Lack of wireless has meant no updates for a few days, crap eh! Right now we are staying on the strip in Vegas and the buggers don't have wireless so this is coming to you loud and clear from the Las Vegas Convention Centre :-). We dropped the car off yesterday after driving in over the Hover dam from the Grand Canyon, where we took a helicopter flight over the south rim and got up to watch a magnificent sunrise over the canyon. In all of our photos we look super imposed, it's crazy!

We got chatting to an old biker somewhere along the trip who said we should visit a place called Sedona in Arizona. OH MY GOD! My mouth was ajaw driving down the valley into Sedona. This place was amazing, red rocks, mesa's, we took a red jeep tour up into the hills and thanks to Jack our real life cowboy complete with Colt 44 hand gun, ensured we didn't get mauled by any mountain lions.

Following the mother road, Route 66, we drove over 2,000 miles and through 7 states. The changes in landscape from forest to corn fields to desert is amazing, it almost feels like each state has been divided according to it's geography.

We have moved our flights back a week and cancelled Fiji so we get some more time in the US. After a few days in Vegas we are going to drive to San Fran via Death Valley and Yosemite national park. Anyway, I digress. It's 8am in Vegas and time to hit the shows and casinos. Whoo Hoo bring it on! Tonight we have choices of female jelly wrestling and bikini bull rides and that's just in our hotel!

And in true Vegas style, we both took a Corvette and Hummer for a spin...SWEEET!

posted by Brent at 9:03 PM (0) comments

We made up a little more time today by sticking to the Interstate for a few hours. We did however manage to stop at a local country fair and feast on a corndog. Good lord! This place was actually quite scary :-) In a nice central American kind of way. We came across some old oil wells too which were very cool, some still working. More to be expected as we get into Texas I presume. We are staying at Elk City tonight, there are no Elk and there is no way in hell this is a city. Oh well a nice early start down Route 66 sounds like a plan. I seriously just can't get enough of Route 66 so here are some more photos.

posted by Brent at 2:37 AM (1) comments

Before heading off from St Louis yesterday morning, we had seen on TV that there were Tornados in the area. Cool I say, lets go and see if we can see one. We had lunch at this great little Hickory BBQ place along Rt66 and the staff were saying something about Tornados being 10 miles away. That's all good. We hop in the car and head off. Serena took the video below while we were driving beside Interstate 44, we were thinking the lightning looked mad and the dark clouds, like a pretty serious storm. Just after the video finished, we looked to the left side of the car and there was shit flying in the air. (I mean shit like fence palings, big branches, that kinda of shit!) You know like in the movies. Holy crap I tell ya. We turned around and headed back into the town we had just left. Sirens were blaring so we ducked into a supermaket and waited for the rain and wind to stop. After it looked to have passed, we drove back down the I44 and saw a water tower in the middle of the road, houses and trees ripped up and a semi-trailer over turned. Madness! The forecast for today is more bad weather. We're outta here :-)

Here is a link to the news story.

Serena's Video is below


posted by Brent at 2:03 PM (0) comments

This morning we headed off on Route 66 from Chicago to LA...well ok, just to Vegas. We are staying the night in St Louis, having visited such exciting places and things like Dixies Trucker Diner and the Gemini Giant Astronaut. I tell ya Route 66 has it all. We had a mad night out in Chicago. After wandering around not sure where to go out, we stopped by the typical Irish pub and got a huge list of things to do from the waitress. Needless to say one of them was a blues club just next door. Sensational How handy is that!!! We heard some awesome Blues, even ended up buying the CD. Oh..and they just keep giving us better rental cars. We have moved up a notch to the Chevy Impala ahh the small things...hehehehe

posted by Brent at 5:10 AM (1) comments

It's 4:30am in Toledo, we are 14 hours through a 19 hour Amtrak train trip. Screaming babies, quite abrupt staff, Amish people and general freaky red neck types. It's funny but when you get onboard the train, you tend to be all excited. The seats have loads of room, at least twice as much as the Greyhound bus service. Although after 14 hours they somehow manifest themselves into the most uncomfortable seats ever designed. One fellow Serena was chatting to, lives in New York and after not having left Manhattan island for over a year decided to travel across the states just to remind himself how big it really is. I am sure when he gets to San Fran in 4 days time, he will have a perfect understanding how big it is...nutter! :-)

Sitting here wide awake while the rest of the carriage is uncomfortably tossing and turning, I have been thinking back about the trip so far and that this is the perfect interlude to jot down some dribble. So long as the lady with the 3 kids stops yelling "Behind the last seat Niha." I am loosing guessing Niha is the kid that is looking for the toilet.

The trip so far is going way too quickly, isn't that always the case, good times just go screaming by you. Ok, quick back peddle. New York, what a fabulous place :-). After leaving Boston, I was more than happy not to see another big city, in a strange way even dreading NY. The first NY day was fairly manic starting off in Harlem probably didn't help the cause, but it didn't take long before it all seemed way to familiar. Great bars, terrific places to eat, easy to navigate. I mean seriously all the streets are numbered. Getting lost a few times on the subway did suck though...I never could get the hang of those underground railway systems. They really need to install some decent DMI's...To live and work in New York would really be something amazing, maybe I am a big city person after all.

Right that's enough back peddling, I'm bored now as I am sure you are with my rant :) Hurry up Chicago!!!
posted by Brent at 4:21 PM (0) comments

Here are our photos from New York so far.

We saw Bush arrive by helicopter this morning for the UN meetings in NY, yesterday walked the Brooklyn Bridge, took a carriage ride in Central Park, went up the Empire State Building and had dinner in Greenwich Village :-) After visiting Wall St this morning we are packed and on our way to Chicago by Amrak! Whoo Hoo
posted by Brent at 5:49 PM (0) comments

...What a wet, no, a drenched and rainy town :-) Please stop raining so we can stop going to Macy's :-) In case you haven't guessed we are in New York...What a fabulous town! How did we get here I hear you ask...

We left Rangeley at about 8am driving to Boston which we made by about 1pm. Hopped on the Chinese version of Greyhound the Fungwahbus hehehe and for $15 made it to New York by 7pm. We stayed in a really crappy hostel in Harlem. We decided to go for a brief walk and changed our minds deciding that it was a pretty dodgey area, but I'll just say it was raining too much so we headed back to the hostel. Today wasn't much better we lugged our bags across town to Grand Central only to be told that after 911 there are no lockers. ARGH! We popped down to Ground Zero and wandered, Macys'd, had sushi and enjoyed New York...but please stop raining...
posted by Brent at 2:02 AM (1) comments

We rented a canoe this morning and spent a few hours paddling down Kennenbrook river. on the way we managed to see 3 moose which was awesome. Later in the day we took a scenic flight over the lakes and rivers, seeing another moose from the air. Total moose seen today 5!

We leave this amazing place tomorrow morning for New York, Whoo Hoo! A slight change in pace, but I am looking forward to it!

As I slowly fall asleep to the sound of logging trucks in the distance and the low buzz of sea planes, I dream of CHEESE IN A CAN!

posted by Brent at 12:43 AM (1) comments

A mate of mine who works for Sydney's Children's Hospital has let me know about a beer night :-) Click here for full details of the beer tasting event. You know I would be there if I was back home!
posted by Brent at 4:54 AM (0) comments

Maine is seriously the most amazing state. The Americans we have bumped into really wonder why we are here when most American's don't bother to make the trip. We basically say look around, how awesome...o, and that I'm a Stephen King Freak! :-P hehehe ok so maybe I have neglected that little bit. Bangor, boring in all the books, but I was in awe ..I mean STEPHEN KINGS home town! All the books he writes are set in Maine, I think that slightly explans why I won't drive down that quiet road. hehehe

Anyway...we are now in Rangely, which is on some awesome lakes and mountain kinda things. Tonight we went in seach of moose but alas saw none. The old couple in the room are from Pensilvania saw one tonight, ARGH! Anyway, we are staying here another night and going Kayaking tomorrow morning for a few hours and again looking for moose for Serena, although I am hoping to sneak in a scenic sea plane flight. :-) The motel we are at is called Sadleback Mountain Motel, (not Brokeback...) it has an awesome view over the Rangely Lake. - see below. (After all this magnificent wilderness, we will be in New York in 2 days time, ARGH big cities)

The photo for today is this one, yes Stephen Kings house. Whoo Hoo! He wasn't home, so no coffee, maybe next time I'm in Bangor we'll catch up...

We have been playing a couple of mini golf or Putt Putt for you Aussies :-) We are 1 game all at the moment, but I am sure I will whip Serena next time. hehehe

Ok one one more photo...Me and Paul Bunyan!
posted by Brent at 3:28 AM (0) comments

posted by Brent at 1:09 AM (0) comments

Here are our US photos so far!

Ok, there should be a few more updates now as we bought a laptop. This is great as every hotel/hostel has Wi-Fi, sweet!!

We are currently in Bangor, Maine the home of Stephen King. :-) Whose house we will be visiting today, hopefully he will invite us in for coffee. Ok...back track....

From Boston we went to Cape Code by bus, whilst on the bus we met another Aussie girl who was visiting family on the Cape for the summer and she dragged us off the bus so her grandmother could give us a lift to the Hostel. This turned out to be awesome as we had no idea where the hostel was...which turned out to be bloody miles from anywhere! Thanks (I think your name was Jess!) On the cape we grabbed a couple of bikes and went cycling for ever, had lobster at Land Ho, played mini golf and visited Province Town for a half hour. The Hostel was fantastic, set in the bush in little cabins, we were given a cabin to ourselves, the staff, Caroline and Judith were great! Drop us an email guys!

Back in Boston, we picked up a Chevy Malibu which was a free upgrade from some crappy economy car and headed off to Maine. Driving has been pretty easy and fun with a nice powerful car, I', sure the speed limit is 80 mph not 65..We have only missed a few turn offs which generally ended up in some cool little town anyway. We Stayed in a Budget Inn Motel at Portland then set off to Freeport (this town is a town made from outlet shops, talk about heaven!) We saw the ex presidents beach house, whoop di do!

My next favourite Australian comment, after the water uphill one would have to be one from a ... "Gas station attendant" Where are you from... Australia...Yeah but which country? GOLD I tell ya. When they realised what Australia was they then told me to have fun with all my Kangaroos...hehehehe Maine is the home of all the lighthouses...yep, all of them, so here's one we visited.
posted by Brent at 2:52 PM (0) comments

Well Boston is a pretty town, after enduring a 12 hour greyhound bus ride that actually wasn't as bad as expected, we arrived bright and early. An American guy on the bus asked if the water in Australia goes up hill because we are on the other side of the world. Of course I told him yeah it does.

The highlight for me would have to be Wally the wall frog :-) How cool!

Today we are heading along the Freedom Trail in Boston and hopefully then for some more Seafood. (Yesterday's Nantucket Seafood Chowder in a bread bowl was sensational!)
posted by Brent at 4:45 PM (0) comments