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!