Leaving Atlanta, we drove through South Carolina where we were amazed by the fall colors and into North Carolina. We stayed in the small(ish) Appalachian town of Asheville on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. As it was tour leader Fitz's birthday, we spent most of the night in a Irish pub called "Jack of the Wood", enjoying a live bluegrass jam (lots of banjos, mandolins and guitars) and decent real ales. [View Full Entry]

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We drove for most of the day today. First, we went back down into Mississippi and drove through Tupelo (the humble birthplace of Elvis). Next, we crossed into Alabama where we stopped for ribs at "Dreamland" near Tuscaloosa and then travelled on through Birmingham. Finally, we crossed into Georgia where we put our watches forward to join Eastern Time and arrived late in Atlanta. Everyone was tired so we agreed to put our explorations off until the next morning... On Thursday morning, we went for a tour of the CNN headquarters buildi [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday morning, we drove through the whole of Mississippi on I-55, passing through Jackson and on to Memphis in Tennessee. We ate at Corky's BBQ and then hit the town for some blues/soul music on Beale St. Today, we visted Graceland - a totally worthwhile experience and very well presented even if the decor was a bit 70s! Afterwards, Emma and I went off on our own and took a tour of the Gibson guitar factory - well cool - and I got to play a 6000 dollar axe. After some food at the Hard Rock Cafe we went for a [View Full Entry]

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN! On Saturday morning we set off at 7am for the long drive via Houston to Baton Rouge in Louisiana. This part of the trip was a bonus. We were supposed to go to New Orleans but instead Fitz arranged for us to camp at his dad's place for two nights just outside Baton Rouge. On Saturday night, Fitz took us to the 'homecoming' football game at his old college, Louisana State University and we had a fine time "tailgating" (eating Jamabalaya and drinking beer from the back of a pick-up before the game), buying t-shirts, hats and pom-poms, [View Full Entry]

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We drove all day today (7+ hrs, 400+ milles) to San Antonio, visited the Alamo, walked the river walk, drank Margaritas in a crazy bar called "Ibiza" (there's a San Antonio joke going on there!) and bought an oversized sombrero for David the Mexican (one the the guys on the tour who is neither Mexican nor called David). We spent the night in log cabins just outside town, after eating Veggie Chili for dinner. [View Full Entry]

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We crossed into Texas and spent the morning exploring the old historic area of El Paso, before driving on through places such as Valentine and Mafra in order to arrive late and set up camp in the awesome Big Bend National Park. Here we had to deal with black bears (all food and toiletries had to be locked in the van or in the large bear boxes provided), ate curry and had one of our spoons stolen by a skunk! The next morning we were up early and hiked up Emory Peak (7832ft) before driving to a lookout point on the [View Full Entry]

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After leaving the cowboy camp we continued south, through Phoenix and Tucson to the famous town of Tombstone where we explored the gunslinger related history of the town. Afterwards, we a had a long evening drive (240 miles) into New Mexico where we set up camp and ate Fitz's Jambalaya (a taste of things to come). [View Full Entry]

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This morning we drove up to Muley Point in Utah before returning to Arizona to visit the site where Forrest Gump stops running. We stopped just outside Flagstaff in order to buy Hallowe'en costumes and visited another ancient site (the misnamed "Montezuma's Castle") of the Sinagua people. That night we set up camp at a real cowboy camp run by the real cowboys Rusty and Betty (and I mean REAL). As it was Hallowe'en we all dressed up, had a big party night and Tim entertained everyone on Rusty's guitar until the small hours of the morning. The next morning we [View Full Entry]

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On Sunday morning, we were off in time to visit an ancient Anaszi/Hisatsinom (descendants of a people whose history dates back to 6000BC and whose ancestors are claimed to be the Hopi and Zumi Indians) site on Navajo lands. Batatkin village is an example of a medieval village (inhabited around 1250AD) built into alcoves in the rock of a canyon's walls. Later in the day, we arrived in Monument Valley in time to meet our Navajo host, Harley, who took us on a 'jeep' tour (a cage on the back of a pick-up truck) and showed us loads of famous film [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Las Vegas we drove into Arizona for our first views of the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the "Squire Inn" in Tusayan, just outside the national park. On the first night, after dinner, we made group t-shirts and availed ourselves of the hot tub in the hotel spa. The next morning, we were up and out at 5am in order to climb down into the canyon for sunrise. We spent the day hiking the 8-mile route accessible to the shuttle buses, along the south rim, while some of the more mental members of the group actually hiked down deeper [View Full Entry]

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