowstone was not so fun. It soon became apparent that we weren't going anywhere. I can't really decribe the disappointment as Yellowstone was the main reason I wanted to come to America but as much as I'd like to, you can't control the weather. So we spent a painful 4 days trapped in Estes Park. I became so bored, I even applied for Jobs!! ha.

We managed to escape to Boulder for a couple of days, then got back on track up to Rapid City. I was so keen to get there, I missed a change in speed limit and spent an awkward 10 minutes in the car with a highway patrol officer.. He spent so long writing out his form I was convinced I was going to Jail but it turned out he was deciding whether the 'miss' on my driving license made me royalty or not. Sadly my appearance answered that question!

From Rapid city, we managed to get to Mount Rushmore which was very exciting and definately something to tick of the bucket list!! We headed back to Denver for a couple of days.

Next flight to Seattle means We've actually made it Coast to Coast!!

Due North

Next stop after returning the car to Atlanta, was a short flight to St Louis.

The accomodation turned out to be fairly expensive in St Louis with no Hostel so we ended up getting a cheap deal at the Ramada which we were not to upset about. However, after a couple of nights it turned into a bit of a disaster, the fridge turned into a freezer (it had no dial) and the families all night argument next door to us, as amusing as it was, began to wear us down after about 4 hours of constant screaming. So after a polite conversation with the front desk, we got one of the nights we were staying free, and free breakfast every morning.

I never thought I'd say this, but thank you screaming children.

We obviously couldn't go to St Louis without venturing up the Arch. When they ask you as you by the tickets if you have a problem with small places, they being generous. To get up the arch, you go in a Tram, and by tram I actually mean a tiny bubble, that they cram 5 people into. Your face is basically pressed against the persons in front of you and there is one tiny window. When you get to the top it doesn't get much better. The top has 4 small windows on each side and they don't control how many people go up. So we were in this tiny space, 630ft from the ground with about 60 people all squeezed in. Lets just say I was relieved to get my feet back on the ground.

In St Louis we got our first taste of Ice Hockey. The game started quite slowly, then all hell broke loose. Two player began fighting and the only way the refs could stop them was to push them to the ground and lie on top of them, all the time punches still being thrown and Bloody everywhere. Absolutely Brilliant. Definately my new favourite sport!

We then moved on to Chicago. This has definately by far been my favourite city. We spent an brilliant few days at the bean, on Navy pier, doing a walk of faith at the top of the highest tower in the western hemisphere, experiencing the cheesecake factory, taking an very cultural architecture tour of the city and appreciating the live music the city is famous for. Loved it. The only downside to Chicago was the hostel, but the less said about that the better!

We then headed up to Milwaukee. Here we had a very casual few days as there wasn't much to do in the city. We discovered £1.50 pint cocktails, went to a baseball game where we got upgraded to the diamond box and ate Frozen Custard (horrible as it sounds, it was surprisingly good!)

From there we ended up in Minneapolis where we spent a good few days in the Mall of America. I've never seen anything like it. There was a giant theme park in the centre and there was even a chapel! We did spend an afternoon in Minneapolis. It was eventful. In one of the shops we were casually looking round and came across an elderly lady, tongue out, hood up, stuffing bottles of perfume into her bag quite happily. She then just scuttled out the shop and noone did anything. VERY bizzare!

The last couple of days were spent anticipating the next flight to Denver and worrying about the weather!

Smoky Mountains

The last two entries were probably, to be frank, quite rubbish. I've been very tired and think my brain has sunk into an American Stupor. (I'm surprised it took this long for it to happen to be fair!)

ANYWAY.

So I left the last post at Chattanooga. From there we caught the megabus to Atlanta. Surprise Surprise, it had broken down and we spent a jolly afternoon stuck in a car park on the outskirts of Chattanooga. (Although to give them credit, we'd been given a part refund before the bus even arrived..) After picking up the car, free upgrade may I add, we headed to where we were staying on the Outskirts. We were only really in Atlanta for two days, one for Coca Cola World and the other for the Aquarium. Coca Cola world was fairly interesting, even if I was distracted by stalking to Coca Cola Polar bear and the other very scary 'mascot'. 64 samples of coca cola products and a free bottle of coke later, we were done.  

The aquarium was amazing. They even had penguins. I was so excited to see them I ended up headbutting the glass at the side of the tank and broke my sunglasses, it was tragic. They had everything you could imagine apart from Great Whites which I was very upset about. Although was promptly cheered up by the all singing, all dancing dolphins. 

Was mildly impressed by Atlanta, having gone with no expectations after the bad press it receives, it was actually quite pleasant. Even their over the top Paddy's day celebrations were good. I would never have thought to put luminous green dye into the fountains.... Only in America.

We then began our road trip to the Smokies. We had a brief stop in Lynchburgh to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery. Was an interesting tour and the free samples at the end were even more interesting! We had 3 free measures, one NO.7, one Gentleman Jack and one Single Barrel. Three guesses what my favourite was?!

So from there, we drove up via Alabama to Pigeon Forge, a strange 'Blackpool-esqe' gateway town to the Smokies. Here we celebrated Snipe's birthday, we spent a Gin fueled few hours Zip lining down the side of a mountain, which proved to be great entertainment. We had a leisurely walk up a mountain, which turned out not to be so leisurely. Especially when we turned a corner and where met with a noise that sounded like a bear, lots of branches snapping and rustling, after nearly having a heart attack we discovered that it was actually a squirrel..

We went to Dollywood for a day which was a random place, the only thing I can equate it to is Lightwater Valley, only with Dolly Parton. After sitting through what seemed like three hours of Bollywood dancing, Dolly herself popped onto the stage. It was very surreal, we met her again later in the parade through the park. Highlight of the week.

A very good Birthday present for Snipey.

Tennassee

First stop in Tennassee was Memphis. Rock and Soul museum, Beale Street, Sun Studios, Graceland and the Lorraine Motel.

Sun Studios was amazing, to be in the actual studio where Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, etc etc started. I can't quite find the word to describe the feeling of being there!!

Graceland also has the same effect. I've never been one to buy into the hysteria surrounding stars like Elvis but you can see why when you go to Graceland. I came out of it feeling like a huge fan and wanting to buy all tatt I could get my hands on. The knowledge that I cannot fit anything else in my backpack was the only thing that stopped me. The decor was insane, a personal favourite was the walls covered in green shagpile carpet. So good!!

We visited the Lorraine Motel as well, I felt this was slightly odd. You could peer in the window to the motel room and see it the exact way MLK left it, rubbish and all. Even standing on the exact spot where he was shot seemed wrong.

Next was Nashville. Very cool place. Country Music Hall of Fame is the main attraction! We decided to get tickets to the Grand ole opry as that is what one does when one is in Nashville. We asked where we should buy tickets and got told where to go. When we returned that evening, we settled into our spot. It became apparent to us that there were a lot of women in the audience. Then upon closer inspection of the few men in the audience, it turned out they were actually women as well.. Never a good sign. The main act of the show was actually an aging, overweight, lesbian duo. We sat through 3 hours of them singing songs dedicated to each other which was, to be frank, brutal. The large hysterical ladies on our row did not help the situation either. We returned home slightly dishevelled, covered in spilt beer, potential black eyes due to overexcited waving from our companions, to discover we had actually been at entirely the wrong thing. The venue we were at was where it used to be held.

The Moral of that Story - always know what you are buying tickets for.

We moved on to Chattanooga, thankfully to a brilliant hostel! Large wooden beds, with curtains for privacy, a lamp and two, yes two, plug sockets. After closing the curtain on the first night and turning the lamp off I couldn't work out why I was feeling uneasy, til I realised it felt very much like a coffin. This then led to sleepless nights.

We spent a happy few days in whole foods and walking up and down lookout mountain. We discovered the worlds steepest incline passenger railway, this was absolutely insane!! It was almost vertical as you clambered away from the massive drop below you to get out!!

Now to Atlanta..

And they make bull riding look hard...

Our Texas Adventure continued in the form of Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth.

We mainly spent our time in Austin being told we were there on the wrong week as SXSW started the week after our stay. The music scene was big anyway so we made the most of the happy hours and live music. After doing some research we discovered one particular bar was famous for brilliant live music so we decided to give it a try. We tootled down one evening, paid our entrance money to the cowboy on the door, went in to discover what can only be described as a shed that smelt like the bottom of a mop bucket. A locals bar that was full of dodgy looking, past their prime cowboys, who didn't look overly impressed we had found their space. All in all, we definately spent the evening in Austin's dodgiest Honky Tonk.

We spent a day in both Dallas and Fort Worth. There wasn't much in Dallas so We spent most the day at the grassy knoll and at the sixth floor museum. Very strange to see it all in the flesh! In Fort Worth, we spent the day at the Stockyards. The cowboy hall of fame, live gunshow, Live cattle drive through the town, tried a bit of bull riding.. Had some texas barbeque, then spent the evening in Billy Bobs, the worlds biggest Honky Tonk. This was a spectacular place, their version of bar entertainment was a bull riding ring. Unbelievable!! We even narrowly missing an evening with Jesse James.

The few days we spent in Dallas and Fort Worth were soured slightly by the place we stayed. We had a disagreement with the owner over a surcharge he tried to impose. I'm not sure whether I was more offended by his racist comments or the fact he thought we were German...

We discovered after that the surcharge was actually illegal so jokes on him!

It's true what they say about the West being Wild..

The Week of the Road Trip..

Getting in a car that is the wrong way round, driving it on the wrong side of the road and having no control over the gears proved to be a bit stressful at first, but once I'd remembered to stay on the right side of the road and not to slam my left foot on the brake thinking it was the clutch, I easily fell into the American 'lazy' way of driving.

After hitting a few small towns, we headed West on the Interstate and it became very easy to see the real meaning to 'the open road'. The landscape became more barren and the road just stretched for miles. It was Classic Texas.. Cactus' and even Tumbleweed!

The Big Bend National Park was our aim, we spent a couple of days there to explore. We stayed in what can only be described as a Shed, very basic but it was good access for Big Bend. Both nights were spent telling ourselves that whatever was howling outside our door was just a pack of wild dogs.. and that the fact that we were the only people staying there was a coincidence..

It was worth it, we spent a couple of days playing in the desert which proved to be very hot and very dry, even the Cactus' were dying! We then decided to see if we could escape into Mexico through the Santa Elena Canyon.. sadly not successful.

Our next stop was an old Indian Lodge in the Davies mountains which was our base for a spot of stargazing at the MacDonald Observatory. We spent an unsuccessful morning chasing Bears and Mountain Lions up in the mountains.. Breathtaking Scenery.

The thought of giving back the car and getting back on the greyhound is almost unbearable..

But as they say.. The show must go on!

The Eagle has Landed

HELLO TEXAS.

Reaching Houston without being sick was somewhat of a achievement.. the soggy subway sandwich I found in my bag was obviously the key!

The hostel here was an absolute paradise, no wobbly beds and no drunk people meant the first good nights sleep in over a week. Although being in a room full of men made it slightly awkward, still a big improvement on the previous week.

Going up Chase tower gave us a feel for the city, if there is one.. it's so widespread! Beautiful view of the city. The first day in the city was spent being highly disappointed that I'd been in Texas for a good 24 hours and hadn't seen a cowboy or a horse yet. I instead spent a satisfying afternoon chasing Butterflies around in the science museum followed by a walk around downtown Houston. Contrary to popular belief there isn't actually a lot to do if you dont want to spend a lot of money.

We spent the whole time there making a lot of awkward conversation as everybody wanted to know what we were doing.. By awkward, I mean awkward. I even found myself being asked if I'm related to a Viking because I apparently look like one.. (yes, its got that bad.) It was exhausting.

San Antonio brought us real Texas as the Rodeo was in town. We went to the local museum by recommendation and spent a surreal few hours wandering through rooms upon rooms of stuffed animal heads (and in some cases bodies..). One thing can be said about San Antonio is the Riverwalk is beautiful. A lovely part of the city, both through the day and all lit up at night. 

We rounded off our time in the city with an evening at the Rodeo. We were sat right at the top of a massive stadium not really knowing what was about to happen. It was absolutely mental. Fast, Furious and definately not health and safety conscious. A personal favourite of mine was the 'Mutton Bustin''. They actually put small children on the back of a sheep and see how long they can hold on for. Utterly Brilliant!

The entertainment of the evening was Dierks Bentley, a country singer. A revolving stage was placed in the centre of the arena and all the gruff cowboys were replaced by screaming women. They absolutely loved him!

A fantasic way to start our pending road trip into the Deepest, Darkest,Wildest Western Texas...