In the morning we woke up to get breakfast from the hotel, which was pretty average. They had an okay selection but none of it was stunning. I grabbed a couple of packs of the grits that they had there so that I could take them home and show them to people who have never seen them before. After we had eaten we grabbed things from our room and headed out to Jeff’s dad’s place which was in a beautiful part of the country. We spent a few minutes talking but had to head out pretty quickly to get to New Orleans and meet up with Dater’s brother Andy. The drive south was a lot of fun, the scenery was beautiful, even from the road. We listened to the Sister Act soundtrack amongst other things with ... read more

We had to leave the house pretty early my first day in Little Rock to go and see Daters’ grandparents. We packed up all of the family Christmas presents and set off for Hot Springs. We stopped at a small gas station where I grabbed a drink and some lovely homemade cookies. We went the back route to their house which was great because I got to see more of the countryside of Arkansas, it was pretty obvious why it is called the Natural State. We got to see some of the marshes and forests between Little Rock and Hot Springs. Daters’ grandparents live in a retirement village near Hot Springs. For the British amongst you, a retirement village is like nothing we have in the UK. It was giant, for the Midlanders of you, it ... read more

The next morning was spent hurriedly trying to get all of my things packed and then heading into the airport. I was in the new terminal, which is apparently, very exciting. I got there very early and had to unfortunately pay to check my suitcase, something I didn’t know beforehand. I got all of that sorted and had my boarding card printed and ready with a long time to go so sat and waited to say goodbye, which we did with a decent amount of time to spare. I went through the expert traveller security gate which is supposed to be for people who travel every few weeks, but I reckoned that I had been travelling long enough that I counted as an expert anyway. Which it turns out I was but I also couldn’t see ... read more

On the Sunday morning I got up and had some breakfast with Tony and Gail before finishing off all of the rest of my packing and deciding what I should leave behind. I hadn’t filled the box that I was going to send back home so I am going to send Gail some more things that I pick up along the way to send home. It was the first day of bad weather that I had seen while I was there which was a shame because I couldn’t take pictures of their back-yard which is completely beautiful. We all got into the car and they dropped me off at the edge of the Metro so I only had to change to the red line when I got to the centre. It was brilliant fun staying with ... read more

The last morning that I spent in Philadelphia was more sightseeing. I had a couple of errands to run and then decided to stop and get some breakfast at a café called Mrs K’s. Apparently it is quite well known to locals, according to the woman I asked for a recommendation. The food was pretty much, but as ever it was far too much for me to manage. To try and work some of the breakfast off I walked up to Betsy Ross’ house which is in a lovely area by lots of great shops including several clothing boutiques and a lovely gourmet food shop. When I reached the house/museum I was overawed by the bunting and flags and Americana all over the place. To be expected - especially the flags - but it comes as ... read more