Born in the Bayou

New Orleans, Louisiana (or NOLA for short)! We have arrived to one of the more anticipated stops during our #C2C trip. I can still remember dad talking about how much he wanted to go to NOLA when they made their US trip back in -05. Sadly, that was the year when hurricane Katrina struck, so they had no way of going there and ended up visiting me in Santa Monica instead. He has wanted to go there ever since (and probably before then) and because of his enthusiasm over the place, I've wanted to go as well.

The trip to NOLA was fun and easy, with beautifil scenery a long the long and spaceous highways. We managed to hit 4 more states on the way, which was a lot of fun. It just kills me that I didn't take photos of "welcome to <state>" before this stretch of our travels, since we entered 14 states but have no photos to prove it =(.

   

Arriving in the famous french-inspired city was pleasant, but parking in front of the main entrance of the hotel was amazing! Boy were we shocked when we entered the hotel. Talk about being at a loss for words. High ceilings, chandeliers in every hallway as well as the lobby and marble floors. We even allowed ourselves the luxury of using their valet service at the high price of $40 per night. It's a lot of money, but in the end we were all very glad that we did use valet, more on that later though.
We opened up the door to our room and the surprises kept coming! Another chandelier, two huge beds and a 50" plasma tv! The bathroom was splendid, with the floor, sink and shower all in marble. When one of us threw himself on the bed, nothing but a guttural noise of approval escaped his lips..it was that great!
The room inspection led to an interest in checking out one of the other services on offer - the pool. We practically ran up the stairs to the top (10th) floor and the sight of the rooftop pool was just simply pure bliss! What.a.hotel!!!
We took to the streets to see what new Orleans had to offer, but we were all too tired to do anything besides eat a real good burger at The City Diner near the French district. Satisfied and tired we said goodnight to this apparently swamp ridden part of Louisiana.

Our day in NOLA started off very relaxed and slow. I hadn't planned anything, but knew I wanted to check out the swamps, so my morning consisted of me in a familiar pose, hunched over a laptop, inquiring google for knowledge. 30 min fervent tapping on the keyboard and two phone calls later saw us booked on a 2h excursion with Airboat Adventures.


I'm not sure how I'm going to describe the ride. Try to imagine a very small barge, filled with rows of seats holding up to 15 people, and a huge fan tacked on to the back end of said barge. It felt ridiculously dangerous, considering the speed those things reach, the lack of belts and only one way of controlling the boat's movement, whether that would be forwards or backwards.
Those two hours flew by, the anxiety regarding safety disappeared long before we saw our first alligator and "overwhelmed" doesn't cover how we felt afterwards. Holding a live gator and feeling it try to wrestle out of your hands so that it can feed on whatever it can clamp it's jaws on was a definite highlight. Seeing a 2 1/2m long alligator charge up on our frail flotation device to chomp down on a shredded chicken was another. I've never held a positive attitude toward the idea of owning a boat, but if I had to, I would want to do so here! The tour guide was very helpful and seemed incredibly proud to have been bourn "right here, in the bayou". We sure appreciated his tidbits of info and the fact that his accent made us all laugh.

Sunburned but in awe, we drove back to the hotel, only to accidentally drive right into the middle of a movie shoot. Unbeknownst to us, the crew for Hot Tub TimeMachine 2 (yes, a sequel to a movie called "Hot Tub TimeMachine"..don't expect greatness -_- ) had commandeered the entrance to our hotel and when we parked as expected for the valet to pick up our car, we interrupted a scene. It was a surreal experience and we were hurried away by people from the movie crew carrying clipboards, wearing headsets and far too much clothing considering the heat.

We kept a close watch on the movie set up from our hotel room, but didn't want the night to end, so we decided to check out New Orleans famous Bourbon Street. We walked from the hotel (we no longer had easy access to our car because of the movie shoot) and checked out the Mercedes-Benz Superdome (which was really cool on the outside, but closed =/ ) on the way over to The Street. 

Reaching the corner of Bourbon and Canal street, we thought something was up. The intersection had a police officer waiting on a motorcycle, sort of like a guard. We looked at him, but he remained frozen in his stance, looking into the distance. We scurried past him and heard lots of noise coming from the alley. We were about to be shocked for the umpteenth time this incredible day. We got to witness a staple of New Orleans, a  parade going down along bourbon street, into canal street. It started right when we showed up, so we just stood and watched the debacle as it unfolded. I can't understand why people would want to dress up in such garish costumes/bodypaint and show off themselves, but I guess that's what we refer to as exhibitionists. While it is always fascinating to experience other cultures, this was a big sickening. We moved on from the parade and walked down along bourbon st. It is just simply a barrage of noise and lights, people trying to lure you into bars with promises of cheap alcohol and other venues.

We tried to find a souvenir shop to buy something fitting, but came  up emptyhanded, so we headed back to the hotel and noticed that the movie crew was still working hard. We asked if we could hang around, and they allowed it. That meant that we actually got to experience  a movie shoot, up close and  personal (without ruining it this time). It was a perfect finish to the most exciting day so far during this amazing journey!

Down in the South

This post was written by Pontus, but sadly he is unable to log on to his own account, so it needs to be posted using my account. It is still however written by Pontus, to get a different perspective on our trip. This is the english translation of his post which was recently posted in Swedish.

After church service, we said a heartfelt goodbye to our remarkably nice host families and began the 675 km long trip south east toward Atlanta. It  felt like quite a change of cultural scenery, going from a borderstate between the midwest and the south, down to the heart of the south.

Besides lunch from the reliable hamburger restaurant Wendy's, we only  planned one detour, to the natural water slide called "Sliding Rocks". A  known waterfall, approximately 30m in length that ends in a 2½m deep river.  Sadly there had been too much rain lately, the water level had risen quite  a lot,  so we couldn't put on our swimming trunks and slide down the rocks  uncontrollably for hours on end, much like we'd planned. Despite that, the  surroundings were very beautiful and other impressive waterfalls were close  by as well.

The car ride there had taken us off the main road and consisted of  dwindling roads with hairpin turns leading up forestcovered mountains that  gave this blogger a nasty case of carsickness.
The road back was however not an easy journey. The first path suggested by  the GPS was lined with large ROAD CLOSED-signs and we had to find some kind  of alternative route.
Darkness came quick and our usually fired up discussions suddenly became a  bit more stifled. We stopped to fuel up the car on a remote gas station  around 2130, we were feeling tired from the drive, no 3g coverage in our  cellphones and the Master card wouldn't work at the gas pump. I've gathered  most of my knowledge regarding the american south from thrillers like  Deliverance (which happened to be recorded in close proximity to where we  were), Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Duel, something I stupidly brought  up in the car and appearantly my travelpartners were thinking the same  thing. When the payment issue had been sorted (we paid by cash to a  longhaired gangly dude with scarily strange mannerisms), a large chevy  pickup truck with tinted windows parked at the pump across from where we  were fueling and the driver's door opened up slightly, but no one exited  the truck. The lid for the gas tank opened up, but no human being appeared.  Four large swedish men seemed paler and paler, finished the fueling as fast  as possible and eventually managed to drive away. We looked behind us with  worry to see if the pickup truck would take up pursuit.
It was pretty quiet in the car, but the discussion all of a sudden became  quite fired up again, albeit not a nice or reasonable one, when all of a  sudden we discovered that the alternative route we managed to find several  miles away was also decorated with a large ROAD CLOSED-sign. We decided to  turn around, seeking anxiously for a pickup that would block the road for us. We  eventually found a third alternative down from the narrow roads with those  hairpin bends, decorated with trees, toward Atlanta. But then panic struck  in the car. We met yet another ROAD CLOSED-sign. All of a sudden the  conversations went silent a bit and we didn't know what to do. Mostly by  general planlessness we just kept driving on the road that we shouldn't  have kept driving on and we met even more ROAD CLOSED-signs, but after a  while we could breathe a sigh of relief since the signs stopped appearing  and we reached the large road to Atlanta; or rather to Buford, a smaller  suburb 40 minutes from Atlanta.

You see, my old friends Greg and Abigail Morgan lived there in Buford,  friends that I for some lucky chance happen to visit whenever I visit a new  continent (Long story...). We were going to stay with them a couple of  days. We were two and a half hours late (arrived 23:30 instead of 21:00).  We were tired and pretty spent, but received a wonderfully friendly  american welcome by the Morgans and their wonderful dog Tippett. So it was  a lovely feeling to crawl to bed this sunday night.

Yes, I realize that Tippett has his head in an awkward place...but it makes the photo that much more fun!

The next day, we were going to do the main attractions of Atlanta; the CNN -tour, the Georgia Aquarium and the CocaCola Museum. We started off with  the aquarium and it seemed to be a lively museum, with beautiful lights,  informative and funny texts about the animals with friendly glass aquariums  that the animals seemed to enjoy. My favorites however were the two square  decimeter large frog (that impressed me by far compared to the more  colorful species), the impressive whaleshark and the lovely passive  agressive piranhas. Afterwards we attended one of the main highlights of  our trip, Dolphin Tales, built as a gigantic theaterstage, with a large  pool and a stage above. The dolphins were just simply fantastic, jumped  synchronized, bounced high up above the water, helped the caretakers to  glide over the water at an insane pace, all perfectly timed with an  otherwise slightly "clowny" poor mans version of a disney story and  musical. But the dolphins were so fantastic anyway, so it didn't really  matter.

Next stop was the CNN-tour, held in a tall building around the corner in  central Atlanta. We don't have a common connection to this news station,  yet it was fascinating to see how news reports happen in today's  digital  reality. Everything was guided by a sarcastic guide who may have done said  tour one too many times and would rather do flat jokes about Swedes.
The  last stop might be the most famous, the CocaCola museum that was not held  in the tall CocaCola building that we had seen before many times, but  rather a pretty flat building. Maybe the attraction that carried the  highest expectations, but conclusively felt pretty commercial and flaccid.  Maybe we weren't the target audience, it felt pretty kiddie-focused. Very  old CocaCola-commercial, a lot of talk about the beverage and it's  significance for world history, a lot of commercial regarding characters  we've never seen before or music we've never previously heard, if anything  we had different tunes synonymous with CocaCola in our minds. Finally there  was a very nice part of the tour, we were allowed not only an unlimited  amount of CocaCola, but also were offered a large selection from all the  various drinks sold around the world under the CocaCola  brand and  considering the +30°C heat, it was quite a reinvigorating thing.


However, the downside to the last activity showed its ugly head when we  were on our way home. We however managed to solve the situation pretty well  anyway. Jacob was going to be driving us home, exited the parking lot and  then realized that we had ended up in Atlantas famous traffic jams. After  managing to travel 20meters in 30minutes, Jacob and Dan felt a desperate  need to relieve themselves, who just jumped out of the car to head back to  the museum to tend to their bodily needs, and actually let the car running  in the line, forcing me to jump into the driver's seat. When mr Nileskog  and mr Lantz returned, we had moved a couple of meters further and the  emergency was resolved.

So even this day ended especially nice at the Morgans who generously showed  the more beautful sides of The South, where the debate regarding especially  high and low things regarding swedishness, americanism and everything  inbetween went on all night long.

Nere i Södern

This post was written by Pontus, but sadly he is unable to log on to his own account, so it needs to be posted using my account. It is still however written by Pontus, to get a different perspective on our trip. Here is an english translation

Efter söndagens gudstjänst tog vi ett ömt förväl av våra synnerligen trevliga värdfamiljer och begav oss på den 675 km långa resan sydöst mot Atlanta. Det kändes som ett visst kulturellt byte från en gränsstat av både Mellanvästern och Södern ner till en riktig centralstat av densamma.

Förutom lunchen på den gedigna hamburgerrestaurangen Wendy's planerade vi bara att göra en avstickare, till den naturliga vattenrutschkanan Sliding Rocks, ett känt vattenfall, kanske 30 meter lång där man glider ner i en två och en halv meter djup flod. Tyvärr hade det varit ganska mycket regn på sistone, vattenståndet var väldigt högt, så vi kunde inte ta på oss badbyxorna och åka hejdlöst i flera timmar som vi planerat. Dock var miljön mycket vackert och andra imponerande vattenfall fanns också runtomkring.

Bilvägen dit tog oss från den stora vägen och bestod av ringlande serpentinvägar uppför skogklädda berg som gav undertecknad en rejäl bilsjuka. Vägen tillbaka var dock ingen enkel resa. Den första vägen gps:en föreslog pryddes av stora ROAD CLOSED-skyltar och vi fick hitta någon slags alternativ väg. Mörkret föll snabbt och våra vanliga vänligt hetlevrade diskussioner blev plötsligt lite mer dämpade. Vi tankade på en ödsligt belägen bensinstation vid kl 2130-tiden, vi började bli trötta, ingens 3g fungerade och Masterkortet fungerade inte heller för att betala för bensinen. Undertecknad har hämtat det mesta av sin information om sydstaterna från skräckfilmer som The Deliverance (som för övrigt spelades in i samma trakter vi körde i), Texas Chainsaw massacre och The Duel, något jag inte så klokt ventilerade och det visade sig att mina medreseneärer tänkte ungefär samma sak. När vi äntligen kunde börja tanka (vi betalade konstant till en långhårig trashank med konstig hållning), kom det en större pickup (Chevrolet) med tonade rutor upp vid sidan oss och dörren öppnades litegrann men ingen kom ut. Tanklocket öppnades, men ingen människa visade sig. Fyra stora svenska män blev allt blekare kring nosen, tankade så snabbt det bara gick och lyckades till slut köra iväg. Vi tittade oroligt bakom oss om pickupen skulle köra efter oss.
Det blev ganska tyst i bilen, men diskussionen blev plötsligt livlig igen, dock ingen rationell och trevlig sådan, när vi plötsligt upptäckte att den alternativa vägen vi lyckades hitta flera miles iväg också pryddes av en stor ROAD CLOSED-skylt. Vi bestämde oss för att vända, tittade spänt om någon pickup skulle blockera vägen för oss. Vi hittade till slut en tredje variant ner från de skogsprydda smala serpeninvägarna bort till Atlanta. Men till vår fasa mötte vi ännu en ROAD CLOSED-skylt. Plötsligt tystnade samtalet en smula och vi visste inte vad vi skulle ta oss till. Mest i viss planlöshet körde vi bara  vidare på vägen som vi inte borde köra vidare på och vi mötte än fler ROAD CLOSED-skyltar, men till vår stora lättnad slutade de komma efterhand och vi kom ut på den stora vägen till Atlanta; eller närmare bestämt Buford, som är en mindre ort 40 minuter från Atlanta.

Där bodde nämligen mina gamla vänner Gregg och Abigail Morgan som jag av en härlig slump brukar hamna hos då jag besöker en ny kontinent (lång historia) som viskulle bo hos ett par dagar. Vi var två och en halv timme sena (kom 2330 istället för 2100). Vi var trötta och lite matta, men fick ett härligt vänligt amerikanskt mottagande av paret Morgan och deras härliga hund Tippet. Så det var en skön känsla att krypa till kojs denna söndagkväll.

Ja, jag vet att Tippett står lite lustigt, men det gör bilden så mycket roligare!

Dagen efter skulle vi beta av Atlantas stora attraktioner, CNN tour, Georgia Aquarium och Coca Cola Museum. Vi började med akvariet och det visade sig vara en stämningsfullt museum, med vackert konstruerat ljus, informerande och roliga texter om djuren med vänliga glasakvarier som djuren såg ut att trivas i. Mina favoriter var dock den två kvadratdecimeter stora grodan (som slog alla andra mer färgglad djurarter med hästlängder), den imponerande valhajen och de skönt passivt aggressiva pirayerna. Därefter gick vi på en av resans höjdpunkter, Dolphin Tales, uppbyggt som en gigantisk teaterscen, med en stor pool och en scen ovanför. Delfinerna var helt enkelt fantastiska, hoppade i takt, studsade högt upp ovanför vattnet, hjälpte skötarna att glida över vattnet i en vansinnig hastighet, allt perfekt tajmat med en i övrigt lite småpajig fattighetvariant av en Disneyhistoria och musikalnummer. Men delfinerna var så fantastiska ändå, så det gjorde inte så mycket.

Nästa stopp var CNN-tour, en hög byggnad runt hörnan i centrala Atlanta. Vi har ju inget nära förhållande till denna nyhetsstation, ändå var det fascinerande att se hur nyhetsrapportering sker i dagens digitala verklighet. Allt var guidat av en sarkastisk guide som kanske gjort denna visning lite för många gånger och hellre drog torra skämt om svenskar.

Sista stoppet var kanske det mest kända, Coca cola museum som inte var i det höga Coca Cola huset som vi sett tidigare flera gånger utifrån, utan var en ganska platt byggnad. Kanske det vi hade högst förväntningar på, men sammanfattningsvis var ganska kommersiellt och humorlöst. Kanske var vi inte heller rätt målgrupp, kändes ganska barnrelaterat. Mycket gammal colareklam, mycket prat om dryckens viktiga betydelse för världshistorien, mycket reklam över figurer vi aldrig sett förut eller musik vi aldrig hört förut utan att hade helt andra saker i vårt minne. Till sist kom dock en trevlig sak, man fick inte bara dricka hur mycket cola man ville, man bjöds också på ett stort urval av världens alla colaproducerade drycker och i den trettiogradiga hettan var detta ett energigivande sak.

Baksidan till den sista aktiviteten fick vi när vi skulle åka hem. Dock fick vi ihop det ihop det ganska väl ändå. Jacob skulle köra hem, kom ut från parkeringshuset och vi upptäckte att vi hade hamnat i Atlantas kända trafikstockningar. Efter en halvtimme då vi lyckades ta oss 20 meter framåt började det trycka på för både Jacob och Dan, som då lämnade bilen och gick tillbaka till museet för att uträtta sina behov och lät bilen stå kvar i kön, där jag fick ta över vid ratten. När mr Nileskog och mr Lantz återkom hade vi kommit ett par meter längre fram och den akuta situationen var undanröjd. Så även denna dag slutade synnerligen trevligt hemma hos familjen Morgan som mycket generöst visade Söderns vackrare sidor, där debatten om synnerligen höga och låga ting angående svenskheten, amerikanism och allt däremellan föregick hela kvällen lång.

A weekend in Louisville

12 hours! Can you believe that we drove 920km and it took us 12 hours from start to finish, including stops for lunch and bathroom visits. Longest distance travelled since we landed in New York, but it probably wont be the shortest. I've already mentioned HolidayPhone, the company that fuels our internet access and how important it is for us. It definitely made the 12h drive from DC to Louisville manageable.
Nothing of interest really happened during the drive, but I will mention two things. While it might not be that clear on the map, we actually took a detour just so that we could reach Ohio. I'm keeping tabs on the amount of states that we've entered, and Ohio was the 9th on this trip! That number will only increase as we go ^_^ (duuh), The other mentionable event was when I just simply _had_ to go to the bathroom. Wait (!), it's not what you think!! I'm just setting up the story! So I had to go to the bathroom, and we left the highway in search of just about anything with a toilet. We kept driving through the Virginian countryside, but not a single gas station in sight. I was panicking to say the least. Finally we came upon a Dunkin' Donuts in the middle of nowhere. I told them to enter the parkinglot and I actually jumped out of the car while in motion (it was coming to a close, nothing more exciting than that, although Tomasz the driver sure shrieked like a little girl). What I didn't know was that they all entered the DD to pick up a dozen doughnuts to fiest on.

Yeah baby!

I of course took my time, not knowing the culinary event taking place outside, and by the time I was done, so were they =/

Noooooooo!!

After all those long hours we finally reached Louisville. It felt like it took for ever, and considering it was our first real long distance drive, I'm not surprised it took its toll on us. Among other things, I seriously started to question our decision to drive for 28h from Dallas, Texas to Cody, Wyoming in one week. Will my knee hold up to that kind of strain? Is it safe enough, even if we try to get some sleep in the car while one of us is driving? I feel more and more like we should skip Yellowstone. I guess we'll see what happens...

Our weekend in Kentucky was fantastic...I'm..I'm actually at a loss for words, but I'll try anyway. The shock for a Swede to come to the US and experience such incredible amounts of hospitality is almost difficult to accept. I'm of course talking about my friends who haven't had this experience before. I know full well what kind of warmth and kindness I receive when I'm in Louisville, but even I was touched once more.

We stayed with the Zilichs (Nick, Cindy and their beautiful, bouncing boys Jedediah and Micah) in their wonderful home with a great game room for entertaining guests. I've been there once before, so I knew what to expect, but my friends were blown away! The next day Cindy had prepared pancakes for us and Tomasz happily exclaimed (afterwards, remember that swedes are a bit shy)

"These pancakes were fantastic, they were soo healthy". 

The surprises kept on coming. I had asked for instructions on how to use their washing machine the night before. Well after breakfast, Nick asked me about the laundry, and I got the boys to collect everything in one bin. I was so focused on writing on the blog that I didn't think about why Nick took our basket of dirty laundry. I just knew that I had to finish writing the blog and then hurry on out to show Louisville to the Swedes. Well, what I didn't realize at the time was that cindy had taken our laundry and washed it all for us. When we got back home after our adventures, they were all there, washed, dried and folded. Again, we were all taken back with how well taken care of we were, and all I could do was bask in the awe that my friends showed when talking about what kind of friends I have that do so much for strangers. 

We took a photo of the lovely host family,

but not with my camera, which means 

it's not easily accessible atm =/

During our day in Louisville, we were planning on visiting the Ali center, the Slugger museum and these underground caves Nick told us about, to try out some ziplining. However, those plans got slightly altered because of something I did 2 days earlier. After casually bringing it up in conversation with Dan and Pontus and afterwards being forced to do so, I sent an email to a certain donald duck artist who happens to live in Louisville. I am of course talking about Don Rosa!

Via email, I asked him if we could meet up since I was about to spend 2 nights in his hometown, and the fact that I'm a huge fan of his work. He responded, we exchanged numbers, and that led to me shaking hands with arguably the best donald duck comic book writer ever to have graced Kalle Ankas pages. I know Don himself feel that a comment like that is incorrect, since to him, Carl Barks is number one...but to this comic book nerd, the Don is just simply the greatest!

We all sat down with Don (and his lovely wife) and had a beer (mine happened to be of the root variety). It was an incredible dream come true and writing this, I still can't completely believe that it happened. At least I have this photo to prove to myself that it did indeed happen.

We took about 10 different photos, sadly from 3 different cameras in 3 different angles. 

Hence me looking somewhere else...

We finished off a wonderful day with a visit to another fantastic family! We drove over to Stu to have dinner with him, his wife Teri and their 3 wonderful kids, Elizabeth, Catherine and Peter. We had a blast talking about our trip, what we will get to see as well as talking about what we do back home. We also got a tour of Stu's DIY-project in his basement, modeled after a certain wellknown home cinema! The difference between my movieplace and his is that his will be amazing when it's done. Mine isn't done either, but won't come anywhere near the setup he's building. "Trés Cool" as no french person would say, ever! 

After Stu's son Peter shoved the awesomeness of his future play den in our faces, it was time to say goodbye to our friends. Sometimes parting feels like nothing but sorrow =(

Church time! South East Christian Church is such a fantastic church, I really want everyone to experience it. Not just the fact that it's a large church with a lot of modern technical equipment, but just how normal it is to go to church in the Louisville community (and at large, the whole country I guess). 

The atmosphere is so different at home, where going to church on a Sunday morning is considered weird and always comes along with incorrect assumptions next day at work when you talk about how the weekend was and mention a church visit. I wish that I could say "I went to church yesterday" and the next comment would be "oh nice, was the sermon good?" or something to that effect. Oh well, there are downsides to all cultures and nations I guess, including Sweden.

Our weekend in Louisville was far better than I could have asked for, even though I didn't get to meet all my friends there (how dare you be out of town Mr Gossett!??). It's difficult looking back now, because I wonder if we'll be able to match the past weekend during our trip with other experiences or if it's all downhill from here. I'm sure we'll have many amazing experiences during the rest of our trip, but just to reiterate, I had a great time and feel sad to leave it behind.

On the road...

I'm blogging from my phone instead of my laptop this time around. We're on the road  to discover yet another place.
I love the fact that I can blog, chat, upload photos, and just simply be online at all times. It's all possible thanks to HolidayPhone. Without their service, we would all be offline and these 9 hour long drives between cities would indescribably boring! The fact that I've got unlimited calls within the United States for the whole month is just a brilliant piece of icing on the cake.

We haven't yet needed to place any calls between the four of us, but considering how well the internet connection works, I'm sure it'll work fantastically when we do need it. The fact that we've got the option of reaching each other so easily just baffles me, since I've been on many trips and always assume that you can't reach anyone without "paying out the wazoo".

Pontus called his parents this morning and they were gladly surprised to hear his voice.

Bottom line: if you're thinking of spending some time in a different country, then always visit HolidayPhone first to get your foreign SIMcard. Everything is better when you have access  to the internet \o/

Http://www.holidayphone.se

Burnt on the 4th of July

My post about DC starts off in the evening of the previous post. We arrived to the Fairfield Inn after 18:00 and were all very impressed with the hotel. It was beautiful and the guy (Evan) at the front desk was very accomodating. He pointed out that they offer complimentary dinner, which we enjoyed immensely, after such a long ride.
After dinner we restocked on Mountain Dew and candy, and then it was time to hit the gym. The other boys (Dan and Tomasz) had already visited the gym in Jersey City, but they weren't satisfied with what it had offered. This time the gym had most of what you'd need, including free weights. I was so enticed by the treadmill that I joined them in their workout.

It was a brand new day and we found ourselves enjoying quite a healthy breakfast for a change. Every morning had meant sugar and fat and a bit of sugar on top of that, but this hotel offered oat meal, scrambled eggs and some kind of beef with salsa. Very nice!
We had decided that DC is small enough to cover on foot, so we left the car in the parkinglot and walked the 10km to the National Mall. I timed it pretty well (if I may say so) because we arrived 5minutes before the fourth of July parade started along Constitution avenue, in front of the White House.

The parade was impressive, started off by showing all 5 branches of US military aligned perfectly. We saw a lot of interesting floats, including a group of old classic cars (what we refer to as "yanks") and an actual "beautyqueen". The whole thing is a bit surreal to a Swede, since we don't have parades like that, especially not with someone standing on a piedestal where the only accomplishments are her looks...unless she's Lucia obviously -_-.

The heat during the parade  was excruciating. Standing in a sea of people didn't make the situation better. One by one, the boys fell away from the front line of the audience to take cover in the shade, but I fought on against our Lord's mighty sun in the sky in hopes to maybe seeing miss maryland again, but mostly because I felt I wanted to honor every participant in the parade by recognizing their contribution. It was very moving to see a very large group of hispanics dance around in some kind of traditional garb, because you could see how proud they were to be a part of it all.

After two loong hours, the parade ended, and I tried to walk over to the shade. Then I remembered that I'm walking around with an injured knee. Standing still in the same spot for 2 hours is NOT a great idea >_<. I could hardly balance my weight on it when walking around, so I limped over to the tree the guys were hanging around and parked my ass on the grass. It was wonderful to get some relief from the pain, but in the words of Arrested Development I thought "I've made a huge mistake". You see, I was _VERY_ sweaty. The pants (yes, I don't like shorts!) were very thin pants. What happened when I sat down? The otherwise loose thin pants came into contact with the skin and when I stood up, it looked like I had wet my pants =(. Not the greatest look when you have to walk around among other people.

We walked around in the National Mall and enjoyed seeing all the monuments (including The White House from far away, through cameras with 20x zoom) at the same time as we felt like we were burning up. The delicate swedish skin was NOT prepared for this kind of  sun, so we were all whining about the heat, even though nobody wanted the rain to show up, since that would've been worse.

The last stop was the Lincoln memorial. After that, we all decided to go back to the hotel to get away from the heat, and to rest our sore feet (from all the walking...). I just requested a small stop before we took a taxi back to the fairfield and that was at a certain clothing store that I knew would carry the kind of thin pants I needed as a replacement for the ones I was  wearing. H & M !! Tomasz was not too pleased with visiting the store. Apparently he feels that shopping at said store is beneath him, I mean "who buys at Hennes & Mauritz anyway!? It's all cheap crap!!" he exclaimed, wearing shorts he bought at walmart -_-.
Sadly, I didn't get what I was looking for, they didn't have pants in my size, so I had to endure the indignity of buying a pair of shorts. I am just simply not comfortable wearing shorts, but I accepted defeat and picked up a pair.

A surprisingly cheap taxiride later, and  we're all relaxing in the hotel pool....well, I say everyone,  but Tomasz went to the gym straight away. He stopped however after about 10min, not feeling the motivation. Instead, he went outside to enjoy the fireworks. We all got out of the pool and checked it out. For us however, the comfort from the heated pool won, and we jumped back in to nurse our bodies back to health for the next day's coming adventure - a 9 hour trip to Louisville, Kentucky!

ps, sorry, on a sketchy wifi-connection, will add photos later. Please do come by later to check them!

Went back in time

Our first day with a bit of driving has arrived, our road trip can truly begin! By using the lovely service from Google called "Latitude", I can retrieve a map from our driving, which is sort of somewhat accurate. You can see on the picture below that it doesn't update evenly throughout the day, but it's still nice to get a general idea of where we've driven/walked. I won't add the screenshot to every post, but might add it from time to time.

The driving went well, 3 of all travellers (myself included) got to drive and we got to find out what it feels like when your organs are trying to escape your body through your ribcage! Twice!! You see, Pontus isn't as used to driving an automatic as the rest of us. A casual reminder from me that he needs to hit the brake with his right foot as usual and never move his left leg just wasn't enough. When he needed to stop at a red light after driving for a while, he put his hand on the shift lever and pushed down on the pedal furthest to the left, instinctively assuming it was the clutch. Suffice to say, we reacted strongly =). It didn't happen a third time, which was appreciated by all travellers, including the driver himself.

Our first stop along the route toward Delaware was Philadelphia where I had  scheduled for us to check out "The Liberty Bell". I still don't know its significance, because we mistakenly took the Independence Hall tour instead. I'm thrilled that we did though, because we got to listen to an enthusiastic guide talk about seemingly what he loves most, early american history. I just looved listening to him talk about myths and facts, and how they intertwine in historic events, even happenings so recent as the history of this young nation (come back when you've existed for over a millenia US :p). It was a wonderful tour and we were fine with missing out on seeing "The liberty bell", whatever it is =).
After the fascinating history lesson, we wanted to experience an event that was even more recent - the site of the Rocky recording (as well as musicvideo for Will Smith's "Freakin' it" http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24xxd_will-smith-freakin-it_music&start=203 ), the steps up toward the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We even recorded a video of Pontus and myself running up the stairs, but as I'm writing this, we're in the process of checking out of our washington Hotel and the time just isn't there to even find a suitable place to upload the video, much less edit it. You will all have to be content with seeing this photo

With Philly behind us (and without even eating "a philly cheesesteak"!!) we went on a hunt for something that in hindsight might be a bit embarrasing, but still a necessary part of this grand journey. We wanted to see some Amish folk. We drove westward, to Lancaster county, with the hopes of experiencing that old community. We left Philly 2 hours behind schedule, so all the touristy places regarding amish (buying quilts, riding a buggy, etc) would be closed, but we had high hopes anyway. After driving for an hour and a half, we started seeing farms around us and figured they must belong to the Amish, but they all seemed to have vanished. We entered Lancaster city and aimlessly drove around for 30min before giving up and started driving southeast, toward delaware.
But after driving for a few min, Dan shouted out "arhlghaahl take a right !!" in his best Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation. When we were driving around in Lancaster, he had been searching on google for where we might spot the kind people still stuck in the 18th century. The driver adhered to his directions and we drove further and further into the countryside. When the website Dan had found told us to drive onto a small winding road, I had my doubts that our expensive car would hold up to the challenge, but alas, we got results! Pontus shrieked out "ay-mish" and pointed fervently to the left of the car. No cameras were ready, but we knew we were on the right path. The small road opened up to corn fields, and all of a sudden, they were there. Grownups working with scythes and picking things up with their hands instead of using tractors, all wearing very simple clothes with big hats (albeit, not Julia Roberts "pretty woman"-big >_< ). We got our photos and left Pennsylvania behind, with a big relief.

We got a better photo with Dan's camera, but my laptop wont accept his cardreader =/

We arrived late in Rehoboth, Delaware and checked into our little hotel. I was expecting a small little place that wouldn't offer much more than a bed and a bathroom. Boy was I surprised! It was very nice considering how hurried I was when booking it. I just went for the cheapest hotel I could find in rehoboth with only 5 days notice, and it was great! We started  off by diving into the pool, which was still open even though we arrived after 23:00 (11pm for those so inclined).

Our stay in Delaware was short, which was expected. We arrived late, left early (after I had finished writing on a certain blog) and went down to the beach with our luggage in the car. Getting to swim in the atlantic, IE on the east coast, was a wonderful experience, something I had never done before even though I have been to the states 8 times before this trip, with 3 visits to New York and 1 to Orlando, FL. We were however very surprised to see the amount of beachgoers. You see, it was pouring down outside and expected the beach to be basically empty, but in the rain, it had more people than Fria Bad has on a sunny day! We had a lot of fun, and jumped back into the car all sandy and sunburned. 

A beautiful 2h drive through Delaware and Maryland had us arrive in the capital around 20:00. More on DC on the next post though...