I have been travelling now for somewhere in the region of five to six weeks, and am only now realising my long-formulated plans of blog-writing. Better late than never, I suppose. So, I guess that I should begin with a brief introduction about my trip for the legions of fans that I'm sure this blog will captivate. Where to start? In brief, I am travelling through the Americas - having begun in New York and San Francisco - and now working my way to Miami, from whence I'll be flying to Mexico, busing through Central America, and eventually flying to [View Full Entry]

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We drove up to ShelbyvilleTn from North Carolina hoping for better weather during our last three days and fortunately found it! Got to our B&B and found out that George Dickle distillery is closed on Sunday and Monday so if we wanted to visit we would have to make a mad dash for the last tour at 3:30 PM. Its in the town of Normandy so we "stormed" over with 15 minutes to spare. It a small batch distillery which we have come to find out have all been bought up by the these large conglomerates such as Diageo who owns [View Full Entry]

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN: 2009 GREAT WESTERN ADVENTURE WEEK NINE: NORTHBROOK, IL TO SARASOTA, FL : THE LAST LEG Tuesday, July 21 There were fond farewells to Ellie and Lou as we took off mid morning for the table top flat land around the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. I had a delightful reunion when Dena, Mandy’s nursery school teacher, met us near I-74 to give us a tour of the campus. The Illini Union was as beautiful as ever but I stopped at the university building most memorable to me, the Krannert Center for Performing Arts where, under the [View Full Entry]

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How do you describe Nashville in one word? Country! As I arrive (via Greyhound - what else?) and start walking towards the hostel I realize it is just waaaay to hot. Hence I go to the Country Music Hall of Fame where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about Country music - and more. Getting to the hostel is not as easy as I had hoped though, as it is a good half hour walk from downtown an the bus not so easy to locate. Once more the staff advise to go out in pairs or more at [View Full Entry]

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Hello again. On Sunday we got up early and headed into Pennsylvania to meet up with Trish and the kids as they stayed the night in a lodge up in the mountains called Great Wolf Lodge. Tommy stayed home as he hurt his back.We got there about 10am. What an Amazing place,Its a 3 stories high Hotel that has a forest theme.Like fake racoons in the rafters and scuptures of wolves all around the place. Then we went into the indoor water park that is joined onto it. Tori and I teamed up and went on every ride we could. Josh [View Full Entry]

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This morning momma and I sat outside of our hotel that looked over the Smokey Mountains while we ate our poor massacred waffles that the waffle maker decided to withhold mercy from. they were pitiful...After that we gave Gabe his first shower! he LOVED it. When i was dressing him he rolled over all by himself!! I'm pretty positive a three week old isn't supposed to be able to do that, but more power to the lump! We Left Asheville NC at around 10:30 and got to Nashville TN at about 4 o'clock. We would have gone farther but Gabe [View Full Entry]

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Mit einem kleinen (wirklich klitzekleinen) Hangover sind wir erst einmal an unser Fruehstuecksbuffet und haben uns dort das ueblich amerikanische Fruehstueck einverleibt. Nachdem wir das zu Wasser geschmolzene Eis aus unserer Coolerbox abgelassen und es mit Hoteleis aufgefuellt hatten, sind wir um 9:20 am los. Ich weiss nicht warum, aber diese Eisspender in amerikanischen Hotels uebten schon immer eine magische Anziehungskraft auf mich aus. Hat sich nichts geandert und ich voluntiere, wenn es um das Eis holen geht. Antje laesst mich das erste Mal ans Steuer. Dachte schon sie will b [View Full Entry]

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Day three was a radically awesome day! We drove more than we planned to. (Whoops!) Today, there was more heavy rain, so heavy we had to pull over twice! I compared today's weather to Water Country, the theme park. :) Today, we had our first Mexican food at Casa Fiesta. My burrito and taco had cheese sauce on them which I mixed in with my beans. There was also great rice and lettuce. Boy, was the food spicy, but in a good way. The taco was perfectly crunchy. Mother says that her frozen veggies with cheese sauce weren't so great. Tomorrow [View Full Entry]

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July 10, Friday Easy wake up and pack up from the worst tent site we've had so far. The "tenting area" which is the cheap seats, was sloped, rutted and full of sticks of all sizes. All it needed was a couple of 40 year old single wides and a school bus with no wheels. Recommendation: If you camp in Old Davidsonville State Park AR, pay the extra bucks for the high falutin' site. We rode into Jonesboro, grabbed a coffee, then (eventually) found John and Maria Flora's home. He had generously offered the use of his garage to change out [View Full Entry]

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I first met Davey Crocket when, as a young English kid living in Singapore I was taken to see Fess Parker in Davy Crockett and the River Pirates. I was hooked, I got my first "coonskin" hat that Christmas. Imagine my delight when our American friends Dante and Barb moved to Tennessee after a hurricane destroyed their town, Punta Gorda, in Florida. Day 1 We flew Continental from Heathrow to Newark, a pleasant flight but not a pleasant welcome so let’s not spoil this journal and skip our arrival at Newark Airport. We stayed the night at a Howard Johnson Hotel, [View Full Entry]

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