Beuna Vista, Colorado - Day 16 & 17

Another long drive today to get to Beuna Vista. Out intention initially was to camp in Gunnison, however, when we arrived and saw the campsite we decided "thanks but no thanks" What a shit hole!

We took a scenic drive through Gunnison National Forrest and happened upon a river called Taylor River which runs alongside the road we were driving on. We found a small "National" Campsite which was right next to the river and decided to camp there for the night. In these National campsites there are no amenities, just long drop toilets. We chose our site and started to set up camp BUT, now our damn pump for the mattress wasn't working and there was no way we could sleep on the rocky ground. So we packed up everything and headed for Buena Vista.

We got to the campsite and borrowed one of our fellow campers' cars to use their ciggie lighter (Kim being the bright spark that she is realised that it wasn't the pump that was broken but rather the fuse in the car)

We decided to stay here for 2 nights as we really had a cool site up in the mountains tucked behind some rocks for protection from the icy wind. Was nice to just chill out, breath in the cool mountain air and more importantly some much needed washing! ( Now that we were back into our warm clothes and having worn our summer stuff more than 4 times!!!!)

We've taken loads of pics of the landscape which we won't bore you with, we're only going to put a small selection on the blog.

It's hard to describe the absolute beauty of the Rocky Mountains, and our pictures certainly won't capture the true beauty, tranquility, surreal, large, vast and ever changing shapes.

Alamosa, Colorado - Day 15

Arrived quite late after a long drive. Chili with beans for supper, Kimmy had a bottled Margarita. We've discovered that not only is our tent NOT water tight, it doesn't retain any heat either. Kimmy woke up a few times to the sound of her teeth clattering and has somehow managed to hurt her knee trying to maintain the foetal position in her sleeping bag. . We're off to Walmart to find Kimmy a pair of trakkie pants to sleep in.

Elk City - Oklahoma - Day 14

We decided on a long drive to Elk City (422 miles) because we'd like to get to Colorodo ASAP. Nothing much to report, but the Arkansas countryside is all that they say it is (the state motto is "The Natural State") Open, vast farm land with red barns sparley populating the landscape.

Travelling west across Oklahoma, the terrain has changed dramatically. Dry arid flat land - windy and in summary fairly misarable. The conditions here have made up our minds to push on even further from Elk City to Allamosa, Colorado. Another 533 miles later, this time on the famed Route 66. American nostalgia personified. This part of the journey was littered with middle 20th Century billboards and towns clnging onto the 'good ol days" where this route was the only way across the states before the construction of the Interstae Highways.

The Route 66 museaum is a restored replica of how things used to be and a little further down the road some bright spark decided to bury 12 caddilacs (each one model aprt from 1955 - 1967) half way into the ground. For some reason this has become a national landmark.

The drive to Allamosa has taken us through 4 states, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and into Colorado crossin a time zone

Hot Springs, Arkansas - Days 12 & 13

We've now got into the routine of looking for KOA campsites. Kaven, we owe you a case of beer bud - eternally grateful for your inside info.

Hot Springs is beautiful, best campsite so far, with rolling forested hills for mills. We've decided to stay an extra night. We had our first braai: steak, foiled tatties and canned mielies! An extra day allowed for some touristy bits and we learned that this town was built on a volcanic site as a "European Styled" bathing centre for the American elite. The likes of Al Capone and US Olympic Athletes used to frequent this little town. It's also the boyhood home of former President Bill Clinton (which they proudly paste on billboards across town)

There's a pool here in the campsite and WIFI, so we've had the luxury of recovering from the average 32 degrees with occasional dips. Kim is regaining her natural golden brown after her 6 years of being a pasty Pom!

Memphis, Tennessee - Day 11

Up early again, our destination, Memphis Tennessee via Vicksburg and the mighty Mississippi River. About 240 miles in total today.
Vicksburg is where the first Coca Cola was bottled and sold for public consumption, there is a little museum, but being 7:30 in the morning wasn't open.Vicksburg is also where we we got our first sight of the Mississippi River, and it's huge. It snakes all the way along the west side of the state and crosses 11 more states.

On to Memphis, Tennessee, home of Elvis Presley. Our campsite is shit to say the least, it's right next to the Interstate (highway) like camping on the N1 in Jo'burg.

Went to bed early and up early, into town to go and find Graceland. We both decided not to pay to go in as neither of us are really big Elvis fans, none the less good to see the spot. we were also the youngest people there!

Meridian, Mississippi - Day 10

From Lillian, Alabama we went to Meridian Mississippi, which is about 195 miles north. Nothing too memorable to report, other then we have our little routine going now. Obviously Kim is master and chief of the campsite with peter relegated to making coffee and packing. We'll give you a quick glimpse into our eating habits so far: Coffee when we wake up, Cereal and milk after driving for a couple of hours. Lunch is a slice of bread with peanut butter and jam. Dinner consists of a beer and camping mush, Spaghetti and Meatballs with half a can of carrots and half a can of peas! YUMMY

Lillian, Alabama - Day 9

Woke up early and remembered that Kaven who we met in NY told us about KOA (Kamp of America) which apparently has campsites across the US. Managed to locate one in Lillian, Alabama (about 194 miles from Tallahassee)

Finally we can camp! We were both so excited at being able to put up our little tent, kick back, have a beer and watch the sun set. We caused quite a stir here, all the RV campers thought it highly amusing that we were staying in this little tent, and we didn't have air con (its about 30 degrees today)

Made Hot dogs fro dinner and hit the sack early, didn't have a choice really because it started raining, then the lightning and thunder started and then the torrential downpour! By this stage we realised that our cheap ass tent was NOT water Tight! We had a cooking pot in each corner of the tent which we had to empty every 20mins! Felt like we were in a sinking boat. After a restless nights sleep, we woke up at about 5.30 to catch the sunrise. All our RV campers who were laughing at us the night before were now in histerics at our sorry state of a tent!!

The RV Guys we met here were unbelievably friendly and enthralled at our round the world trip. All were happy to part with advise, cell numbers in case of emergencies.

Tallahasse, Florida - Day 8

What a disaster, Our Morning started by us being locked in our Motel. Peter "McGuyver" Kowalski promptly pulled out his leatherman to see if he could fix the jammy lock - clearly that didn't work and we had to get our Indian hosts to let us out through the room next door.

We had to get to Tampa airport to swap cars, on route we realised we needed to get cash out to pay for the one way drop off fee (normally we would use the credit card for this, we know how that ended) Anyway, tried to use my UK debit card and Natwest being as vigilant as they are stopped my card because they thought it had been stolen. We tried calling them with no luck, we finally spoke to a lady at the airport hotel who suggested we buy a phone card - GENIUS - At this stage we are penniless, late dropping of the car and late picking the other car up. Finally got hold of Natwest, sorted everything out, drew cash out and on the way back to the car....oh no....lost the car keys!! So back down into the airport and find the police desk and our Car Keys!

We Finally got onto the road in our Mid Size Chevy SUV, car full of supplies and we're on our way to Tallahassee.

We got into Tallahassee at about 7pm thinking we had left ourselves enough time to find a spot to cap, here our inexperience showed. All campsites actually mean RV'S only. By this time it was too late and booked ourselves into yet ANOTHER Motel.

Tampa, Florida - Day 6 & 7

Picked up a car to get us from Miami to Tampa, about a 4h30min drive, we got in late and stayed in a really crappy Motel. Next day we went to a superstore called Target to buy our camping gear (blew the daily budget!!) Peter managed to find an Irish Pub that was showing the Champions League Final. The place was rammed with Yanks, mostly Man U supporters, weird thing was that they weren't wearing Man U or Chelsea shirts, they were wearing England Shirts.....phantoms! Needless to say to we had a very happy boy with the Man U Victory. Our only comments on the game.......Drogba and Terry......couldn't have happened to two nicer guys! post meeting note: We figured out later that the owners of ManU (the Glazier family) are also the owners of the Tampa Bay Bucaneers - hence the affinity to ManU.

Days 4-6 - Florida Keys to Maimi

After the highs of New York, we left for FL early Sunday morning and flew into Ft Lauderdale. We were meeting up with Gems in Marathon (Florida Keys) It took us FOREVER to get there, being the budget travelers that we are, we took buses all the way there, it took us about 8 hours. We went through some really dodgy areas too, we did feel a little unsafe at times...
We stayed at a resort called Tranquility Bay (www.tranquilitybay.com check out their site!), which was a world apart from the Dodgeville that we had just traveled through! Really relaxed, just chilled by the pool, soaked up some rays, then Gems and I did what we do best together and proceeded to get smashed!
Woke up slightly worse for wear yesterday morning.

Basher, dessert pictured here is apparently an award wining dish that comes from these parts. It's called a Key Lime Pie and it's up there with your Gran's Lemon Meringue!

Still struggling to get our pictures uploaded, most internet places don't allow you to download pics, so be patient...

Day 3 - NYC

We met Forry & Kerry who coincidentally were staying just a few blocks from us in West Manhatten. A quick subway journey took us downtown to Ground Zero - unnerving and eerie to say the least, the empty space where the twin towers used to be. The black slender building to the right is the Hilton Tower (40 odd storey's high) and is half the size of the old Twin Towers that should be in the void to the left.

We had booked a helicopter flight a weeks prior to arriving and were nervous about the crappy weather but, Forry tells me he had a word with the guy up statirs and we were greeted with a glorious sunny day pefect for viewing out of the flimsy chopper. 12-15 minutes is all we got but it was well worth the trip as it gave us an idea of the true vast size of the city. Central park is about the size of Cape Town!

A picnic to Central park was next: We met up with Kerry's friend Ali and her other half Kaven. The park added to our positive opinion - it's huge, beautiful, loads of fitness fanatic running, cycling, families picnicking and generally soaking up the sun Forry had kindly arranged. After a long day we settled for a few Margharita's and Mexican - Yanks do not to do small! the food portions are like the cars - LARGE!

Day 2 - New York City

At the Apple store on 5th Avenue but still can't get any photo's on our blog so a text update will have to do. Landed at JFK yesterday and after all the horror stories and my battle for a US visa it took us all of 20minutes to get through customs and immigration. The customs official took a fancy to Kim, I stepped aside and the rest was plain sailing....Kimmy is now our dedicated 'sweet-talker' at any immigration post for the rest of the journey!

The STA recommended accommodation is dodgy to say the least but the spectacular light display through Broadway and Time square last night has already made up for it. The night life and friendly buzz have won us both over - we both agree that NY would be a great place to live for a few years.

Hot soup and a deli sarnie in an all night deli (there's one on every corner!) sorted us out for the evening. Got to sleep at 11ish and were both up this morning at 5.30am - bright eyed and bushy tailed!! P*ssing with rain today but should hopefully be clearing up for Forry's arrival later today. Off to go buy something warmer to wear.

Will try get some pics on as soon as we can.

Farewell London

Wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you who made it out on Saturday. Turned out to be quite an emotional evening - think the tequila might have had something to do with it. Thank you all for the awesome send off and amazing present.

We have a bunch of photo's from the evening but the internet terminal here at Heathrow won't allow access to our flash drive so will post them when we find a Cafe in New York.

We'll miss you all - see you in Cape Town

Welcome to our Blog

All that was left in our little Cottage in East once everything was packed and shipped back to SA. Kim never got to meet Tom Cruise after 3 years of being neighbours (she is better off with me anyway......I'm taller)

Our 1st stop will be on Poland's Baltic coastline to visit the site where I scattered my dad's ashes 8 years ago. We fly to New York City on the 15th May and from then on we'll be driving through the States and Canada for a couple of months. Then off to Fiji, NZ and Aus (where Mac is going to buy me loads of beers for the sh*t I've been through with US immigration). Bali, Singapore and Hong Kong will be next - then overland back to Singapore via Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam & Thailand. Final leg will be to Cape Town on the 19th Dec where we would have covered at least 29000miles (as the crow flies) around the world. No doubt we'll be meandering most of the way so it may be a few miles more.

An enormously big thank you from both of us to all of you who have been part of our UK adventure. A new one beckons, and we'll be keeping you posted via this blog about the interesting things and people we experience along the way.

We'll miss all our London friends and we look forward to renewing friendships in sunny Cape Town.

Pete & Kimmy