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So anyway, memphis, well i actually think its the dullest city we went to. ok a few bits of it were ok, we went to see an elvis statue, went to a fire museum, and for a walk around, oh yeah, and to the worlds tackiest gift store, but other than that, considering i had about 18 hours to kill, i didn't do a lot else, which as you can imagine left me very little to do but sleep. We arrived early in the morning, i think about 6am, which is again far too early to go out and see anywhere, so we spent the next few hours sleeping on a station bench, which was actually suprisingly comfortable! after seeing all the "sites" ford went over to Graceland, but i being pretty tired, maybe something Glandular, decided not to go, plus it was raining, and i was grumpy, so i went back to the station, took myself a little walk, and ended up in a shopping precinct at starbucks and used the net. i've worked out that if you buy a bottle of water @ $1.80 you can stay in there as long as you want and use the net, because as far as they are aware, you are a customer...sweet. anyway, that night we were to get a train back up to chicago, which sounds kinds pointless, but at least we got to see Memphis....great! when we got to chicago, on time, we had about 5 hours to burn, which isnt actually that great as you dont have time to visit anywhere, and its a bit too long to walk around the streets, so we decided to go to the library again, and then just grabbed some food....you see, my adventures are getting more exciting by the minute! from here, we were to begin the West side pass, which if im honest is the one i am looking forward to most. so our next destination was to be Dallas, home of dolly parton (i think) and the Assasination of President JFK.
We got to Dallas in the afternoon sometime, and needed to find a place to stay. There were no hostels here, so we ended up having to book a room for the night in a downtown hotel, which was suprisingly cheap, ok so it wasnt the Hyatt, of the Hilton, but it was a roof, with two beds and a shower, a massage shower to be precise. We got settled, had a shower etc, then went to go look around. Dallas is a pretty small city, but its also really clean, which was a suprise, dont know why, but it was to me anyway. we walked for a while down to where the presidents assasination in 1963. it is actually pretty weird seeing it all. They even had all the x's where the bullets hit, and missed, which kind of, well it did me, send a shudder over me. Then this guy from nowhere came up and started giving us a guided tour of the site. At first the guy looked like a tramp, who was going to mug us, but turns out the local state council give these people the job to show people around, then charge us a minimal fee for doing so. The tour he gave was actually pretty interesting, he told us all about the places people were, where they shot at, where the fatal shots were taken from. so yeah, pretty good. We were at that point going to go back to the hotel, shower, then head out to the bars of Dallas, but instead we got back to the hotel, watched some tv with a couple of beers we bought on the way back, and sort of got "comfy" and decided to stay in, plus it was the first time in ages that i had a double bed to myself, so i was able to stretch out!
Next day wer headed a little west to a place called Fort Worth. The way we had planned it, we had about 8 hours here before we had to get a train up north towards Kansas City. so anyway, fort worth, is probably the best city i have visited yet. it has its up and coming business district with its high risers and big buildings, but it also has its old side, which was the side i was most interested in seeing. We walked through downtown, and headed out towards the stockyards in the old district. About a mile we thought....it wasnt. Half way through we decided to get a bus to take us the rest of the way. When we got there, the stockyards are like a small country and western Town. it has its bars, saloons, hotels, and shops. All pretty authentic, plus it also has a rodeo, which if we were to stay the night we could have gone to. Walking down the main street was like going back in time to when cowboys patrolled the streets on horseback, and yes, there were still some of them there today! ok they were paid to stand there on horses and pose for photos for tourists, but none the less it was good seeing them. at the end of the street there was a row of small souvenirs shops, which were all themed, then at 4pm everyday, they herd about 10 - 15 cows down the main street in a cattle drive. Pics will show this. So although it was very commercialised, i really did enjoy seeing a bit of Texas, the way it was originally!
From there we had to take a train and a bus to get to our next destination, a train from fort worth to Oklahoma City, then a bus from there to Kansas City. this was only because we had to get over to the west coast of California, and this was infact the quickest way of doing it. so we got the train, which was fine from fort worth to oklahoma, then the bus from there to Kansas was horrible. the seats were crammed in as "economically" as possible, and secondly it was annoyingly loud! so we had to spend nearly 8 hours on this thing, to which i think i got about 2 hours sleep on and off max, only to be awoken by the bus driver slamming on his brakes at a red light!! great. even better was the fact that the bus got into kansas city at 5am! luckily a few people managed to blag us into the Train Station to shelter, as it was about -7 outside. here we slept, until 10am, by which time, in the waiting room we were in, about 100 had passed through on various commuter trains, and we were there completely oblivious to it all fast asleep. Kind of funny when you think about it.
Kansas city takes the trophy from Memphis for being the Dullest city in the US of A. There was literally nothing to do, really nothing, except go watch some sport in a local bar and eat the nicest burgers i have ever tasted, and believe me, i have tasted a lot in my lifetime...these were delicious. so yeah, that wasted about 6 or 7 hours, then we just went back to the station to check in for our other train! By the way, as you read this, please tell me if i should include anything else in them, or not talk about certain stuff!
Our next train was the killer. some 35 hours on it from Kansas to LA. this was a whole day and some more!! crazy. so the train was actually really good as we passed through loads of nice scenery and mountain, with small canyons, plus we saw some wildlife, so all in all, 35 hours on a train equated to 20hours sleeping, 10 Hours siteseeing, 2 hours eating, 3 hours being bored! so all in all not so bad of a trip. Well until we arrived in Alburquerque, where one of the engineers saw it fit to announce that the carraige we were in had a brake malfunction, and had to be removed, so we had to be moved from our big comfy seats, to the observation lounge, which sounds ok, but its full of uncomfortable chairs and a lot of cold windows, but fortunately some seats free'd up back in a carriage behind so me and ford claimed them our own, much to the confusion of the conductor, but it was ok in the end, we were only delayed for 1 hour in all.
The day in LA was spent by myself doing some laundry, and ford going to find some hair clippers. May i remind you that at this point i had worn the same pair of socks and boxer shorts for 3 days on the run....not a pretty smell, so i was constantly spraying myself with smelly stuff to hide it. i survived, but only just! so the rest of the day was just us exploring in brief the rest of downtown. We went to various markets, and got approached by about twelfty mexicans asking us to go look at their stall, but nothing was worth grabbing. downtown LA isnt the prettiest place if im honest, full of working class people with dodgy knock off stores, and then in the other half, the business district, so not a lot to see really, but i think next time i go back there later in the month i'll concentrate on the outskirts more so, Hollywood, Sunset Blvd etc.
So now we are heading to Flagstaff, as we need to get there to get a connecting bus to see the grandcanyon, which i expect to be awesome....i hope! so ill let you know what happens next time on tims round the world adventure, from me, and everyone at the Studio.... we wish you a goodnight!
God im sad!!
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