USA

Florida

pleasurespikedwithpain — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:31:00 GMT

Disney World

So we stayed the night in Forsyth, Georgia. It was a nice enough place, to stay the night. We then went on to Florida. On the way there, there were some pretty big storms. Which was annoying, as everyone slowed down about 50 miles under the limit. Sure, drive safely and with caution in the rain, but this was a bit excessive I thought. Anyways, we arrived at our RV park and settled in for the night.

The next morning we woke up at 8am, so we could catch the free shuttle at 9am that the RV park provided. We had a nice chat to a lovely family from Canada while we were on our way there. So we arrived at Disney World, and this place is MASSIVE. And I mean MASSIVE. Not only do they have like 4 different “worlds” which in their own rights are their own theme parks, they have numerous hotels and resorts and restaurants. You literally have to catch a bus or monorail between each different world. It’s insane, also the shuttle driver told us that they have their own power source, waste facilities, telephone lines, police etc so basically it’s literally their own little world. It was $90 for one world, plus for $35 you could get access to any of the 4 main worlds. We got that option and the first world we went to was Animal Kingdom.

It was pretty cool. The first major thing we did was the safari where they drive you through “Africa.” We got to see many cool animals, including, Elephants, Cheetahs, Hippos, Ostriches, Black and White Rhinos, Gazelles as well as some others I can’t remember. Once we finished that, we went to the Dinosaur part of Animal Kingdom. They have a system, called fast pass, for some of the major rides/attractions, where you get a ticket which tells you to come back at a certain time, and when you come back the line is much shorter than the normal waiting line. We got a fast pass for one of the rides, and while we were waiting for our time to arrive, we went on a rollercoaster. It was pretty enjoyable, but not overly exciting, especially after some of the coasters we went on in six flags. We then went back to the ride we got the fast pass for. It was a pretty cool ride, where they ‘take you back in time’ and you travel through the world of dinosaurs just before the comet hits, so you get jolted around a bit and it goes fast at times, and dinosaurs come out at you, but its nothing really overly scary, yet still enjoyable.

After Animal Kingdom we went to the Hollywood Studios world. We went and got a fast pass for the Star Wars virtual reality thing. As it was a bit of a wait, we went and got lunch at this ‘diner’ that was themed like a drive in theatre. It was pretty cool, and you sat ‘in a car.’ After we had lunch, it was time for our fast pass to be accepted on the Star Wars ride. There are a few hundred different story lines it follows, ours was pretty good. We then went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids exhibit, which was pretty cool. I enjoyed the movie as a kid, and basically it’s a kids playground, and a pretty awesome one at that. I would’ve happily climbed around everything, and played but neither James or Kyle were keen to, so we just walked through it. I also did my first plank ever, on a giant ant. It was a really bad plank, but o well. We then went and saw the Indiana Jones stunt show, which was pretty cool. They did the stunts, and then explained a bit of how they actually do them. We then went on the tower of terror ride. You are in an elevator, and it goes up really fast then drops you down pretty fast, it was pretty cool. We then made our way to the biggest world, which the name of escapes me.

We got there by monorail. This was by far the world with the most to do, and it even stayed open to 1am. Unfortunately, our free shuttle picked us up at 10pm, so we didn’t have that long there. It is also the land that has the Disney Castle in, so that was pretty cool to see. We started off getting a fast pass for one of the rides and then going on the Pirates of the Carribean ride while we were waiting. It was pretty cool, and I know that movies storyline, well the first one, came from a ride at Disney World. I’m not sure if it was this one, or if there’s one at Disney Land in California. As it was a inside ride, it started pouring down. It was a bit of a relief, as it was a hot day, but also kind of annoying. We decided that we didn’t want to waste our time under shelter, so we walked through the rain, and were the only ones to do so. We got absolutely soaked, but it was rather refreshing after being so hot all day. Unfortunately, the ride we got the fast pass for wasn’t operating in the rain, we waited a little while to see if the rain would stop, but it wasn’t showing any sign of doing so, so we moved on. We then walked to another part of the park that had more undercover attractions. We did a Lilo & Stich ride, simply coz it was operating. It was ok, but nothing really exciting. By then we had about an hour and a half before we had to make our way back to be picked up by the shuttle. I really wanted to go on the Space Mountain ride, but the wait for it was 80 minutes. After some discussion, it was decided that Kyle and I would go on Space Mountain, and wait, while James would do his own thing. The wait was 80 minutes. It wasn’t too bad, for some of the line, they have these games you can play while you wait, which was a cool way to kill some time, and we also started talking to a guy from Brazil who was travelling the East Coast of the USA by himself. Speaking of Brazillians, there must have been hundreds of them, if not thousands (I’m not exaggerating) in tour groups or camp groups or just on holidays. Anyways, as time went by, so did the amount of time we had to we had to go get the shuttle, and we were contemplating leaving the line. We held on though, and actually got pulled out of line, as there were 2 empty seats. The ride was awesome, and essentially worth the wait, and hey we were out of the rain while we were lining up anyways. It’s really fast, and if you’ve been to WB Movie World on the Gold Coast, and been on the Scooby Doo ride (which itself is awesome, go on it if you go there!) it’s similar to that. Similar in the sense that, it’s inside, and it’s dark, and you can’t see where you are going, except for little white lights, which I suppose are meant to be stars, except it’s a lot faster the Scooby Doo. After we finished that, we ran to the monorail to make it to our shuttle in time. This was easier said than done, as it was fireworks time, yes fireworks around the Disney Castle. It would’ve been pretty cool to see that, unfortunately the fireworks started at 10pm so we couldn’t hang around. So we ran, and caught the monorail and ran some more, just so we didn’t miss our shuttle, as it was stressed to us that it leaves promptly at 10pm and doesn’t wait for anyone.

So we made it back to where we were meant to be picked up from, with about 5 minutes to spare, and it wasn’t there. We saw the Canadian family who had been waiting there for half an hour, so we knew we didn’t miss it. It ended up being late, so much all the running an stressing was for nothing. It came up at about 1020pm. However, there wasn’t enough room for us! We weren’t sure how this happened, they took our names, and asked us all if we were being picked up at 5pm or 10pm, so that there were enough seats for all. So after the driver called the owner of the shuttle business, we were told to wait and we would be picked up eventually. Great. It was rather annoying, and I know in the end, it’s not that big of a thing, and hey the service was free with our RV park, but it was still frustrating, and by the time we were picked up, we could’ve watch the fireworks, not ran like idiots through crowds and probably done some other stuff as well. So at about 1110pm we were picked up, by the owners of the taxi service that ran the shuttles, in their own car as well. They were nice people, and explained that, someone got on the shuttle saying that they made the trip there (which they didn’t and we could’ve told them that, coz it was full on the way there with us, the Canadian family and another family) and so they wanted to go back. Damn you dishonest people! So we eventually made it back a little before midnight!

Miami

So today we were making our way to Miami today. We stopped off at a Walmart to get some supplies, and to check out a Walmart. It is massive, but it sells everything, like lots of shops here. Basically if you put a K-mart (with a bigger and better range than K-mart), a pharmacy, coles, a liquor store, subway and a bank together you get Walmart. It’s really convenient, all your shopping done in one place. We then went on down to Miami. We eventually made it to our RV park, and chilled there for the rest of the evening.

The next day James and I wanted to check out more of the outlet stores, where as Kyle didn’t want to. So James and I went to it, while Kyle stayed back at the RV. This place was MASSIVE! It also had some really cheap deals, on good brands as well. James got some really cool and cheap converse, as well as some clothes and other stuff. I got a couple of pairs of shoes, as well as a Charlie the Unicorn shirt, books and some Lindtt Chocolate. We didn’t end up getting home to about 1115pm, and Kyle had gone out to some bars that were nearby. James and I decided to stay and drink the beers we bought on the way home rather than try and find Kyle. It was an enjoyable evening drinking in our RV and we went to bed at about 230am, with still no sign of Kyle.

Kyle had come back sometime overnight, and had a killer hangover. He said he stayed at the RV until about 6pm, and then went out. I guess in every holiday there is a day were you do nothing. Today was that day, Kyle was really hungover, and threw up at some stage eventually. I wasn’t really bothered, and was happy to chill out all day, to be perfectly honest, I was a bit indifferent about coming to Miami anyways. So we did nothing all day, just chilled in Betsy and watched TV. That in itself was an experience anyways, daytime television here is hilarious! You start off with ridiculous court shows similar to Judge Judy. Then you have game shows like Let’s Make A Deal (the one we went on in LA), Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Family Feud and Price is Right. Then you have to drama shows like Jerry Springer, which is back by the way. Unfortunately, it’s really bad, maybe because I’m older and more cynical, but it also seems very scripted and there are fights every 10 seconds, and there’s more crowd chanting “Jerry Jerry” than actual issues being discussed. There’s also a show called Maury, which does lie detector tests and DNA tests, to see if partners have been cheating and who really is the father of the child. That show was much “better” and I use that in a relative term against Jerry. There was one lady who celebrated with her sister like they had won 1 trillion dollars when they were told this guy was the father. Part of her hilarious celebration was doing some head banging/arm waving crazy movement in his face, which was hilarious. Then you get dramas like Bold and the Beautiful and Young and the Restless, then onto talk shows, like Ellen. Then on one channel there were 2 eps of Family Guy then 2 of The Simpsons then 2 of Two and a Half Men.

So that was our day, and that night we slept as we had a long drive the next day.

Instead of driving straight to New Orleans, we stopped off inside the Miami border for the night, which was a 10 hour drive from Miami. As this was the day that Harry Potter was released, I wanted to go see it, and we had some time, so we drove to a cinema nearby, and I went and watched HP while James and Kyle watched Horrible Bosses. Movie tickets were so much cheaper then back home $8.50 for an adult for a normal movie and $11 for my 3d HP movie. We actually got there rather early, as we didn’t realise we were in a different time zone now, and time had gone back one hour. Harry Potter was really awesome, and it was the end of era really, and the guys said Horrible Bosses was pretty funny.

So that was Florida. Maybe not as exciting as one would expect Florida to be, except for Disney World and HP, but still enjoyable, and I guess we were bound to have a nothing day eventually.

Now we are on the way to the Big Easy, AKA New Orleans, then Texas then Vegas, then LA. In 15 days, I will be on a plane home. I was feeling pretty homesick while I was in Miami, and in some ways I can’t wait to be back home, but I also don’t want to leave either.

Washington DC and Kentucky

pleasurespikedwithpain — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:44:00 GMT

Washington DC

So we arrived at DC in the evening, this was one of the most expensive RV parks we have stayed at, which is a bit ridiculous, because there is nothing that makes it that much better than any of the other ones we have stayed at. Anyways, the next day we went into DC.

Woke up later than we should have and then had to drive Betsy to the train station, so we could catch the train into Washington. Today is going to be a big touristy day, and lots of walking, and also to try and spot Obama, which is on my list of things to do, if it’s going to happen, it’s most likely going to happen today. It is also very hot, probably one of the hottest days we’ve had here so far. On a side note, for those who don’t know, DC stands for District of Columbia, which I didn’t know until the train driver informed us so, maybe that will come in handy on a quiz night or something.

Anyways, after the 25min train ride, we got walked into “the mall.” Which is not a shopping centre but a big area that has a lot of monuments and museums. We first went to the Washington Monument, AKA the big spire into the sky. It was pretty cool, and very big! After that we walked up to the WWII memorial which was really nice, and quite new as well, only built in 2004 from memory. Next up was the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, the big reflection pool in front of it is being renovated, so it wasn’t there. It wasn’t even just empty, just a patch of dirty sand, which was a little disappointing, but it was leaking and they had to fix it!! So onwards to Lincoln himself. It was pretty cool, he is also rather big, and I can kind of see how sitting there next to him (when it wasn’t crowded with tourists) could be a good reflecting spot. We then went through the Vietnam War Memorial, which was also another pleasant memorial. We then walked some more, and kind of a roundabout way, while we decided what we were going to see next. We missed a couple of other presidential monuments, I think I remember from some movie, one of the comes to life and says something along the lines of “we are always forgotten, everyone always goes and sees Lincoln!” Well, it’s kind of a little bit out of the way, plus the direct path there was blocked off by construction. So sorry, Presidents, whose names I have forgotten, we didn’t make it.

We decided next stop was the current Presidents home, with a brief stop for lunch and for me to post my postcards, some which I’ve been holding onto since we were in Wendover, Nevada. Time to spot Obama. When we first walked up there, we were like, ‘This is it?’ It wasn’t very grand looking at all, at least not how the movies make it out to be. Then we realised it was the back of the White House. So we decided to walk around to the front of it, plus I couldn’t see Obama, surely he would come out and wave for me or something!! :P The front was way more grand, and just like the movies. Seems like a pretty cool place to live. Well until an alien space ship comes and blows it up with a blue energy beam thing. But until then, a nice place to live. I also saw a movement in a window, not clearly coz you are far away and behind a few fences, but I am convinced it was Obama waving to me. So yes, the President of the USA waved hello to me from his window, how awesome.

We then decided to go to a museum, and we decided to go to the Air and Space Museum. It was a pretty cool museum, and I even got to touch a bit of moon rock!! We ended up spending a few hours there, which seems quite easy to do in these museums. We then walked up to the Capital building, which is a very pretty building. In fact, Washington DC has been full of grand, and beautiful buildings, especially around to mall area with all the monuments.

After that, it was about 7pm and the sun was setting and we were tired from walking so much so we decided to head back to Betsy and the RV park. We stopped off for dinner and fuel on the way. I got a burger from five guys, which was one of the nicest burgers I’ve had. The best burger I have had, from a chain, still goes to Wendy’s, delicious burger that was, and this one would have been close, but Wendy’s wins. Maybe coz my whole life my Father has consistently been saying how good the burgers from Wendy’s are, and he didn’t lie!! (For those who don’t know, my father is from the USA)

After DC, we headed to Kentucky. It was about a 10 hour drive according to Caroline. It was rainy and stormy most of the way, which sucked, coz not only was it rainy and stormy, but it makes it harder to see etc etc. We drove through some beautiful countryside, unfortunately, my cameras battery died. I took over driving from James about 4 hours into the trip, he couldn’t repeat his 8 hours marathon drive from earlier on. As soon as we got into Kentucky it started getting sunny again, which was nice. We hit some killer traffic for a while, where were literally were not moving at all, so much so I was able to read some of my book while waiting!! Also, we almost got taken out by a truck, who decided he would change lanes without looking in his mirrors or indicating. Luckily I was able to break in time, and give him a good honk of the horn, haha.

Got to our RV park, and we had to do some washing. While we were washing we booked our flights from Vegas to LA, as we have decided to fly that part and return Betsy in Vegas. It ends up costing us a little more, but is WAY more convenient, as we would have had to wake up at like 4am to be able to return her to LA in time on the Saturday. I can already feel like we are heading south, with the way people dress, act and talk (ie: y’all), there definitely is a cultural difference from the more Northern states, and really Kentucky isn’t in the ‘deep south’, it will be interesting when we get to Texas!

After sleep, we woke up and the plan was to drive to the Marker’s Mark distillery and then onto Tennessee. We worked out Tennessee was too far away, and we wouldn’t have sufficient time in there, so we bailed on Tennessee and are now going to Maker’s Mark, then down to Orlando, Florida, with a stop off at Forsyth, Georgia. We stopped off at the Waffle House for breakfast. Not only was it delicious, but the service was awesome!! It was like a real diner, so friendly, and they were calling out orders that sounded nothing like what we ordered!! It was really awesome, and we tipped well. We are now driving to Maker’s Mark. Caroline however, has already been there and is now quite drunk, coz the roads she is taking us on, are like one lane tiny roads through fields! Plus there’s already been one turn onto a road that didn’t exist. We really don’t know where the hell we are or where this stupid GPS is taking us maybe to a murder house. Well I’m going to stop now and start hoping we make it alive!!

So we made it alive, but wow that was a funny way to get there. Kinda make sense as it’s really in the middle of nowhere. Anyways, so we did the Makers Mark tour. It was really cool. It is America’s only handmade bourbon whiskey, and not mass produced. It is also still made at the same location where it first started, and still uses some of the original machinery. It was really cool to see how it is made, and it was also explained to us how they got the name, and why they dip it in wax. First off to be a bourbon, it has to have at least 51% corn, which they use 70%. They don’t use rye like the majority of bourbon’s, and instead use wheat, which makes it sweeter. The used to be the only distillery to do this back when they first started, and are now one of 7 who do it of 700+ bourbon producers worldwide. And of course, there’s malted barley in it. These are all sourced locally, with the wheat having only ever coming from one family. After these have been ground, they are put into large vats, which are made off 100+year old (Breaking news, a wasp thing was jsut on James’ leg, which caused him to squeal like a girl, and frantically get it off him, ahahahahahahahaha, in his defence he is allergic to bees so... anyways it was funny) back to the story, 100+year old wood, then they add yeast which breaks it down. They are kept in these massive, open vats, for 3 days. They only get about 10% of what they put into these vats. Recently they have also started getting the mash, removing the moisture and using it to produce methane, which is then used to power the distillery, this now contributes 20-30% of their energy usage. They also sell it on as good cattle feed, so it is all re-used. They are also the only North American distillery to do this, so good on them!! We were allowed to dip our fingers in the vats, I dipped my finger into the sweeter one. The whole room also had an over-powering yeast smell. We then saw where they get the liquid and put it through a chimney that is 5 miles high, where they put steam through it at 212 Fahrenheit, so the alcohol evaporates. It then condensates, and something is done to it to make it stronger (but not the Australian bound MM coz of taxes.) When it comes out, it is clear, and is called Maker’s White AKA Moonshine (though not the really high alcohol content illegal stuff), you can buy this and try it which I did.

It is then stored in barrels, which are carefully dried out then scorched so the tannins don’t affect the wheat. It goes up to the top of the warehouse first, where it is warmest and it is slowly absorbed into the wood and this plus the scorching of the barrel gives it it’s taste, and it’s brown colour. It the over time makes its way down to the warehouse. Each barrel not used by age, but by taste, so when it tastes up to standard, then it is used. It averages about 6 years. This is a pretty cool way to do it, I think, and that’s why you don’t see age markers on the bottles. It is then sent to the bottle line, where it is bottled, and each bottle hand dipped in wax. Yes every single bottle of Maker’s Mark that goes out to anywhere in the world, and it is only produced here, is hand dipped in wax. They workers can dip about 23 bottles a minute. Unfortunately, being a Saturday none were being bottled so we couldn’t see them in action. After that we went and I got some free tasting, coz Im not driving today, Kyle and James had to miss out. First we tried just normal Maker’s Mark, then they have a new style out, which was recently started by the next generation of the family in brewing. It is called 46 and it is distilled the same way, and after the normal storage and aging it is stored in a new barrel with pieces off a special type of wood, for 3 more weeks, which gives it a more unique and smoother taste. That tasted really nice, you then could try some of the Maker’s White, which tastes very different to normal bourbon, but I really liked it. I bought a bar mat, and a couple of glasses, then a bottle of the Maker’s White and the 46. You can only get the Maker’s white from there and the 46 only in the USA, so I thought it would be cool to buy them. You can dip your own bottle in wax, and you are able to do that when you bought a bottle of 46 (you can do it with normal Maker’s Mark bottles as well.) It was really cool to dip my own in, and something that I will probably keep for a very special occasion or never open at all.

Over all, it was a really cool tour and experience. Touring a distillery like this has always been something I’ve wanted to do, especially as bourbon is one of my favourite alcoholic beverages, so actually doing it, is like ticking another thing off my bucket list.

Well, that’s it for now, just the drive down to Georgia, we are going to get there pretty late, but stopping off for the tour was definitely worth it and worth the detour to Kentucky!!

Hope everyone is well!!

New York, 7 days of awesomeness!!

pleasurespikedwithpain — Thu, 7 Jul 2011 12:50:00 GMT

Ok, so before I start on this blog about NY, we did go to Springfield, Massachusetts to go the six flags close-by, before we went to NY. It was an amazing park, some really awesome rollercoasters and not that expensive to get into, well not as expensive as I thought it would be, only $49 to get in.

I guess I should start with a few general things.

New York is MASSIVE, I mean I knew it was a big city, but I guess until you are there, experiencing the never ending city streets, masses of people, busy streets etc, a maccas on every block, it doesn’t really hit you until then.

I could never drive here. The drivers are crazy, honking horns, merging whenever they want, stopping whenever they want, speeding down streets, through narrow gaps between cars. It’s organised insanity!

You need to know what you want and where you are going. Stopping and taking a long time to decide or holding people up in the streets, frustrates people, shop keepers and you are going to get angry looks.

The police like to stand around and look important. Yet they don’t seem to do that much. But there are a lot of them.

But wow, New York, was amazing, possibly, the best week of my life. If you have to chance to go there. Go. Don’t think about costs etc. Just go. Have I mentioned that you should go there yet? Anyways, on to my experiences.

DAY 1 28/6

Got to Newburgh, where we are leaving Betsy. Quickly stopped off at a Diner, and got some awesome Diner food! Parked the RV, and packed for the week. Caught a train into the city. The train went into Grand Central Station, it was amazing, gold, marble, chandeliers and well, rather grand really. Our hotel, which was close on the other side of the block from Times Square, was close enough for us to think we would be able to walk it. Walking was interesting, especially dragging along our suitcases, there are lots of people and to successfully make your own way through you kind of have to just walk with intent and hold your path, if you don’t youll just be dodging people all the time!

We made it to the hotel, the Milford Plaza. It was a nice enough hotel, a bit old, and the room was very small, but it was clean and very central and an excellent price so we couldn’t really complain! The girls were also in NY so we made plans to meet up with them!

We stopped off for dinner at TGI Friday, which was crap. The service was below average, and the food was overpriced and very small portions (even to Australian standards) especially Kyle’s meal, mine was a bit better! Never go there!

We went to the girls hotel, and had a few drinks there. We then went up to the bar on the hotel roof. It was pretty cool, though it was rather pricy for drinks and not very entertaining, except for the view, so we made our way to Chelsea / Meat packing district. We went to one pub, but it was quiet so we went to a club nearby. It was a pretty up-market, more exclusive club, where we had to be on the list, or pay a hefty entrance fee. One of the options was to get our own table plus a bottle of vodka for $350. As there was 5 of us, it was decided we go for that. So we skipped the line, like the VIPs we are, and got shown to our table. It was pretty cool having our own little table. The 5 of us polished off the litre bottle of 42 below in about an hour. The music was pretty good, well for club music, and it was PACKED! There were also skimpily dressed girls dancing on the bars, as well as some Jamaican looking guy playing a drum along to the music. Overall a nice little club, and nothing like anything you could find back in Perth.

The girls decided to leave at about 230 am. Conveniently just before the girls decided to leave, J & K decided to go for a walk of the place. I had a look for them, but the place was packed, and I couldn’t find them. One of the girls decided she needed to go back to her hotel straight away, while the other girl, (who btw for loyal readers is the same girl I climbed the toilet stall for in LA) was adamant about getting her belly button pierced. I accompanied her to the piercing place. Yes, if you want to get a tattoo or piercing at 230am on a Wednesday morning in NY, you can. I know that would’ve been my preferred time, to get the piercings done, but unfortunately piercing places operate normal trading hours in Perth. Stupid small city! Anyways, off we went to the piercing place. It was a clean enough looking place, and after deciding on the jewellery she wanted, we were escorted to their other store a little bit down the road. They were obviously the McDonalds of piercing shops. We met some, interesting and entertaining people, who were also getting piercing stuffed pierced. It’s good to talk to some locals I guess :P. So after holding her hand while some Jamaican guy (I resisted the urge to ask him if he was ever part of the Jamaican bob-sled team just like in Cool Runnings) stuck a needle through her, we departed at about 3am. I took her back to her hotel, and ensured she got up to her room ok, where we found the other girl, had left a trail of her belongings to her bed and had well and truly passed out on her bed. Anyways, caught a taxi back to my hotel, coz I didn’t feel like walking the streets alone.

When I got back, at about 315am, I found only James had come back. He had been separated from Kyle in the club, and had no idea where he was. Kind of worrying, but there really was nothing we could do about it, so we went to sleep.

Woke up sporadically throughout the night, and the morning and there was still no sign of Kyle.

DAY 2 29/6

So at 10am when me and James were both awake, still no Kyle. So we decided to get ready etc and go from there. At 11am, just when we were going to the girls hotel as planned and leave him a note, in strolls in Kyle. Like the prodigal son returning, except he isn’t our son, and to be honest I’m not sure what prodigal exactly means, but he isn’t that either. Turns out, he had met a girl, an Irish girl, just like James in Chicago (is there something about Irish girls, they must love Aussie guys, or love ...) Anyways, he went and got another room for them to use for the night. Good for him.

So the 3 reunited, off we went to the girls hotel room. I felt pretty good, and so did James, but Kyle was pretty tired. Anyways, we got there, and the girl who had gone back by herself was still, well essentially, dead. Well not really dead, by very hungover. It was decided that we would go watch a movie. So the girl who was still alive, even after her late night piercing, and us boys went to watch Green Lantern. Pretty cool movie, but nothing to rave about. Halfway through the movie someone screamed at another person the shutup, which was funny.

After the movie, we decided to go to one of the cheap outlets. One of them was a shoe outlet, had some pretty cool shoes, at some pretty good prices. I found a pair of nice dress shoes that were only $30, would’ve been well over a hundred back home, so I got them. I also got a new wallet to replace the one I had lost/stolen from me before I came to the USA. Kyle left after a little while of looking at shoes, but James, piercing girl and I carried on, eager for a bargain! Checked out a couple more shops, with good prices, but didn’t really find anything I liked. I also saw the flatitron building, which was pretty cool to see. After getting some dinner, we headed back to our respective hotels, where upon lying down, the night before hit me, and I fell asleep.

DAY 3 30/6

Today the girls were doing the Sex & the City tour and we were going to meet up with them after that. Today was there last day in NY! Got a bagel for breakfast, and I also tried Snapple. I saw a little girl drink Snapple in the diner before we came to NY, and I really wanted to try it. And OMAF IT’S DELICIOUS!!!! I had lemon tea flavour. Just. Delicious. I’m tempted to throw out all my clothes and just take Snapple back home in my suitcase, might not get it through customs though, plus they are glass bottles, and would probably break. So I found a new drink I love, and I still wanted to try Apple Snapple though. (which will happen later.)

After my bagel and drink revelation, we looked at some cool shops around Times Square. Like Toys ‘R’ Us, which has a ferris wheel in the store. And if a ride on the ferris wheel isn’t exciting enough, there is a massive T-Rex in there as well. There were also some toys, well a lot of toys, I really wish this Toys ‘R’ Us existed back home when I was a kid, especially as they had a massive Hot Wheels section, and I loved playing with those toy cars when I was a kid. Anyways, reminiscing aside, we then checked out the Hersheys store. They sold bulk boxes of Reese’s Cups, for $12.50, have to come back for them. Across the road there was an M&Ms store. It had 3 levels! 3! I was imagining 3 levels of M&Ms with M&Ms falling from the sky, and lakes of M&Ms you could just dive into!! However, I was let down, there were no M&Ms falling from the sky, nor could I go swimming in M&Ms. It’s just 3 levels of overpriced M&M merchandise. Well, there was a wall, not even a full wall, but a wall with every colour of M&M you could imagine, as well as all the flavours. Which included, chocolate, dark chocolate, peanut, almond, peanut butter, pretzel and the all new coconut M&M. I didn’t buy any though coz you can just buy it from the shops, and cheaper as well.

We then went to the Discovery Channel museum thing in Times Square. They had a Pompeii and Harry Potter exhibition on. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any photos, coz both exhibits were rather cool. We went to the Pompeii one first. They had it set up so that you saw life before the eruption, then the aftermath. There were artefacts from there, as well as some recreations. They also had moulds taken from the shells of people that the ash had formed around the people and stayed in shape and the position the people were in, while the bodies rotted away. All very interesting.

The Harry Potter exhibit was also really cool. They had uniforms and clothes they wore from most of the characters, including Harry, Ron and Hermione. They also had wands, books, the tri-wizard cup, letters and so much more! It was really awesome.

Afterwards, we met up with the girls and got lunch at Bubba Gumps. For those who don’t know, Bubba Gumps is a restaurant based on the movie Forest Gump. They have one in Bali too apparently. The girls wanted to see a Broadway show before they left, I think they wanted to see Wicked, but couldn’t get tickets in time. So instead, we got tickets to Rock of Ages for that night, which the nice man gave to us for a cheaper price as well. After getting the tickets, we joined them in going to another discount department store. When we got there were SWAT police outside, as well as police bikes and cars all set up for an escort of some person. The person came out, and I had no idea who they were, someone important obviously. Anyways, the store was massive and had some good clothes and really cheap prices, but I once again didn’t really see anything in what I looked at, apart from this 1 jacket but they didn’t have it in my size, so I ended up getting nothing.

After that we made it back to get ready for Rock of Ages. I didn’t really know what to expect out of Rock of Ages. However it was pretty good, some good music, and it was rather funny and the performances by the actors were faultless. They are also making it into a movie, which will star Tom Cruise.

Afterwards the girls wanted to see if Madam Tussads was open, and I wanted to go as well. James and Kyle went to a bar that we got a voucher for earlier on. Unfortunately Madam Tussads was not open, so we went and joined J & K at the bar, after doing some gift shopping.

At the bar, the girls had a drink with us, as they had an early flight the next morning. This is the last time we will be in the same place as them in the USA, which is disappointing as they are pretty awesome people to hang around with. (I didn’t just say that coz I know you are reading this either :P) The voucher entitled us to many great deals like buy one jug (or pitcher in American) get one free etc. There were a lot of drinks to be had. I only had a couple though and then went back to the hotel by myself, as I was tired. James came in a little while after me, but Kyle stayed on by himself.

Day 4 1/7

This morning I woke up early to walk down to the Gershwin Theatre to get tickets to Wicked for James and I. I was able to get some really good seats for the performance tonight, better than any I could get over the weekend. They were about 10 rows back from the stage, and in the middle. I was pretty stoked to be able to get such good tickets for the night I bought them.

Kyle had come back at 6am, so he was still sleeping. James and I decided to check out some sights. First off we went to a Best Buy, and checked out that, saw some cool stuff at good prices. We then went to Central Park, which is big. It’s amazing that inside a city that’s full of humans and so MASSIVE, there’s a massive park. It’s a beautiful park, with lakes, a lots of statues and old buildings. We walked from the southern side to the northern side, along the west side of the park. It was a long yet beautiful walk. We also saw Strawberry Fields and where Lennon lived and was shot. We were pretty tired, and thought we should go and see if Kyle wanted to do anything.

When we got back, Kyle was just chillaxing in bed and didn’t really want to do anything at the moment. As he didn’t want to go to Wicked with us, he decided he was going to watch a movie while we were there.

James and I looked at some places to eat that were recommended in our travel book. We chose a diner that was on the way to the theatre. The diner itself looked awesome, pretty old style classy, which was pretty cool. It also had a old signed poster from a musical Julie Andrews was part of on broadway (for those who don’t know Julie Andrews is one of, if not, my favourite actress) it was very tempting just to take it down, but I had to settle for a photo. Apart from the cool decor and posters, the food was so good, very tasty and reasonably priced. We also stopped off at a cool record store which had some awesome records.

We then went to Wicked, which was in a cool theatre (the Girshwin), bigger and better than the one Rock of Ages was in. It was also the Hall of Fame for theatre actors and actresses. We bought a dirnk coz it came in a wicked cup which you could keep and settled in our good seats for the show. It was, awesome. Words cannot describe how good it was. I know it’s showing in Perth at the moment, and even if it’s half as good as the Broadway show, see it. I cannot recommend it enough! The storyline, which improves The Wizard of Oz movie itself, the singing, the acting, just amazing! Go see it in Perth, I personally guarantee that you will enjoy it! I can now see why it has been on Broadway for 7 years and still selling full priced tickets and filling out the theatre, which is a big one.

So after our awesome evening at the theatre, we made our way back. Kyle came back shortly after us, but was hungry and wanted to get food. Having eaten already James and I passed and Kyle went to the bar across the road from our hotel. James and I went to bed as we were tired.

DAY 5 2/7

Today, we had a lot of sightseeing planned. First off we went to ground zero. They are still rebuilding the area. Where the twin towers were and the hole in the ground they left they are putting in two waterfalls, with the names of the people that died in the attacks lining it, as well as the ones from the plane the hit the Pentagon and the other plane that crashed in a field and the victims of the 1993 bombings of the towers. They are also building a memorial garden and museum. Office wise, they are building one large building which will be slightly taller than the old towers as well as a few other new buildings. First, we went to the memorial museum, which was set up and run by, survivors and family and friends of the victims of the attacks. The museum had lots of stuff from the buildings, and some stuff from the planes. As well as recordings of the firemans radios, the real voices of people who died trying to save people, as well as how the evacuation and everything went out. It also had a bit of how working in the towers was like and memorials and stuff from around the world. It was all pretty sobering, and made me think about life and how you never know when it’s going to end for you. After the museum, we had a tour of around the site, which explained which way the planes came in, other buildings that were affected by the attacks, like a bank that was destroyed by the collapse of the towers as well as a hotel etc. Our guide also worked in one of the towers, and was in there when the attacks occurred. He told us about life in the towers how basically you would live in the complex, getting food in the towers or nearby, concerts held in the courtyard between the two towers, how it would sway in the wind, sometimes so much a pencil would roll off your desk. He then talked about the morning the attacks occurred. His office was in tower two, which was the first tower hit, and 10 floors below from where the plane hit. He was saying how sometimes he would sit and look out the window, but fortunately wasn’t that day as he would’ve seen the plane coming for him, and he doesn’t know how he would’ve responded, and still been ok if he had seen it. He then talked about being evacuated, lying down and crawling to where he thought the stairs were, and making sure his colleagues were with him. How a fireman called them to the stairs by saying ‘come to my voice.’ Making his way down the stairs, down 80+ flights of stairs, and firemen running past him to go up, full of gear and equipment and he was tired just walking down. Eventually making it down, and went to the underground mezzanine below both the buildings, and when he was about the middle of the two buildings the first tower collapsed. He felt a massive gust of wind, and just knew he had to grab onto something, so he grabbed onto a pillar and held on for dear life as the building collapsed, he was being pummelled by winds and debris. His colleagues had somehow got themselves low enough onto the ground to be able to stay there, by some luck. When it was over, he was covered in dirt etc, and he looked back and could see or imagine I can’t remember, but all the people that were under there as well, and weren’t able to hold onto something had been smashed into the cafe behind him under all the debris, and were obviously dead. He then talked about how he with his co-workers and others slowly made it through the dark and towards another firemans voice. When he made it there, he said the fireman was telling him to go one way, up some escalators, but he saw another way with light at the end and decided to run that way. He eventually made it out and just kept running, then a few minutes later when he was not the far away, the other tower collapsed, the one he worked in. He choked up towards the end, understandably. It was a moving, and sad story, and something that you could only experience by being told in person by someone who was there.

So after leaving there a bit sombre, we planned to walk down to the ferries that took you to the Statue of Liberty. We walked through Battery City Park which was a nice stroll we made it down there. We had decided just to catch the Staten Island Ferry, which is free and goes right past the stature anyways. The line to go to the statue was stupidly long. It would been hour if not hours worth of wait! So we caught the free ferry, that took us past the Statue. It was pretty cool to see, not as big as I thought it would be, though I guess it would feel bigger right next to it. After the ferry we were walking to the financial district to check out the golden bull there, and we strolled past a hotdog cart that sold....... APPLE SNAPLE!! So I had to try it. It was THE BEST THING I EVER TASTED!! Well maybe thats a bit extreme, but it tasted SO GOOD!! It was drinking an apple. Literally. I love the stuff! Anyways so after my mouth-gasm thanks to the apple snapple, we went to the bull. We had plans to take some cool photos, but there were way too many people to even take a clear photo of the bull. Kyle went off to get some money out and we somehow lost each other. So James and I made it back to our hotel on our own. When we got back there we organised to go to the comedy club we got tickets for, earlier on from a street salesman.

So we went to the comedy club, named Dangerfields. All the comics were pretty funny, and it was a pretty good show, even though the drinks were ridiculously expensive and you had to buy 2.

Afterwards we made our way to another bar. It was a bit quiet to start with buy kept getting busier. I met this cool college guy, who was from Mexico originally and we hung out with him and his friend for a while. James and Kyle went off to another pub, but I stayed on at this pub. I got home at 330am, and James was home buy Kyle was not. I promptly went to sleep, it was a long and awesome day.

Day 6 3/7

We were all pretty tired today, and for some reason it had started raining. After a late start, we made our way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Funnily enough the travel book said to avoid the place on a rainy Sunday if we didn’t want to have crowds. Well we didn’t have much of a choice. We saw many cool artefacts from Egypt, Rome, Greek, old armour, guns, old paintings, there was so much!! It was a huge museum, great for a rainy day, and we didn’t even really properly see everything. Kyle got tired and left before James and I were finished exploring, so he went back to the hotel.

When James and I had finished, we went to Tiffany’s because I promised to get something for my sister from there. It was big, very fancy, and very expensive (my sister better be appreciative!) We even saw a lady that had her little dog in the store! After that we went to Bloomingdales, another very expensive store as James’ mother wanted a bag from there. After getting that and having a look around at the very expensive clothes we also went back to the hotel.

Last night, Kyle met some girls from Washington, and we organised to have dinner with them and go to the top of the Empire State Building at night. We met them at their hotel and eventually made it to a bar for dinner. Just after we ordered our food, a suspicious looking bag was found nearby so we had to be evacuated and the street was shutdown. It was pretty exciting and we had a chat with our waiter around the corner. After about 10 minutes we were allowed back in. After dinner and some drinks, we went to the Empire State Building. It would of been very pretty, unfortunately a cloud had moved over the building, and you could see anything except white cloud. That itself was pretty cool, to be in a cloud pretty much, but not really the view we wanted. Though if you stuck your head through the fence and looked down you could see something!

After chilling there for a while we made our way back to the bar opposite our hotel. After a couple of drinks, I was pretty tired, so I went back to the room (at about 2am) and went to sleep. Tomorrow is the fourth of July!!

Day 7 4/7

Had another late morning today. We went and got some lunch from a place called The Goodburger. It was a goodburger! James went back to the hotel and Kyle and I went to the Brooklyn Bridge. Wr drove across it first, well the taxi did, then we walked back across. As we were walking across some lady was walking in the bike part of the path, and a cyclist yelled out at her “move bitch, I’m circumcised!” LOL. Moving on, it was a pretty cool bridge and good to do some more exercising and walking. We then caught the subway to Central Park, as Kyle hadn’t seen it yet and he wanted to check it out. On the subway these two people were playing music with a guitar and one singing, and then tried to sell their CDs and promote themselves, was kinda cool. We walked through a different part of the Park then James and I did, through the zoo, (though we didn’t go into the zoo, we could see the Polar bears from a distance.) On another note, I thought there were lions and giraffes and Zebras in the Central Park Zoo, mainly coz of Madagascar, but there weren’t any! Anyways, we made our way through the park and to the big fountain in there which was pretty cool. We then made our way back to the hotel.

We chilled for a little bit, then went and got dinner at this Mexican restaurant. It was pretty nice, though the service was pretty poor. (If you are wondering why I keep commenting on service, basically, as you know we have to tip the waiters, but they do have to work for it and most of the ones we have experience are really good and definitely earned a good tip, some others.. not so much) Anyways, by then the fireworks had started, they were pretty awesome and we could see most of them through the buildings.

We then made our way to the bar that McLarens from How I Met Your Mother is based on. It looks nothing like it, but it is a nice pub. It got fairly busy especially after the fireworks. We also met a nice lady from Utah whose daughter was in town for a dancing competition. We had a really nice chat with her, and it was awesome speaking to another American about stuff. Kyle left to go to another bar, while James and I stayed on. Eventually we made our way to our hotel and we had to leave early in the morning to check out and make our way back to Betsy.

Day 8 5/7

A sad day, the day we left New York. We were making our way to New Jersey, where we were going to stay the night with some family friends of Kyles. So we checked out, made our way back to Grand Central, caught the train to Betsy. We then made our way to Jersey. It wasn’t a very long drive about 4 hours, a little under, and we got there safely.

The people were eldery, and it was kind of awkward as I didn’t know them at all, but they were very nice people who made us feel welcome. Two of their children (who are grown up with kids of their own) and their partners came over and we had a nice dinner with them. We then stayed at their house for the night, and chilled for some of the day. We were going to go to the beach but it started to rain, so we just did some shopping and were driven around the area. It was a vey nice and expensive area, he used to be a lawyer and seemed to have a fair amount of money. It was a pretty big storm, with some crazy lightening that brought some trees down. We eventually said our goodbyes, as we had to keep on going down and drove down to Washington DC.

So overall it was an awesome week, in the big apple. I would have loved to stay there longer, but unfortunately we had to move on, we still have many places to go and just under a month left to do it! It’s going to be a full on month, but I cant wait. Well done on reading this much, it has taken me hours to type this and prob took you ages to read. I hope you enjoyed it!

Water, falling.

pleasurespikedwithpain — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:15:00 GMT

So we drove on to Niagara falls. SO MANY TOLLS! we paid $38 on tolls to get here! O well. Anyways after a long drive, and more annoying road works, we arrived there! When we got there, it was a pretty nice RV park, and the guy told us they were fireworks at the falls if we wanted to go. We decided not to and planned the next few days and our accommodation in New York. We decided that after Niagara we would go Massachusetts and the 6 flags there then onto NYC! We got a really good deal on our hotel, which is really close to times square, and only $50 a night for the 7 nights including taxes - this was amazing and we could believe we did so well!!

The next day we slept in a bit, did some laundry then went off to the falls! First we went to the Silo, which was another place featured on Man Vs Food. We got what Allan had, the haystack! It was a roll, with meat cheese and "hash browns" which was like those french fries crisps you get. It was delicious!

We then went on to Niagara Falls! It was amazing, such an awesome sight. So there's two actual falls, the American falls, which has a little offshoot called the bridal veil falls, which is the falls on the USA side and the Horse-shoe falls, which one side is the USA and the other side Canada! We got the adventure pass, that was cheaper then buyign things individually. First we went on the Maid of the Mist, which took us in a boat really close to the falls. Afterwards we walked to the horseshoe falls. We went to the cave of the winds. IT was fantastic its a walkway (which they put up every spring/summer, then take down for winter) up to the Bridal veil part of the American falls, and at one part, called the "hurricane deck" you are essentially standing right under the falls! and you get buffeted by winds as well! It was awesome, even though we got soaked, and it was a pretty cool day, it's pretty awesome to say you stood underneath the falls. When then watched a movie about the falls which was interesting. LEarnt 2 interesting things, once a 63 year old school teacher put herself and her cat into a barrel and went over the falls, and survived! Also, this families engine failed and they went past the point of no return, which means you are going over the falls, no matter what. The mother was able to swim to the side where she was plucked from the water, but the father and son went over. Somehow the son survived, so lucky, to miss rocks and everything and was only wearing a life jacket, he was then picked up by one of the Maid of the Mist boats. The father died. We wanted to stay until night, coz the falls light up!

There were so many tourists there, and some were really rude, especially some from certain countries. One kid was trying to get this ladies attention who was helping us by saying "miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss" while she was talking to us, and she eventually snapped and said "can you wait until I finish speaking to these people" it was pretty funny, and good on her for saying that, his parents shouldve told him to wait. Damn tourists. We also got some souvenirs!

We also got dinner from Hard Rock which was rather delicious. We then went back to the falls (it was a short stroll). They did look awesome in the lights, but I think they would've looked better from the Canadian side!

We made it back to the RV park and went to sleep.

Today we drove to Westhampton Massacheusetts, so we can go to 6 flags tomorrow. Some really nice views, a lot of trees and forets. And more tolls of course, one road costing us $30 alone. Sigh.

Anyways, tomorrow is 6 flags, then New York City, which I can't for.

Until next time!

The windy city

pleasurespikedwithpain — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:07:00 GMT

Hello. So, just got back from the city, now chilling in our RV. We got here via Des Moines and it was a pretty uneventful drive here.

So we got in to our RV park, and decided that if we could find cheap accommodation, we would spend the night in the actual city so we could go out and not have to worry about coming back to Betsy. Cheap accommodation was found, after the very friendly KOA lady lent us her mobile coz ours had not reception, I gave her a Koala to say thanks, so off we went. Caught a train into the city, Im pretty sure it was the same train that was in the movie The Source Code, I almost felt like I was Jake Gyllenhal :P

Went to our accommodation first to drop off our bag, its a pretty nice little hostel with free brekky, and still in the city so and the rooms were clean, so we got pretty lucky especially as we booked it the same day haha. On the taxi ride there, it actually felt like a city which LA didn't, but with skyscrapers, etc , and I loved the feeling. When we checked in asked the guy if he reccomended any bars, and he told us about this little jazz club, close by, called Lillys. It had on special $5 Long Island Ice Teas, that had 10 shots in them, and $2 pints of beer. It was a pretty awesome little place. Only had 2 LIITs coz they were strong and I was going to get very drunk if I stuck to them. Unfortunately those 2 were enough to get me rather happy. After chilling in our booth for a while, started talking to people, firstly this guy named Kevin, who introduced us to his friends, and then we got speaking to some Irish girls and eventually we were tlaking to most people there. Like I said, it was a small place. Had an awesome time there, and had to help the very drunk Kyle back to our hostel.

James was getting lucky with one of the irish girls, but I was so drunk, and I am in no ways proud of this, and have apologised to James a million times today, but me being drunk and tired, went in ignoring the sock on the door, and James asking me to 'wait outside' and passed out. This was enough for the Irish girl to leave and James not to get lucky. Even though they could have continued and I would have had no idea. James, I am sorry, possibly the worst thing I could have done! Anyways, Kyle ended up throwing up on the floor of the room, even though we put the bin there for him to, and he eventually used that. He cleaned it up in the morning though. Sorry hostel cleaners. Anyways, with a bit of a hangover, me n J went and got our free Brekky, which was good considering it was free. Went back, woke Kyle up and went and did some sightseeing. Did a bit of street wondering, not too much though K was feeling rather bad. We went up to the Willis tower, which is the 5th largest building in the world, and the tallest in the USA. 1400 feet tall. was really amazing being up so high. Walked around a bit, I wanted to go to the pier but J n K didnt feel up for it. Instead we went to Ginos East, which is on Man Vs Food. Had their deep dish pizza. You could write on the wall, which I did, though just in a pen so you cant really see it, but my name is there :D Got the deep dish pizza, the waiter who was awesome, infact the service here is amazing everyone in the USA is so friendly, I guess they have to work for their tips, but still, so friendly and helpful. Anyways, Jon, the waiter, said 2 slices would be enough. We still got a large, which has 8 slices and figured wed take them back and eat later. 2 slices was enough. This pizza was BIG, and deep haha. So much cheese, was prob really unhealthy, but it tasted awesome!! Anyways, got the rest to take away, just fits in our fridge!!

After that we went back to the train station, its a 1 and a half hour trip back on the train, and Kyle looked like he was about the die. Although we didnt spend that long in Chicago, I loved it, prob my favourite city so far. I just really enjoyed the feel of the city and the surroundings.

Anyways, off to Niagra Falls tomorrow, cant get any reception, so going to have to call ahead and book a place for our RV and hope they have spaces.

Driving, casinos, and Highway Patrol

pleasurespikedwithpain — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:37:00 GMT

*Tik tok tune* Wake up in the morning, ready for some driving. Put the keys in the ignition gonna hit the I-80, when we leave, hit the road, at 75mph, when we leave for the day we aint comin' back.

So I shall stop singing Ke$ha, it's not even out theme song for the trip. (Which is Road Trippin' by RHCP btw) Anyways, woke up early to hit the road and drive to Wendover, Nevada. We've decided to head east as quickly as we can, so we can spend time in places like Chicago, Niagra Falls and of course NY!! The drive was good, some really beautiful scenery, snow capped mountains, normal mountains and valleys. Drove past many signs about snow tires and chains, thankfully we are not drivign in winter! K & J are driving, while I get to nap, chill and navigate. Reached Wendover, or West Wendover at least, and now we are one hour ahead of CA. It's a pretty interesting little place, it has 4 casino/hotels, fast food joints, servos and our RV park, everything we need really.

Got in and set up. Decided to go to one of the palces for dinner, K saw a steakhouse sign and we were going to go there. Had a few drinks before, and some kid from another RV came up and talked to us which was random, yet funny. We walked to the places and it was 10pm already, it getting dark so late is still catching us out. Unfortuantely it, and the other eating places we closed, so we had to settle for Burger King. So disgusting, amusingly though, they had what soft drinks went well with their meals and what each one tasted like. Back to the casinos, the Peppermill. It was nothing great, seemed like it was mostly old people. It had lots of fluoro lights and you could smoke in them, and still was interesting. Didnt have a bet, saving that for Vegas, but had a go at the pokies. Put in a $1 bill. James decided the respectable amount we could cash out at was $20. I had a pretty good run, I'd lose a few then win some and this lasted for about 20 minutes, where as J & K went bust pretty quickly. I got up to $17, but eventually went bust as well. We went back to Betsy (the RV), we have another long drive tomorrow, to Cheyenne Wyoming.

20/6

Left early again, 8am. I was driving first, and off we went. Pretty easy drive I essentially drove in a straight line for an hour. We drove straight through Utah, a lot of Salt Lakes and otehr nice scenery. The mountains here are different to those in Nevada, more like rocky tabletops. I was driving through Salt Lake City, and I got pulled over by the Utah Highway PAtrol. I merged without indicating, and apparently I veered into another lane. I knew he was following me for a while, and when he flashed his lights to pull me over I was a little nervous, I do not want a fine! After getting all the paperwork and my licence from various parts of the RV to show him, he took me to his squad car and told me to sit in it! (Just the front seat though!) He was a nice guy and seemed very reasonable, had a chat about what we had planned etc while he was checking everything, and he kindly let me off with a warning. Phew. Off I went again, indicating at every merging point. I'm kind of happy it happened, I wanted to be pulled over at some stage, as long as I didnt get fined.

Stopped off for petrol soon after we crossed to border to Wyoming. Drove some more, more beautiful scenery all while K & J were napping. I ended up driving for 5 hours, unti K took over. Pretty decent effort I thought! HAd a nao out the back, we prob still have another 3 odd hours to go until we reach Cheyenne. I guess it may sound tedious, but I really am enojying driving. I love driving and roadtripping across the USA seems to be rahter awesome.

Arrived at the RV park safe and sound, without being pulled over :P We made plans for the timeline until we get to NY. doing a massive drive tomorrow to Des Moines, then we should arrive in Chicago the day after. 2 days in the Windy city, then up to Niagra Falls then down to NY. Sounds pretty awesome!

Anyways, Im off, everyone is having fun in Perth and wherever else you are!!

Driving....

pleasurespikedwithpain — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:37:00 GMT

16/6

So today we started driving, we left a bit later than I thought we we should have, but o well. The rental place was pretty far away, another $90 taxi ride away, in saying that taxis are cheaper here, and it was a bit far away!! Had a bit of a wait at the rental place, waiting to be served then filling out all the paperwork and being shown the RV etc, prob took us about an hour or so in total.

I was driving first, and thorugh the city as well, this thing is quite large 12 ft high and 18 ft long, which means turning wider than usual. Got used to being on the wrong side of the road and everything else in the car fairly quickly, but Im sure Ill get caught out at some stage. Stopped off at the shops, Albertsons, to get soem supplies, things are so cheap here! Setting off again and onto a major highway, the 405. 5 lanes wide, pretty insane, it was rush hour as well, I shall never complain about Perth traffic again! Merging is pretty crazy pretty much you indicate and go. It was pretty intense, so many cars and the RV took up most of the lane, so very little room for error. The GPS they gave us is shit, doesnt give very good or clear instructions, but we would be pretty lost without it, literally haha. There's been some very pretty views so far, would've been better if it wasnt overcast or drizziling, hello California summer!

Changed drivers, now Kyle is driving and James is navigating haha. I prob drover 2-3 hours. Im now just chilling in the back. Heading towards a RV campingvan site, havent made a booking so hopefully we get a place. Just to give you an idea of how insane our GPS AKA Caroline is, while dirving straight on a straight road, it told us to continue driving straight in 400 yards, well thanks Caroline I was planning on doing donuts. This RV park is kinda in the middle of nowhere AKA jsut out of Santa Margarita. We get there, and although theres no-one there we can cheeck in ourselves. Park, hook up and now it's sleeping time!!

17/6

Get up at around 9am. Do some laundry, have a nice chat with the friendly RV park lady and we are off again. James is driving to San Fran, and Caroline tells us that there is an RV park in San Fran, seemed a bit unblievalbe but anyways we head off. *Driving and time passes* we get into SF and where Caroline told us where it was, there was none. I knew it sounded dodgy!! Unsure of where to go to from here so we dirve around to find a palce to park. The streets in SF are just as steep as the movies shwo them to be by the way. Find another possible RV park in SF and decided to go ring them. Went into a Trader Joes, and they were really friendly and helped us find it, it does exist! Tried calling, noone answered so we decided to drive there anyways. Get there and its full. Great. Decision time.

So we decided that we would have to miss San Fran. I was pretty disappointed. But, if this is the worse that happens to us, then Im pretty happy. We decided to continue on our journey like we would if we had stayed in San Fran and make our way to Sacramento. Drove there, over a really long and awesome bridge, and through a toll. For some reason we thought the guy to take our money would be on the right hand side of the car, but of course hes on my side lol. Uneventful drive to Sacramento. almost turn onto the left side of the road, I knew it would happen eventually, luckily I realised before I actually did it and there was noone there anyways. First RV park was full. This day is just one big shitty unlucky day. WE consider parking in a carpark but decide to try another RV park. Get there just as its aobut to close, and thankfully theres a space! Insert sleep here.

18/6

Sorry if this entry so far has been a bit mah, kinda short sentences and typing off memory. So we decided that we would spend the day here and leave tomorrow. This RV park is mostly if not all residents. So we are like the outsiders. Peoople we walk past or what not are nice though, say hello, ask how you are going, so it's all good. The RV park itself is in Fresno which seems to be the Rockingham of Sacremento. Walked to the light rail station, past the Campbells soup factory. Sacremento itself is a nice city. A few nice buildings, and its kind of uneventful. Bought some stuff we need like a sim card so we can call RV parks ahead!! Had lunch, well they called it brunch and brunch it was even though it was like 2pm. I had pancakes nom nom J had scrambled eggs with turkey and hash (which is like potatoes cut up and cooked like a hash brown) and I cant remember what K had. The waitress was a bit of a dud compared to the rest we have and I thought we over tipped her, but o well. Had a beer there afterwords and after checking out some more of the city we left. Now back at the RV park, which has free wifi as well (hooray!!) 8 hours drive ahead of us tomorrow we need to make it to NY in the time we planned to!!

Hope eveyone at home is ok, take care :)

TV shows and universal

pleasurespikedwithpain — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:58:00 GMT

So, trying to get a quick one in before I leave LA.

So on Tues we woke up chilled a bit and then we went to walk to the studio where we got tickets to be in the audience for a TV game show called "make me a deal" which is hosted by Wayne Brady (Who's Line IS It Anyway). Got sunburnt walking there as it was the first real sunny day here. Also got more fast food (Jack in a Box this time) so over eating it, its disgusting, and I really havent eaten that much of it. The TV show itself was really cool and interesting to be on, you are encouraged to dress up like a crazy person, which we didnt, but everyone else did and they were dancing and cheering like insane people, but it was interesting. Had to wait for like an hour n a half though, but in that time we met 2 cool guys form California which we introduced planking to, as well as some others. Its different here as random people will jsut start talking to you and have a real full on conversation. Very friendly. After the TV show we were meant to go to Venice Beach, but we decided not to coz we didnt get out to 5pm and although it doesnt start getting dark to about 8pm we cbf getting a TAXI there or getting the 5million different buses we had to. Pretty disappointed I was looking forward to it, but we are planning to go when we have the one spare day here on our return. Hopefully we make it.

After dinner and some time had passed we went with the girls to a bar called the Rainbow. It was a pretty cool rock type of place, not like anything youd find in Perth, was pretty cool, but really old and disgusting. One of the girls ended up getting rather drunk and passed and was throwing up in the toilet, as I went up with her to make sure she was ok, was waiting and asking girls that were coming out if she was ok, til about 20 minustes had passed, and a girl told me to go in and help her. Was kinda disgusting, she was lying on the dirty manky floor of the disgusting toilet and she couldnt open the door so I had to go into the cubicle next to her and climb over it into hers to make sure she was ok. After about 30min we finally got her out of there and back to our hotel. Ineteresting experience.

The following day, we woke up and it was time to go to universal. J and K wanted to get brekky but it was too late for Maccas so we walked again to Jack in a Box, but I didnt get anything coz I wasnt really that hungry and definitely didnt want fast food for brekky. Universal was awesome, so many cool things to see and the shows are all pretty entertaining. The rides are ok, nothing too amazing, The Mummy is pretty good, but the Simpsons ride was the best. We got front of line tickets which were $50 more, but so worth it coz instead of waiting like 30min to get into a show or on a ride, we went straight on pretty much. Saw a lot of cool stuff to buy, but didnt buy anything :|

Afterwards, we were buggered so we decided to just get a pizza and eat it in our room. It was the premiere of Green Lantern so they had shut down Hollywood Blvd for it, wouldve been pretty cool to be in the crowd when the stars walked down but that was at 7pm then and we were still at universal then. O well.

Its pretty interesting with our accents, most people are guessing that we are New Zealand or european only one or two people have actually got that we are Australian. I dont know why, the girl wh otold us we sounded like Kiwi was said our accent was thicker than wht she thought was Aussie, then she told us she hated Aussies coz last time she met one she ended up in a jacquizzi with them....

Anyways, need to end this, having an awesome time so far, pretty nervous about getting the RV and driving around, hopefully it all works out alright. Not sure when Ill be able to get online next, hopefully not to long!

Take Care :)

Expensive houses, celebrities and music

pleasurespikedwithpain — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:58:00 GMT

The sun is so lovely and warm. Back art Starbucks again, and utilising their free wifi! Finally getting into a realy sleep pattern, thankfully. Also, we are diong a tally of how many Maccas, subways and starbucks we see. So far subway is winning. Perhaps that will change, but they are EVERYWHERE!! Also sorry for all the typos, it's a different laptop and I keep hitting the wrong keys and I cbf correcting it all the time.

13/6

So today we were meant to be going to Venice Beach. That didnt happen, but that's ok coz it was another awesome day! So two of Jame's friends arrived in LA today as well, and we planned to meet them. With no phones and relying on FB messages we somehow came to the conclusion that we would meet them at the starbucks near thir hotel which was back in downtown LA. Was pretty cool going back there again, it was a different part then yesterday and it was actually fairly busy and I got some cool photos. Met some other Aussies on the train who heard our accent and came over and talked to us for a while, and found out the there was a volcano and flights we cancelled and delayed along the east coast. Didn't even ehar about it, though I haven't been looking at news really so far, should probably keep up with events back hoem more. Anyways, met up with them, 2 really cool chicks, who had already been hit on a few times, including by the border security guy at the airport, lol, then we made our way back to Hollywood.

We decided to do a limo tour of the city, which was on $35 each (plus tip, of course) and went for two hours. IT was really awesome, go to see some really expensive houses, most of them celebrities. Also showed us some sites, like the House of Blues, which we discovered had Steel Panther playing that night, so we decided thats what we were going to do that night. Looking at the photos I cant really remember who's houses is who, except for a couple. The driver was also really nice, and she let us out to take photos when we wanted to. Also learnt that only a few years ago, a development company was planning to buy the land where the Hollywood sign is, take down the sign and delvelop it into lofts or something like that. LOL, I couldnt beleive it, it is pretty much a world landmark now, and youd think it'd be protected or something. Anyways good ol'd Hugh Heffner came to the rescue and bought the land around it first, hence saving the sign. So that tour was really cool, and saw some places we wouldn't have seen otherwise, plus discovered that Steel Panther was playing.

So after the tour we just chilled a bit, the girls left to go check in and sleep, and Kyle somehow fell asleep again. Time passed and it came time to make our way to the houes of blues. First we went to In-n-Out burgers, it was very busy, but it was very delicious and so cheap. After we finished that, we had a lovely one hour walk down Sunset Boulevade to the House of BLues. It's a busy street but still felt a little oddgy to walk down in certain parts. Especially with the police chopper hovering near us with its search light on, but we made it safely. If you don't know about the house of blues, its a pretty old and iconic music venue in LA. It was an awesome night. Really good music. The fisrt band, Silent Treatment, were really good, we met them and bought a CD afterwards. The band after them though, were VERY enetertaining. They were called Transcontinental. If you didn't get it from the band name, it's a band, who the leadsingers were transexuals. They only did good cover songs, but they were awesome, they all could sing really well and did really good covers. Including a mix together of Telephone by GaGa with Enter Sandman by MEtallica. Yes GaGa and Metallica mixed together. And it was AMAZING!!! If we had jsut seen them, it wouldve been worth it. But then Steel Panther came on. James got me into these guys before we went over and they have some pretty funny songs. They were, I know Ive used this word a lot but AMAZING, well amazingly awesome. They had Dane Cook out to sing with them, plus other random celebrities like a wrestler and some others. Plus they had a whole bunch of girls from the crowd on as well. I also got a photo with Dane Cook, which crosses of a task from my list of things to do - get a photo/meet a celebrity. Overall, it was such an enjoyable and enetertaining night. to top off an awesome day. And to think we've only been here 4 days and Im pretty much having the time of my life already.

So today we are actually going to Venice Beach haha, we also got to go in the audience of a TV show, cant remember what it's called, but it should be fun. Then we might go to a baseball game or soemthing else, decided then I guess. Second last day in LA, then we get our RV. It's going to be rather different doing that, and Im kinda nervous about driving and stuff, but even if it's half as fun as what Im doing now, it shall be awesome.

Anyways, thanks for reading, check out the photos I took that are on FB:)

I can't get no sleep....

pleasurespikedwithpain — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:50:00 GMT

Hello!!

SO here I am chillin' at with my starbucks coffee, using their free wifi and typing this blog. So far LA has been amazing, though the weather has been mostly overcast, and right now it feels like its going to rain. Tipping is annoying, yet I understand why they do it. Still annoying. Also annoying is the fact they dont include taxes in their places, but we knew that, but still annoying.

So the plane trip was ok, was a bit sad to say goodbye to my fmaily knowing I wont see them for a while, but once I was on the plane I forgot about them... (joking Nakita :P) Flight to melbourne was pretty boring and standard domestic flight, our bags were checked in all the way through to LA so we didnt have to worry about collecting them. Had to kill about 2 hours before we could check in for our flight, and did that by having maccas for brekky... finally checked in and was able to go through security and chill in the international lounge bit, looked at some shops but no really much point buying anything. Funnily, the screen for flight info said our flight had departed even though it wasnt meant to leave for a few more hours, kinda freaked out this family, but we re-assured them it was ok. They ended up sitting next to us on the plane, but it was ok, their kids didnt make any annoyign noises or anything.

The flight itself, was long and of course i didnt sleep coz I cant sleep on planes. Other than that it was a good flight, was able to fully extend my legs so that was good and the food was tasty. The in flight entertainment was amazing though, bulk movies, TV shows, and games. had a bit of turbulence at dinner/lunch time but luckily we got our food before the cabin crew had to sit, and teh turbulence was nothing anyways. It is amazing htough how people dont sit down when the seatbelt sign is on. Really, how many times do they need to tell you?

Anyways, landed in LA, and went through their border security fine. Well James and I did. Kyle got taken away to a special room, for fruther questioning. We don't know why coz they didnt tell him and he didnt ask, but they seemed to do it to a few people, including the father from the friendly family. After waiting for ages, and thinking wtf are we goingto do if he gets rejected he came out with no problems. They didnt saearch our bags at quaratine, we must look trustworthy, but it was good, less waiting. Got a taxi, some guy helped us with our bags, probably shouldve tipped him, but we forgot. The taxi driver was changing lanes like there was no tomorrow, and asked us what we thought the best way to our hotel was, and I was like I dont know, the cheapest? so $75 later (plus tip) we were at our hotel. Only got a room with 2 beds, even though or trvel agent said we got a 3 bed room, but its ok coz Kyle volunteered to sleep on the floor. The hotel is really nice, and in the best location possible, right bang in the middle of Hollywood, and its part of this complex that has shops, places to eat and a few clubs, not to mention a 2 second walk to the walk of fame/hollwood boulevade. So we could see why it was pricy, but in the end not too pricy. After we checked in, we went for a stroll up and down the walk of fame, lots of tourists, and people trying to sell us their demos. lol. After we did that, bought some beer for the room and took that back up, feeling a bit tired so we layed down and instantly feel asleep. First sleep in like a day and a half so although it probably wasnt the best idea to get used to LA time, but it was so needed. When we woke up it was 930pm and we decided we'd go out and get some dinner and go to a club that the bell boy reccommend we go to.

The club was pretty awesome, except for the $20 entry fee. Which was dependant on what colour ticket the door girl gave us, I think coz we are just 3 guys, we go charged the most. Once we got in though, we found out what the cheapest drinks were and I got the bubblegum vodka for $5. It tasted like bubblegum icecream, literally, was so good, and the bar girl was essentially pouring us double shots. She was an awesoem bargirl. The music and atmosphere was really good, I wish clubs back home were the same. There were also girls walking around selling test tube shots, and if you so wanted to you could do a body shot off them. So they placed the test tube between their breasts and you got it from there. Also you could buy them one and they stick on down the front of your pants and theyd drink it from there. James any Kyle did quiet a few of them, but I didnt want to do any shots, so as much as the girls tried to convince me I said no. One of the girls, Savannah if that is her real name, ended up hanging out with us quite a lot, she was really nice, and is even auditioning for Glee, if she makes it, we can now say we had body shots from. Yes she eventually convinced me to do one. So after qutie a few drinks and a couple of shots for me, they shut the bars at 130am even though they shut at 3am. So we left the club and went back to the hotel, James spilt beer on my bed and I had a mini freak out coz my sheets were wet and ended with me ripping the sheets off my bed. Eventually we decided we'd go for a stroll around hollywood. So strolling around the streets at 2am, meet some friendly African-Americans and chilled with them for a while, which was fun and interesting. Eventualy lwe decided it was time to go home and went to bed at around 4am.

Woke up at at abuot 8am, hungover, had soem some water and then went back to sleep. Ended up waking up at 130pm, and it took us about an hour to motivate ourselves to get ready. Ended up going to downtown LA. Had subway for lunch, so many more choices and much cheaper. Downtown LA is rather rundown and not much to do, but was interesting to see that side of the town and not jsut the glitz of Hollywood. Went back to the room, as Kylw wanted to watch the Basketball. I ended up falling asleep again through that and woke up sa teh game was ending. Then James and Kyle fell as well, so we ended up jsut having an cruisy night at the hotel and went to bed at a reasonable time, which in the end was probably the best thing to do, coz we need to get into a proper sleep pattern haha.

That brings me to today. So far jsut woken up and now doing this, later on we are going to venice beach a,d checking out this other palce that was recommended to us. So far, USA has been amazing, the people here are really friendly, and even though at times I still cant beleive im here, it promises to be an amazing holiday!!

Until next time!! :D

Tonight

pleasurespikedwithpain — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:51:00 GMT

So, tonight I leave. Feeling pretty nervous now, and not really that excited yet, hopefully that will set in when I'm at the airport. This will be the longest I've been away from home, and I think I'm definitely going to miss my friends and family. The flight is going to be long, and I'm not really looking forward to it, except for the fact that it's going to take me to the USA.

So for those actually reading this, and that don't know what I'm doing in the USA, here's a quick recap. Start off with 5 days in LA, then get our campervan (or RV, I'm going to have to start to use American terms, or I'm going to get some very weird/blank looks) and drive up to San Fran. A couple of days there, then across the country to NY. A week in NY then down we go to Miami, for a few days. Through the southern states, which I've heard many stories about to... Vegas (baby). In Vegas, we will spend 5 nights, trying to get the casinos to pay for our trip (haha). Then after a lovely early morning drive to LA, we have one last night in the USA. Which we will spend watching Muse, Rise Against, and Rage Against the Machine (plus some others), then for the sad and longer flight back to Australia.

And that's it. Still have to pack. This afternoon is probably going to drag on, but o well.

The next time I write here, if I bother to continue doing this, I will be in the USA, just saying :).

Peace.

A while to go....

pleasurespikedwithpain — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:32:00 GMT

Dear Internet,

I am writing this on suggestion of my Aunt, who suggested I blog my travels. Good idea, they must run in the family. This is the first blog I have ever written so it's probably going to be dodgy but hey, at least I'll be remembering my time.

So I guess this is where I discuss what I'm doing and where I'm going. I am going to the USA. Nowhere exotic, or fancy or unique. Just the plain old USA. But it shall be amazing. Two friends of mine and I, are hiring a campervan and driving in a rather large circle around the country, starting and finishing in LA. We shall be doing this for 2 months. Everything is booked and paid for, and it's just the waiting game, which is the worst part. But, it also gives us time to plan, coz though we pretty much know where we want to go, we haven't really planned out much of a time/driving plan. Even though we don't want to completely plan everything, nothing like spontaneous exploration of a different country, but we do need some sort of plan. Oh, I guess I better mention when we are leaving as well, not until June 2011, so less than 200 days away!! (Yes I am counting!)

So that's pretty much it so far, not that I expect anyone to read this, only those who I'm silly enough to tell this blog about. If by some chance someone comes along who has been to the USA before, feel free to list as many tips/suggestions/warnings/whatever on places to see and things to do. They will be appreciated.

Until next time. :)