Ok, i've skipped ahead a couple of weeks to San Fran. from Asheville we went to Nashville for Chris' 29 th birthday....an incredibly messy night, with very little remembered by any of us as to what happened. What i do remember about the town was that it was very cool and well worth visiting. The bars have great live music in them. Memphis was pretty cool as well....although I preferred Nashville and would have liked to have stayed longer there. the music scene in mempghis was good too, especially BB Kings on Beale Street. We also visited the Civil Rights Museum built around the building Martin Luther King Jr was killed....a very interesting place. Barry was off again to Wichita at this time meeting some chick from a couple of years ago, so me and Chris were left alone to get drunk every night, again. As we left for Memphis airport we joked to the driver of the taxi that we were probably the only tourists to Memphis who hadn't been bothered going to Graceland...oh well.

By this time we'd had enough of Greyhounds and so we chose to fork out and fly to Las Vegas. ....a good decision. We met Baz there and sayed at the Circus Circus hotel. Being on budgets we didn't go too mental with gambling. I played a couple of poker touraments (and lost) and a wee bit of cheap blackjack. But mainly the thing we did was sit down at the 1 cent puggy machines and wait for waitresses to bring us free beer (although a dollar tip is expected and keeps them coming back). It's a cheap way to get drunk though.  We also took a day to travel on a tour bus to the Grand Canyon...which was spectacular...I didn't think I would be that impressed with it...I was very wrong!  We also passed the Hoover dam on the way there and that was pretty cool too.

After 4 nights in Vegas we flew again to San Francisco.  Looking out the window I could see the Sierra Nevada mountain range which was really beautiful.  Chris however couldn't be bothered to lift his head from his slumber to appreciate this though...lazy bugg*r.  In San Fran we stayed at the Green Tortoise - a great hostel recommended by a guy we met in Asheville. The hostel atmosphere was brilliant...as were a lot of the chicks who were staying there. This city was incredible and had such a good vibe. I think if I was gonna move to the US it'd have to be here. The nightlife was great, as was the shopping area and the pier is a great place to hang out with  cool cafe's and bars.

It was here we met Brian and Gavin....two Irish lads travelling about. What a laugh we had with them for 5 days, getting wasted every night.  We also met Carrie, who did all the organised events for the hostel.  She seemed to like us Scottish lads and was showed us around the city for a few nights.  This was great because the 3 of us are rubbish at organising anything.

We also met a Scottish guy called Alistair there.  There was about 10 of us sitting around a table in the common room area all well drunk as it was about 2am.  He sat down with a bottle of Fijian Rum called 'Bounty'.  It was 58% and he talked us all into taking a shot...this was how we met our frined Tom.  Being drunk, Alistair and me thought we might as well finish the bottle.  After 8 shots I can't remember much else.  In New Zealand we bumped into Paul who had been staying in our dorm that night in San Fran.  He said he opened the dorm door that morning and found me trying to get the key in the lock. He also said he was trying to have a conversation with me but i was too drunk to even speak properly....nice one.  I'll maybe import some Bounty when I get a place to stay in OZ.

We also visited Alcatraz and cycled across the Golden Gate bridge...both very interesting....especially as Baz was feeling sick on his bike from the night before....and he caused Chris to fall off his bike and graze his knee.   I would strongly recommend this city as a place for people to visit.