Nuevo Mexico & Colorado Rockies

Hi all,

We successfully made it through Walter White's turf in New Mexico without succumbing to any blue crystal, so that was lucky, and the scenery along this part of our trip has been spectacular which has kept us busy. We spent an afternoon in Santa Fe which was pretty cool, the buildings all have a very Mexican style to them, then to Albuquerque for the night.

Driving to Durango in the southern end of the Rockies was incredible, the landscapes changed from dry desert to rolling green hills to rocky mountains and finally to snow capped peaks, often all in the one frame! We rode up to a peak of 11,000 ft on a snow mobile which was amazing, Lana & I engaged in a minor snowball skirmish at the top...Lana & others in our group convincingly dominated me :( . Pretty crazy to have gone from dry hot desert to deep snow in the one day, and next stop will be the Grand Canyon.

L + D

Texas time!

Hi all,

We haven't had internet for a few days now so just back tracking a little, sitting in LA, but here is our 3 days in the lone star state.

We stayed in Dallas first and went to the site of JFK's assassination and an incredible museum dedicated to it on the 6th floor of the school book depository building where the (first) shots were fired from. The grassy knoll next to it was suspiciously roped off during our visit though...coincidence?? We also went to the old 'cowtown' of Fort Worth, and to an ice hockey game, only about 4 fights broke out on the ice though so not that many by their standards!

On our way to the cowboy town of Amarillo for our final night in Texas we stopped at a very cool art installation of vintage Cadillacs wedged into the ground that travellers are invited to spray paint, got some excellent photos here. We had a traditional Texas steakhouse dinner, a guy from our tour group tried the 72oz steak challenge...and actually finished it too! This was a very 'Texas' town so was fun to go to.

Anyway that was our brief time in Texas, will update our next stage soon.

L + D

Booze & Blues (New Orleans & Memphis)

Hi all

We are about to leave Dallas for Amarillo but the last 2 stops we had were so good I thought they deserve their own post.

New Orleans met us with much anticipation and expectations of being a highlight of the trip... and for the most part it delivered! The French Quarter where we spent most of our time was beautiful during the daylight hours, the grand old French and Spanish buildings and statues seemed very out of place in modern America, but come sunset and the dirty old drunk men seemed to just leak out onto Bourbon street, and it was most definitely America again. We had a hurricane-like drink called a hand grenade that was so sweet and so sour it was an effort to get through just one. Our airboat tour of some swamps was very cool, the 'swamp people' lure the 'gators close to the boat by using what they call swamp crack (marshmallows), and we got to hold a baby one too!

Memphis and its main drag Beale St was like a cleaner nicer version of New Orleans and was a very cool town to hear some live music which was playing in pretty much every bar and restaurant, and being St Patricks day which the Americans celebrate much more enthusiastically than we do it was a very fun place to be in. We checked out Elvis's ridiculously styled Graceland mansion (multi-coloured curtains on the ceiling anyone?) and tried some deliciously healthy local peach cobbler and fried chicken.

L + D

DC to Florida

Hi all,

Currently sitting in Tallahassee, Florida, and as the last week has been crazy busy we are a bit behind in this, so what follows is a speedy summary of our southward journey from NYC to Orlando, Florida!

Some highlights have been seeing the incredible monuments of Washington DC, the charming towns of the old south like Charleston, Savannah & St Augustine with Spanish Moss drooping from their Oak trees and 18th Century houses, and amazing food! In Savannah, Georgia, we had lunch at a place that served an entire table of southern home style thanksgiving food that you'd share with other people, there was fried chicken, black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, and a heap of salads and sides, we needed a nap afterwards.

Florida has been interesting, a varied mixture of style of cities from European, beachie, touristy, and plastic (Miami). The NASA space center was pretty incredible, the original Saturn V rocket is on display there and is enormous! Miami was nice but a lot of people living there seemed to epitomise the stereotypical American, arrogant, superficial and showy... but the Art Deco buildings and mansions were interesting to look at. We went to a basketball game between Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers which was fun, as part of the singing of the national anthem they had clips of eagles flying, space shuttles launching, mountain vistas and the flag waving on the video screens which was very American.

The Happiest Place on Earth (Disney) was a pretty incredible place to visit, the grounds were immaculately kept, attention to detail on the rides was impeccable, and waiting in line for an hour is considered normal! Well worth it though as was Universal studios with their Harry Potter world and crazy roller coasters.

We are now on our way to much anticipated New Orleans so will share an update on that in the next few days.

L + D