And then I flew away...



Group shot on Jefferson steps

 To carry on from where I left you... Washington DC illumination tour with our lovely leader and oh so professional tour guide Kait.  She drove us into the city and where possible parked up to let us get out and have a look around, if there wasn't parking, loaded us with facts on the road then kicked us out, drove round and came back for us! We visited Capitol Hill, Jefferson, Lincoln, the brand new Martin Luther King and my favorite, the FDR Memorial. The memorial was split into four sections, one for each time he was elected as president. "Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, Freedom from fear." The lighting wasn't the bright white of the other monuments but peaceful yellow and greens through the mini waterfalls that gave the place more life and noise.



Post Office, 12th Floor. Washington
Monument in background.

 The next morning we had a whole day to explore the city. We started at the Post Office and got the elevator to the 12th floor which provided us with a 360 view. The FBI building was just next door and the Smithsonian Museums spread out in front of us waiting to be explored.
Just up the road we spent time in Fords Theatre & Museum where President Lincoln was assassinated with a single shot to the head by an actor. Then walked right around the White House, stopped for photos and then carried on to find the Air & Space Museum which as pretty fascinated. I touched a piece of moon rock! But so have a million other people by now... I spent most of my time in the WW2 displays and planet exploration before going to find Tui and heading over to the National Museum of Art. Roaming through the quiet rooms for an hour was barely enough time to see it but we covered as much ground as we could. Regrouped and on the metro we had time to see Arlington Ccemetery, which isn't as easy as it sounds. Rows upon rows upon rows of white graves in perfect lines, men and woman who died for their country. The JFK family are there too. There wasn't time for us to stay long but I'm glad we went.
Metro back to the Verizon Centre where we met up with the rest of the group at Clydes for dinner. I had to eat with a lobster in front of me and to the side of me! Crazy people! But saying that my dinner was great too and it was our last meal all together. The ride home was full of laughter even though we were tired and then after I showered a few girls had journals that they wanted messages from us in. It was hard to get emotional about it because I'd chosen not to think about how much I'll miss trek.
However, the next morning the goodbyes started as we left Sarah (one of the Grand Trekkers - 6weeks) in Washington to catch her flight to San Fran to meet her mum.

The Frumen Family (Kaits family!) had very kindly invited us to their house in New Jersey on our way through to our last hotel so we stopped off in a real American home for a few hours, had some amazing food and got to use a real bathroom! Joy! Not long after we arrived Amy had to be dropped at a shuttle to catch her flight too that left another gap in the bus. We stayed a while longer with the Frumens and friends which was lovely and emotional for most. My team won the cooking competition surprisingly which was nice! And then just before we left we were group hugging Kaits parents in the kitchen and Tui popped out for a Tootsie roll for the road and walked straight through the screen door, knocking it onto the patio! Needless to say we all fell to the floor with laughter. Then in a rush we shot to the train station and had a frantic goodbye on the platform to Tui, Zoe, Jess, Bell & Lise. Lots of tears and throwing bags out of the trailer onto the train. They headed into Manhattan for the night while the remaining few carried on to the Hilton in Newark. Here we had to say goodbye to Kait... more tears. Then because I had a room to myself I invited everyone in to hang out - providing they give me half an hour to enjoy the luxury of a bath first!! We chatted, ate junk and helped make plans for people staying a few days while I completely repacked my bag for the journey home. Then it was time to say goodbye to Sarah (there were two - I'm not crazy) Miwa, Sam, Iso & Taz. And I was left alone again.
Up at 5.30am and grabbed an apple cinnamon muffin from Starbucks then got on the shuttle to the airport. Check in was easy, fumbled through security with sleepy dust in my eye and only an hour or so until boarding. So bought 3 books and some presents with my last dollars then got on my plane home to chilly little England.
I hadn't cried yet even when everyone else had which isn't like me. It almost happened on the plane but the movies distracted me. But when Jimmy picked me up at arrivals I was a mess. Snorted and everything...

And now I'm home. It's weird but I'm getting used to it. Reality is a kick in the teeth after all my adventures but Bournemouth is exciting in its own way. And I still have New Zealand with mum to look forward to in October. So until then.........

Josie x

More memories and mishaps

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

This is going to take forever...

I'm home!! And really need to update. Again apologies for typos, I've found even more when re-reading. It won't get any better because I'm still struggling to get used to using my laptop again! Go get a cup of tea and I'll pick up where I left off right until the end of my wonderful American Adventures...

We hit Monument Valley in the Navajo Lands late afternoon and everyone else did a jeep tour straight away but I chilled out at the visitor centre, learnt some facts in the museum and sat outside looking at the skyline before heading back to the van and sketching for a while as the sun set. It was good to have some time alone because I'd been surrounded by people day and night for the better part of a month. They all arrived back happy but really sandy and in need of a shower; which we had to queue for at the campsite because they were about to close.

The Navajo people are believers in Spirits and guardians of the land and they treat it with great respect. The music they create with mainly wind instruments suits the surroundings perfectly. Some of their men also played a key role in WW2 in the Pacific, passing messages in their native tongue between US forces thus giving the Americans an unbreakable code to the opposition.

Next morning most of the group got up and hopped the fence to walk down the road and watch the sunrise over the great rocks. As always, it made me sit steadfast in the truth that creation was no accident.
On the road leaving Monument Valley we stopped for a photo opportunity on the road that features in Forrest Gump when he finally stops running. Naturally, we ran too! Photos will appear when everyone else is home and uploading their pictures.

After a day in the van we arrived in Sante Fe for a quick look around the quaint town with all its galleries before setting up camp in the rain then eating an awesome dinner by Jess's group of homemade burgers!
I wasn't totally with it that day and felt tired and pretty homesick. After dropping the wash bowl and then a stack of plates I had to walk away for a while. I didn't want to go home at all I just wanted my loved ones there too enjoy it with me. There's not a lot you can do but pull it together and carry on, or in my case just get a hug and go to bed after you've been heard singing a Disney duet in the shower!

The next day we finally, finally went to the secret spot Kait had been keeping from us for days. She'd heard about it from a friend and we were only the second trek group to ever go. It was called the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM. And it's exactly as it sounds. We jumped and dived in for ages, had lunch and got back in the van. Its was beautiful there.
The rest of the day included a drive on the most endless looking road I've ever seen, it just kept going. We nearly ran out of gas... but thankfully we made it into Roswell with our tin foil hats in tact and went to a McDonald's shaped spaceship - and funnily enough no one looked at us weird at all, alien town...
That night we set up camp in White City just down the road from Carlsbad Caverns which we explored the next morning for a few hours. We also found that Zoe had been up half the night chasing raccoons and skunks that got into the trailer and ate our bread and Taz's pringles!
The caverns were discovered by a young Jim White while he was out exploring and saw a massive smoke cloud which he realised was bats when the cloud started to break up. He knew for that many bats to be coming out of the ground it must be a huge hole so he searched for the opening and found the natural cavern entrance that you can go into today. The caverns blew my mind. Parts of it were like a cathedral with the long stalactites hanging high from the ceiling. At the base of the elevator down there there was even a gift shop and bathrooms, it was surreal.

Back on the road that afternoon we made it to Fort Davis, Texas where Kait gave us a bear/mountain lion/javelina pigs warning talk just in case we came across one. That night there were pigs surrounding all our tents but thankfully I didn't know til morning! For the evening a few of us drove up to the McDonald Observatory and heard a talk on the different stars and black holes in our universe, where we are in it and what makes a star collapse then be reborn. We got to look through a few telescopes outside but it was pretty cloudy so we couldn't see as much. But one of the slides in the presentation stood out to me for the next few days. The Ring Nebula, a star that if you if seen it before could say it looks pretty familiar to a certain Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone NP, Wyoming. Again, I saw my creator Gods hand at work. No accidents.

And something I almost forgot! On the way to the observatory we saw a sunset that I don't have enough words to describe. Like the sky was on fire. It didn't matter that the sky was cloudy after that sunset.

Next, our adventure took us to San Antonio for Labour Day Weekend. It was hot! We spruced ourselves up as much as we could at the KOA and went to the Midnight Rodeo bar where we learned to dance with the cowboys, I'm not bad at it! But I did drop my phone in a toilet as it fell out of my pocket when we got back - bye bye photos. Sad times.

After an incident the next morning including an air vent and my dress I was given the name 'Marilyn Bumroe'... very embarrassing. We watched a movie on the Alamo then went to see The Alamo itself. I walked down to Market Square with Jess over the river and we entered a Mexican world for 20 minutes before heading back to the campsite where I listened to a guy called Josh Glenn play his acoustic for a while. I'd been gone so long that when I got back the camp was empty, they'd gone out to grab dinner when they couldn't find me and all turned up with Mcdonalds and a burger for me! Well fed, laughing a lot and extremely hot I went to bed with no need of a sleeping bag the whole night.

I'll leave it there for now, maybe continue with Lafayette tomorrow - need to go and catch up with friends and dish out some presents :)

x