Final Thoughts

We have a little under three weeks left, which for most is longer than a usual summer holiday, but for the two of us on a trip of a lifetime it feels like the end is drawing ever closer and all too quickly. At our penultimate stop here in Miami we have no access to free internet, which is also the case in Disney, and must pay $9 for 24 hours access. Therefore with precious little money or time left this may possibly be the final entry into the blog. Select photos from the remainder of the trip will still be uploaded to my flickr account when we return home for your viewing pleasure and we will still be contactable via the internet until around 10:00 PM our time tomorrow evening.

By the time we reach Disneyworld Orlando on Monday morning we will have driven close to 8,000 miles through 13 different states. I will have taken 7,178 photos and written over 10,000 words on national parks, museums, zoos, aquariums, themeparks, wildlife and countless other famous landmarks and monuments. We have dipped our toes in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as taking boat rides in each. We have jumped out of a plane from 14,000ft above ground and seen underground waterfalls over 1,000ft below the surface. We’ve experienced many of the world’s greatest natural wonders as well as some of mans most impressive achievements. We’ve gambled in Vegas, watched baseball in San Francisco, hugged Mickey in California, dodged snakes in Tucson, got drunk in New Orleans, admired dolphins in Charleston, discovered ancient civilizations dwellings, witnessed a gunfight at the OK Corral, explored Alcatraz, talked to Native Indians and sat a few rows behind Wayne Rooney at a Rihanna concert.

This has truly been the greatest two months of our lives and we’re not even done yet. We still plan on attending a Miami Dolphins game tomorrow night, driving out to the Everglades one morning, taking a balloon ride over Disney and we are also being joined by my brother, sister and mum for our final week or so in Orlando.

To say we weren’t apprehensive and even a little scared before setting off on this adventure would be an understatement but I speak for both of us when I say it has been 100% worthwhile and we will remember each day for the rest of our lives. I hope that keeping this blog and sharing a selection of our photos with you all has helped convey some of the fun we have been having and maybe also brightened your day briefly. Perhaps even inspired you to travel or just do that thing you have always wanted to, but never gotten around to. If anyone reading ever decides to embark on a USA road trip of their own than don’t hesitate to get in contact, we’d be more than happy to help!   

I guess that’s all for now, we hope everyone is well at home and we look forward to seeing you all when we get back on the 14th of September...back to the real world...and saving so that we can do this again someday!

Florida

After our lazy first day in Jacksonville we spent the second day at the Jacksonville Zoo. It was much the same as the zoo we went to in Albuquerque, full of excellent habitats and had its own train. However this zoo was slightly more interactive which gave us the chance to feed giraffes and lorikeets (tropical birds). At one point Jenny had a bird feeding from her hand and two pecking and licking at her hair and head...I have no photos to testify for this as the camera died half way around the zoo but I can confirm that she did squeal like a little girl and throw most of the bird feed all over the floor!

We got done with the zoo by mid afternoon and set off for Daytona Beach. We arrived late afternoon but quickly checked in and ran out to the sea to try and catch some last hours of sun and have a dip in the ocean. Not everything went to plan though however: without thinking we placed our towels down on an area of the sand that was obviously under water at high tide and since it had been slightly overcast that day it was still wet under the surface. As we laid down sea water and gunk seeped up onto the underside of our clean beach towels! Not letting this deter us we thought we would get up and venture into the sea...unlike Isle of Palms a few days earlier however the sea was extremely cold...so we quickly scrapped the beach and headed back to the hotels beach front pool (which in hindsight we probably should have done in the first place).

After hand washing our green towels in the bath (but splashing out to dry them in the hotels facilities) we set off for dinner at Bubba Gumps which was a small walk from our hotel. Dinner was lovely and after our days disappointments on the beach we treated ourselves to a dessert. Originally we planned to share their Mud Pie but thankfully the waiter warned us it was pretty big and we went for the Cookie Sundae instead (which was still huge!). This morning, despite having a long drive to Miami, we thought we should work off the previous nights dinner and complete our space station set by visiting Kennedy Space Center, about 50 miles south of Daytona.

Kennedy Space Center differs to Houston in that this is where the shuttles launch and land from, therefore the visiting experience is also altered as the exhibits and tours focus more on the act of pre-pairing and launching the astronauts into space rather than controlling their missions. The bus tour of the facility was interesting, if a little limited due to security measures about how close you can get to areas, but there were some good opportunities to get a look at the launch pads and the buildings they prep the shuttle and rockets in (the third largest building by mass in the world). They also have a new ride on site that replicates what the astronauts feel when they launch into space; it wasn’t as extreme as they claimed it to be but was still a good representation of a launch even though the small girl sitting next to Jenny cried her eyes out the whole way through as her Dad ignored her cries for help.

This afternoon we left the Space Center and set off for Miami. The drive down was a bit frustrating as we had to go through various toll systems but it’s only the second road we have had to pay tolls on all trip so we can’t complain. We then had to dodge the crew of road workers blocking the only access to the parking facility here and then had to lug our cases up to our room as the lift was out of order...but we got there in the end and our room is gorgeous; tiled floor, high ceilings, antique furniture and a super king size bed. So now we have until Monday to explore Miami, chill on the beaches, take an excursion to the Everglades and find somewhere for me to get a haircut!!

Savannah

Yesterday we cautiously rose to check on our sun burn and luckily we were in pretty good shape but the weather was overcast anyway. This was actually a good thing though as we had decided to take a guided walking tour to explore Savannah and didn’t want to be trekking around in 90 degrees. We met our guide, ‘Savannah Dan’ at 10 AM in Johnson Square, which is one of 22 historic squares that make up the historic downtown. We have obviously been on a fair amount of tours since we began our adventure but this ranked up there as one of the best. Dan was an excellent guide, a charismatic Southern Gentleman with a personality as large as his frame (check out our photo with him!). An ex-police officer and part-time radio guest he made what would have still been an excellent way to explore Savannah more than a simple tour with his plethora of knowledge and interesting stories.

During our tour we visited 9 out of the 22 historic squares, learning about the significance of each as we went. We also stopped to get snapped at the spot Tom Hanks sat waiting for the bus in Forest Gump. Funnily enough there is no bench there today as the crew made one specifically for the film, also the bus actually breaks the law in the movie as it comes from the wrong direction down what is actually a one way street in real life! We also passed the church that holds the spire at which the feather floats past in the beginning of the film. Towards the end of the tour we passed an ice cream parlour that Dan suggested as a nice lunch spot. So, we popped in afterwards for a sandwich and ice cream and it turns out the place is now owned by a big time Hollywood film producer and it is littered with memorabilia from various films he produced including Mission Impossible 3 and The Wolfman.

Around 2 PM we left Savannah and drove out to the coast. A huge storm rolled in as we were driving and we got  battered by torrential rain, which is becoming a recurring feature at the moment in the afternoons, but at least we weren’t still walking around outside! When we got to the beach, which is on a sea side community just north of Savannah called Tybee Island, the weather cleared a little and we took a walk along the pier and took in the sights of this famous location. If you have or are going to see the new Miley Cirus movie ‘The Last Song’ then one; you’re no longer my friend and two; it was filmed at Tybee Island. The sun never really broke out so we didn’t stay long before setting off for Jacksonville and our final state of the trip, Florida.

By the time we arrived we were exhausted from a busy day and driving in tropical storms so we quickly crashed out and went to sleep. As we have two days here we had a lie in this morning, Jenny even went down and grabbed some breakfast for us to have in bed...I think someone might have abducted the real one in the night and replaced her! The weather is still stormy so our plans for the Zoo or beach were scuppered and we decided to hit the outlet malls and a Walmart instead! Hopefully the weather will clear a bit tomorrow and we’ll decide what we are going to spend the day doing before we set off in the afternoon for Daytona Beach. 

Coast to Coast

We have now officially driven coast to coast across the USA. Yesterday we made it to Charleston and in doing so have driven nearly 7,000 miles from the coast of the Pacific in California to the shores of the Atlantic in South Carolina. Early on our trip we took a boat out across the San Francisco Bay to visit Alcatraz and yesterday we took another boat into the Atlantic. Only this boat was a little quicker than the tour boat to Alcatraz, it’s called ‘The Thriller’ and is a 43 passenger power catamaran with engines totalling 1,000 HP. It’s the fastest tour boat in Charleston Harbour and took us out to sights that normally take an hour in under 15 minutes. It’s not a tour for the history buff as you whizz past everything so quickly you don’t get too long to take everything in but if you want a thrilling boat ride and an excellent way to cool down in the heat then it’s the trip for you! We both loved it, I got very wet sitting near the back on the edge as the spray flies across the boat when you turn so I couldn’t get any photos until we slowed down but we did see some cool stuff. Such as the Morris Island Lighthouse which sits alone in the ocean but was once attached to land by a now sunken peninsula.

That morning we parked on Market Street and wandered under shaded awnings as we explored the local weekend market in downtown Charleston. It was a good way to get out of the heat and Jenny picked up some knock off Pandora charms which are actually nicer then some of the official jewellery. Today we thought we’d sample one of Charleston’s many beaches and decided on the ‘Isle of Palms’. A beach that is a favourite with the locals and is situated in an affluent area of the city with palm tree lined boulevards and multi-million dollar beach houses lining the shore. The weather had been consistently hot over the last few days but a bit hit and miss sun wise. Luckily it was bright and sunny on the beach all day and the water was clean and warm. It was the perfect beach...we even stood and watched in awe as dolphins splashed around only 100ft off shore. This beautiful sight only served to alert Jenny to the fact that it was possible sharks also lived in the seas and therefore she spent most of her day out of the water and her skin has suffered the consequences. As this was our first complete day of sun bathing and what with the UV rays also bleaching her hair; picture spaghetti slopped over a tomato and you have a good image of how she looked at the end of the day. Although saying that, the sun was very strong and I am also a lovely shade of burgundy.

We are in Savannah, Georgia, this evening which has even more beautiful beaches so tonight is all about taking it easy and lots of after sun!

Atlanta & more

Going to keep this one short because we’ve done so much over the past two days it would take forever to go into detail and I couldn’t do it justice anyway.

Yesterday in Chattanooga we spent the day on Lookout Mountain, the most southerly of the Appalachian Mountains it is absolutely beautiful and features a selection of attractions as well as a lovely community and some unbelievable houses. Featured in the selection of photos yesterday are pictures from the caves and underground waterfall of Ruby Falls, the incline railway (which is the world’s steepest passenger railway at 72.5 degrees), a national historic park with amazing scenic lookouts and Rock City: a beautiful trail through gardens, caves, caverns, waterfalls and more. The whole area is stunning and is a highly recommended place to visit and would make a lovely place to live, one day...

We had some awesome news before we got to Atlanta...the hotel we were due to stay at had been closed down and we were due for an upgrade to a Hilton Garden Inn, in the centre of downtown Atlanta. We are spending our last night there now and it is lovely, perfect location next to all attractions and perhaps the nicest stay we have had yet, we’ve just got back from a moonlight swim in the roof top pool and Jacuzzi.

Atlanta itself is a really nice city, it has a larger skyline then I expected but all the skyscrapers are very different from one another and there’s a lot of interesting architecture and large parks leftover from the 1996 Olympics, which makes the whole of downtown a really nice place to wander around. Hopefully London will benefit in the same way after 2012.

Today we did the three main attractions in downtown...CNN Behind the Scenes Tour (a 50 minute tour through CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta), the World of Coca Cola and the Aquarium (which is the world’s largest). All of them were a lot of fun; you get to see the news being filmed live at CNN, sample over 90 drinks from around the world at the Coca Cola World and see the world’s largest fish, the Wale Shark, at the aquarium. Check out the photos and look for an update again in the next few days as we finish our lateral haul across the country and make it to the West coast and Charleston.

Jack Daniels

We left Nashville today and on route to our next stop in Chattanooga we took a detour to Lynchburg, Tennessee to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery. Lynchburg is a small, leafy town in the countryside and the distillery is in an idyllic location, chosen by Jack Daniels for the fresh water springs that provide naturally filtered water from the limestone they flow through. We took a regularly run free guided tour from the visitors centre and were shown the ins and outs of how they make the world’s most consumed whiskey. They showed us how they mash the whiskey, distil and bottle it.

Along the way we learned lots of interesting facts, some of which include how Mr Daniels died: by kicking a safe in his office which broke his toe and ultimately led to gangrene and his demise. We also had an insight into what goes into making their Single Barrel Whiskey and learned that it is possible to buy a whole barrel (240 bottles). For $10,000 you get the bottles and the empty barrel shipped and with this purchase you also earn a golden plaque on a wall in the bottling building for the single barrel brand. In this room we spotted one plaque which read: ‘Kevin Spacey’s 50th’...I’m guessing they had a good time!

Surprisingly the County that Lynchburg is in is what is known as a ‘dry County’ which means the sale of alcohol is forbidden, therefore there were no free samples on the tour! Although you are given a refreshing glass of lemonade at the end and a chance to pose with a statue of the man himself. The state of Tennessee did allow a special law to pass recently which allows a small shop on site to sell bottles of Jack Daniels Monday to Saturday, but this is the only place in Lynchburg you can purchase alcohol. There is however an official merchandise shop in town where you can buy everything from poker tables made from old barrels to Jack Daniels coffee. They also do a number of cool furniture pieces that are too fashioned from old barrels since they only use each barrel once. It’s a mere $85 to buy a used barrel, which we thought was a steal, but thought we might have a bit of trouble getting it aboard the plane so we just bought the usual souvenirs; a glass, a few coasters, a poker chip and a sign made from a wooden slat used for a barrel.

We’re in Chattanooga tonight, tomorrow we’re planning a trip to Ruby Falls which is the US’ largest underground waterfall, and Lookout Mountain, where atop you can see 7 different states from the panoramic view. I haven’t seen any trains yet but Jenny is keeping an eye out for the Chattanooga Choo Choo! Photos of the distillery are on the right, they forbid photos inside any of the buildings however, look for photos of Chattanooga tomorrow.

Nashville

The home of country music, the ‘buckle’ of the Bible belt and also, and probably surprisingly, the 3^rd largest city geographically wise in the US. Even more surprising since neither of us were aware and it got hardly any news coverage, the victim of severe flash floods earlier this year in May. This unfortunately means that a number of tourist attractions are currently closed for extensive refurbishment, with rumours that the Opryland Mills Mall near our hotel may even need to be torn down and rebuilt it was so badly damaged. It is actually incredible how badly the city was flooded, they had over 6ft of water in places and we had absolutely no idea! It seems even the US media didn’t give it much coverage. It’s really worth checking out the video below to get an idea of how bad the floods were and you can compare some of the scenes to the pictures we have taken over the last few days. Also keep an eye out for the AT&T building which the locals call the Batman building, since it looks like his mask, and the R2D2 look-a-like skyscraper next door.

They’ve done an amazing job clearing up so far and apart from the closed areas you wouldn’t know anything had happened! Nashville is very similar to Memphis in terms of its influence on music and many Country and Western stars live and perform regularly in the city. Today we took a guided tour to discover some of the places that make Nashville famous. Our first stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, a three floor building dedicated to Country music’s history and performers, from Hank Williams to Taylor Swift, they all started in Nashville. They also all played at the Grand Ole Opry, the world’s longest running live radio programme featuring Country music. They run weekly shows out of Nashville, usually from the Grand Ole Opry House. Unfortunately that is still closed for refurbishment from the flood damage (see video for photos). However our tour did take us to the Ryman Auditorium, a 2,362 seat venue that was the historic home for the Grand Ole Opry and the current temporary home. The theatre claims that the auditorium has the 2nd best acoustics in the world and it’s stage has been graced by countless artists from; Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan to in more recent years; Oasis, Smashing Pumpkins, Sigur Rós, Bryan Adams, Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire and Coldplay and now Jenny and I after grabbing two guitars and jumping up on stage to pose for photos.

Our tour continued by taking us around Nashville to see the various other points of interest including a full scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens which is in fact their sister city. We also popped into a few of the bars downtown, including world famous Tootsies, to catch some live music and have a drink. This evening we nipped to the movies to see Expendables, which somewhere along the line forgot it was supposed to be fun rather than make botched sentiments about mans lack of compassion, before heading back downtown to Wildhorse Saloon for more live music and award winning BBQ...it’s a hard life! 

Memphis

The last two days were spent in Memphis, birthplace of Rock ‘n Roll. When we arrived we went straight to Gracelands. Our first impressions of Elvis’ home were of how different it was as a tourist attraction compared to his birthplace. It’s highly commercialised compared to his first home in Tupelo and with it coincidentally being Elvis week 2010 the place was swarming with sightseers, many of them doing their best to impersonate the King with far too much hair spray and ridiculous sideburns.  

There’s plenty to do around the area with many museums, gift shops and restaurants all set up across the street from his home. For an Elvis fan it is like Dinseyland. We just took the standard mansion tour which takes you in a shuttle bus up Graceland’s drive and drops you off outside to explore the house and grounds with a guided audio tour. The house has been kept in excellent condition and all the furnishings are original and used by Elvis and his family. Take a look at the photos and you’ll see how each room has a distinctive theme and crazy 70’s decor. The tour lasts roughly an hour and you get to see the ground and basement floors of the house, including a piano he sat and played on the morning of his death, and all the gardens and outbuildings; which have been converted into exhibition halls.

Just as we were concluding the tour a huge thunderstorm broke out and we had to finish up in the gardens in torrential rain (see photo of Jenny looking like a drowned rat). But it did make standing over Elvis’ grave very atmospheric as the rain battered the reefs and lightning lit up the sky. As I mentioned previously neither of us were Elvis fans before this trip and to be honest the name just conjured up images of fat look-a-likes and heart attacks on toilets. However, after the last few days of walking in his shoes we have started to appreciate what he achieved and recognise him for the young gifted performer he once was rather than the caricature figure fashioned from rumours and look-a-likes since his death.

Our second day in Memphis we visited Sun Studio. This studio is recognised as being the birthplace of Rock N Roll and also the first place that Elvis ever recorded music. It was also home to such legends as Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. In recent years it has been used by Paul McCartney and U2 and the microphone that you see us posing with in the photos is one of the original five the studio had and was used by all those greats and more. Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Studio and the record label, said before his death that he didn’t want anything put into a museum; it was his wish that people could stand on the same spot as Elvis and rock out into the same mic. We didn’t quite rock out, but where we are standing is the same place that Elvis recorded his first hit, “That’s All Right (Mama)”.

Both nights in Memphis we spent enjoying the famous Beale Street. Our favourite place was B.B. Kings Blues Club, where we ate both nights and watched the bands performing on stage. One such band was fronted by a 16 year old called Will Tucker, we spoke to someone who was a friend of his family and he told us that he had been recording for Randy Jackson (American Idol judge). He was pretty good for 16 so watch this space! The whole street is full of other bars and clubs that all feature live music, including Ground Zero which is owned by actor Morgan Freeman. In an age where so many bands are manufactured and having talent isn’t the number one requirement anymore it was refreshing to be somewhere where music still felt real and there is a definite buzz in the air.

We usually took the free shuttle to and from our hotel but on the last night we took a 30 minute tour in a horse drawn carriage that showed us a few of the sights in Memphis before returning to our hotel. It was a perfect way to end what has been a very different couple of days but extremely cool at the same time, even if the fairy lights and Cinderella carriage Jenny insisted we ride in were a tad gaudy for my liking!

Jackson to Tupelo (Paupers to Kings)

Yesterday we stayed at the Quality (or lack thereof) Inn, Jackson, Mississippi. After the moronic women at the front desk told us we had no reservation we spent over an hour making phone calls and waiting until we finally got a room. Actually I should make that three rooms; our first we couldn’t even get into because the lock on the door was broken and our second was swarming with flies. We had to make do with the third as it was there last room available with a double bed. It was disgusting and by far the worst hotel we have stayed in so far. If for any reason you are in the area, avoid at all costs...in fact just avoid all Quality Inn’s in case they are that bad across the board.

It was a shame because it marred a day that prior to arriving at the hotel was very nice. We left New Orleans in the morning and escaped an incoming tropical storm that was blowing in from the Gulf. When we got to Jackson we went to the Natural Science Museum, it was a $10 entry fee. I gave the lady $10...and she gave me $10 back. Turns out she thought it was a $20 so we had a cheap day! The museum isn’t huge but it was well run and had a few interesting exhibits including a temporary display of Megalodon artefacts, the largest shark ever to live on earth at around 67ft in length with a jaw span of 6ft! They also had some great little nature trails out the back that meandered through forest swamp lands. The trails were littered with lizards and the smallest frogs I have ever seen jumping between the leaves. Amazingly we also got a brief glimpse of two white tailed deer through the trees, making their way back from the waterside. After realising that she couldn’t take home a naked mole rat from the last zoo we went to, Jenny now has a new pet of choice, a terrapin. The museum even had a two headed snake! (check the pictures).

Today we were relieved to be leaving our grotty hotel room and driving to Tupelo, the birthplace of the King! We stopped by Elvis Presley’s Birthplace before we checked into our hotel. The site features the tiny two bedroom house he was born and lived his first three years in, as well as a museum and a few other points of interest. Neither of us are Elvis fans but being in the area it is something we thought we have to see and it was pretty cool standing in the room that he and his twin brother (who was stillborn) were delivered in. Afterwards we headed to the Hilton Garden Inn, hoping for a better experience than we had the previous night.

To our relief we checked in within minutes and with no fuss, Tchaikovsky played in the lobby and freshly baked complimentary cookies sat atop the front desk. Our room is lovely, our bed even has adjustable dials to change the mattress firmness. We have a pool, a Jacuzzi and a gym. This is how a hotel should be run and coupled with our trip to Elvis’ birthplace this morning explains why we have gone from paupers to Kings! Tomorrow we follow Elvis’ journey as we head to Memphis and the site of Graceland, going from his birth room to his grave within 24 hours.

New Orleans

A few days back we stopped for a night on the border of Louisiana at Lake Charles between Houston and New Orleans. We didn’t have time to do anything substantial but there were a few riverside casinos in the area and a nature trail that took in a number of beaches along the Gulf Coast as well as meandering through alligator infested swamp lands. However, the most interesting thing that happened to us took place whilst we relaxed in the hotels pool. As we casually swam beneath the sun, in the hotel drive way a middle aged, naked man stumbled towards us. Luckily he was being followed by police who kept him modest by wrapping a hi-vis jacket around his waist. Unfortunately we weren’t spared for long, after the police restrained him an ambulance turned up and the paramedics swiftly removed his make shift underwear as they placed him on a stretcher giving us quite the eyeful, nor not as the case may be. We had no idea who he was or why he was roaming the streets naked but let’s just say if we had a choice in the future we would prefer a scrape with the alligators.

As we drove into New Orleans yesterday, the site of Hurricane Katrina, we were ironically greeted by the worst storm we have seen so far. The rain was coming down so hard you couldn’t see more than 20ft in front of you and the way the roads flooded in a matter of minutes gave us a small taste of how a hurricane could swamp a city. Fortunately it passed quickly and by the time we got to the hotel the rain had stopped. After checking in and dodging the workmen on our way to our room (they started renovating the day we checked in...just our luck!) we took a short walk to the historic French Quarter.

We spent the afternoon wandering the streets and taking in the atmosphere. Bourbon and Royal are probably the two most famous streets; only a block apart however they vastly differ. Both feature the familiar balconies and architecture that New Orleans is famed for but Royal Street is full of art galleries, antique shops and coffee houses whereas on Bourbon Street you would see drunken teens throwing beaded necklaces from balconies and parade floats. It really is like chalk and cheese. On the one hand you have a historic street frequented by families and tourists from across the world and on the other you have Americas equivalent to the sort of seedy beach side night life you would expect on a Mediterranean coast, bar after bar broken up by the occasional strip club. It definitely makes for a unique mix.

We did go out for a few drinks the first night but Jenny, true to form, felt sick after a grand total of four cocktails and sure enough when we got back to our room spent a half hour hugging the toilet!* Therefore today we took it a bit easy and explored a few areas we missed yesterday, including a flea market and a stroll along the Mississippi River. We also popped into the original Harrah’s Casino to escape the heat as even though it is only a mild 95 the humidity here makes it feel more like 110. I left with $20 less than when I went in but that’s a small price to pay for decent air con!

*Disclaimer: Jenny isn't just a light weight, despite her continued defiance her body clearly has an aversion to alcohol.**

**From Jenny.

Houston, you have a problem...

We have just spent the day at Space Center Houston which is the visitor’s centre of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Centre; the mission control for all US space endeavours. No shuttles are launched from this site however, that all happens at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I asked why they decided to build the mission control so far from the actual launch site and the primary reason was Russia! Apparently the US was so certain that the Soviets were going to bomb they made a tactical decision to split their space stations across the country so not to have all their eggs in one basket. The Kennedy site deals with all the launches and landings but once the shuttles are in orbit it is over to Houston to control the missions. The majority of the astronauts also train in Houston and live in the area.

Perhaps the space centre is most famous for an often misquoted line from an astronaut aboard Apollo 13; “Houston, we’ve had a problem here”. Well I believe it’s now Houston that has a problem. Whilst there is plenty to do at the visitors centre and we did enjoy spending the whole day there, everything has a slight ‘old news’ feeling about it. The tram tour of the working buildings wasn’t as fascinating as you might imagine a space programme training centre to be. It was very interesting getting a look at all the life size replica models of the International Space Station, the space shuttles and the equipment they use to replicate working with no gravity but it all looks slightly tired now. The exhibits inside the visitors centre are all a lot of fun but the whole aura in the building is one of a museum more than an exhibition of America’s futuristic frontier into the great unknown. Bear in mind that the last man to step foot on the moon did so in 1972!

However, the biggest problem facing Houston, NASA and in my opinion the US is the Government’s decision to retire the Space Shuttle programme. The shuttles are the huge white, plane shaped vehicles that they strap onto the rockets and launch into space. Since 1981 NASA has been sending these shuttles into space for manned missions. Their main aim was to supply pieces and build the International Space Station. Since the ISS is due for completion next year, and the US economy is in tatters, President Obama has decided to end the Space Shuttle Programme meaning the last launch will take place next summer. This may seem like a wise economic decision, however it now means the US have been forced into an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz Shuttle (at a price of over $50 Million per seat with significant increases expected in the near future) to get a US astronaut to low level orbit or the space station.

The problem with the Russian’s Soyuz is that it wasn't designed to carry large pay loads of cargo like the US shuttles and therefore if there are any major repairs or spare parts needed for the ISS, in the words of a NASA official I spoke to, ‘we better hope someone else figures a way to get them up there’. In my opinion, and it appears many other past and present astronauts (click here) this is leaving the US’ space ventures at the mercy of Russia and as far as the Space Race goes, the US may have won the first battle but the war isn’t over. With the US owing over $700 Billion to China and now having to eat out of Russia’s hands as well they are quickly losing their position as one of the world’s great powers. 

Skydiving!!!

Today we went Skydiving!!!

We jumped with Sky Dive Spaceland in Houston and both our instructors were highly experienced and friendly. Mine was a day from his 10,000 jump and Jenny’s had long since passed that milestone since making his first jump in 1968! You have to sign a whole bunch of waivers, watch a 15 minute instructional video and then you are good to go. Your instructor talks you through everything before, on the flight and during the jump so it is all very easy and most importantly safe. The only hitch either of us had was that my first parachute didn’t deploy and we had to use the reserve (this is visible in the video when we both reach to the right to pull the toggle, nothing happens, and then the instructor uses his left arm to pull the reserve chute) but I didn’t know this until we watched the video back!

All I will say is it was like nothing else we have ever done in our lives and we would 100% recommend it to anyone and most definitely want to do it again. The scariest part is taking off and ascending to height in such a light aircraft, jumping out seems a blessing after 10 minutes in a plane like that!

Words cannot describe! We paid extra to get photos and a video each and I am just going to let them do the talking. Yes, they are incredibly cheesy and I will most likely hide behind a pillow every time I watch it; cringing. But that’s what you get from getting a camera shoved in your face when you’re trying to syke yourself up to jump out of a plane from 14,000ft!

Anyway; check out the videos below and the photos on the right and enjoy!..and do it yourself if you get a chance, what do you have to lose...

Jenny

Matt

Racking up the miles

The lack of updates recently has been due to the lack of anything major to report, it's been mostly driving, driving, driving over the past few days. We did have a free day in Tucson on the 31st of July so in the morning made the most of our National Park pass by visiting the Saguaro National Park situated just on the edge of Tucson. In short it's a desert home for a forest of cactus'. We hiked a small trail and drove the purpose built loop through the park. I channelled the spirit of the late Steve Irwin at one point and slammed on the brakes when I spied a snake side-winding its way across the road ahead. I jumped out and followed it into the shrub but it managed to get away and unfortunately I couldn’t find or take any photos of it. It was black and moved incredibly quickly, from reading the parks website it seems it was a non-venomous snake known as a 'coachwhip'. We did see a fair amount of lizards but they are so adept at camouflage they are difficult to make out in photos as they blend in so well with their surroundings.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool and then went out for dinner and a movie. We have actually seen two films I haven’t mentioned yet. The first was Inception; incredible but almost too clever  for its own good (I think Nolan’s ‘The Prestige’ is still his best film outside of the Batman series) and Salt; totally unbelievable and full of plot holes but as a summer action flick it does what it says on the tin.

The month of August greeted us with a 320 mile drive from Tucson to El Paso where we really didn’t do a lot (it’s literally right on the border of the US and Mexico and isn’t the nicest city we have stayed in). The only thing worth noting is I managed to find a replacement suitcase. Which is good since I was having to carry it around like a log as both zips had recently broken and using the trolley would have been a bit of a disaster. We got an early night as we had our longest drive of the trip the following day. Monday August 2nd we drove 550 miles from El Paso to San Antonio, it took us most of the day and by the time we arrived we were both just about sick of sitting in a car. Thankfully we have three nights here before we set off again. So far we have covered nearly 4,000 miles, just another 3,000 to go!

Today we hit up another themepark, Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The weather was gorgeous today, 98 and not a cloud in the sky, so we also made use of the adjoining water park that is included in the admission price. After a few hours on the lazy river were starting to build up a healthy tan...well I am anyway, Jenny is a few different shades ranging from snow white to bright red! The forecast for the next week is continued clear skies and hot suns, which is not only a nice break from the occasional thunderstorm we have been encountering, but also good news as we have rearranged our skydive! We are jumping on Friday from Houston, with a company called Sky Dive Nasa! I expect there’ll be an update before then but make sure to check back on the weekend to find out if our chutes opened...