Georgia's on My Mind

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Georgia's on My Mind

Sup peeps!! Welcome once again to the magic adventures of Tristan, Brad and Chris! Last time you dropped in we were in Austin, Texas, about to head to the Big Easy, N'orleans, or for those whose family trees have branches, New Orleans. Bidding farewell to our very generous hosts Baylin 'n' Beano, we hit the open road yet again. Having been told various ETA's ranging from 6 to 9 hours, yours truly behind the wheel decided time was not going to be a factor and mashed the pedal to the floor. It was all smooth sailing until about 2 hours, when we attracted the attention of the local constabulary. After removing the soil from our trousers, we faced up to Johnny Law.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?" Says he.
"Ummm, not really," says we.

Essentially, we got nicked for doing 80 in a 70, which only warranted a written warning and no financial penalty. Fortunately for us, the (admittedly very courteous, nice) cop had missed me (going with the flow, mother!!) doing 95 a few miles back on an agreeably slightly downhill stretch. Easing of the pedal for a short time was the order of the day, until we were safely out of Texas and into Louisiana. In the end, after setting out at around 3pm, we lobbed into N'orleans at around 12, which considering all the stops, and enforced passiveness behind the wheel, was probably not a bad effort!

After getting settled in our hotel room, we discovered it was about 2am and, having heard that New Orleans was like Vegas in that it never shuts, we decided to go exploring. I should probably add here that Lonely Planet STRONGLY recommends walking through the town at night, and I must say I agree, it is fuck-off ghetto. But, we being the intimidating blokes we are, avoided any mischief and arrived at New Orleans' party central: the famous Bourbon Street. It wasn't exactly going off, but for a Tuesday night, it was like Adelaide on New Years. We found a top spot called "Bourbon Street Blues Company" and settled in at the bar with a few 2 for 1 beers. I absolutely HAVE to mention the abundance of Ghetto Booty on display, for it was simply breathtaking. Ghetto Booty, for those unfortunate souls not in the know, is basically a big bum, in tight trousers, being thrown around with reckless abandon. It was fantastic!! If you've ever seen any rap video, anywhere, you'll know what I'm talking about. The night was tops, we were hanging with a bunch of English lads doing essentially the same thing as us, top blokes. We stayed at this club for most of the night, the 2 for 1's and the Ghetto Booty being too attractive to pass up easily. We saw some crazy shit, ranging from a young kid, no more than 15, strolling around with a video camera asking the young ladies to show him the goods, to the same kid pimping his older sister out for taxi-ride home. It was unreal. Brad gave the poor young lady 20 bucks, but I still maintain he was had. New Orleans was full of scammers like this little bastard! We declared the innings closed at around 5:30.

We awoke late (as ever) and, given the noises coming from the brakes on the steed, decided to go and get them fixed. Expecting to have to fork over $300+ was not filling us with joy, as we left the brake shop after being told to expect a call the next day. We headed out for a nice meal, being of the "when in Rome" school, i decided to opt for the Shrimp & Chicken Gumbo to start followed by the Shrimp Creole as my main, and i was certainly not disappointed. Those southerners certainly know how to cook! A brisk stroll down Bourbon in daylight worked off our meal, and after a shower and change, we were rearing to go once again. Lonely Planet said that a side-street, Decatur, was the place to be. But after walking its length without finding a single bar, we decided the safe option would be Bourbon, and we were dead right. This wednesday night was CRANKING, 3 for 1 drinks were abundant and a HUGE night was on the cards. After starting things off at "Utopia," we ran into the English lads again, and eventually ended up back at the bar from the previous evening, "Bourbon Street Blues Company." As predicted, the booze was flowing, the ghetto booty was in fine form once more and the night turned out bloody well. This innings was declared shut (for me) at around 7:30, after me and a couple of the English punters having breakfast at a 24 hour diner swapping war-stories from the evening before and me heaping shite on them for losing the first test.

The 28th dawned bright as I strolled back to the hotel, and I was glad to get some sleep. Check-out was at 11, so my reverie was cut short as we had to pack-up and hit the frog once again. We picked up the steed, and were all gratified to see that the damage was only a hundred bucks. The horrible groaning sound a thing of the past, we set out for Orlando, Florida, home to a bunch of old Jewish people and a piss-pot of Theme-Parks, including the Grand Master of them all: Disneyworld. The drive was certainly longer than it looked on the map, especially after we confidently predicted a duration of no longer than 5 hours. Predictably, 9 hours later we arrived in Orlando, more than a little tired and after making some minor preperations for Disney World the next day, promptly fell asleep.

The 29th saw us awake early (for a change) as we prepared for a big day at the Magic Kingdom, basically the part of Disney World that is ALMOST a dead ringer for Disneyland out in California. More on this later. After getting lost for a while, we eventually found ourselves parking the car about a mile from the entrance, dreading the long walk sure to follow. Big Walt, on the other hand, had other ideas, as we were promptly collected by a tram and whisked to (what we THOUGHT was) the entrance. After relieving ourselves of $60US a piece, we entered the park.....or apparently not! Seems Walt had thrown a big fuck-off lake between purchasing tickets and entering the park proper, so after a 10 minute bloody boat ride, we FINALLY entered the Magic Kingdom. I'll spare you a rundown of the entire day, it was fun, but definitely not as magical as when I was 9 years old. Space Mountain was still bad-ass, but there being no Matterhorn Mountain sucked (Apparently the plan with Disney-World was to take the cool rides from -land and split them up, making suckahs pay 60 bucks a pop to see all 7 or 8 areas of the whole place) as that was my fave ride from '93. At about 8pm it started pissing down rain, and after waiting hopefully for it to clear up in order to see the Main Street Parade, it was cancelled and we were on our way. We dined at the world's biggest McDonalds (it wasn't that big, i reckon they were tripping) and it was back to the Motel, a little damp, for some R&R.

------NOTE: I"ve run out of time at this here netcafe, so I'll leave it here for a little while, I'll update with our adventures in Miami and Atlanta, with photos to match, a little later. Take care ya'll!!

Love,

-Tris

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Comments

[John K]

Hey bro!!!
Aussie!!! The whole trip sounds great. Too bad I wasn't able to hook it up with ya while you were in Page, AZ! I would've gladly bought ya a couple of drinks. All is well and continue to have a great time!