the mountain that you can see from everywhere

Pretty much everywhere in Washington State we travelled today we could see Mt Saint Helens. It is one massive, majestic piece of rock. It's a shame about the bit that fell off the top in 1980.

I took this photo standing in the middle of a roundabout in Yelm, WA. They call a roundabout a ROTARY here.

I took this photo from a vacant lot in Yelm. You can just see the tip of the mountain on the left. This home has a nice view of the mountain. It appeared that someone still lived there. It's often hard to tell the difference between lived-in and abandoned in a lot of rural communities here.

where there's smoke there's fire... usually

Saturday and Sunday we spent a lot of time driving through the Redwood covered mountains in California and Oregon. The views were shrouded by a heavy haze of smoke all around us. There were a number of fires burning in both States and firemen were coming from many other States to help fight them

Sunday morning, just after passing this sign:

we passed a long line of firetrucks going in the other direction. We hoped they were heading to fight a fire and not running from one otherwise we were in trouble.

But all was well. We continued to see and smell smoke for a few more hours but eventually drove out of it without any sign of any actual flames. A big relief.

Hobbits don't just live in kiwiland

We came across this shop and workshop just out of Kerby, Oregon. They design and manufacture unique products made from local timbers and burls. At first sight we thought it was an eyesore but on closer inspection the whole place is a living work of art. We got there just before 8am on Sunday morning and a guy opened up for us. We were very surprised because nothing opens early here.


our night in crescent city

On Saturday night we started looking for a motel around 6.00pm as I was starting to feel tired. Because of a huge wedding which we were told took up a number of paddocks just for the reception alone, the opening weekend of a native tribe's fishing season, the school holidays and a number of sporting events there were no vacancies at any motel for quite some distance. Around 8.30pm we found a crappy old one in Crescent City, California. Cheap and nasty. 

Cold shower, blocked handbasin, almost non-existent curtains, cigarette burns on the bedspread and blanket, no wifi (that was the worse part) etc. The pillowcases and sheets were clean though!

We left before daybreak and had a great french toast breakfast down the road. Just to cheer us up.

the redwood highway

We spent a good part of Saturday driving through the Redwood Highway from Mill Valley California to Crescent City (still in California). We saw lots and lot and lots of trees…

This one in particularly caught my eye. For some (probably deeply psychological) reason all I see are the shapes of elephants climbing the tree.

Some of the trees are monsters. This one was big enough to make a one-room building out of it…

Drive thru mania

Americans love the drive thru. We have seen drive thru takeaway joints, drive through coffee stands, drive through pharmacies etc, but this is just going too far. Drive thru trees…

The Drive Thru Tree in Leggett, California, on the Redwood Highway

USA 11 June 2014 - last day

Well, that's another great holiday over. We spent the day in Houston catching some of the local sites and doing some last minute shopping before we catch our plane tomorrow. The city is vast, but driving around it is surprisingly easy and stress-free (although I wouldn't attempt it without a GPS device).

We found the heat and humidity here today quite oppressive. It was 35 degrees C, but felt more like 40. We are told that the heat today is nothing compared to what it will be once summer really kicks into gear. We are glad we will not be here then.

One final thought about our travels through the US: we noticed that a lot of stores and merchants leave a lot of valuable stock outside when they close up for the day, particularly in smaller towns. Some flea markets just leave everything out, but cover it with waterproof sheeting to keep out the weather.

It is so common here that there can't be a lot of theft of the merchandise otherwise they wouldn't do it. Are they just more trusting than Kiwis?

Today we parked our car in the carpark of a large shopping mall and Vyv dropped her coin purse containing about $10 by the car. When we came back an hour and a half later we found the coin purse just where Vyv left it, with the money still inside. We were amazed. Maybe the fact that the purse was bright pink meant that no macho criminal would go near it.

After dinner tonight we returned to our motel. We picked up an extra towel from the receptionist and made our way to the room. Approaching the door it dawned on both of us at the same time... we were at the wrong motel. Our one was next door. Stupid tourists...

 

USA 10 June 2014

We left Clinton Mississippi at 7.45am, heading towards Houston, during heavy rain and lightning which had started at 2am. The bad weather followed us through Mississippi and Louisiana but by the time we reached the Texas border the sun was shinning.

We heard on the radio that between 6,000 and 7,000 lightning strikes had been reported in the Mississippi area alone that morning. Lightning hitting a car had been caught on video. Fortunately the couple in the car were unhurt but the electronics in their car were fried. We saw some impressive forked lightning ourselves and there was a lot of surface water on the roads.

There were a lot of reports on the radio of trees fallen on the roads during the storm and soon after we heard this we rounded a corner and what did we find? A tree on the road of course. Luckily, road workers had arrived to push the tree off the road and we were back on our way within 10 minutes.

Today we spent most of the day driving as we needed to get to Houston. We had occasional pitstops and photo opportunities, but nothing really interesting happened. One town that we passed through that really stood out was Nacogdoches, Texas. Parts of it look like little has changed in 150 years. They still have most of the original brick roads in the town centre and it looks to be thriving (well, thriving compared to the rest of the small towns anyway). We really like the look of it and the pride the people take in their town and their history is obvious. It has the feel of a by-gone age.

The photos were taken about 5pm today (Tuesday) so this is what rush hour traffic looks like in Nacogdoches...

USA 9 June 2014

It is quite noticeable in the Southern States how much faster nature reclaims land after man stops caring about it...

We have seen whole houses completely swallowed up by trees and creepers. Now every time we see an overgrown patch of land we wonder what lies underneath it.

In Eutaw, Alabama we saw a couple of county road workers clearing long grass with chainsaws. I guess weed-eaters aren't manly enough for this part of the country.

In Hickory, Mississippi we drove passed two young guys standing by the side of the road with their car barely visible at the bottom of a deep ditch. I went to offer my help, but the driver had already called his Dad to come and tow him out. He had hit a deer just before we arrived and this was the 4th time he had hit a deer in this same stretch of the road. This was the first time his car had survived though, and the first time the deer had survived too.

He was more annoyed about losing the deer than he was about the damage to his car.

As we were driving through Mississippi we heard storm warnings over the radio. They were predicting golfball-sized hail and 70mph winds to hit shortly in the areas of Newton and Scott Counties, where we had driven through two hours before. We could see the storm brewing in the skies and at about 5.30pm stopped in Clinton for the night, just as the rain and wind started, but the real storm missed this area. We were lucky we hadn't left two hours later.

And for the two John Taylors in the family, we found this road in Ralph, Tuscaloosa County.

We have driven through many towns with strange names but perhaps none as strange as Chunky, Mississippi. You really have to wonder if the consumption of a lot of moonshine is involved in choosing the town names...

Just imagine if you went to school there. Telling someone you went to Chunky School would be kind of embarrassing if you were, shall we say, a little overweight.

USA 8 June 2014

We spent last night in Chattanooga. In the 1960s it was voted the dirtiest city in the USA. We are not sure why, it looks OK now, but it may have been because of all the trains that ran through it.

This morning we drove up to Lookout Mountain to get a view of Chattanooga and it looks impressive from here...

Next we caught the 10.40am Chattanooga Choo Choo, an old steam train that does hourly trips for people who want to relive the days when trains were a major means of transport in this area. It took us a short distance, through the 1880-era Missionary Ridge tunnel (which is so narrow that the train barely fits through), and to an area where the original turntable is still running. They turned the engine and took us back to the station again. We opted to ride the unairconditioned car so we could have the windows open and smoke and soot blowing over us. It was quite a ride.

If you are ever in Bessemer, Alabama, we recommend you try Ezell's Catfish Cabin. They serve a lot of great local cuisine, including fried frog's legs. I had a great gumbo and Vyv had catfish with sweet potato fries (which came with cinnamon butter which I liked with the fries, but Vyv didn't). 

Drinks are served in large preserving jars, similar to how they drink their moonshine.

We talked to a guy at a service station about legal moonshine that they were selling and he said it was awful, only 12% proof. He says that he can get the real 100% proof from almost anyone who lives in the area.

USA 7 June 2014

We spent last night in Suwanee, Georgia. This morning we left early and drove into Atlanta. We checked out a large flea market held at one of the last drive-in movie theatres still operating. The theatres were probably built in the 1950s and it looks like they haven't spent money on them since.

After that we visited the Atlanta Cyclorama, it is a 360 degree painting, 42 feet tall and 358 feet in circumference, depicting the events of the Battle of Atlanta fought on 22nd July 1864 and is considered to be the largest painting in the world. The painting is merged into life-sized dioramas and it creates a unique experience as the rotating floor and narration carries you through the events of the day.

We were awed by the quality of the painting but absolutely amazed when we were told that the painting was done over 4 years by only 11 artists, and done in the late 1800s.

This is not one of our photos. There is no photography allowed of the painting/diorama so I pinched this off google. It shows a tiny part of the painting and a few of the 3D figures, but is a good indication of the work that went into creating it.

In Meridian we stopped at a couple of what we thought were large flea markets but they turned out to be combined yard sales. As we drove a little further into Bartow and Gordon Counties (Georgia) we found yard sales lining one road (Jo Frank Harris Parkway) on both sides, for over 20 miles. Traffic was extremely slow as cars were parked nose-to-tail along the side of the road in many places. Everywhere there was a little space someone had set up a tent to sell something. Yards sales seem to be about more than just making a few extra bucks. In this area it seems more like a way of life.

It was quite a sight to see, but aggravating to drive through.

USA 6 June 2014

Last night we stayed in Forest City, North Carolina. We were told that at Christmas the town strings up thousands and thousands of lights through the downtown part of the city, over all the buildings and trees. Supposed to be the most lights in a city in the USA, but these people exaggerate a lot...

This morning we drove to Lake Lure in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. We passed this beautiful old mill in Rutherfordton (which on some signs is called Rutherford Town). It looks to be abandoned, but in the USA you can never be too sure. There is still furniture inside and rocking chairs on the porch.

The creek that powered the mill has long since dried up but the bridge is still intact, as is the outside toilet behind it.

In Greenhill we found this antique shop. Unfortunately we were a little early and it was closed. I don't think we missed a lot.

On the shores of Lake Lure we found the small town of Batcave (sometimes referred to as Bat Cave). No joke, that's the town's name.

Above Lake Lure stands Chimney Rock, a major attraction in this area.

I climbed over 400 steps to the top, because the elevator has been broken for some time) just to take this photo of Lake Lure:

Vyv was sensible enough to wait for me at the bottom, filling the time in at the gift shop.

Leaving Lake Lure we headed towards Atlanta, Georgia. After a period of lightning activity in the sky ahead of us we were engulfed in such a heavy downpour of rain that we had to pull over on the side of the rain to wait for the visibility to improve. Not only does the rain make it hard to see, but as the rain hits the hot road it is turned into steam, obscuring your view further.

The second time we pulled over we noticed that it was hailing too and the temperature had dropped from 26 degrees C to 16 degrees in a matter of minutes, and as we waited it out on someone's front lawn a small river was building up alongside us. This is the view through our front windscreen:

20 minutes later the sky was blue and we were on our way again, hopefully without damaging his lawn too much.

USA 5 June 2014

Last night we had intended to stay in Charlotte, North Carolina, but got tired and hungry before we got there so stopped for the night in Munroe. Despite the trains running fairly close to the motel we got a good night's sleep.

We drove further North in the morning, through Charlotte (a nice looking city with quite narrow roads) and found this unique church on the outskirts. It is difficult to show it in a photo, but the church is shaped like Noah's arc, with the front steps representing the ramp that the animals used to get into the arc.

About an hour further north, after stopping at Huntersville for lunch (how could we not, since it was probably named after our Grandson Hunter) we visited the Lazy 5 Ranch, a sort of safari park but without the dangerous animals. It was quite large and you drive through it. Most of the animals are looking for handouts and come right up to the car. We left our windows open to make it easier to take photos and were often surprised when a furry face would pop through the window...

Some animals kept their distance and were we quite happy about that. These guys had pretty mean looking horns...

When we approached this guy we could see little puffs of dust around him. Vyv said it was just him breathing, I could have sworn that the dust clouds were coming from his other end...

There was also a petting zoo, but Vyv was not too keen on hand feeding the animals...

Their were plenty of other cute animals though...

USA 4 June 2014

We visited the unrestored Drayton Hall this morning. It is a plantation home, built in the 1700s and lived in by the same family until the 1970s when the family no longer had the means to maintain it and they sold it to The National Trust for Historic Preservation.

It once was surrounded by magnificent gardens, but those were pretty much destroyed when 8,000 English Troops arrived during the American Revolution. They used the front lawn as a staging post for launching a successful attack on Charleston.

Damage to the buildings was done in the Civil War when the owner removed the lead flashings from the roof so the Southern army could make musket balls with it. Rains destroyed a lot of upstairs plastered ceilings but most of the interior is exactly as it was when it was built, and the ceilings in the lower floors are intact. The owners didn't even add electricity or running water in more recent generations.

Originally there were a number of out buildings but a lot were destroyed in the earthquake of 1886 and more recent hurricanes.

There was a boardwalk through the swamps we could have walked but it had been severely damaged by a recent storm and in some places you had to actually walk in the swamp and there are a lot of snakes there. We decided that we didn't really need to see another swamp.

Yet another house that comes with its own alligators in the grounds. They normally confine themselves to the small lake or swamps, but do roam the lawns at night.

Charleston is a beautiful city, with a great vibe to it, but is so hot and humid. We parked in the historic area so we could walk around and admire all the grand old buildings but after less than 45 minutes we gave up. It is just too humid. It was only 33 degrees C but the humidity made it seem so much more. Back into our air-conditioned car...

USA 3 June 2014

We drive the secondary routes when possible, shunning the motorways and freeways, and this does show us quite a different USA to what you would otherwise see. We passed into Georgia at 8.00am this morning and soon saw hundreds of examples of what the coming of the freeways did to the local businesses when the traffic no longer passed by...

I particularly like the neon pig sign on the roof of the next building, it appears to be perfectly intact after many years of neglect.

One thing we really love about the states we have travelled through this trip is the Spanish Moss that hangs from so many trees. It adds a ghostly atmosphere, reminding me of ancient cobwebs...

Still in Georgia, we found the town of Darien (founded 1736) and visited Fort King George. It is a recreated Colonial fort built on the site of the original constructed by the British in the 1720s as a military post to stop the French and the Spanish encroaching on their territory. No battles were every fought there, and maybe no shots ever fired in anger, but a great number of the garrison died of the many ailments and diseases that living in the swamps suggests.

The recreation of the fort is faithful to the original records and drawings and you can easily imagine living there, as when you look out over the swamps you see little signs of modern civilisation in many directions.

We love the honesty in advertising here in Georgia. Check out this sign outside an antique shop in Woodbine...

In McIntosh County we found what is reputed to be the smallest church in the USA, built in 1949. It is in the middle of the country, miles from anywhere, left unlocked for anyone to visit.

USA 2 June 2014

We drove to Daytona Beach today to check out what is reported to be one of the most famous beaches in the world. It is very beautiful and the sand is a lovely blanched white and even in the hot sun the sand isn't too hot to walk on. It was quite delightful.

We had a great lunch of clam, sole, crab and lobster nachos made with wonton wrappers at Joe's Crab Shack on the pier. The beach atmosphere is very pleasant and, despite my always wanting to live at the beach, I don't know what I'd do here if we stayed for longer than just a day. I guess that's what all those bars are for, to help fill in time between swims and bikini watching.

We were then on our way to Jacksonville (still in Florida) and came across the beachside town of Saint Augustine, the oldest town in America (founded by the Spanish in 1565). It's a very charming town but with a serious parking problem.

They have a very decorative bridge alongside which recreated Spanish and English galleons are moored.

Overlooking the harbour is the remains of a Spanish fort that was begun in 1672. During the American Revolution it was held by the British, and later still by the Americans as part of their coastal defences system. 

We got into Jacksonville at 7pm and found a motel just off one of the motorways. We unpacked and headed out to get some dinner but when we came back we found that a number of roads and off-ramps from the motorway had been closed off for construction. Our GPS system could not find a way to bypass these blocked roads. After 45 minutes trying different routes we had almost given up when we stumbled upon the motel. We were quite stressed and if ever I needed a beer it was then, but there wasn't one to be had for miles and I wasn't going to go through the hassle of trying to negotiate that maze of roads again.

Ah, the joys of road tripping...

USA 1 June 2014

We spent the whole day at the Universal Studios theme park in very hot humid weather. The park looks very good but the rides are a little underwhelming. The Harry Potter World looks amazing with it's charming English buildings with snow on the roof. The fact that it was raining when we were there made it look even more like an English village, of course the heat and humidity spoiled the illusion.

The Harry Potter ride itself was fairly intense. Very fast, very violent and Vyv would have hated it, so I went on it alone. This was fortunate as the waiting time was over 30 minutes but as I was a single rider I went straight to the front of the line and was on the ride within a couple of minutes.

This post to the blog was delayed (and is so brief) because the motel we stayed in last night (a Scottish Inn) had lousy wifi. The receptionist did warn us that the wifi didn't really work in the rooms, just in the carpark. I did manage to get a week signal in our room, as long as I left the door open.

This motel is run by a Kiwi. Why am I not surprised.

USA 31 May 2014

We spent the morning in an uneventful drive to Orlando along very straight roads through mostly cattle country. We had noticed, in other areas, tall platforms some farmers had built for eagles to build their nests in. This is the first one we came across that was occupied...

We made it to a motel in Orlando seconds before a heavy shower of rain. After half an hour the sun came out again and we were out and about again. Typical Florida weather we are told.

We are decided not to do the obvious thing when in Orlando, visiting Disney World, as it wouldn't be the same without having kids with us to share it with. So we plan on going to Universal Studios tomorrow as there are bound to be attractions there even for old people like us.

So we filled in the afternoon and evening by visiting the shopping area of Downtown Disney Marketplace to pick up a few gifts for the grandkids. The first stop was the Lego store. It's amazing what they can make out of those tiny bricks...

And Vyv made a new friend...

We stopped at Denny's for a late dinner on the way back to the motel and Vyv had what has to be one of the best milkshakes ever - apple pie with cinnamon and cream. It tastes exactly like they just put an apple pie in the blender and turned it on. Fantastic.

I'll make sure Vyv gets a few more of those so she doesn't end up as emaciated as the guy in the photo above.

USA 30 May 2014

Today we intended to drive from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando. We were only expecting it to take a few hours but, as usual, we got sidetracked. We found a huge antique mall and indoor flea market at Pompano, just outside of Fort Lauderdale, and spent a number of hours browsing.

Minutes after leaving that we came across Butterfly World, a huge enclosed habitat for butterflies and birds. It may not sound exciting but it was pretty cool to walk amongst such a number and variety of butterflies. We had a lot of fun photographing them...

The best part was finally seeing what a hummingbird actually looks like. Normally we just see them fly by and the speed they flap their wings makes them almost invisible, often you just catch a shimmer in the corner of your eye and when you look, they are gone.

This one stopped to take a drink...

This bird started to take an interest in my shoes, I was just hoping he wouldn't take his interest any higher...

Because we got delayed we knew we wouldn't make it to Orlando before the gathering storm hit. We stopped at dinner time in a small town called Lake Okeechobee. It's a nice place and they were having a rodeo that night, but we were tired and decided to skip it. The storm didn't amount to much, it mainly passed us by. Some lightning but not a lot of rain.

Lake Okeechobee calls itself the Bass Fishing capital of the USA. It has a population of 50,000 but this increases to over 80,000 in fishing season. It is a huge lake and is totally surrounded by a high stop bank that has a sealed cycle track on the top. Cyclists and runners come from quite some distance to do a circuit. Quite an achievement for such a rural area.

This is one edge of the lake, right next to the town, as the storm starts to pass by. The photo probably doesn't do justice to the ominous appearance of the sky.

There were two gigantic weekend flea markets across the road from our motel. They were supposed to open at 8.00am but, this being the USA where no one likes getting up early, there were only a few stalls just starting to open and no customers at all when we cruised past at 8.30am.