After the call from Kawasaki John found the following weeks busy, stressful and practically living on the phone. we both decided to take a little vacation to get away from it and have some fun. We have a small place located south of Miami, so decided to start the trip there. After spending a few days just lounging on South beach, cycling, skateboarding and sipping on some of our favoroute Mojito’s we decided to take the trip on the road. Our plan was to not plan really, even though we had sat Nav in the car we bought a big map and wanted to just go with the flow.
We decided to rent out our Miami apartment from now on, as we only use it around 5 times a year. So it was off to u-haul to collect a trailer for all our belongings. We packed up our things and headed north towards Daytona, unfortunately we were a few weeks too early for bike week L
we found a hotel there, dropped off our things and went for a walk into town. After exploring the endless array of shop windows containing tassled jackets, fishnets body suits and ‘ Daytona’ booty shorts we eventually found a little bar that was rockin. It was funny because you would have the red neck parents getting drunk on the patio, while their kids were outside getting lit on coca cola. As for it apparently being a quiet evening, I had never seen so many pony tails and mullets. Wish we could have come on bike week, perfect for people watching J
The following day had us driving North and into the city of Antlanta, Georgia. It is actually a really pretty city, it was absolutely dead when we arrived as the superbowl was on that evening. Once we checked in and dropped off our bags it was off to find a sports bar to watch the game. It was a pretty relaxed evening from there, just grabbed some dinner and went back to the hotel to check out the city from the top floor, beautiful.
The following day looked at our map and came to the conclusion that there is no way you can have a road trip, this side of the States and not pass through Tennesse!! As we passed the state line we noticed a lot of signs for Rock City & a few other touristy things, so we had to stop and see what the local towns offered J
We found a cool attraction called Look-out Mountain, it was a fun thing to explore and waste some time on :)
* Rock city* on Look-out Mountain
We saw signs for Ruby-Falls, an underground natural waterfall. its about 2000ft deep into a mountain and still to this day, scientist are unaware of its water flow. They have done numerous tests and still cannot find out where it coming from. It's really cool.
We jumped back in the U-Haul and continued on the trip. We made into Nashville late afternoon and couldn’t wait to go into the town to see what all the fuss was about. I have to say, we are defiantly coming back to this place with a big group of friends, its so fun.
We started the evening in a local bar called ‘the Stage’, you get a lot of local bands, musicians & apparently the odd country star coming in after a big show in town. Well for us, we were lucky enough to be there when Jamey Johnson to to the stage & performed a few of his own versions of country classics.
We left that bar and continued to stroll down the strip, which was actually quite quiet due to it being a weekday. As we were ‘taking it all in’ we came across this small, but packed honkey tonk karaoke bar and just had to check it out. All I will say is; we did not leave there till early hours of the morning & girls got free drinks for line dancing on the bar ;)
After a few hours of sleep I was eager to get back on the road, and how can you come to Tennesse and not go to Memphis to see Mr Presley’s land. On the way we took a quick tour around Loretta Lyn’s ranch, just to see the tracks they had there and to grab a few pictures.
We finally made it to graceland and it of course it had to be closed, the one day we come and it is closed! My dad is a huge fan so I have grown up listenening to a lot of Elvis and was determined to get some pictures or a little souvenir for him. We were actually pretty tired from the night before so decided to find the nearest hotel, and due to Memphis not being too much of a crazy town we knew we weren’t missing much by taking an early night.
Graceland opened at 9am and it wasn’t long tilll we were there, we wanted to make it early so we could hopefully make it down to New Orleans before dark. Graceland was interesting to those interested, but the surroundings are far from authentic and original. There is Mcdonalds across the street and a big gas station where Elvis once played and grew up. I had this imagery of the Presleys home being on a big beautiful open ranch, but nope, its right on the side of a busy street.
Inside the home is cool, its kept how they left it with teddy bears still on chairs and microwaves still in tact. They don’t alow you to go upstaris though, they believe this was once Elvis’s private area and should be respected and kept that way.
Pictures:
Fans have plastered the surrounding walls with messages and pictures in memory of the king
Can you believe they sell full Elvis costumes, that are covered in rhine stones and studs! They are obviously not anything original, they are just for fans or those crazy folk that would pay $3000-$15000 price tag for a fancy dress party. I was sure to pick up some keyrings and little souvenirs before heading back on the road South.
On the way down we passed signs for Kentwood, Lousianna the home of Britney Spears. It was only 20minutes out of our Journey and why not get a quick picture and see this tiny town which produced such a phenomenon .
New Orleans was a pleasant surprise to be honest, it is actually one of my Favourite cities we stayed in. I cant explain exactly what sets it apart from the rest by I just got a nice feeling when we were touring around. It was probably the mechanical bull we kept attempting, or the jambalaya ;)
Unfortunatly we didn’t have enough time to make it a little more south & see the homes and area’s affected by hurricane Katrina, even though it would have made me emotional.
So it was Texas here we come! After a long drive we finally made it to Houston, and met up with Alissia ( Colin’s wife). Colin was out of town but it was nice to see the family and catch up, they have the oldest bulldog you have ever seen. It is blind, deaf, a little over weight & struggles to walk. John kept laughing at him as he would walk up to the wall and just bark away, or as you watch tv you would see him in the corner of your eye just wondering by. He is an emotional subject for Ali as she refuses to put him down, dogs are more than just dogs, they are family & I agree with her there ;)
Like everyday, we didn’t stay too long and before we knew it we were pulling out the map and planning the day. We wanted to make it into New Mexico that day so we bypassed Dallis and were headin towards Amerillo! I kept singing that song, those of you that are fellow brits would know “is this the way to Amarillo!!” haha….
We originally planned to go through the state of Colarado and then on to Amarillo, but noticed a road that runs by Dallas all the way to Amarillo. It was such a beautiful drive in fact, we never entered Colarado but the road carried us right along side it., Literally a stone through away! So I still was able to retrieve a picture of the famous red dirt.
Those of you that know John personally, know that once he sets his mind to something he will stop at nothing. His goal this time was too make it to Alberqueque , despite night fall and the blood shot eyes! We didn’t want to drive right through New Mexico as it has the most breathe taking landscapes that we had to see, so we were on the look for a hotel again. We found somewhere to stay just as the sun was setting one side of the sky, and the moon appearing on the other.
We got some rest, coffee & were back on it the next day. It was lovely as I was able to catch some amazing shots with the sun rising & the forecast for the day was completely clear skies. As we were driving alongside the famous route66 we kept on passing small souvenir shops, I finally cracked and said ‘lets just go see’!
Im not sure how the laws work in this state, or even California on this subject but I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I came across the fur/ stuffed animal section! They had everything & anything you could imagine, buffalo, mountain lion, fox, deer, reptiles, spiders, scorpions, endless shelves of rabbit and other small rodents, I could go on L
Being the biggest animal lover in the world it made me sick! I had to take pictures of it though as I just couldn’t believe it!
Before we knew it, an hour had passed and we were still engrossed in all the handmade weapons, dream catchers and rugs. As I was messing around and trying on poncho’s John was telling me how he had always said to himself as a child ‘ if I make enough money one day I want to buy a big geode' They are those large stones that have polished crystals inside.
He found the one he liked and even decided where its home would be when we got back. We left the store with just a couple of things for our home, I like the idea of collecting a little something from everywhere you go and build your home from the adventures you go on.
I pretty much used up all my camera storage just driving through New Mexico! Its strange how a place can seem so empty and desolate to someone yet so beautiful to another. The wild horses, red dirt, tumble weeds and Plateaus made it one of those places where you feel free and can just enjoy driving on an open road which looks like it leads to no where.
Once we passed the state line into Arizona, John wanted to make a quick stop and pick up another little treasure that amazed him as a child, petrified wood. It is a type of fossil as it used to be a tree, but all materials had been replaced by minerals etc so it retains its original structure but has turned to stone over a long period of time. It is then Polished and sold in any size, I have only seen it around Arizona. John chose his little piece and picked another for his mum, its crazy because they had 2 large pieces of the wood that were selling for $195,000!
* Petrified wood *
This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip, its my screen saver
Our lttle vacation was coming to an end and what better way to close it than going to the Grand Canyon! We arrived around 7pm so it was already dark, it was funny because we had come from New Mexico so here we are in 3ft snow with shorts and flip flops on. Everyone looked at us like we were mad, we shouldve checked the weather but it was so unexpected.
We found a hotel located on the south perimeter of the park, so I ran through the snow in my flip flops to check the availability. Due to it being a very quiet part of the season for them they had a lot of rooms available, and for like 190 bucks you could get a corner suite, sweet!
Unfortunately there were no lifts, so we had to drag our bags up to the 3rd floor and all the way to the end of the hall. Our room was lovely but the balcony was something else! It was right on the corner of the hotel & over looked the Canyon. It was dark when we arrived so we couldn’t appreciate the view until the next day, so we were up at sunrise and just taking it all in.
like always, a photograph can never quite capture its true beauty...
I have soo many videos and pictures from our trip, and could go on forever but I don’t want to bore you all, so im just sharing the things that should be J
Love Ashleigh