Before I start on Lafayette, I forgot to include a memory last time, I think it took place somewhere in Texas. We were travelling along and looking out the windows at more fields when something odd caught my eye. Coming up from the ground was a dust and leaves caught in the wind spinning into a little twister. After we'd seen one we saw others all around us. They weren't huge but a least a few feet wide and about 15ft high - big enough that we could see them across a field or two! I've only ever seen this kind of thing in movies and on a much larger scale so to me it was an awesome act of nature to witness...
Back to our arrival at Lafayette. Our camp site was the big patch of grass next to the laundry/restrooms building with a shelter in the middle that we could cook, eat and get a fire started in the fireplace. Just as we'd set up the tents Taz found a tiny baby possum that was then cared for all night by Zoe because we didn't know what to do with it. It was eventually given away in the morning to be cared for. But while the possum excitement went on I cooked dinner with Lise & Miwa and the rest of the group went for a swim. Chicken curry went down well, as did the apron I found in the tool box, few smores over the fire, people e-mailing home then bed.
Our journey the next day took us to New Orleans, in an amazing hotel with a fountain outside my room with Jess and waffles for breakfast! We arrived late afternoon so after a dip in the pool, shower and walk into town we had dinner together. I tried Jambalaya which was pretty spicy for my pathetic taste buds so I traded and ate some of Jess' shrimp pasta. On the way to the restaurant I also bumped into a girl I shared in a tent with on my first CCiW about six years ago, as you do walking down the street 5000 miles from home... Was a little strange to say the least. She was on another Trek America tour that travelled the same way as us for the last few days to NYC.
After dinner we explored the famous Bourbon Street. The amount of voodoo shops and gentleman's clubs didn't exactly put me at ease but there also wasn't anything I could do about it. So we carried on and found a karaoke bar the whole group could go in called the Cats Meow. Needless to say, it was hilarious. Singing, dancing, rapping, cheering - that was the whole night! I won't forget those 'performances' in hurry.
On the way home a few of us stopped at the Clover Grill and I had cheesy fries! Not as good as in England but amazing for the time being. Walking home after the buzz of Bourbon Street was too quiet but as a group we were fine. Of course I was the only one that was worried as usual...
The following morning a couple of us met after a late breakfast and headed out to explore. Jackson Square and it's church was the first thing that stopped us. It was a stunning building inside and out with beautiful paintings and stained glass windows. I know it's not what a church is all about but I was told they have full services on a regular basis and a large membership.
Down on the riverfront a steamboat chugged by as the local painters and street performers set up. Another Hard Rock called us in for a visit to look at more music memorabilia; signed Jimi Hendrix tickets, postcards from the Beatles, signed Led Zepplin guitar...
Meeting up with two more we visited a few shops and went for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp co. - as in Forrest Gumps best friend (not sure why this movie kept coming up on the trip!) I'd already seen two of theses restaurants in San Fran and Monterey and couldn't believe they existed, but apparently they're all over America and some parts of Japan. Some Trivia for you: the movie came out in 1994 and the first restaurant was opened in 1997, all now contain some actual props and costumes from the movies. The whole place is themed from the 'run Forrest run' signs on the table when you'd like a waitress to the drinks menu being on a ping pong bat.
I had Jenny's favorite smoothie and Captain Dans fish and chips. Odd to be in there as I'm not a huge fan of shrimp but I tried some other peoples and it was really nice, especially coconut shrimp!
Afterwards we found Sam a football jersey that he'd been looking for and then had to drag everyone out of Urban Outfitters to walk down to the WW2 museum and memorial. Jess and I ended up walking back and stopping off in beautiful antique shops and galleries whenever something caught our eye. That part of New Orleans may have been my favorite.
The evening had us dressed up and getting a quick diner dinner because we were still full from lunch. Further down the street than we'd been last night we found New Orleans Musical Legends Park where a live band were playing some jazz/blues. We sat on the edge of this little fountain in between two buildings and listened as more and more people crammed in to hear them. They were excellent and ended with Wonderful World. The rest of the night included meeting some others at the Cats Meow, watching a few awful performances, grabbing a slice of pizza and heading back. (its great to try food wherever you go but I couldn't eat any pizza, way too full)
The morning we left I had another embarrassing incident. I was helping one of the girls carry her second suitcase down the front steps with my own backpack on and put the bag down to early. So I kicked it off the last little step, lost my footing and fell in slow motion to the floor remembering I needed to turn and landed on my back pack, then fell sideways onto the sidewalk. I couldn't move for laughing which turned to tears after Kait helped me up. Only two people actually saw the fall I think but everyone saw my crazy aftermath because I was laughing/crying for ten minutes. Got away with just a sore ankle. Throughout that day Kait would just randomly start laughing because she was replaying me falling over in her head. I wish I could have seen it like she did.
Anyway, next. Birmingham, Alabama was home for the night and we went to watch a baseball game. It's also where we got dinner, hot dog a chips please! to which they tried to give me crisps... if you don't speak the lingo you wont get what you want so ask for fries. The game was great and I sort of understood it. Some typical American men were sat in front of us having a man night shouting and drinking. When they heard our accents they completely ignored the game and said hello to everyone then bought us all a drink. (but it was thirsty Thursdays so only $1 a drink...) I was cold and ready for bed by the time the game finished so straight to my tent back at camp, and I would have gone straight to sleep if it wasn't for a group of rowdy English guys partying in the site next to mine. If I wanted to hear drunk boys sing The Proclaimers at the top of their lungs I would have stayed at home and gone to a pub in town. Needless to say most of us were grumpy that morning...
I wish I'd gone to the Civil Right Museum that day but I just wanted to sleep so I went to a little lake beach at the campsite and slept in the sunshine. Didn't smell great there, came back after a while and set up for a quick lunch so we could get on the road as soon as we were done.
Tennessee with the river rafters was our stop that day. Lovely beef stroganoff for dinner and then a band from the area were playing over at the bus bar (which is what it sounds - an old yellow school bus opened up to be a bar). It was great to meet locals and travellers alike, real rednecks! A lot of them were rafting guides and took the group out the next morning. The whole campsite was really relaxed and even if people didn't know each other they'd stroll up to your campfire and introduce themselves, have some marshmallow's and chat.
I had the best lie in in weeks when everyone went rafting and the oh so lovely Jess even threw a marmite bagel at me before she left! By the time Sarah and I had casually got ready, put our tents down and packed up they all returned soaking wet and hungry! Fed and dried we climbed into the van and made our way to Virginia.
Another lovely KOA campsite that put all three trek groups right out of the way at the back of the site. It was a nice site, we were just tucked out of the way. But I managed to call Jimmy that night while dinner was cooking and sort out picking me up etc which was exciting but so strange after being away so long.
The new group that arrived was an Intrepid trek going in the opposite direction to us so they'd only just started. After dinner we went over and introduced ourselves. They were a really lovely group and asked all about where we'd been, what they needed to see etc and gave us a few tips on Washington DC. It was also one of their trekkers birthdays so we all had some chocolate cake! It was the best chocolate I'd tasted since the UK, man did I miss cadburys...
The following morning we waved goodbye to the other trek as we departed and headed for our last campsite just outside of Washington DC. Cherry Hill had an amazing pool and hot tub that we took full advantage of before a quick shower and pizza pockets for dinner that my group prepared. We had our own wooden pavilion to cook and eat in and little lights in the trees to guide us out to the main building.
Kait packed us in the van that evening and took us on a Illumination Tour of the monuments. I think Washington was easily my favorite city this whole tour.
And because this is such a mammoth entry and I need to get ready because jimbobs taking me out for dinner I'll save the last three days for a final entry!
Yours,
Josie x
Our stop over in Wellington was uneventful except for the pitiful free backpacker meal we laughed at for dinner. In the morning our first tour guide, Nick, was back with us for the 10 hour express drive back to Auckland. A few of his most recent group joined the bus and we set off after picking up a friend of his. We all slept a lot, then played a few games like bus karaoke... hearing my mum sing Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire almost caused a few of us to pee our pants. The lunch stop was at Tongariro National Park where we were able to see the mountain again on a perfectly sunny day! But we weren't fooled after our experience on the crossing... 
Arriving in Auckland at Base we said a final farewell to the last of our group and checked in, finding we had been upgraded to a double with an en-suite! The plan was to ditch the bags, make some food and chill out, but we ended up being absorbed by the movies on our flat screen and just didn't bother to eat and went to bed! It was lush! 
For the whole of the 23rd we were out on tour around the city. We learnt about the industry and development of the city as well as visiting the Creek, the Museum, bazaars and a spice market where I was almost sold for a thousand camels! Thankfully mum said no... The shops and fabrics were all really tempting but I was totally put off by the men constantly in your face asking you to come into their shop and try on their scarfs or buy their watches - all 'genuine/fake' of course. It made me cringe so much I had to hang onto mum and get out onto an open street again! Thankfully we finally regrouped and finished our tour with a photo stop at the Burj Al Arab which is Dubai's most iconic 5* hotel (often said to be 7*). We couldn't go in because of the security and they wont let you just look around. It's like that at most of the interesting new projects in Dubai and there's building sites everywhere. 
