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Hello everyone!
Sorry we haven't updated this for a while….i know there are some people who need something to do at work! (no names needed)
Will give you the summarised run down of our road trip:
*Left Memphis and headed south along the Mississippi to New Orleans. Couldn't understand why anyone would build a city on swamplands. The place is literally below sea level. Very easy to see how a hurricane could completely destroy it. Spent a couple of days here wandering around admiring the French architecture and enjoying Cajun cookin'. Unfortunately it is a pretty dodgy place as there are still heaps of people who are homeless and whole areas that haven't been cleaned up yet!! Unbelievable.
On the drive out of New Orleans, we visited a famous old sugar plantation which kept 115 slaves. Was a contrasting experience - a beautiful place with a not so beautiful past.
*From Louisiana we drove to Texas and headed to Houston. Now, that was a pretty interesting day as we caught the fringe of Hurricane Dolly and experienced some shocking rain. We didn't actually go into the centre of Houston, just visited the Johnson Space Centre. Got to go into the old Mission Control area and even got to see a full size rocket that never went into space because of budget cuts.
*Carried on to San Antonio and on the way went to the rumoured best water park in the world. I had a ball pushing in front of kids in all the lines and scaring myself to death on some rides. Gerard even impressed me by going on the surf machine (kinda like the one theyre building in Kal). He only lasted 10 seconds or so but it was pretty cool.
San Antonio is an interesting place. There were times where we felt we were in Mexico as there are heaps of Mexican immigrants. Visited the famous Alamo and heard about all the experiences of Davy Crockett and the gang.
*From here we drove north west through the oil fields of Texas and saw very little besides cacti and oil wells. Ended up in a small town called Roswell in New Mexico which is famous for a "supposed" UFO crash in 1947. It's a controversial event but apparently a UFO crashed here and there were 3 aliens recovered but the government did a massive cover up and stated it was just a weather balloon. Looking through the evidence and reading first hand accounts at the museum, we are both pretty firm believers that it happened. Anyways, the town is pretty funny cos the whole theme is aliens. Aliens on traffic lights, in shops and even the fast food joints had "Welcome Alien" signs.
*Continued north through New Mexico to Santa Fe. Probably one of the nicest places we've been to. Kinda like Port Douglas in the desert. Yuppy/arty place. Very interesting mix of people; Native Americans, Mexicans, hippies and hat wearing cowboys. There was some of the best jewellery ive ever seen and the Native Americans make most of it themselves. Great adobe buildings. It definitely did not feel like we were in America. Also went to a beautiful town called Taos which is north of Santa Fe. The main reason people visit this place is because it has the best preserved pueblo in the US. A pueblo is a walled Indian village which surprised us because we naively thought they lived in tipees. This one has been continuously inhabited for 1000 years and there are still people living there today. Also visited the "Earth Ships" which should impress our hippy friends. These are houses are made out of recycled materials and are run completely off the grid (solar power, wind power etc) and they are completely self sufficient. Gerard got excited and wants to build his own.
*Our second last stop was Colorado Springs which was basically a stop over on the way to Denver. Didn't have many expectations but turned out to be pretty cool. Visited the "Garden of the Gods" which reminded us a lot of the Olgas in the Northern Territory and is basically a collection of huge red rocks. Also ventured up to the summit of Pikes Peak which is part of the Rockies. This mountain is 14500 ft above sea level and so it was freezing and the air was thin. I was pleasantly surprised to see huge chunks of ice on the mountain and had fun throwing chunks around. Ice in the middle of summer? Shows how far up we were.
We are now in Denver, Colorado. Gerards parents flew in last night to meet us and they were unbelievably energetic today after an epic 30 hour flight. Luckily for us, Kaye and Joe have planned the next two weeks travelling through the Rockies and the Grand Canyon so we are very fortunate to tag along for the ride.
Make sure you think of us enjoying 36+ degree heat while most of you are trying to get through a cold, wet and miserable winter.
Stay warm!
Ps Cam please give Hunter a kiss from me…..
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