Historic drive through Pennsylvania

Gettysburg is name most of you must have heard of. It is the location of Lincoln's famous address and a few months' prior to that, 'The Battle of Gettysburg'. This battle happens to be one of the major defining moments in the history of America and was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and is frequently cited as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North. Over fifty thousand men lost their lives in that battle which prompted the before mentioned famous Gettysburg Address. The monuments and statues erected on the battlefields as well as gravestones standing where the men lay all those years ago, are constant reminder of those times and make you realize you are somewhere really special.

I love my history, especially battle history, with the Anglo-Boer wars being some of the most remarkable in South African and British history. On occasion when we drive by these sites in South Africa, my family and I always stop and go through the motions to see what happened on those days that made our country what it is today. Celia thinks I'm a loser, but it makes me appreciate places like this in other countries where the same battles were fought over the same issues thousands of miles away.

We never planned on staying the night there as there were more unique American lives to see not too far away. I'm now talking about the Amish. These folk stay amongst themselves in the farmlands shunning technological advancements of today's world still bizarrely driving around in their horse drawn carriages (with tail lights) sporting their top hats and matching black waistcoats.

That night we found a great little motel to stay in as the only camping area we found was almost the same price… talk about racketeering. Starved, we tried to go get a bite of some local Amish delicacies to find that all the restaurants shut at 8pm and we were about 15 minutes too late. It was probably the worst thing that could have happened as on our last pass we found a trucker's diner, proper movie style I'm telling you. We devoured this deep fried chicken that Colonel Sanders himself might have turned his nose up at, and I drank the thickest milkshake known to man, opting for the spoon once the straw provided a little inadequate. My cheeks collapsing inwards with the sucking power I was exerting, providing Celia with some light entertainment and highlighting the straw's only possible use.

Walking around in their villages, buying goods from them, they do freak me out a little, I think it is because they choose to live such a separate life, not associating themselves with the world, not even knowing much about current affairs.

We never took any pictures of them as the guidebooks say that to them it's bad luck, or something to that effect.

We stopped off at one of the towns they stay called 'Intercourse', in Pennsylvania. Quite ironic as they are so reserved. It seems like these people are from the 'Men in Black' movies, remember that scene in the second installment where they were in the post office where they sent all the aliens and retired 'space officers'. The Amish could definitely be them.

One thing we learnt while we were there is that the reason they are called the 'Pennsylvania Dutch' is because when they first arrived in America (from space), they said to all the locals they were Deutsch, meaning German, the clever Americans mistaking that for Dutch so hence the misconception.

Next stop - capital city

Once we had made our way out of Richmond, it was a short (by American standards) drive to Washington which goes beyond all my expectations. It is a really cool city with a really 'livable' atmosphere and plenty to do.

We started off at Arlington cemetery where (don't quote me on this) all the national servicemen get buried. You must have seen the picture before, fields and fields of identical gravestones signaling all the brave men who have given their life for this country. Many other great people have been buried there including John F Kennedy and his brother Robert. These are definitely the more popular sites to visit here and are immensely difficult to photograph for all the Chinese tourists practicing their version of patience (pushing in).

It is definitely worth a stroll around here and a few hours will suffice to really take in how significant a place this is to the country.

From there it's straight over the memorial bridge and before you stands the famous World War 2 memorial and behind it in the distance, Capitol Hill. Do not ask me why it is spelled 'Capitol' and not 'Capital'.

We had a bit of time to relax that afternoon and went for lunch at 'Fudd Ruckers' at the recommendation of Chris, Odilette's son, who swears by it. It's this gourmet burger place where you select the size of the pattie you want and then you add all the garnish and extras at the salad bar yourself. I have Definite hunger pains right now just thinking about it.

That evening we found a campsite a few miles from DC town center, far enough to be isolated and quiet enough for the deer to wander round the park. We saw the most peculiar thing in DC in that they have so many institutions names after Chevy Chase, or he was named after them…? They have Chevy Chase bank, streets, you name it. I also think I finally figured out what the 'DC' in 'Washington, DC' stands for, 'District of Colombia' I believe. So there's a little fact to brighten up your day.

We went back into town after the entire tent putting up was done and found a nice convenient place to park. First stop, the White House. It is pretty impressive, but I still say that Buckingham Palace has one up on it, then again a hundred times better than 10 Downing St. We spent a couple hours taking some great night photos of the Washington landmarks before we headed back to the car and the comfort of our tent. What we would have done without our inflatable mattress I don't know.

After a good night's sleep we cleared up our site and headed for town with many things in mind to accomplish. We headed straight for the Aeronautical museum which has aircrafts from the Wright Brothers' plane to the lunar modules for the Apollo missions. It was immensely impressive, but the cream on the crop was the mini exhibit they had on display there. It was all about American icons and its history, probable titled the same too.

Thomas Edison's light bulb; Alex. Graham Bell's telephone; R2D2 & C3P0 from Star Wars; Dorothy's slippers & the scarecrow; Abe Lincolns top hat; George Washington's battle regalia and musket; Mohammed Ali's gloves; Babe Ruth signed ball; Micky Mantle baseball car; Prince (or the artist formerly known as Prince) 's guitar; and heaps more that I could go on for hours about. It was very, very exciting and I have many photos.

Unfortunately this did not leave much time for us to see the National Art Gallery as our parking meter was rapidly counting down leaving us with a double quick step tour that went from the door straight to the Vermeer paintings. These are Celia's favorites as 'the way he captures the light' is apparently pretty impressive, it wasn't half bad.

That pretty much summed up our Washington stay with a drive through the Cherry Blossoms remaining we were well on our way to a place I am very excited to see.

Oh Carolinas

To say we did much during the rest of our stay in Atlanta would be stretching it. We did go watch the semi-finals of the college basketball season at this great bar with a selection of hundreds of beers. I did only get through about 10 of them, but then again, I had to drive..

We bid Debi farewell and headed off through the Carolinas where we hit the cold weather showing us how lucky we had been with the warmth up until then. By the time we got to Columbia we were freezing and could not wait to get all snug in our tent. Camping in winter should be a no-no. I wish we were back on the west coast. With the weather turning out the way it is and the possibility of it warming up second to none, we ditched all our plans to head to Virginia Beach (damn) and decided instead to go inland.

One thing which makes South Carolina famous today is their 2006 Miss teen USA contestand who could possibly be the dimmest person ever to appear on television. Have a look at this video clip on YouTube. Too funny, I really mean way beyond funny!! Wooohoooo waaahaaahaaaaaaa haaaahaaa!!!!!

The drive that day was pretty uneventful. With much countryside to see, we just sat tight in the chairs and pressed on for Richmond as this would give us a good opportunity to reach DC by morning and plenty time to go sightseeing around the capital. There was of course time to stop off at our one of our favorite places.. outlet malls. Result - nothing purchased, nothing lost.

Virginia was really the start of the east coast weather. It was chilling down to the bone and we would experience one of our coldest nights camping here so far. Morning heralded a very exciting day though, the town of Richmond is extremely beautiful. It overflows with history and has many great statues depicting generals or the battles they were in. To go with that, there are a few quirky coffee shops and bars to keep those, who do not enjoy the wonders of history, entertained.

HotLanta

With our time in Florida up, we had time for a last trip to the beach, albeit under heavy cloud, but we knew it would be our last opportunity for a while so we made the most of it.
Our drive to Atlanta was a bit of a shambles and the first time we had gotten lost on this entire trip. We ended up driving this ring road all the way around one town for an hour and then later on did a little hour’s back and forth drive which pleased me immensely. We did eventually get to Debi’s house and settled in for a good night’s rest because we had to get up at sparrows fart to fetch Omar at the airport.

What a day we had. Airport at 7AM and fetch Omar – check; breakfast at Johnny Rockets – check; afternoon at Georgia Aquarium; tour of CNN Center; Hawks against Sixers in the evening.

You know you are going to have fun when you spend a day with Omar, we just seem to trade BSing all day long. The aquarium was amazing; well I should hope so – being the biggest one in the world. There is so much to see, but we seem to hit a snag at the Beluga whale tank when we couldn’t remove Celia from the massive clear glass panel. I must admit it was pretty amazing to see these mammals so close up and the day just got better as we saw the whale sharks, leopard sharks, rays and various other types of marine fish big and small. I loved seeing all the reef fish again, reminding me of our diving experiences in Thailand.

We went from there to the CNN center, which is actually the headquarters for the US and A. It was pretty fascinating seeing where some of the worlds breaking news is broadcast from. They explained to us how they do the weather these days and how they did it in the past with the green screen.

Now that were we completely bushed, we still had to go pick up Debi before the game, unfortunately the sudden rain storm delayed the entire pick up and we missed the first quarter. The game was pretty amazing though and the Sixers scraped through away from home by a few points, everything gone to plan. We were fortunate enough to get some great seats a few rows back in the final quarter as many of the patrons had left once their team was behind.

We ended a crazy day off at the ‘Waffle House’ with some grits and stayed a couple hours with Omar at the airport as he was catching a 5:30AM flight home. What a great day!!

Destin(ation), Florida

We could have stayed a few more days in New Orleans, but with the prospect of a few days on the beach in Florida only a handful of hour’s drive away, we packed up and went in search of some sun.

What a decision that ended up being as the weather was perfect and beaches – unbelievable. We couldn’t wait to get our toes in that sand. Finding a campsite was another issue though, we underestimated what a year round holiday destination Florida is and when we eventually found somewhere to camp, it was dusk and not much time left to spend on the beach. We did see this amazing little beach where we had to stop and take some postcard worthy pictures. Turns out it was a military recreation area and we were very fortunate to be let in to take some pictures. Those ten minutes we spent there were idyllic and some of the most relaxing of our entire trip. The beach was absolutely deserted and the sand, soft and white. Celia and I had both never been on a beach like this before. It may not have been the most picturesque, but its raw simplicity with flour like sand and emerald green water made you realize you were definitely somewhere unique. It’s not for nothing that Destin has been voted in the top beaches of the country for more years running than many can remember.

That evening we finally decided to have our big night out at a seafood restaurant and got a great recommendation at a no nonsense joint not too far away. You immediately got the idea when you walked in and in the reception stood a sign that said “We don’t need no stinking view”. This was not a day for half measures and we boldly ordered the king sized seafood platter for two. I also got a bowl of shrimp gumbo and did my best Bubba impression for the camera. What followed was a good effort at trying to finish lobster, king crab, crawfish and prawns. At one point we had both decided we were no longer hungry and just eating for the hell of it so we filled a take-out box with the leftovers, and headed for the comfort of our tent.

After doing some essential shopping on the second morning plus a trip to Walmart to exchange our inflatable mattress for one that does not leak overnight, we went and relaxed on the beach. It was tough finding a spot to lay your towel as all the condo developments have rights to the beach in front of their building. We did find a sweet little spot on the state beach where we could soak up the rays and play with that unbelievably soft sand I was telling you about earlier. We both had a little dip in the ocean which was heaps warmer than the water in California, but it was short lived as this mammoth cloud rolled in over the sea. Not the end of the world as we headed for a bar on the marina. Celia tried her best to OD on oysters; I did chuckle as the 9th one almost came up.

Apart from the oysters, I can definitely see why people flock in their thousands to get to the beautiful coastline of Florida.

Thank you Odi for your ama-zing recommendation

New Orleans continued……

Finding a campsite in close proximity to a major city is always a tall order in the urban jungles of today, and New Orleans was a no different, but we did find one right on this bayou a little south of the city center . Following usual procedure, we found our allotted site and began to put up our tent. What followed was the single most aggressive attack on human life since the D-day bombings. These killers were taking every available opportunity to gore on our flesh and within minutes Celia and I were covered in red welts from head to toe which started a frantic search for our mosquito repellent which had not been used since the great New Zealand Sand Fly battle of February ’08.

As soon as the tent was up we got the hell out of there and fondly retold our battle stories and displayed our war wounds. Celia vividly and quite animated explaining how four mosquitoes in synchronized attack landed on her thigh; broke down all defenses and continued their brutal lust for life until she had lost so much blood she felt dizzy. Not even my 501’s could keep them at bay and they got me right through them forcing me to scratch uncontrollably during our drive to the chemist.

With all our repellants and creams now bought, we headed down to the famous Bourbon St. With its image and reputation spurning many nightclubs and bars throughout the modern world, some which I must admit have ashamedly frequented on countless occasions. I can’t lie about the fact I was disappointed at how Bourbon Street has turned out. I know it is the survival of the fittest (richest), but every third bar in this place is a strip club which really takes a lot away from its carnival atmosphere. I have been told that since Hurricane Katrina had its devastating effect on this town, many restaurants and bars were forced to shut with the sleazy alternatives popping up all over the place.

We did manage to find a great little seafood spot just off the main drag and settled in for some snacks, I don’t really recall what type of seafood we ate that night, but it was tasty and most notably, all deep fried.

We were in the mood for more exploring so headed out to find some night life and ended up at this great bar with some fantastic live jazz music playing. We sat back and sipped on some cold ones. Celia was in her element, and I must admit that I enjoyed it too.

On our way home that night as we were driving through the national park to our campsite we saw a whole bunch of armadillos along the road which are infinitely cuter when they are alive than as road kill. Sadly they are very shy creatures so we could never get close enough to get a picture.

Sod’s laws definitely in place that night, as when we got back to our tent, there were no mosquitoes to be found near the tent, so armed with our cans and sprays of repellent, we had nothing to fire at and sleep would not be a problem.

New Orleans

We were happy again as the drive became a journey and not just a means to get to the destination. Driving along the scenic motorways in Louisiana, you see all the swamps around which is again, something new for us and worth a few photos.

One thing we really had to watch out for and which I found hilarious was the amount of traffic cops along the roads here sitting in their cars monitoring their radars with their trunk open so you could not see that it was a cop car (as it covers all the police lights and signs). I suppose you can only get caught once and if you have more than one brain cell in your head you will realise, trunk open - Polizei!!