20th August 1996 Polson. Montana
375 Miles.
Got up very early and drove into Calgary for about 10:30 a.m. It’s a really nice city, and reminded me of Sydney for some reason. Quite a strong Country-music theme to it though. We parked up and collected a huge haul of mail from the P.O. (for a change). It was nice to get so much, and we read our letters over coffee and muffins.
We wandered around the city for about two and half-hours before driving over the US border. A really sunny drive over plains, passing through small towns. I tried to get my Canadian sales tax-back at the border, but I hadn’t bought anything expensive enough to allow it!
We crossed over without event and drove into Glacier National Park. It started off OK but as we got higher into the mountains, the cloud came down and it got wetter. Very wet in fact. Visibility was low, so we ploughed on, and on, and on, and eventually decided we had to stop! I think we tried to drive too far.
Shame the weather wasn’t good as Glacier park looked fantastic. We were both pretty "mountained out" though after Alaska and Canada. Time for a change of scene…
Dibs wasn’t well with bad tonsils, so we checked into a motel called the Cherry Tree. $50 for a couple of nights in the nice little town of Polson, right next to a huge lake.
21st August 1996
Sat writing, reading and watching TV (all 50 channels). Nice and sunny outside. Dibs still wasn’t feeling very well so we decided to rest for a day. I checked my bank statement (which I’d received in Calgary) to find the Las Vegas Hilton had overcharged me! I got onto them and sorted it out on the phone. Dibs rested, I had a little drive and a wander in town – pretty quiet. We wrote lots of letters and got pretty much up to date with all our correspondence.
22nd August 1996 Gardiner, Wyoming.
329 Miles.
Hit the road around 10:30 a.m. after a good day of rest yesterday. Dibs was still ill but improving. It was hot and sunny all day long. We drove through the dry yellow hills of Montana – quite a change from the usual scenery, arriving at the edge of the famous Yellowstone National Park in the early evening. We decided to camp outside the park for the night. The campground was OK - $16.64 per night and the town of Gardiner is small and pleasant. We camped between a carload of Dutch lads and some German youths, so a quiet evening was out of the question!
23rd August 1996 Tower Fall, Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.
176 Miles.
A superb day out in the park. We started early and set-up camp at a nice little site at around 9:30 am. We drove around the park roads all day, stopping off at many interesting sites, covering around 150 miles. We saw lots of Buffaloes and Elks, some of them quite close up. Early in the morning we drove near to a huge mother and calf to photograph and she charged at our car!
There’s lots of geo-thermal stuff in the park, which is interesting – bubbling mud, sulphur pools, geysers, etc. It’s a great place to visit. Very full of tourists, but that’s understandable.
We saw "Old Faithful", the famous geyser, which "went off" while we were there, erupting high into the air.
The people watching at Yellowstone was also pretty good with so many nationalities and different Americans (even those ones with the funny beards who marry ten sisters!). The landscape was varied – rolling hills and slow flowing rivers to steep canyons and cliffs.
We ate late and felt tired after a full day out.
24th August 1996 Cody, Wyoming.
107 Miles.
It was a hot day, well into the 90’s by mid morning, and we felt it. We left the park camp quite early but it took ages to pass through some roadworks on the main road out. Good job we left early. We drove through the Waupti valley, very much like the scenery we’d seen in Utah earlier in the trip. We got to Cody around lunchtime and we were surprised as to how nice it was. We had originally decided to go further today, but decided to stay.
Cody was the home of the legendary "Buffalo Bill". It’s full of history, with an old-time traditional feeling to it. There was a nightly Rodeo advertised so we decided we’d take the opportunity to see it.
The campsite in town was OK, but quite busy with lots of RVs. After pitching the tent we stocked up on supplies at the supermarket and got some things from "Wal-Mart". Dibs did some laundry and we showered up and changed for a night out. We got a couple of steaks on the BBQ and made a tasty salad. A lovely evening and it cooled down nicely.
The rodeo started at 8:30 pm. and was excellent entertainment. It cost us $11 each for a seat in the "Buzzards Roost", which is the area where the riders start. We saw all of the rodeo types – horses, bulls, lassoing and it was all very exciting with quite a good atmosphere.
25th August 1996 Deadwood, South Dakota.
353 Miles.
We woke early thanks to some old duffer revving up his RV at 6:45 for 30 minutes. We drove along Highway 14A across the Bighorn range. Definitely the steepest, highest and most spectacular drive to date. It was quite unexpected, but the mountain range – dry desert style landscape – just popped up out of the flat land and just kept going up. We went up and up and up to around 9200 feet and then down-down-down to the valley beyond. It was a great drive but hard work on the car engine and brakes. The brakes were nearly on-fire at some stages and we stopped quite a lot to take in views and give the poor beast a rest.
The weather was hot and dry and the whole area was very arid, but started to get lusher as we drove on, then continuing on to more semi-arid landscape, with a bit more humidity.
We got to Deadwood at around 5:00 pm. and decided to stay the night. It’s quite a historical old "gold town", full of old buildings, and somewhat spruced up and restored as a tourist stop. Cowboy hats and Casinos everywhere.
We pitched up out of town at the KOA campsite ($15.75) and ate some boring tinned chilli and pasta before heading into town on the "free" courtesy bus. I say free in quotes because everywhere – repeat – everywhere in America a tip is expected. All over the bus were reminders of how the driver appreciates tips. To be honest he was quite nice, and the trip was quick, but he pissed me off by insisting I was an Australian. I gave him a small tip after arguing I was English for five minutes. Not that I have any problems with Australians, but the fact that some people are adamant that they know an accent pisses me off.
Anyway, we walked around Deadwood and had a few cheap drinks in a couple of bars full of a mix of tourists and dubious hillbilly boy types. We also saw a re-enactment of the shooting of "Wild Bill Hicock" (which was quite good fun) in another bar, spent $1 on the slots and then jumped on the "free" bus back to camp.
26th August 1996 Ogallala, Nebraska.
431 Miles.
A long day. We got away around 9:30 a.m. and drove to Mount Rushmore. What can I say? – Awesome! Just as I’d imagined but probably better. The perfect weather helped and we both really enjoyed it. We also looked at Crazy Horse Memorial, which is in progress of being sculpted. Both are immense feats of carving. I think Crazy Horse was going to take another ten years to finish.
We headed up to Rapid City and after lunch drove through the "Badlands". Very different, eerie scenery, very quiet and again, very interesting. We stopped at the odd spot and had a walk around. Very spooky and very quiet.
We continued on down through South Dakota and into Nebraska. The rugged hills soon turned into rolling hills with lots of grazing cattle, wheat fields and fields packed full of stunning sunflowers.
I stopped for petrol at a remote filling station and some local Native-American looking youth popped out and started talking to me. He was looking at my car and saying, "I’m sure this is my car". He reckoned his car had been nicked a while ago and that my car was his. I wasn’t sure if he was serious, on drugs, or what. I tried to keep him entertained, but left quickly as soon as his back was turned.
There was very little else, hardly and towns or a settlement of any description, and it was nice to have chosen a quite off-the-beaten track route. The grassy hills made it feel like home a little.
We saw hardly any cars on the way, and stopped to view a beautiful sunset before arriving at the first big town – Ogallala. It got dark around 7:30 pm. We checked into a cosy motel for $45 per night and ate some sandwiches.
27th August 1996 Scott Lake, Kansas
239 Miles.
Slept well and had a great breakfast at a diner near the motel. A real American feast. We drove for most of the day bar a stop at North Pathe to post some letters and stock up on food. The scenery was flat, endless fields and lots of cows. We got to the only campsite we could find on the map (in a small National park) in the late afternoon and had the place to ourselves.
It was a nice little spot next to a river. We had a good walk around the park in the evening, which was warm and quite humid and settled down to a noisy night in the tent – insects galore.
28th August 1996 Perryton, Texas
227 Miles.
We drove into Dodge City to see the old town and visit the Boot Hill museum. It was very interesting and there was hardly anyone there. Quite a lot of history in the town, although it’s a huge sprawling mess now. We spent a couple of hours there and the drove on through a bit of Oklahoma and into Texas.
We stopped at a great friendly, cheap motel ($23 per night) and went to a funny traditional-style drive-in for dinner. Burgers, fries and shakes all round.
29th August 1996 Decataur, Texas.
322 Miles.
A long driving day through flat landscape. The temperature was high and it’s getting quite humid now we are getting towards the south. On the way we stopped at the town of "Wheeler – Texas". I couldn’t resist a look around this tiny place and took a few photos with the sign and town hall behind me!
We stopped at Decataur and paid $25 for a cheap and nasty hotel by the highway. We watched "The Net" on HBO (the film channel) in the evening while we cooled down. Nothing much to report about Decataur. Lots of dodgy dealings seem to be going on around the motel, and every time I popped out there was a different set of cars there!
30th August 1996 Bunke, Louisiana.
298 Miles.
We watched a huge electric storm last night – a real tropical downpour followed it. Hit the road fairly early and another long day behind the wheel. We drove through Dallas and Fort Worth today, both huge cities with huge multi-lane highways through them, and on into Louisiana.
The countryside became lush with lots of cotton fields and sugar-cane. A majority of black people and huge old Victorian Plantation Houses. Very much like I imagined the "Deep South" would be. It also became quite swampy the further we got into Louisiana, and the weather started to get more tropical. Rain one minute, sunshine the next.
On the way I got pulled over by a Highway patrolman. He just drove behind us then put his lights on and indicated we should pull over. We were a bit nervous at first, especially when I saw him unbutton his gun holster as he approached the car. When he got to the window he said, "Get out of the ve-hi-cle" – just like that bloke on "Live and Let’s Die", the James Bond film! When Dibs tried to get out he shouted "Maam – you STAY in the vehicle – I did NOT tell you to MOVE"!
Anyway, he questioned me quite a bit, but after I’d told him where we were from, what we were doing etc, and generally gave him the "Happy Englishman" act, he was very friendly and we chatted with him for ages. He’d pulled me over for "driving over the median line" – whatever that means!?
I all ended up with him saying "Well – I ain’t gonna spoil your vacation – y’all have a safe and happy time now"!
In general I found all the people in the South very friendly, courteous and always happy to chat. The motels we had stayed in Texas were very welcoming.
We got off the highway onto back-roads and it was a real treat (i.e.. – much more of the above). Quite a "time stood still" feeling. We couldn’t find anywhere to stay for a while, but eventually found a really nice place at Bunke – a small town – for $33 per night.
I was suffering from a very sore throat – must have been something to do with the change of climate?
31st August 1996 New Orleans, Louisiana
148 Miles.
We drove on to New Orleans and managed to get a room in "fully booked" New Orleans eventually. We stayed at the "Old World Inn". Although it seemed expensive at $50 per night for a room and shared bathroom, it was a very nice, traditional place to stay. Quite old and charming with parking and a free breakfast, and a stones throw away from the French Quarter (well, about 10 minutes walk)
We had a nap on arrival and then walked into the French Quarter. Just as I’d imagined but probably bigger. Lots of bars, restaurants and entertainment, combined with plenty of history and lovely architecture.
We walked and walked all afternoon, sizing the place up, and then ate fast food and drank a bottle of Bass, before heading back to the Inn.
New Orleans is very lively and one of the best cities I’ve visited. People seem to go there to party and the result is a great (if a little boozy) atmosphere. Different types of music is played in different bars, most of it live, and people generally walk the streets with their drinks with no apparent restrictions. The people watching opportunities are great.
I was surprised at the amount of gays in New Orleans – loads of them – and not afraid to advertise the fact either.
1st September 1996
We decided to have a bit of a blow out day. After a lie in and late start we wandered down to the waterfront to view the mighty Mississippi River and the majestic steamboats. It was an intensely humid day, so everything was done at a very slow pace. We had "Po boys" for lunch, which are nice baked sort of baguette things, and then wandered back into the French Quarter. We had drinks in the courtyard of the famous "Pat O’ Briens" bar, reputedly the oldest in the U.S.A. Very "New Orleans" and I enjoyed the local cocktail – "The Hurricane". It would have been rude not to.
We also spent some time in a bar watching some live music, drinking more alcohol, and getting quite merry.
I found out that the reason for the large contingent of gays in something called "Southern Decadence", a once a year gay get-together. It was quite entertaining to head to the end of town where they were having their party. Very camp.
We finished off the day in a seafood restaurant where I had Gumbo and Dibs had a huge platter of Shrimps, which were both delicious. We chatted for quite a while to a friendly man from Charleston, South Carolina, and got back to the Inn at around 9:00 after a free ride on the streetcar.
It felt good to have a splash out on big meals and booze after such a long abstinence!
We struggled to get to sleep, as it was so humid.
2nd September 1996
For some reason I woke with a groin strain! Don’t know how I managed that, but it was painful.
After breakfast we took the St Charles streetcar to Aubon Park and walked through it and around the surrounding suburbs for quite some time. It was another sticky one, with high temperature and high humidity.
The suburbs around Aubon Park were reasonably rich and some of the architecture was excellent. One thing I liked about American homes was that a lot proudly have the "Stars and Stripes" flying outside.
We eventually got back to the French Quarter and had a huge slap-up lunch in a traditional Cajun restaurant. The portions were massive.
By the time we got back to the hotel later in the day we were exhausted and rested until it was dark.
3rd September 1996 Memphis, Tennessee
376 Miles.
We drove up through swamplands along good highways to Memphis. Although we covered a lot of miles, the good quality straight-as-a-die roads made it a reasonably quick journey.
When we got to Memphis we got a little bit lost, and ended driving into an "area we shouldn’t be in". Battered wooden housing, pot-holed streets with some desperate looking people walking around, or sitting on their front porch staring into space. It was a very poor area and looked quite dangerous. Had we not been in our battered old Oldsmobile, we may have got more unwanted attention. Only when we stopped at a junction for some girls to stop did they stand and stare at us. I didn’t see a white face – and I’m not racist, but it felt scary.
We eventually got our bearings and ended up staying at a large but very tatty motel.
4th September 1996 Jasper, Alabama.
225 Miles.
We got an early start and were in Gracelands by 09:00 am. It wasn’t too busy and we opted for the $17 "platinum" ticket, which gave us entry to everything. We toured the "Elvis museum", visited the "Cars of Elvis museum", and looked in the "Elvis aeroplane museum", etc, etc before finally heading into Gracelands itself for a tour. To be honest, it was excellent! Quite tacky, but not as bad as I’d though and quite touching in many ways. We spent about five hours there in total. Everything was very organised and secure, and my only disappointment was that we couldn’t see more of the house itself, but them maybe Elvis is still in there??! Most of the visitors seemed to be English, and some people even turned up in Elvis gear! We saw plenty and enjoyed it a lot.
Afterwards we had a quick look around Memphis itself before driving on into Alabama. We stopped in a cheap ($26) but OK motel for the night in the town of Jasper.
5th September 1996 Micanopy, Florida.
431 Miles.
We drove through Alabama and into Georgia, passing through the large city of Birmingham, and keeping a wide birth of Atlanta (the Olympics were on and we knew it would be mayhem). The landscape was generally sparse and flat, with lots of cotton fields. Still very hot and humid.
We drove and drove until quite late, then pulled off the highway into a motel for the night.
6th September 1996 Ft Lauderdale, Florida.
230 Miles.
We drove deeper into Florida, which soon became more populated, and eventually non-stop concrete. We arrived in Ft Lauderdale in the afternoon and found our way to Shani, who is staying at with friend, Camilla, in a great apartment in "Wilton Manors". We spent the afternoon catching up on things and story telling by the pool.
9th September 1996
I’ve been a bit slack on the diary over the last few days. What is there to report…? We visited the largest outlet mall (whatever that is) in the World, Sawgrass Mills, and purchased a couple of bargains.
We drove into Miami for a tour around and one of Shani's contacts (the official photographer) got us free tickets to see the Florida Marlins play baseball. It was a huge stadium and a great experience. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and the fact we had great seats did help.
On Saturday evening we had a night out with Shani and another English girl in exile called Joan. We went to Las Olas Boulevard, which was quite trendy, and supped beers outside in the warm evening air. We also went to a club for a while, which was OK – full of sailors. We spent loads, but it was our first night out in ages.
We booked flights to New York in a few days time for $90 each on Tower Airlines. We packed our rucksacks in preparation for leaving the car and ended up sea-mailing back a couple of boxes of stuff, and giving away some other bits and bobs to Camilla and Shani. It cost us $31 in shipping. It was either that or buy another bag!
I put some ads up for the car and phoned around, getting a bit of interest but nothing near a sale.
10th September 1996 Miami beach, Florida.
22 Miles
We moved out of Ft Lauderdale and drove down the coast to Miami. We booked into the Clay Hotel – a YHA affiliated place right in the art-deco district of Miami Beach (fantastic). $32 per night for a room. Two nights then we’re off to NYC, but the car is still not sold. I was a bit sceptical of booking into a YHA after our "experience" in Anchorage, but the Clay Hotel was well run and much better. Probably one of the best hostels we’d ever stayed in. We even had a fridge in the room!
We tried for ages to book accommodation in New York, but everything was full. We tried all the hostels and cheap hotels, and eventually got a tip-off from a hotel owner about a new hotel which might have rooms (called the Cosmopolitan). We got a room there for $75 per night (which is cheap for New York). It sounded OK.
The area around Miami Beach is really nice. A mixture of old and new and a very Cuban culture. I was surprised at how many people don’t speak English – only Spanish – even in big shops.
In the evening we wandered along the promenade, which is full of expensive restaurants and expensive, looking people. We ended up eating frozen yoghurt before heading back to the hotel where we had a sandwich and beers on a small balcony watching things going on in the streets below.
11th Sept 1996
52 Miles.
We made a real effort to sell the car today by driving around Miami. Unfortunately the car buyers seemed to be in areas which are definitely unsafe to even get out of the car! Miami is a big city and some of the districts were run-down and dangerous looking – a long sway from South Beach!
We eventually gave up and drove back to Ft Lauderdale, where we’d spoken to a dealer who felt pity on us and said he’d give us $100 if we hadn’t sold it on our last day. Better than nothing I suppose.
As we were driving back there was a strange noise form the engine. The fan belt had broke! Just what we needed. The car still drove and we got back to a car park before it overheated. A bloke in the hostel lent me a wrench and I had a spare belt, but I nearly sweated to death changing it.
So much for getting a good return on the car, but then it has served us well, and I you can’t put a price on the freedom and opportunities it has given us.
We turned up at his yard, and as promised he gave us the $100. We took our licence plates off, signed a few forms, and off we went. I felt a bit sad, but the car had to go.
It was reasonably easy to get back to Miami on trains and buses, although it took a while and was very quite. Some of the stations were dark and dangerous, apart from security guards hanging around. I wouldn’t like to be spending much time on foot in downtown Miami after dark. I mistakenly bought $10 of bus tokens, but will try to change them back somehow.
We got back to South Beach quite late and hit the sack.
12th September 1996 New York City
In the morning I stopped into a little Cuban shop and showed him my excess bus tokens, and he paid me for them without a word! We had a final wander around Miami and then taxied to the airport, which is huge, and spent a while there. Our flight left on time at 17:00. It was OK, no frills as expected, but they gave us a coke, a roll, crisps and a couple of films were shown.
They did confiscate my Bear Spray though. I had to declare it and although they said they might be able to give me it back at the other end, they didn’t. Oh well, better safe than sorry. I’m just glad I never had to use it.
We arrived at Kennedy airport at around 19:30 local time and got a cab into town for $40. Not cheap but quick and hassle free. The cab driver was very entertaining with a very dry sense of humour, which is what I’d imagined a typical New York cabby would be like! The state of the driving had to been seen to be believed. We drove through extremely shabby districts and then over Brooklyn Bridge, where a fantastic night-time panorama of Manhattan welcomed us. After all the bad driving and run down areas it really felt that we were in the Big Apple.
The hotel was a pleasant surprise. Brand new inside and very smart. The room was great and very clean and the area, although a little noisy, seemed OK. It was very busy on the streets.
13th September 1996
We had a late breakfast in an excellent little diner next door to the hotel and then walked… and walked.. and walked. We toured downtown, Soho, Broadway to name a few. We went into the NY Stock Exchange (free) in Wall Street and watched all the action on the trading floor. We also lined up tickets to see a talk show – "The Sally Jessy Raphael" show – and why not?!
New York is big, packed full of people, and noisy, but well worth a visit.
14th September 1996
The weather was near perfect so we made the most of it. It took half a day to get to and get up the Statue of Liberty. We walked to where the boats go from and queued for a boat for ages. When we got there we queued on the stairs and plodded up to the crown and then queued for ages for the boat back! Lots of people but it was definitely worth it and something that had to be done. I couldn’t believe that the status is made from metal plate! The view from the top after 300 odd steps was fantastic.
After the statue we took the subway to Midtown – where all the action is. We wandered around various sites – Macys, Madison Square Gardens, Time Square and the Rockerfella Centre (lots of walking) and then headed up to the top of the Empire State Building. The view was clear and incredible. It’s only when you get up there that you realise just how high up it is.
We got back to the hotel in the evening, grabbed a take-away from the shop next door, and stayed in for the night.
15th September 1996
A typical city Sunday. We walked around the large and beautiful Central Park / Madison Avenue on a sunny, warm day. I liked the "posh" uptown area and although I was sort of expecting to be pestered by tramps and beggars, it didn’t happen. In fact we didn’t really encounter anything like that in New York.
We went to Chinatown in the afternoon for a late lunch of "Dim Sum" – another thing we hadn’t done in ages – not since our final days in London two years ago. Wow - two years of travelling and it was going to end tomorrow!!
Chinatown was packed and Little Italy, next door to it, was even busier as a street festival was going on. It was an annual feast and the streets were just crazy. It took us ages to struggle through hordes of people.
In the evening we went into Greenwich Village, which was very nice. A sort of cafe society place with lots of gays and lesbians. We wandered around and then sat in a street front cafe with a bottle of wine between us and some garlic bread, watching the world go by. A great end to a great Sunday
16th September 1996.
Another long day walking around New York. We took in some more sites and did a bit of shopping and then had an early night, both of us were exhausted!
17th September 1996
Last day! The "Sally" show was OK and was apt, as it pissed it down with rain all day. It was quite amusing to actually sit and watch the show, which included "My Husband beats me" and "My Teenagers are out of control". We got seats right at the front for most of the show, then moved back to a different spot.
I even got entangled in a brawl between a member of the audience and a guest. I was trying to get out of the way more than anything (as they squared up), but sort of ended breaking things up. At least it got me on TV.
We left in the afternoon and went back to the Hotel to collect our bags. We walked to the "World Trade Centre" and got a bus to Newark Airport for our return flight. The airport was fairly quiet and check-in was quick.
We sat in the bar chatting to an English couple, thinking about our two years travelling and our imminent return to England.
Virgin Airlines were great and the flight was comfortable.
Duration : 104 Days.
Car Mileage : 13,733 (approx)
