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Published: December 6th 2011
Natchez Trace Parkway
we pretty much had the road to ourselves!We had a series of plane tickets and a strict deadline. We were deep in the USA, armed with a government database, a series of maps with targetted towns circled, we had in our hands a highly explosive device, and were travelling with a high-tech accomplice known only as Jill... How had things gotten to this? The answer, like always in our travels, was with extremely little planning, a touch of adventure and a backpack full of luck!
But first a quick re-cap. Jen had met me in Edmonton. We had driven down through the Rocky Mountains in our propane-powered van (the highly explosive 'Lola'😉, sleeping in campgrounds, city streets and Wal-mart parking lots along the way. We had seen the desert in Utah, the Alamo in Texas, and jived the night away in New Orleans.
Upon leaving New Orleans we followed the directions of our trusty GPS voice, Jill, up along an extremely well maintained back road. We were at the point of wondering why there were no other vehicles up here, and stating 'my, they really look after the roads round here?' when we pulled up at a highly secure government compound which Jill was telling us
Pharr Mounds, Mississippi
in those mounds (not the hay bales) are collections of fire pits, ceremonial artifacts and even human remains, from a civilisation here around 0-200AD! to drive straight through. We thought it best to ask the man at the gate if this was a good idea, rather than driving down the many security devices and beginning a high-speed chase. Apparently we weren't allowed in as we did not have high-level military or NASA clearance - sheesh - some people are so picky!
So we retraced some steps - cursing Jill all the way - back to an Interstate, which took us onwards and upwards, into the grand state of Mississippi. We nicknamed this the Propane State, for all the propane dealers we passed along the country roads. If only we had more time we would have stuck around for this reason alone! We hit the sleepy Natchez Trace Parkway, a fine drive maintained by the National Park Service which was first a walking route for a number of Indian tribes (including the Natchez), and later a track for 'Kaintucks' - agriculturalists from the Ohio River valley who would float their product downstream, dismantle their boats to sell for lumber, then hike back home along the Trace. We camped at Tishomingo State Park, where one of the locals, upon spotting the guitar which I had
Jen v Goose, part one
Goose leaves the water; Jen gets nervous out, hollered in a very local accent, 'y'all gonna be a pickin' on that there guitfiddle!? I play me the ukulele. Perhaps I'll come on down later and join y'all.' Unfortunately he didn't. But then again, we may have just confused the details in translation.
The next day we drove through the northwest corner of Alabama, and on into Nashville, Tennessee. As soon as we found a parking spot for the night, we raced on down to Broadway, got some extra tasty barbeque for dinner, served by the grumpiest cook you'll ever meet - "NEXT. WHAT YOU WANT? I SAID WHAT YOU WANT? NEXT.." Although it was midweek Nashville still had plenty of options for live music. In fact it was all too difficult to decide which bar to go into, so we went wandering and found a well-known record store where there was a bluegrass showcase going down. This was awesome, but bluegrass sure makes one thirsty so we finally headed in to Robert's Western World where we found a nice old Americana bar, with a great country swing band on stage. Next up there was a fantastic rockabilly band who had the crowd dancing like it was
Jen v Goose, part two
Jen takes the upper hand and scares the hungry goose away from our dinner table a Saturday night. When they finished several hours later we stumbled up to what is supposedly Nashville's most famous country music bar but as soon as the very average band broke in to an Oasis cover (Oasis, in Nashville, really???) we were out of there and off to bed. The next day was all museums, diners and pizza. Then back on the road, south through Chattanooga and on to Atlanta, Georgia.
The reason we were in Atlanta was to visit my good mate from school, Michael (aka Clemo), his lovely wife Susan and their brand new (11 months is brand new right?) bub Addison! Actually, it was an invitation to Michael and Susan's wedding back in 2008 that sparked the idea for a road trip across the US, which would then lead in to our round-the-world travels. Unfortunately we didn't make it over for the wedding, so instead we did everything in reverse. Better late than never, right!? We spent the next four or so days hanging out with the gang, playing with Addison (now there is a seriously good natured child!), eating lamb at a Greek festival and celebrating Clemo's birthday, complete with genuine meat pies and not
so genuine sausage rolls (sorry Susan!). The bits of Atlanta that we saw were really nice - everywhere seemed leafy and green, Clemo spotted some Midnight Oil cassettes for us in a cool little record store in Little Five Points, and importantly there was no shortage of propane outlets. Good times. Hopefully it isn't so long until we see those guys again!
But now the rush was on. We had come a long, long way heading mostly south, but now we were heading back up to Canada, this time along the famous Appalachian mountain range. Stone Mountain, just outside of Atlanta gave us good practice at climbing up long, steep hills. We stopped for a night in Athens, Georgia, a small university town known for its musical exports (their favourite sons, REM, had just announced their break-up a week before we arrived). Athens is a gorgeous town, with fantastic architecture. Just don't go there on a Sunday night. The place was dead!
In northern Atlanta we crossed over the Smoky Mountain range, getting fantastic views on a beautifully clear day. Some short walks through the woods rewarded us with some amazing massive trees, still bright green in foliage,
and in one of them a snoozing black bear! The Blue Ridge Parkway (another two lane road maintained by the National Park Service) took us up and down, winding all the way through North Carolina and into Virginia, with us stopping at semi-regular intervals to check out the amazing views, and where possible, go for short strolls through the woods. The campsites were all quiet at this time of year, which meant we were all alone one morning when Jen decided to back Lola off the road and into the ditch of another camping spot. We tried and tried to get her free, but to no avail. We tracked down a ranger, who himself, was in no rush to help us. Thankfully he had a friendly contractor with him this day, named Larry, who was more than happy to rise to the challenge. Larry pulled his truck (ute) up in front of Lola, pulled out the most torn and raggedy recovery straps I've ever seen, and we rigged up Lola, and 1-2-3 out she comes. Thanks Larry, you saved the day! I happily teased Jen about her mistake, until the next day when I backed Lola into a power pole
Nashville, Tennessee!
an old-timer bluegrass band play for a record store full of listeners whilst trying to pull in to a propane tank - that could have gone badly! Poor Lola... Speaking of which, it's time for a dramatic interlude.
FINDING PROPANE IN THE STATES - A DRAMA! Armed with a database and subsequently a road directory in which we circled any town within 500 miles of our trajectory which had a reported propane dealer, we carried on our way from town to town. The voice on our GPS, Jill, would take us down country roads and back streets, whilst Jen and I would share looks of doubt, across railroad crossings, and we would call out in unison, ‘WHERE THE HELL IS SHE TAKING US?’ With the fuel gauge showing empty, just as it had for the previous 200km, invariably one of us would be at breaking point, when Jill would smugly state, ‘arriving at your destination.’ And sure enough, we’d look up and see a propane dealer, and wonder to ourselves, ‘what on earth are they doing out here?’
It turns out you can fill up propane tanks at all sorts of places. Obviously there are propane wholesalers (who generally sell straight to households and factories for heating), hardware stores,
Nashville, Tennessee!
Harry Fontana's Rockabilly Trio play the night away at the famous Robert's Western World U-Haul truck rental stores, even the occasional RV park. The one place where you most certainly will not be able to fill up with propane in the US is a gas (service) station! Now each of the above places makes their money by selling propane directly to households in rural areas, or by filling up bbq (‘grille’) tanks or for the kitchen and heating systems on more upmarket RVs. In this context, our experience in filling up at any given place would go a little something like this:
Act 1 - In the office Jen (to receptionist): Hi, I’m just wondering if you’re able to fill up our van with propane?
Receptionist: erh, what type of vee-HE-cle is it?
Jen (pointing to Lola): that one, it runs on propane
Receptionist: RUNS on propane??? Oh, ah, one minute… HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK’
Act 2 – outside, by the propane tank Hank: So this vee-hi-cle RUNS on propane, you say?
Jeff: yep, no unleaded for us, just propane
Hank: wow! well this is a first..
(Hank fiddles with the connections, looks sternly and states): I’m not sure if this is going to work.
Jeff: yeah its always a little fiddly,
Nashville, Tennessee!
a welcome afternoon rest in an old-school diner but it should work (thinks, pleeeease let it work!)
(tank noisily fills up over a 5-10 minute period)
Hank: so what mileage do you get with that?
(Jeff spends 5 minutes trying to convert litres and gallons and miles and kilometres).
Hank: and you came all the way down from Canada in this?
Jeff or Jen: sure did, but we’re actually from Australia.
Hank (amazed, confused): is that right!?
(Over the next 10 minutes conversations about local happenings, the weather, kangaroos, etc, ensue)
Act 3 back in the office (Tanks are filled, and Jeff pays Hank anywhere from $1.90 to $4.00 a gallon for his troubles…This then sets Jeff's mood for the rest of the day)
Jeff and Jen: thank you very much, it was lovely to meet you..
Hank: No thank YOU! Now you two have a great time here in America! Oh, hey, one more thing… How the heck did you find this place!?!?
(All cast go on their way, much happier and richer for the experience).
THE END, for another 600km at least. Or 372.8 miles if you prefer.
The Blue Ridge Parkway took us north into Shenandoah National Park
and the Skyline Drive, where the leaves were starting to show a bit more yellow and orange. From here we went east to the nation's capital, Washington D.C. In Washington we were lucky enough to stay with the oh-so-lovely Miriam, a Spanish chica who we had met a couple of years previously in Belize! Miriam also had a friend, Auri, staying with her, meaning we had a small gang together to check out some greats bars in Miriam's bustling neighbourhood. By day we checked out the sights, from the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, down the mall to Congress and the White House. We took a stroll through the setting up of Occupy D.C., and then off to the free museums, spending the most of our time in the National Museum of American History. A feature on the civil rights movement was particularly moving, whilst seeing some of the original Muppet muppets was a laugh!
And now we were seriously out of time. We had just a handful of days to get back to Toronto, say hello and goodbye to friends there, sell Lola, and jump on a plane. And so from D.C. we drove onwards and upwards through Maryland and
Marshmellow time
Susan and Jen show us how its done Pennsylvania in a day, and into New York State. Thankfully we had done New York City as a separate trip earlier in the year, so we didn't feel bad about missing it this time around. Our last stop in the US was Adirondack State Park, a spectacular drive through lake country under canopies of bright burning orange and red maple leaves. Unfortunately for us it was the Columbus Day weekend and the roads were packed at the southern section of the park! We pushed on to the north and had it just about to ourselves, all the way amazed by the phenomenal show of colours in the trees around us. Having come from the south of the US to the north in around a week we had gone fast-forward through the changing colours of the deciduous trees, and nowhere were the colours more magnificent than here in the north of New York. We camped our last night on the banks of a beautiful lake, over which we watched a great sunset (our eyes just about overloading on the darker hues by now!) and enjoyed our last dehydrated meal of the trip. It was all a bit sad that the trip
Leaving Atlanta
Even Gerry (normally the stong one) was a tad emotional... was coming to an end, but we still had plenty of exciting things ahead of us.
The next morning Lola - who had been very good to us every morning until now - started up with an extra rattle in the engine. 'Oh dear, she knows' we thought. Good ol' temperamental Lola. We pushed up around Lake Ontario to the Canadian border, the engine warning light flashing all the way. Back across the border we hit more traffic - it was Thanksgiving weekend in Canada... Many hours later we pulled in to Toronto, just about out of propane (that was another drama of the day), but thankfully into the happy home of our friend Joey. This time a year previous we had couchsurfed for the very first time at Joey's place. And here we were, coming full circle at the end of our North American adventure. We enjoyed some duty free booze that night, then over the next day or two I frantically tried to sell Lola. She will now be seeing out her days taking a fellow CouchSurfer's family on their Summer holidays! Our last night in Canada was spent in fitting fashion, going out with a bunch
Stone Mountain
the Confederate version of Mt Rushmore - three Confederate leaders of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson of our best Toronto friends to catch yet another amazing Canuck band in The Barr Brothers - wow!
On a plane bright and early, not back to Sydney just yet, but instead stopping in San Francisco for a few days. We stayed in a dingy little hotel, which reminded us a lot like our first hotel stop in Mumbai, India (full circle again?), Jen spent much of the day doing university assignments whilst I walked up and down and up and down those steep streets. We couldn't help but feel that San Francisco, with its warmer temperatures, the Pacific Ocean, and the faint smell of planted Eucalypts was pleasantly preparing us for the next chapter. But first we had to get two guitars, two large backpacks, two smaller backpacks, a laptop bag, and a handbag to the airport. Just to challenge our travelling skills after all this time, we decided to do it by public transport! And yep, we've still got it!
So, does that mean we're at the end of the travels? Is that it for the Jen n Jeff's world famous travel blog? Well, once you begin travelling, you never really stop! Sure, we may lay
low for a little while, and perhaps we'll focus on places a little closer to home, but no matter where we are we'll still be travelling travellers. And now, what will you do, dear readers, now that your favourite duo of intrepid travellers are resting the blog? Whose adventures will you follow? At whose misfortunes will you laugh? Well, no need to worry about that just yet - like any bad TV series at the end of its run, we'll be back in a week or two to wrap it all up with a lazily compiled best bits and greatest hits episode! Perhaps a Christmas special?
See you then
J & J
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