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Ok this is my attempt to write the highlights of Trek America - I have to break it down into a few parts because we went so many cool pages and I will ramble more than ever before or just get frustrated not remembering names or order of things we did!
We all met in New Jersey just near New York for day one of our Trek, I had met Corn from Denmark, Rhydian from Wales and Thea from Norway the night before (I was sharing a room with Thea) so it was good to learn 3 names already! The rest of the group was Lucy, Jenny and Hayley from Australia, James, Karen, Anna and Me from England, Cathy and Steph from Northern Ireland and our tour leader was Eric from California (as he reminded us a million times - I like the west coast mannnnn the east coast kinda sucks! Lol he was a legend).
So we drove the first of our epic drives to Washington DC and it was great to be there because it was just before Obama's inguration (however u spell that lol) so the places was buzzing it was great! Eric drove us around all the monuments (there were lots) in the evening and then we all went for Thai food which was lush! The next day was a free day so a few of us went to the clock tower for some views of the city and then we went to the white house for the customary tourist photo haha, then we went to the Holocaust museam which was hardly uplifting but I learned alot about it and im glad i went. I think that evening we just had drinks in our dorm with everyone. Washington was soooo freezing possibly the coldest place ever haha but still great to visit.
Next stop was... erm... Nashville I think, its a music city and we stayed in a funky hostel owned by a lady called Hope who was a character to say the least... everytime she talked about Obama she started crying about how great it was LOL she was giving the whole group a speech and then just broke down... lets just say there were 12 trekkies all looking around the room trying not to react haha. She kept demanding Eric take us to watch the inguration and was getting very stressed... she walked to the chemist with me and a couple of the girls and I caught her crying in one of the isles - tissue Hope? We went to a famous bar (everyone played there back in the day) called the Station Inn to watch some Honkytonk music and it was good fun a famous country singer called Vince Gill was there (apparently his pretty big - I shamelessly pointed him out blantantly even though he was trying to hide a bit he he) but us girls took a shine to the base guitarist Ranger Doug instead he was about 70 haha but he was cool cos he had red and white cow boy boots and everything lol! He loved the attention im sure! Earlier that day Me, Thea, Steph and Cath went to purchase some cowboy hats for the event... I like to think we impressed Ranger Doug! We tried to barter with Blue the shop owner but he wasnt having any of it and after pretending to walk away we had to go back as they were the cheapest lollllll! Steph hasnt taken her hat off since! We had another stop off in Tennasee and that was in Bristol this little campsite where we had a camp fire it was really good fun and we all got to know each other over a few drinks.... some of us showcasted our singing and dancing skills to my ipod.... I was very impressed that we all could belt out Celine and Whitney with no shame having only known eachother 5 mins! Then we played I have never round the campfire whilst James drank 5 litres of wine... he he :p
Oh I forgot to mention Rhydian is a super star in Wales his in something a bit like byker grove/hollyoaks lol we totally googled him.... hehe
Next we went to the motherland MEMPHIS!!!! Some proper Elvis stalking was to be had here... woooo. We arrived in the evening which was perfect as I had time to mentally prepare for my day of running around Memphis trying to fit it all in, I was so excited about this stop and it totally lived up to my expectations :) we went BB Kings for some bbq food (what Memphis is famous for) and there were a cool band playing there, we ate stupid amounts of ribs and collected all our bones for a pic at the end! Then we all went to another little dive bar down Beale Street (really famous for live music in nearly every bar) we saw a great band and the singer/guitarist was a Beale Street legend apparently - I filmed him for a bit and will put it on facebook soon cos he was really great.
Ok... so Graceland awaited the next morning it was great!! I was pleased to learn Cathy was just as excited as me!! We took possibly 200 pics! It was really sad when we saw his grave though but happy to see how much everyone still loves him. We saw all his cars and planes (you got to go in them) they were pretty impressive! I loved it. Next me, Karen, Cathy and Steph went to Sun Studios which are soooo famous its where Elvis, Johnny Cash and all sorts got started we got to hear recordings made there (one with Elvis talking which was weird) and then.... drum roll please..... we got to have a pic with the same mike that Elvis and Johnny Cash would have used AMAZING! The tour guide let me sit at the secretary who convinced the owner to take elvis on's desk! wooo dream job! We had so much fun in the studios was one of the best things ive done on this trip sooo much history! Then we went to the Civil Rights Museam which was made inside the hotel where Martin Luther King was shot... and it took u right up to the room he stayed in which had the balcony to it where he was shot was sooo strange to see so clearly and so close to where he was shot I actually had no idea it was in Memphis so I wasnt expecting to see it. It was his birthday and Martin Luther King day in USA a couple of days before we got there too. That evening we went to a basketball match that Memphis Uni team were playing was good fun and everyone went.
The next day we went to New Orleans and it was probably my fave place.... maybe level with Memphis actually. It was the first bit of really nice weather we got which was fantastic! I will write more when my hand comes out of a cramp lol xxx
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