In the Blue Corner

    Friday, April 30

    From one natural wonder to another. The Grand Canyon is a place i'd always wanted to visit. I mean it's just that place everyone thinks of when you mention the US's national wonders, and as you pull up to the parks entrance you can tell that this place gets the majority of traffic over it's neighboring parks. Here there's multiple information centers, tarmac roads, viewing stations...hell there's even a post office to send off your freshly bought postcards.
    I quite liked the whole "go off and explore" nature of Monument valley but there you go.
    Not like this distracted from what is unquestionably an amazing natural place and what are some amazing views. What did take away from it though was the gradual decline in weather, and the introduction of snow in the desert.


    It all started fine but as we pulled into the last viewing stations the clouds had begun to descend and by the very last post the visibility had dropped to a matter of feet. If i hadn't of gotten a clear view in the morning i'd of been royally pissed. But as we had there was something highly entertaining about having one of the worlds greatest sites completely hidden in cloud :)

    We didn't stick around long after the view had practically disappeared and anyway we'd booked a hostel for the night in Vegas and wanted to get there in decent time.
    On the way we came up to the hoover dam, now I didn't even know we where going to be crossing it until Will mentioned it about a mile away, so it was quite a nice surprise. It's also a shock to how big the thing is. I wasn't expecting it to be as impressive as it was at all! We'd got there pretty quick as well, so we took the time to chill out a bit and stretch our legs, take some photo's and just enjoy the view.


    *It's not long till we reach the dazzle of Vegas now, time to go make my millions...

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    Straight on to Monument Valley.......Literally

    Thursday, April 29

    Wow these roads are straight. There also undeniably beautiful. The landscape has turned so epic over the last few states. After Texas's barren, flat roads we've come into 'New Mexico' and instantly hit these views of huge mountain ranges with massive ups and downs which lead off into the horizon. It really is a stunning country...
    We're on our way to Monument valley at the moment, it's safe to say it's a pretty long way so we'll be sleeping somewhere at some point. But there's plenty of cool stuff to do along the way, so it should be fine.

    First up is Roswell (told you it was 'cool' stuff), this town is way to hung up on the supposed crash landing. Aliens adorn every lamppost, there drawn on every billboard and open space. Even the local attorneys advertisement was some pun on abduction with an accompanying illustration.
    It's awesome in a tacky way, i mean i just wanted a photo with some absurdly cheesy alien model or something equally so.
    We pulled into the visitors center to see if anything was there, and i found my little alien friend to pose with. But then "excuse me, hello, how can i help you". Aww crap the help lady had her claws in us now, i only wanted a quick photo and now here we where getting a run down of the local galleries and sightseeing possibilities!
    She did give us a more interesting route to take to monument valley though, but i do use the word 'interesting' loosely. Also as we where leaving she did say "do you want your picture taking with the alien?" "Hell yeah i do!"


    The interesting road led us to Capitan. The land where Billy the Kid was born, or where he shot alot of people, we don't actually know as the museum was $5 admission and we're too cheap for that. We did check out the grave yard of "Smokey the bear" national treasure, fire fighting extraordinaire. He was (actually he still is) the mascot for forest-fire prevention in the US, and was buried here in his own park.
    But the real star (as the crazy woman said herself) was the scenery itself, it just got more impressive and more vast the further we seemed to go.

    We crashed out at some motel for the night. I think it was Fort Stockton but i'm sure Will will comment and correct me on that. It was a complete dive if i remember right. The sort of place people get shot, like no country for old men. But it was only for a quick sleep then the following day we headed off again with hopes of getting as close to Monument valley as possible, somewhere in Colorado seemed logical enough as we wanted to come through '4 corners' (the only place in the America where 4 states join at one point) before still arriving early enough to explore monument valley for the day.
    We ended up in Durangoo, a skiing resort in Colorado. It really was amazing to look out the window knowing your going to be spending the day in the desert, while outside all you look at is this landscape of snow. Sure enough though the 30 minute drive to Utah/Arizona and it disappears entirely leaving you with nothing but red rock and a whole lot of nothingness.
    4 corners was actually shut when we got there (not sure how that's actually manageable, but hey it was) so we went straight on to Monument valley.




    Will and me actually met while working on a game based in monument valley called MotorStorm. So the place, despite neither of us actually visiting it, felt relatively familiar. I'd been put in charge of the drive, which to be honest i would of fought to the death to of done anyway. It's not often you get the chance to rag a rental car around off-road in that sort of scenery....
    It became a massive highlight for me almost instantly, i'd happily go back and do it all again tomorrow. The sunset was gorgeous and the place just seems to get more amazing around each corner. Will videotaped almost the entire loop while we messed around taking wrong routes and getting attacked (kind of) by overly friendly dogs. I'll try and do something and stick it on Vimeo with the footage when i get back, but for now just check out the pictures and imagine it a thousand times bigger and better than it could ever look on paper.

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    Everything's bigger in Texas

    Wednesday, April 28

    New Orleans to Austin, as it happens is a bit further than we anticipated. We did have a run of unfortunate events as well though. The car needed an oil change so we had to wait around before we could take it away then back at the hostel our German passenger had wandered off to get himself a burger king meal just as we'd pulled up eager to leave (if not for Wills moral high ground i would of left him for sure).
    This all meant we didn't arrive in Austin till sometime close to 11. It also meant that the hostel was then full and we ended up having to book a 3 bed motel with our new 'silent psycho German' friend


    The day after and life had returned to normal, the sun was shining, we'd checked ourselves in a hostel, we'd finally got rid of the 'dead weight' and we where out exploring. We also treated ourselves to a nice big steak, Texas style i.e big. It's worth a mention purely as it was the first meal without processed meat, fries, bacon and cheese (I'm actually back to eating a burger while writing this, that's just how impossible it is to eat healthy in this country).
    We then went for a walk about town, down the main bar street on 4th and all the way up to the university campus and football stadium. We also passed by and went in the capital building which was pretty epic, they even had a high school debate thing going on in the main chamber... either that or Texas' representatives are getting incredibly young.

    Back at the hostel we got served food, drink and desert by the local girl scouts (i still have no idea why) But after the meal we played what's basically an electronic charades game, and for the first time in 8 or so months my competitive side came out in full force. I'm almost embarrassed thinking back, i didn't give them an inch, pulling them up on every rule broke, i can't believe i actually did that "sorry girl scouts", at least i got into it. If we could of turned it into a drinking game i would of left going out and stayed there. But we didn't, so we went!

    On a side note, Austin has by far and wide the most attractive population known to man, it's like walking around in an American sitcom.... there's nothing else i can expand on this it's just a fact that needed to be said.
    We went to a good bunch of bars, had a fair few beers and saw a whole load of bands. The first guitarist in the opening bar being so good it kind of made it hard for anyone else to then compete.
    After an epic walk home with a slice of pizza and a taco or two to break up it up along the way, and that was our night done.

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    Travel Buddy

    Tuesday, April 27

    Only a quick post this one. I'm back home for the time being trying to save some money before going out again... the America blog will carry on retrospectively as i've still got plenty to write up from the book.


    This is just a little video of the book which i think i've mentioned a fair bit of in the blog, i thought i might as well show it. Can't wait to carry on in it in the future.

    Anyway, back to America!

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    Who dat

    Sunday, April 25

    Now we're talking! We may of arrived a day later than initially planned, but as it turns out New Orleans doesn't really stop for anything. They finish Mardi Gras and then start a 364 day long pre-party for the next one.


    We had to drop the enterprise off at Hertz in the morning (we dubbed it that for some reason i now can't remember) then we went off exploring the french quarter. It's a beautiful region of the city, nice bars and cool indie shops, you still get the overwhelming amount of touristy shops but even these seemed a little less vulgar as other towns. Bourbon street may horde the majority of the tourists but the rest of the area is by far nicer.



    Back at the hostel we'd got a pretty good crowd together to go drinking with. A bunch of English and Canadians, a few Americans, and we were all just sat around drinking and chatting until someone deemed it was about the right time to go out.
    I'd got chatting to an Irish girl called Fay who we'd convinced to come out despite having a flight to New york at 3.00 in the morning :)

    The first bar we'd been recommended to go to was actually shut when we got there as they were filming. At first this was very annoying, until then someone mentioned it was the guy who did the 'wire' and they were filming the new Treme series. So sorry Mr Simon you can do what u like.
    We settled for a bar across the road, as long as it had live music i was happy.
    Me and fay decided to take the drinking up a wee bit and started on some of New Orleans special cocktails. I think i had a hurricane, definitely had a hand grenade (that was pretty much lethal) and i may of had a few more.... i'm not entirely sure.
    I do remember getting drunk under the table as when we got back to the hostel, Fay quite easily chucked her rucksack on her back, woke up her friends and then holla'd a taxi to take them to the airport. Consider me impressed as i was more than ready for bed.

    The morning after unfortunately we had to move on again, i think both me and Will had both grown a soft spot for the place, the people and hostel made it all the more gutting to be going but we where on a time constraint so that's life. Add to this the fact we'd agreed to take two hitchers to Austin with us (don't ask it was just one of those things that just happens) and it was shaping up to be a very strange day. I'd gone from having a laugh with a cute Irish girl to now sitting in a car with a homeless, unicycle riding, chainsaw juggling, street performer and a psycho looking German guy. He looked like the bad guy in raiders of the lost ark, same round glasses just much fatter.


    "Hurry up Will, put your foot down mate"

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    "Beads..... I need beads!!"

    Friday, April 16

    You should of seen Will go for them. He was like a kid who'd eaten a bag of blue smarties... i'd never seen him like so happy.



    We arrived to Mobile in good time (1 - 0 to speeding), dumped the bags and pretty much went straight out into the thick of it. It was truly insane the way the town had converted to basically an enormous street party, every balcony had people throwing beads down to the bead loving crowds (Will included), while every bar was packed to bursting point with people so far past the point of drunk i have no words to describe them.
    I went to grab us a few beers as a means to try and catch up with the locals, only to come back and see Will looking something like a very camp Mr T. We had those, had a few more, and then a few more again... then the world became somewhat blurrier, i think i got chatting with a bunch of people in one bar. We definetly went to the night parade as i have pictures to prove it but the rest is undocumented and i awoke in the motel with both my camera and wallet, so all in all. Result.

    [100% going doing the Mardi Gras properly in the coming years]

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    Whoop, Whoop, it's the sound of the Police

    Thursday, April 15

    "Will.... i think the police man wants me to pull over!" "Why whattya do" "well i think i was speeding a little bit" "by how much?" "i don't know, like 90...." "what's the limit!" "70" "f*$k"


    Somehow we managed to wrangle our way out of the situation, but there was definitely a moment in there where i thought...Prison....crap. Everyone had joked how it'd happen to me at some point and now here i was, nearly there.

    The reason for all this though (there was a reason) was as follows; We where heading south for the Mardi gras, it was something we'd planned on doing since the initial concept for the trip was talked about, but at the same time neither of us had the sense to book anywhere to stay. This meant trying to book something literally days before arriving... yeah...err.. that wasn't going to happen. Hostels, hotels, campsites! even every couchsurfing person wasn't able to put up anyone. It was a bit gutting and after ringing and emailing everyone the second time we came to the conclusion that we'd just have to admit defeat and accept we weren't going to be going.
    We also didn't want to stay in Memphis either, and in our booking attempts for new Orleans we came across the close by town of 'Mobile', who had actually celebrated Mardi gras longer than New Orleans itself (don't worry i'm not trying to convince anyone that it would be in any way as good, but it was available). But it also meant a 6 o'clock start and an 8 hour drive to get there in time for the parades.......hence the speeding.

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    Down with the blues!

    Tuesday, April 6

    Will was the designated driver for the stint from Nashville to Memphis, i was a little worse for wear so thought probably best for me to not take control of the car for a while.
    We decided as a minor detour to stop off at the jack Daniel distillery (perfect hangover cure i know) and take the tour.
    One things for sure and that's the tour is the most professionally and awesomely run museum/attraction i've been to. You get your very own tour guide and then a good hour being taken around having everything explained. Our guide, a guy called Billy, who was clearly mental and continuously went off in all kinds of tangents was as cool as anyone i'd met. He clearly had stories to tell from a very eventful life, and it was nice to let him go on and tell them.
    We left there high from the fumes i think, that and the fact we'd had our hands sprayed with undistilled whiskey, this obviously meant that for the next day or so, everytime i scratched my chin or rubbed my eyes it was like pouring pure alcohol on them.

    You're not actually allowed to drink any of the Whiskey as [interesting fact time] in Lynchburgh, it's still a dry state therefore no-one can actually drink the whiskey that's brewed there [interesting fact end]

    Onwards to Memphis!



    If Nashville is the sugar coated, everyone happy, cheque wearing, cowboy boot wearing, music town of choice. Then Memphis is its bitter neighbour, and the music reflects it. This place is just blues through and through. The music here is all about being down and out, struggle and loss. Truthfully it's far more my taste if i had the choice of the two.
    In B.B Kings, our hiding place for when the snow started, a guy came on stage , sat behind this old beaten up piano and started to play the most beautiful heartfelt rendition of Ray Charles "Georgia".

    The problem with Memphis is as soon as you leave the music and walk even just a street away you see the town for real and understand where the music comes from. I've never been asked for money as much in my life, it's just a derelict homes, rough looking housing estates and empty parking lots, a shell of a town. We did make the walk over to the hotel that Martin Luther king had been shot, which by the way has now been converted into the civil rights museum. It was all done very tastefully and with the up most of respect, 'which for America was something of a surprise'.
    Very glad i went anyway..

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    Country Living

    Thursday, April 1

    This is a pretty epic journey really. We set off from D.C in the morning with our goal set at Nashville 700 miles away. It's not a huge distance but the state of the roads in Washington made getting out a real effort.

    The scenery as well wasn't all to amazing, mainly consisting of whiteness..... so apart from a stop at Woodstock (different one) for burger king it really was just a case of getting as many miles under the hood as possible.


    We'd arrived relatively late to Nashville so didn't really get the chance to get anything done till the following morning. The Hostel; Music city was really cute, it had a nice owner, cheap rooms and free food, they also told us that it was the last day the musicians hall of fame would be open so it was free entry.
    The next hour or so was spent, for the most part with me and Will looking at artists and band memorabilia from bands who i hadn't a clue of who they are. They did have a guitar by Hendrix and a whole bunch of stuff from George Harrison but that really was about it. Still very enjoyable in a so bad it was good type way.


    It's not until you get to the main strip that you actually feel like you're in Nashville; crude neon lights, tacky touristy souvenir shops... but also, along with this, an unparalleled number of music bars, each one with music just blaring out. Each and everyone; country music.
    We stumbled around trying to pick out a bar to settle down in and have a few beers before settling on "the stage". I honestly had a really good time, the music isn't me in anyway, i'd never been intrigued by or enjoyed country, but in this environment with so many people all as happy as can be just singing about trucks and their guitars. It's impossible to resist.
    The night continued in a similar vain, a lad name Stephen somethingorother, who had come to Nashville to try and make it, showed us around the town. He took us to where all the writers hang out and perform and then later back onto the strip. It was a quality night and the following mornings hangover was well worth it.

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