Well here we are in Houston, thirteen days & 2,300 miles later.........

We've done so much since the last blog & thankfully our hotel has a PC that we are writing this from rather than typing one letter at a time on the iPOD!

The Cherokee village that we visited on Sunday was fantastic - the American Indians who work there still practise their traditional crafts e.g. canoe making, basket weaving & hand weaving and are still very much part of a community. They live day-to-day like you or I but the Cherokee traditions & culture are still a very important part of their life. One of the elders did a talk about the history of the Cherokee tribe an how they were nearly wiped out by Small Pox thanks to the Europeans. The tribe members who survived (particularly the children) were treated atrociously and an attempt was made to Westernise them - all in all we felt ashamed to be European!

In the afternoon we visited Mingo Falls (waterfall) near to our campsite - it was beautiful but too cold to even dip your toe in despite the 90 degree heat. The campsite we stayed in was nice, except for the snake we saw ten minutes after arriving. No showers though which meant we had to wash our hair using our saucepan & cold water - not such a big deal for Mark!!

On Monday we travelled down to Atlanta (Georgia). We visited the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site in the morning - this was a real eye opener in more ways than one. The site itself contained photos, video footage and quotes which demonstrated the struggle he had to free black people from oppression - that day we felt ashamed to be white!! Having said this, to get from the metro to the site we walked through a very deprived area where we were the only two white faces and it was very odd to be on the other side of the coin for a change - and not awfully comfortable. All round an interesting experience.....

That afternoon we visited Coca-Cola world - it was a bit of fun & how you might imagine Charlies Chocolate Factory would be for a child! It's basically a big advertising campaign for Coke, with a 4D cinema & a tasting room where you get to try Coca-Cola products from all around the world. A bit of fun but not as cultured as our morning!

On Tuesday morning we visited the aquarium opposite Coca-Cola world (and surprisingly enough sponsered by them) which is the biggest in the world (so they say!). It was an amazing place with three beluga whales, three whale sharks, manta rays & a whole load more. We are a little geeky when it comes to aquariums - but now we have reached the pinnacle of our aqaurium visiting experiences!!! After that we drove for hours to Montgomery in Alabama - nothing really to see in Alabama according to the guide book so we stayed overnight in the dodgiest motel to date and then headed off very early the following day to New Orleans.

The drive to New Orleans was long but the last 30 miles or so takes you over endless bridges that are only 15 feet or so above water - it's easy to see how hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans (NO). It's quite eery driving in as you know if anything similar hit there would be no way out as the roads would be underwater. We stayed in the French Quarter in NO in a hotel which was built in the 1800's and was so rickety that it looked like the house that Jack built! The French Quarter all looks like that as the buildings are so old and luckily this part was not flooded in the hurricane - it's a truly beautiful place. Sadly though the fall out is still obvious by the number of homeless people around. It's also a big party town where the pubs only have to close for one hour per year - 1am after the Mardi Gras!

On Thursday we took a horse and carriage tour around the French Quarter with a guide who pointed out all the interesting cultural sites e.g. the cathedral & the convent, but also things like where Angelina Jolie owns a house - something for everyone! That afternoon we went out on a paddle steamboat up the Mississippi River - which sounds grander than it actually was. It was a two hour cruise but you don't go far on a steam boat in two hours - it was however a welcome relief from the heat, in the upper nineties all day. It was a shame to leave New Orleans after only two days - perhaps we'll visit there again one day.

Today we drove to Houston - a long drive where we got stuck in a number of traffic jams - still we can't complain after 2300 miles and very few jams to date. Haven't seen anything of Houston since we arrived, but we plan to go to the Johnson Space Center tomorrow which offers, "a thrilling insight into modern space exploration, with tram tours giving behind the scenes glimpses into various NASA compounds." We'll get back to you on that!! Tomorrow night we're hoping to go to a rodeo in Fort Worth - when in Rome and all that!

Anyway I think thats all for now, as the Americans say 'have a nice day' and love to everyone taking the time to read this blog.