I think it might be about time to let you know the 'end' of the story as we've almost been back in the UK two weeks and have just about finished the whirlwind of seeing all our friends etc and settled into a new job (Ben) and a familiar university (me).
The state park in Pennsylvania was pleasant enough, but we had quickly walked ALL of the trails within it and were left stumped for something to do. As we were soon to be leaving our car (sob) we sorted out our kit and donated the trusty coolbox that had travelled all the way from California to a family in a nearby camping spot, as well as our other various bits and bobs we had collected on our way but would no longer be necessary. It was a sad moment as this handful of possessions had been carefully chosen and looked after at every turn, and this signalled the closing in of the final leg of the journey.
Being relaxed and rested after the holiday, I don't really want to go into the fury of returning the car in Baltimore. Suffice it to say we left the Alamo office with two bills: one for over $1000 (which we didn't pay) and one for around $200 (which was where my powers of bargaining - as well as my patience - ran out).
Baltimore was, contrary to popular opinion it seems, rather pleasant. Having never watched an episode of The Wire I couldn't tell you how the city is portrayed, but judging by the responses we had on facebook regarding our whereabouts I think it might be the setting of a crime drama??! There is a beautiful harbour which has a fantastic mexican restaurant called Chipotle (for all English readers: this isn't pronounced how you might think...) - oh, and the national aquarium of course. I also managed to drag Ben into a few vintage shops, which I could get away with after the numerous guitar shops we'd been into on the trip! Thanks to Melissa and her housemate Cherie (sp?) for putting us up!
Off to New York on a bus . Yep, public transport in the USA. $13 for a 2 hour bus ride with extra leg room, wifi and leather seating? Not what we were expecting at all! Having negotiated the New York streets and found ourselves a cab, we showed up at our hotel, East Village Bed and Coffee. Now, I don't know if you've ever been to New York, but I'm sure you have an impression of the city; maybe there are some must-see sites, or some shops you are just dying to visit; maybe you have always dreamt of scaling the Empire State Building, or chilling out in Central Park? Well, first on our list was... a haircut. We were in desperate need by this point. That done, we headed out to some local bars with a schoolfriend of Ben's and his girlfriend, Ollie and Shyla. Ever heard of a sake bomb? Google it. We did 3 and then stumbled home.
The next day was my birthday. What is a girl to do in NYC on her birthday? Visit the Sadowsky workshop, of course! We had a beautiful walk over the Manhattan bridge trying to out-do each other on photo-taking, me with my new PINK camera Ben had got me for my birthday, and Ben with his skills. Damn those skills. The workshop was pretty cool, although very well hidden, and Ben tried out a few basses and pedals, bought what he'd come for and met the man himself: Roger Sadowsky. Another incredible walk over the Brooklyn bridge took us to Wall Street and Ground Zero, where we had a quiet lunch and considered the total devastation caused 8 years ago and its impact around the world today. There is an worthwhile display of the events of 9/11 in a store nearby, as well as details on the reconstruction of the site. It was humbling to be there having seen the twin towers only 11 months before the atrocity in 2001 and feel for ourselves the atmosphere of the area.
The free shuttle ferry to Staten Island gives great views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, and was another photo-taking opportunity. We then took the subway to Times Square before heading back to a brilliant surprise engineered by Rain and Sach of a bottle of Champagne on ice in our room. Thanks, guys! Best birthday surprise ever! Ollie and Shy showed us some cool bars and a gorgeous tapas restaurant, and then came with us to see a friend of a friend's gig in the Lower East Side. All in all, it was a pretty cool birthday.
We started the next day at Grand Central Station, where we bumped into a friend I had made in Kabul (random!) and then took a tour of the New York Public Library, walked to Central Park and the Natural History Museum and met up with Ollie and Shy for afternoon wine and antipasti. In the evening we went for breathtaking views of the city at night from atop the Empire State Building and said our goodbyes to the city and our friends.
Heading out to Cape Cod we hired another car for a couple of days, and escaped city life in favour of camping for one last time. It was a good side trip, with sunshine, beach walks and some seafood. We were feeling the looming flight home and the open space seemed to relieve us from the impending inevitability of the return.
One of the highlights of the trip was the Regina Spektor concert in Boston, which just blew me away. That girl has some serious talent, and the live show was a spectacle of one small person just filling not only the stage, but the entire venue, with her unmissable vocal and instrumental experiments. In fact, it was so good I have tickets for the London show in December too and I recommend you all to find out when she's in your town. Do it! Of course, we also walked the well-beaten path of the freedom trail outlining the places of interest in the struggle for American independence and giving a good overview of the city of Boston in general. I had remembered this route painted on the ground from a childhood visit to the US, and was very happy to be re-tracing those steps indeed. On our last day we headed to Harvard and took a tour around the University, discovering some of its quirks and learning the history of the institution. Of course, what sticks in my mind in the fact that women couldn't graduate from Harvard until as late as 1999, but I'm sure Ben's top story from the tour would be that it's the second richest private institution in the world; second, that is, to the Catholic Church. From Harvard, we went to Quincy Market for a 'last supper' of lobster, and from there we headed to the airport, unbelieving that this adventure had come to end so quickly, but excited for all the adventures to come on the other side of the Atlantic.
Thanks for reading the blog. I hope you've enjoyed it. I've tried to give a flavour of both the landscape and activities, as well as our feelings and impressions along the way. The US is a vast, diverse and inspirational place and maybe, just maybe, I've encouraged you to explore part of it for yourself. I couldn't recommend it more highly.
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Friday 11 September 2009
Wildlife and bad weather
It was good to be back to camping in the parks, although the battles with the insect life are something I will not miss about this trip. Great Smoky Mountains is proud to be the US's most visited National Park, with an astonishing 9 million visitors per year. It is, however, the most underfunded, as there is no entrance fee: this is due to a condition made upon the lands being donated to the federal government that the age-old tolls to cross the area from North Carolina in to Tennessee, and vice versa, be abolished. I would question its visitation figures for a couple of reasons.
1) We were there on Labor Day weekend, the holiday marking the end of summer and, as pointed out by a friendly ranger, this park is within a day's drive of 70 million Americans. It was hardly what you'd call crowded.
2) Does visiting the tourist-tat filled neighbouring town of Gatlinburg (or Ghastlinburg) for pizzas, 70oz sodas, ghost-train rides, the aquarium (where's the water?), every kind of 'Smokies' memorabilia and a ride on the 200-yd long shuttle bus REALLY count as going to the park?
As with every other National Park we have explored, our first challenge was the find the steepest, scariest looking trail recommended by our National Geographic guidebook and take it on. Alum Bluffs Trail: Ok, so you climb 2600ft and it's a 5 mile round trip, which doesn't sound too bad - but the suggested timing for it was 6-8 hours, and this had largely been accurate from our experiences so far, so we were expecting something a bit rugged and slow-going. Add to this the mention of assisting cables for the last part of the journey, and we were convinced - Angel's Landing in Zion had been a short, strenuous climb and this sounded similar. It was lame: no life-threatening drops on either side of us, no sheer granite faces to scream over, no exhilarating dangling from ropes to get the blood racing. It was just a walk. Nice views from the top, but just a walk. Hmph. Maybe we're becoming travel-weary? Maybe.
The next day took us straight out of this rut, though. The map showed an unpaved road down to a quiet area of the park, called Cataloochee, where we were off to hopefully see some Elk. After bumping and boucing along for 30 minutes, thankful for the 4x4, knuckles turning white and expletives coming from under our breath at every pothole, we came upon some horse-riders. 'You lost?', they asked. 'We're heading to Cataloochee', we replied. 'You're on a bridalpath', came the answer. More bumping, more bouncing, whiter knuckles and louder expletives back the way we had come, to try a new route, which seemed a bit more like it.
We were rewarded: a whole family of elk were making their way across some open plains, with an enormous male leader bellowing orders to the pack to follow him. It was just magical to watch these beautiful, elegant creatures roam around in the wild. Great Smoky Mountains has had a successful programme to reintroduce the elk to the park, including initial phases in a special enclosure we happened upon during our hike that afternoon. It was a large circular expanse, where the first few elk had been accustomed to the area before being released to go freely. A similar programme had been undertaken with black bears, and we had a couple more encounters with these incredible creatures - from a somewhat safer distance this time, though! Watching a sow with her two cubs crossing the road, and the tearing off the bark of a tree to feed on, is one of the most memorable moments of the trip. We sat in the car, not even daring to breathe - I'm sure Ben will put up some of the few photos we managed to sneak soon.
Moving on to Shenandoah National Park, which was lost in a foggy haze for most of our time there, took a mere 12 hours driving. This was the longest we've spent in the car in one day, and I am happy to say we got out of the car still smiling and counting our blessings, and not screaming and at each other's throats..somehow! Maybe it was the thought of the well-deserved beers we had to enjoy on arrival.. Miserable weather kept us up all night, and drove us out of the park to the nearest town the day day. We whiled away the day in cafes and record shops in Charlottesville, the home of the University of Virginia, and took refuge in the cinema in the evening, to watch a book we've listened to en route - The Time Traveller's Wife. Read the book, leave the movie.
We're now in Washington, D.C., and having seen the White House and walked to Capitol Hill went to Chinatown for dinner last night. The kindly server was doing the right thing to ask for our IDs when we asked for beers, but his maths got the best of him and he couldn't quite work out how old I was: it must be confusing because here it looks like I'm born on the 9th day of the 18th month. Once he'd figured it out, he took Ben's. This also stumped him, and it took a few goes to get to the right answer. His eyes lit up. 'She very young', he told Ben. We laughed and he handed us back our licenses. 'She very young', came with the food.. and then with our drinks.. and then with our bill. Ok, we get it! In the US, you also need your ID to sneeze in public, buy pints of milk, and cross the street. Buying a gun, however - no problem. Ben has caught a bit of a cold and Sudafed is safely guarded by an armed (what else?) pharmacist here, but his ID wasn't accepted this morning at the local pharmacy. We're going to try to obtain arms later on, so we'll let you know how that goes.
We had planned to go to the coast for the next couple of days, but when I called to book a campsite this morning I was told I couldn't due to severe weather and flooding danger. Instead, we will try our luck inland a bit further before heading to Baltimore to see Melissa on Monday, where will be timing our arrival with the end of the medical students' first exam of the year. Don't expect to hear from us for a while after that night out! Bye for now.
1) We were there on Labor Day weekend, the holiday marking the end of summer and, as pointed out by a friendly ranger, this park is within a day's drive of 70 million Americans. It was hardly what you'd call crowded.
2) Does visiting the tourist-tat filled neighbouring town of Gatlinburg (or Ghastlinburg) for pizzas, 70oz sodas, ghost-train rides, the aquarium (where's the water?), every kind of 'Smokies' memorabilia and a ride on the 200-yd long shuttle bus REALLY count as going to the park?
As with every other National Park we have explored, our first challenge was the find the steepest, scariest looking trail recommended by our National Geographic guidebook and take it on. Alum Bluffs Trail: Ok, so you climb 2600ft and it's a 5 mile round trip, which doesn't sound too bad - but the suggested timing for it was 6-8 hours, and this had largely been accurate from our experiences so far, so we were expecting something a bit rugged and slow-going. Add to this the mention of assisting cables for the last part of the journey, and we were convinced - Angel's Landing in Zion had been a short, strenuous climb and this sounded similar. It was lame: no life-threatening drops on either side of us, no sheer granite faces to scream over, no exhilarating dangling from ropes to get the blood racing. It was just a walk. Nice views from the top, but just a walk. Hmph. Maybe we're becoming travel-weary? Maybe.
The next day took us straight out of this rut, though. The map showed an unpaved road down to a quiet area of the park, called Cataloochee, where we were off to hopefully see some Elk. After bumping and boucing along for 30 minutes, thankful for the 4x4, knuckles turning white and expletives coming from under our breath at every pothole, we came upon some horse-riders. 'You lost?', they asked. 'We're heading to Cataloochee', we replied. 'You're on a bridalpath', came the answer. More bumping, more bouncing, whiter knuckles and louder expletives back the way we had come, to try a new route, which seemed a bit more like it.
We were rewarded: a whole family of elk were making their way across some open plains, with an enormous male leader bellowing orders to the pack to follow him. It was just magical to watch these beautiful, elegant creatures roam around in the wild. Great Smoky Mountains has had a successful programme to reintroduce the elk to the park, including initial phases in a special enclosure we happened upon during our hike that afternoon. It was a large circular expanse, where the first few elk had been accustomed to the area before being released to go freely. A similar programme had been undertaken with black bears, and we had a couple more encounters with these incredible creatures - from a somewhat safer distance this time, though! Watching a sow with her two cubs crossing the road, and the tearing off the bark of a tree to feed on, is one of the most memorable moments of the trip. We sat in the car, not even daring to breathe - I'm sure Ben will put up some of the few photos we managed to sneak soon.
Moving on to Shenandoah National Park, which was lost in a foggy haze for most of our time there, took a mere 12 hours driving. This was the longest we've spent in the car in one day, and I am happy to say we got out of the car still smiling and counting our blessings, and not screaming and at each other's throats..somehow! Maybe it was the thought of the well-deserved beers we had to enjoy on arrival.. Miserable weather kept us up all night, and drove us out of the park to the nearest town the day day. We whiled away the day in cafes and record shops in Charlottesville, the home of the University of Virginia, and took refuge in the cinema in the evening, to watch a book we've listened to en route - The Time Traveller's Wife. Read the book, leave the movie.
We're now in Washington, D.C., and having seen the White House and walked to Capitol Hill went to Chinatown for dinner last night. The kindly server was doing the right thing to ask for our IDs when we asked for beers, but his maths got the best of him and he couldn't quite work out how old I was: it must be confusing because here it looks like I'm born on the 9th day of the 18th month. Once he'd figured it out, he took Ben's. This also stumped him, and it took a few goes to get to the right answer. His eyes lit up. 'She very young', he told Ben. We laughed and he handed us back our licenses. 'She very young', came with the food.. and then with our drinks.. and then with our bill. Ok, we get it! In the US, you also need your ID to sneeze in public, buy pints of milk, and cross the street. Buying a gun, however - no problem. Ben has caught a bit of a cold and Sudafed is safely guarded by an armed (what else?) pharmacist here, but his ID wasn't accepted this morning at the local pharmacy. We're going to try to obtain arms later on, so we'll let you know how that goes.
We had planned to go to the coast for the next couple of days, but when I called to book a campsite this morning I was told I couldn't due to severe weather and flooding danger. Instead, we will try our luck inland a bit further before heading to Baltimore to see Melissa on Monday, where will be timing our arrival with the end of the medical students' first exam of the year. Don't expect to hear from us for a while after that night out! Bye for now.
Thursday 3 September 2009
Can I get a hell-yeah?
HOW-DEE! I'm jus' so proud to be here!
Space travel. The next frontier, huh? Or is world-domination just not enough for this super power? The NASA visitor centre was a huge must on this trip and I had been brimming with excitement ever since seeing its little dot on the Lonely Planet map of Texas so it was with great anticipation that we paid for our tickets to get the experience. The bubble was quickly burst when it became evident that of all the excellent tours we have done in the US, this was the one most filled with propaganda. The 'necessity' of mining the moon and space exploration was drilled hard - this is unsurprising considering the cost of the industry to the American taxpayer, but I'd like to give the American people more credit than believing in the web of spin you must wade through whilst navigating NASA. Granted, the fascinating exhibits of the 'race to the moon', and the technology which enable such feats was totally mind-boggling and, as usual, beautifully presented. But please don't try to justify to us that we NEED to do this. Can't it just be cool for cool's sake? In a nation where the idea of an affordable family car which does 50 mpg is a total revelation, and a lorry looks like something out of the 1920s, I think other steps could be taken to preserve the life to which the West has been accustomed, at far less monetary and (inter)-planetary cost. Although, I can't say I've not found shoe-insoles handy from time-to-time so you gotta give them that.
From outer space to New Orleans. Hang on, did we go anywhere different? New Orelans is a veritable whirlwind of indulgent pleasures, from beignets for breakfast, to scantily clad women beckoning you into nightclubs from around 5pm onwards. Our experience of New Orleans included a lot of walking. You may have noticed from other posts that we are quite experienced walkers, and we enjoy trawling around cities looking for general amenities also. One of the troubles we have frequently encountered on this trip has been a search for food. Yes, you read correctly, in the world's fattest nation, we have not been able to find food. Here, they sell likenesses to food which come in all manner of glittery plastic, cardboard or canned easy-open, resealable containers, but trying to find anything that looks likes it might have been grown is a different story. Similarly, the post office is an enigma. How is it that we can send a batch of postcards from Yosemite National Park, yet finding a USPS office in New Orleans is like searching for good, cheap sushi in London (oh I will miss that about the US)? Of course, this isn't all we got up to in New Orleans. We enjoyed the vibe of the French Quarter at both day- and night-time; we watched a fantastic blues/motown band on Frenchmen St in the Marigny district; wandered around a lifeless shopping mall - the recession has hit hard here; listened to someone 'play' a steamboat's sirens; sipped coffee at a faux-french cafe; made the compulsory excursion to 'International Vintage Guitars' and debated the impact of the economic crisis on the guitar industry; sampled local creole and cajun cuisine.. all in the space of around 48 hours.
And then? We toured the Louisiana swamplands, of course. What else? For two hours we lazed on the green, narrow waterways of the swamplands, listening to a broad Southern drawl explain the history of the local logging industry of the 1920s, and the trials and tribulations of caring for alligators. We met his whole family, right from 'Little Elvis', a 6 month old who we each had a cuddle with, to 'Baby', the 11 foot gentle giant performing leaps out of the water for day-old chicken meat. Yum.
5 hours driving due North took us to Memphis, the home of Elvis and the beginnings of rock and roll. As a rule, the tours we have taken on this trip have been exceptional, and the hour we had around Sun Studios was way up there with our sunshiney day at Alcatraz. We first heard snippets of the biggest records to have left the building, the history of Sam Phillips, Elvis, and the woman workign behind the scenes of it all, Marion Keisker. We saw the original equipment used to record and cut the discs, and then we were taken to the room where the magic happened: the small, white, sun studio. There's the microphone Elvis sang into, the piano Jerry Lee Lewis played on, the million-dollar quartet photo. Phenomenal. Of course, no trip to Memphis could be complete for a guitar-aficionado without touring the Gibson factory, and so we did. Here, they make the semi-solid bodied guitars, which is a real art-craft. The factory floor is small, and employs only around 55 people, but from here they churn out at least 45 guitars per day. The best bit (although Ben will surely disgaree) was hearing what they do with the not-quite so good ones: smash 'em up Fridays, baby!! Man, I'd have loved to be there for that.
This brings us on to Nashville, from where I am writing this post. Nashville has captured us, and it is the longest we have stayed anywhere, jointly with Yosemite. We have read every sign at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum, had another excellent tour, this time of RCA Studio B, 'the 1000 hit record studio' of Dolly Parton, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and spent an evening being truly entertained by hit country stars we'd never heard of at the Grand Ole Opry. We've seen local bands, bands in tourist-trap bars, the Gruhn shop (some guitars or something), been to a drive-in movie, and, of course, seen where Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey is made. That will knock your socks off - a brief whiff of the vat in which it ferments feels just like a snort of vodka... or so Ben tells me as I wouldn't know..!
Today we drive to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and on to Shenandoah a few day later, where it'll be back to nature until we hit the capital sometime next week. 6 weeks down, 3 more to go - time has flown by for us, but the next 3 weeks stretch out ahead, full of more adventure to come!
Space travel. The next frontier, huh? Or is world-domination just not enough for this super power? The NASA visitor centre was a huge must on this trip and I had been brimming with excitement ever since seeing its little dot on the Lonely Planet map of Texas so it was with great anticipation that we paid for our tickets to get the experience. The bubble was quickly burst when it became evident that of all the excellent tours we have done in the US, this was the one most filled with propaganda. The 'necessity' of mining the moon and space exploration was drilled hard - this is unsurprising considering the cost of the industry to the American taxpayer, but I'd like to give the American people more credit than believing in the web of spin you must wade through whilst navigating NASA. Granted, the fascinating exhibits of the 'race to the moon', and the technology which enable such feats was totally mind-boggling and, as usual, beautifully presented. But please don't try to justify to us that we NEED to do this. Can't it just be cool for cool's sake? In a nation where the idea of an affordable family car which does 50 mpg is a total revelation, and a lorry looks like something out of the 1920s, I think other steps could be taken to preserve the life to which the West has been accustomed, at far less monetary and (inter)-planetary cost. Although, I can't say I've not found shoe-insoles handy from time-to-time so you gotta give them that.
From outer space to New Orleans. Hang on, did we go anywhere different? New Orelans is a veritable whirlwind of indulgent pleasures, from beignets for breakfast, to scantily clad women beckoning you into nightclubs from around 5pm onwards. Our experience of New Orleans included a lot of walking. You may have noticed from other posts that we are quite experienced walkers, and we enjoy trawling around cities looking for general amenities also. One of the troubles we have frequently encountered on this trip has been a search for food. Yes, you read correctly, in the world's fattest nation, we have not been able to find food. Here, they sell likenesses to food which come in all manner of glittery plastic, cardboard or canned easy-open, resealable containers, but trying to find anything that looks likes it might have been grown is a different story. Similarly, the post office is an enigma. How is it that we can send a batch of postcards from Yosemite National Park, yet finding a USPS office in New Orleans is like searching for good, cheap sushi in London (oh I will miss that about the US)? Of course, this isn't all we got up to in New Orleans. We enjoyed the vibe of the French Quarter at both day- and night-time; we watched a fantastic blues/motown band on Frenchmen St in the Marigny district; wandered around a lifeless shopping mall - the recession has hit hard here; listened to someone 'play' a steamboat's sirens; sipped coffee at a faux-french cafe; made the compulsory excursion to 'International Vintage Guitars' and debated the impact of the economic crisis on the guitar industry; sampled local creole and cajun cuisine.. all in the space of around 48 hours.
And then? We toured the Louisiana swamplands, of course. What else? For two hours we lazed on the green, narrow waterways of the swamplands, listening to a broad Southern drawl explain the history of the local logging industry of the 1920s, and the trials and tribulations of caring for alligators. We met his whole family, right from 'Little Elvis', a 6 month old who we each had a cuddle with, to 'Baby', the 11 foot gentle giant performing leaps out of the water for day-old chicken meat. Yum.
5 hours driving due North took us to Memphis, the home of Elvis and the beginnings of rock and roll. As a rule, the tours we have taken on this trip have been exceptional, and the hour we had around Sun Studios was way up there with our sunshiney day at Alcatraz. We first heard snippets of the biggest records to have left the building, the history of Sam Phillips, Elvis, and the woman workign behind the scenes of it all, Marion Keisker. We saw the original equipment used to record and cut the discs, and then we were taken to the room where the magic happened: the small, white, sun studio. There's the microphone Elvis sang into, the piano Jerry Lee Lewis played on, the million-dollar quartet photo. Phenomenal. Of course, no trip to Memphis could be complete for a guitar-aficionado without touring the Gibson factory, and so we did. Here, they make the semi-solid bodied guitars, which is a real art-craft. The factory floor is small, and employs only around 55 people, but from here they churn out at least 45 guitars per day. The best bit (although Ben will surely disgaree) was hearing what they do with the not-quite so good ones: smash 'em up Fridays, baby!! Man, I'd have loved to be there for that.
This brings us on to Nashville, from where I am writing this post. Nashville has captured us, and it is the longest we have stayed anywhere, jointly with Yosemite. We have read every sign at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum, had another excellent tour, this time of RCA Studio B, 'the 1000 hit record studio' of Dolly Parton, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and spent an evening being truly entertained by hit country stars we'd never heard of at the Grand Ole Opry. We've seen local bands, bands in tourist-trap bars, the Gruhn shop (some guitars or something), been to a drive-in movie, and, of course, seen where Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey is made. That will knock your socks off - a brief whiff of the vat in which it ferments feels just like a snort of vodka... or so Ben tells me as I wouldn't know..!
Today we drive to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and on to Shenandoah a few day later, where it'll be back to nature until we hit the capital sometime next week. 6 weeks down, 3 more to go - time has flown by for us, but the next 3 weeks stretch out ahead, full of more adventure to come!
Monday 24 August 2009
Tex Mex
I didn't want y'all to be reading a long post, so I've broken these up into two.
After the creepiness of Roswell we were off to Carlsbad, to complete another 300 miles of the trip that day. In total so far, I may add, we are on a whopping 5300 miles. We've had to change the car because it needed maintenance after all this!
Carlsbad's main attraction is the Caverns National Park, but we were kind of more excited by the swimming pool, ponies, tortoise and showers in our campsite to care about that the night before our visit. Having enjoyed all such facilities, we heading 750ft underground, on a 2 mile trail which led us through some of the most impressive calcite stalagmites and stalactites on Earth and right under the Chihuahuan Desert. I would challenge this to not impress the most wearied of traveller and really all I can add to Ben's staggering photos, is this: imagine 400 000 bats doing there business in an underground cave. It kind of smells.
Next stop was Big Bend National Park in Texas (HOORAY - OUR INTERMEDIARY DESTINATION AND SOMEWHERE TO STAY FOR MORE THAN ONE NIGHT). Our mood was quickly flattened by the second whirr of the police siren and being told that, apparently, 72 in a 45 zone, especially within a National Park, was an almost jailable offence. Hmph.
We both admitted a bit of fear at letting the other down on the backpacking trip we had planned for this park, but vowed to support/push/drag/beat each other up the mountain if it was the last thing we did. We set out with almost 20 litres of water and all our camping gear for a night in the wild, on the South Rim. Reaching the top was a serious effort, and took so much out of us - those 3.3 miles were easily the hardest of our trip so far, and the 90-100 degree temperatures took their toll very early on. Arriving at our pre-determined camping spot (you must have a permit and a bear box to camp out) we zonked out in
the tent, waking to an awesome thunderstorm and playing cards to while away the rain, as well as take our minds off the fact we were out there and the storm was preeet-ty close. We woke early the next day to walk to the edge of the South Rim, where the view over the desert stretches into Mexico, and the landscape looks like a crepe in a pan - flat, but with isolated bumps sporadically distributed around the place. The descent was long but much easier and the washroom at the base was a truly necessary convenience - we could not have happily sat next to each in a car for 200 miles, without the minimum of a rinse off.
A truly deserved rest at a spring-fed swimming pool for the next day was in order. Balmorhea State Par is an example of gun-ho Americans crushing the natural environment and making it bend to their ways by channeling the 20 million gallons of water into somewhere for their leisure back in the 1930s, forgetting there was a natural order to things and some creatures has made that place their home. Now, regneration work is in progress and the endangered local species are well protected. It was, nonetheless, welcome respite from the heat and the hiking, if not the bugs and the thunderstorms. Ben was stung by a hornet and the tent got flooded from underneath as the rain came in and a lake formed around our site. In the midst of this, though, we went to a 'star party' at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory and enjoyed a tour around the night sky and an explanation of the techniques used in both mapping and categorising the stars. We were comforted to know the sun has around 9 billion years to go. Don't worry, this blog post doesn't.
We have spent the last three days eating, swimming, eating, drinking and eating in Austin with our friends Matt and Amber, who have been the greatest hosts. We met them in Egypt last year, on one of the world's most harrowing border crossings, and I guess bonds made under such stress are pretty strong! They have shown us the local music venues, hangouts to seek refuge from the heat, and the effects of the extreme weather this year on local water supplies - the river is 60ft down in some places. We've had barbecue ribs, 'biscuits and gravy' - that was breakfast - nachos, queso catfish, blueberry pie, sushi, all washed down with plenty of the local Lone Star beer. We've held guns, flown the US flag, played some guitar and taken care of all the loose ends we needed a local to aid us with (finding fresh produce, battling car rental companies and navigating the complex road signals - yes, this is a bit late, we know).
That brings us to this evening, and us sitting in their beautiful home, wishing we didn't have to leave, but excited for what is yet to come - including the visit to NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston tomorrow.
Don't forget to look at our photos Click here and flick to the end of the album for those of you who've looked before.
After the creepiness of Roswell we were off to Carlsbad, to complete another 300 miles of the trip that day. In total so far, I may add, we are on a whopping 5300 miles. We've had to change the car because it needed maintenance after all this!
Carlsbad's main attraction is the Caverns National Park, but we were kind of more excited by the swimming pool, ponies, tortoise and showers in our campsite to care about that the night before our visit. Having enjoyed all such facilities, we heading 750ft underground, on a 2 mile trail which led us through some of the most impressive calcite stalagmites and stalactites on Earth and right under the Chihuahuan Desert. I would challenge this to not impress the most wearied of traveller and really all I can add to Ben's staggering photos, is this: imagine 400 000 bats doing there business in an underground cave. It kind of smells.
Next stop was Big Bend National Park in Texas (HOORAY - OUR INTERMEDIARY DESTINATION AND SOMEWHERE TO STAY FOR MORE THAN ONE NIGHT). Our mood was quickly flattened by the second whirr of the police siren and being told that, apparently, 72 in a 45 zone, especially within a National Park, was an almost jailable offence. Hmph.We both admitted a bit of fear at letting the other down on the backpacking trip we had planned for this park, but vowed to support/push/drag/beat each other up the mountain if it was the last thing we did. We set out with almost 20 litres of water and all our camping gear for a night in the wild, on the South Rim. Reaching the top was a serious effort, and took so much out of us - those 3.3 miles were easily the hardest of our trip so far, and the 90-100 degree temperatures took their toll very early on. Arriving at our pre-determined camping spot (you must have a permit and a bear box to camp out) we zonked out in
the tent, waking to an awesome thunderstorm and playing cards to while away the rain, as well as take our minds off the fact we were out there and the storm was preeet-ty close. We woke early the next day to walk to the edge of the South Rim, where the view over the desert stretches into Mexico, and the landscape looks like a crepe in a pan - flat, but with isolated bumps sporadically distributed around the place. The descent was long but much easier and the washroom at the base was a truly necessary convenience - we could not have happily sat next to each in a car for 200 miles, without the minimum of a rinse off.
A truly deserved rest at a spring-fed swimming pool for the next day was in order. Balmorhea State Par is an example of gun-ho Americans crushing the natural environment and making it bend to their ways by channeling the 20 million gallons of water into somewhere for their leisure back in the 1930s, forgetting there was a natural order to things and some creatures has made that place their home. Now, regneration work is in progress and the endangered local species are well protected. It was, nonetheless, welcome respite from the heat and the hiking, if not the bugs and the thunderstorms. Ben was stung by a hornet and the tent got flooded from underneath as the rain came in and a lake formed around our site. In the midst of this, though, we went to a 'star party' at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory and enjoyed a tour around the night sky and an explanation of the techniques used in both mapping and categorising the stars. We were comforted to know the sun has around 9 billion years to go. Don't worry, this blog post doesn't.
We have spent the last three days eating, swimming, eating, drinking and eating in Austin with our friends Matt and Amber, who have been the greatest hosts. We met them in Egypt last year, on one of the world's most harrowing border crossings, and I guess bonds made under such stress are pretty strong! They have shown us the local music venues, hangouts to seek refuge from the heat, and the effects of the extreme weather this year on local water supplies - the river is 60ft down in some places. We've had barbecue ribs, 'biscuits and gravy' - that was breakfast - nachos, queso catfish, blueberry pie, sushi, all washed down with plenty of the local Lone Star beer. We've held guns, flown the US flag, played some guitar and taken care of all the loose ends we needed a local to aid us with (finding fresh produce, battling car rental companies and navigating the complex road signals - yes, this is a bit late, we know).
That brings us to this evening, and us sitting in their beautiful home, wishing we didn't have to leave, but excited for what is yet to come - including the visit to NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston tomorrow.Don't forget to look at our photos Click here and flick to the end of the album for those of you who've looked before.
All the big names
Hi everyone,
it's been a little while since we've let you know what we've been up to, and that has been mainly because of two things: the availability of internet, and we have been so dang (Texan for 'damn') busy. Try 2000 miles, 3 National Parks, 2 thunderstorms and the biggest creepy crawlies you have ever seen keeping you awake all night long in only 7 nights, camping all the way.
First off was the Grand Canyon. You know, that place is big. I mean, it's unfathomable how big it is until you are a teeny, tiny dot in a photo of a chasm in the ground which opens up to a mile deep and 17 miles across. We gave ourselves the day off hiking that day, considering we were driving over 500 miles to get to our spot in Monument Valley for the night.
I feel like I'm name-dropping a bit here. Grand Canyon, Monument Valley... yep, you read right. We pitched up at Monument Valley just in time for one of the more spectacular showing you'll see as the Earth turns on its axis: sunset. If the gravity-defying, wind-carved sandstone fingers pointing into the sky can't say it alone, the burning sky behind them, silhouetting them against the Utah sky screamed it at us: LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME! And them our campsite happened to show us this all over again for sunrise the next morning.
The next day was a big driving day again, the 400 miles to Santa Fe taking us a good 8 hours and leaving us hungry and tired and totally unprepared for showing up in the dark at a quirky little state park just West of town, where there seemed no one to direct us to a spot. I needed feeding, and Ben isn't ready to argue when this is the case, so we had to then head out in search of sustenance. After an ok sandwich in what we could tell even in the dark was a beautiful, arty city, we drove back for some sleep. But we were locked out. A curfew in a campsite and no way of unlocking the heavy padlocks or getting passed the spiky exit-only route, our options were limited to walking in the dark with only a vague sense of the direction of a site. We found it, to our great relief, and spent a restless night hoping our car didn't get jacked.
Santa Fe is just beautiful, and it is FULL of art and (irresistible) jewellery. We were lucky enough to be there on a day where all the local artists were showcasing their work, and spent several enjoyable hours in the sunshine admiring their crafts: stonemasonry, wood carving, photography, oil painting, watercolours, clay sculpture... Anything you can think of.
Of course, we had to make tracks - this is a roadtrip after all - and we had another appointment. With the extra terrestrial of New Mexico, the epicentre of this community being in Roswell, a happy detour en route to Texas. It was a short photo stop but there was definitely a funny feeling in our stomachs. Or maybe that was because we'd had our first McDonalds of the trip and were feeling a little guilty..
it's been a little while since we've let you know what we've been up to, and that has been mainly because of two things: the availability of internet, and we have been so dang (Texan for 'damn') busy. Try 2000 miles, 3 National Parks, 2 thunderstorms and the biggest creepy crawlies you have ever seen keeping you awake all night long in only 7 nights, camping all the way.
First off was the Grand Canyon. You know, that place is big. I mean, it's unfathomable how big it is until you are a teeny, tiny dot in a photo of a chasm in the ground which opens up to a mile deep and 17 miles across. We gave ourselves the day off hiking that day, considering we were driving over 500 miles to get to our spot in Monument Valley for the night.I feel like I'm name-dropping a bit here. Grand Canyon, Monument Valley... yep, you read right. We pitched up at Monument Valley just in time for one of the more spectacular showing you'll see as the Earth turns on its axis: sunset. If the gravity-defying, wind-carved sandstone fingers pointing into the sky can't say it alone, the burning sky behind them, silhouetting them against the Utah sky screamed it at us: LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME! And them our campsite happened to show us this all over again for sunrise the next morning.
The next day was a big driving day again, the 400 miles to Santa Fe taking us a good 8 hours and leaving us hungry and tired and totally unprepared for showing up in the dark at a quirky little state park just West of town, where there seemed no one to direct us to a spot. I needed feeding, and Ben isn't ready to argue when this is the case, so we had to then head out in search of sustenance. After an ok sandwich in what we could tell even in the dark was a beautiful, arty city, we drove back for some sleep. But we were locked out. A curfew in a campsite and no way of unlocking the heavy padlocks or getting passed the spiky exit-only route, our options were limited to walking in the dark with only a vague sense of the direction of a site. We found it, to our great relief, and spent a restless night hoping our car didn't get jacked.
Santa Fe is just beautiful, and it is FULL of art and (irresistible) jewellery. We were lucky enough to be there on a day where all the local artists were showcasing their work, and spent several enjoyable hours in the sunshine admiring their crafts: stonemasonry, wood carving, photography, oil painting, watercolours, clay sculpture... Anything you can think of.
Of course, we had to make tracks - this is a roadtrip after all - and we had another appointment. With the extra terrestrial of New Mexico, the epicentre of this community being in Roswell, a happy detour en route to Texas. It was a short photo stop but there was definitely a funny feeling in our stomachs. Or maybe that was because we'd had our first McDonalds of the trip and were feeling a little guilty..
Sunday 23 August 2009
Quick update..
We've been suffering from an internet drought whilst in New Mexico and Texas, but we're back online in Austin, Texas. So here is a quick photo update until we get a full blog update for you all soon. Click here and flick to the end of the album for those of you who've looked before.
Thursday 13 August 2009
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