Another day in paradise

It was a long, long night. Not only did we wake up about 7am to the mattress being deflated (yet again), we had to put up with rednecks around us arguing heaps, plus the sounds of amusement park rides and drunk people getting back in throughout the night.

Needless to say we woke up pretty tired, so we decided to have a relaxing day on the beach. It was about 90-95 fahrenheit, which was mid 30s so perfect beach weather.

We headed in about 10am and pretty much spent all day there till about 4pm. It was the perfect spot with music playing near by and bath warm water in the beach yet again with big waves.

Although by the time we headed back we were pretty much red raw with a bad case of sunburnt. Again we stopped by the campground swimming pool for a quick dip which was nice.

Looking for some more entertainment we decided to head back into town and find this a Maze, which we decide to have a crack at. After getting stuck in there for a while, we take the cheaters way out and head out the emergency exit. Embarrassing!

Then we head to Walmart to buy a new mattress and send our old crappy one packing. We were hoping like hell this new one would last the night without deflating.

Now it was time for food. Again, not wanting to settle for burgers and fried food, we went straight back to the Thai place for another feast and it was even better than the night before!

It was now time for Mini Golf Pt 2, with Linnie looking for redemption. Unfortunately that redemption never came as she was humbled yet again.

It was now back to the campsite and again we had to listen to the rednecks next to us argue and whinge about rubbish, while listening to a kid cry. With noises everywhere and the temperatures boiling hot, we knew it was going to be another long, looooooooong night ahead...

The place that we had lunch at

The maze that we got stuck in

Another view of the cool mini golf course from tonight

Off to the beach in sunny Florida

It was finally off to some good weather and on to the beach. After changing our itinerary slightly to spend one less day in Jackson and skipping Tallahassee, it meant we could spend two nights in Panama City Beach.

We get up early and have breakfast, which was slightly disappointing, especially since it cost us $20 and it was pretty ordinary. Then we repack, check out of the hotel, but not before getting ourselves a DoubleTree cookie!

With a 4 hour drive on the cards, plus wanting to spend a few hours at the beach, we wanted to get on the road early. As usual it absolutely belted down rain on our journey, so much so that we had to drive slow as it was that hard to see the road.

About 1:30pm we finally arrive to Panama City to beautiful weather. We quickly check in, setup our tent and then go look for supplies like towels, umbrellas for shade and grab some lunch. There was a New York Hotdog place right next door and it was damn fine!

Panama City Beach is one of the better ones we have ever been to, so it was well worth changing our itinerary to come down here. We lay in the sun for a while with our new towels before jumping in the water as it was bloody hot.

The water was superb, in fact it was just like a bath, although it as rough as guts. We stayed in there for an hour or so then walked back to our campsite and jumped in the pool for a bit, which was just as nice.

By the time we had showed and got changed it was about 6:30pm, so we went driving to look for somewhere to eat. To our surprise we found a Thai restaurant which was damn good, so was good to have a change from the usual fried food and burgers which is all they seem to have down south.

After tea we dropped by for a look at an amusement park which looked ok, but was pretty expensive. We shot some hoops in the local arcade and then headed for a game of mini golf at a pretty cool little course. It was an epic match too which came right down to the final shot. Adam winning 48-49!

It was getting on a bit now so we headed for a nightcap at a local diner and then headed to bed pretty tired after a long day.

The last thing we needed was for the mattress to have deflated, but that was exactly what had happened. Damn annoying, so we had to re-pump air back into it.

Hading back after a nice day at the beach

An amusement park we stumbled across

Linnie enjoying some mini golf

Historic Montgomery

Happy to cut our time short in Jackson, it was meant to be a two night stay, but having explored the entirety of the downtown area and finding nothing but pavement and closed shops, he make new plans and now have a day up our sleeve that we reserve for the beach in Florida.

Today though we keep our plans and head to Montgomery, Alabama, and as we pull into our doubletree hotel we are delighted to be handed a doubletree cookie at checkin, still the best cookie in existence.

A very historic city, Montgomery was the epicentre of slave trade back in the day, so we spent the day walking the streets reading all of the sign posts as we went along.

First we come to Rosa Parks fountain and park area, Rosa was the first ever black lady to stand up to the laws which forced black people to sit at the back of the bus, she refused to give up her seat and through that act she spurred on tens of thousands of black people to stand up for their rights.

We then walked up the Main Street where the protesters marched on the state Capitol building. This was the same building where Martin Luther King spoke to the masses and eventually gave way to civil rights to black people across the nation.

Just up the road we went inside the first ever White House where Jefferson Davis and his family lived, most of their original furniture was still there and we even met some New Zealanders in there of all places.

Back toward our hotel area we go up to the river front, this was the place where most of the salve trading was done, new slaves would be shipped in and then dispersed throughout the cotton farms and homesteads, to think that just the colour of your skin subjected you to such a life.

With large dark clouds creeping up on us yet again we make it back to the hotel before the heavens opened, luckily for us the hotel had a nice little restaurant so we order up some normal food, have a few beers (which may or may not have tipped over all onto the floor due to someone not being able to handle a game of room key card flick footy across the table).

A long shower and scrub in our pristine bathroom was in order as we will be camping for the next 9 days and safe to say we won't see a bathroom like this for a while, we then watch our new favourite channel, the weather channel, with more flooding and destruction in Oklahoma and Texas we are glad to be heading toward the coast tomorrow and hope for nicer weather for the beach.

There street where the Slave Trades used to happen

Alabama State Capitol

The first ever White House, where Jefferson Davis lived

Standing where Martin Luther King did his "I have a dream" speach

Sleepy Jackson

Opening our tired eyes this morning we look at the time and it's 8:30am, surprised that we had slept so long after we were contemplating packing up at 4am because we were wide awake, we must have been exhausted.

Assessing the damage it looked like it was just wet and muddy, so we get creative and buy a roll of paper towel and take to the tent like spilt milk. With most of the mud now gone and as much water that we can shake off we fold the trooper of a tent up, waterproof the boot with the ponchos that we got from San Diego zoo and we set the GPS for Jackson Mississippi.

Pulling into Jackson we notice how empty the streets were, thirsty we stop at a coffee shop only to find a note on the door saying they're closed down... We drive further along and there's nothing, not one shop, restaurant, cafe, nothing. And there was more police patrolling in their cruisers than people walking on the street, interesting.

We find a Starbucks on google maps and head for that, sure enough there was a little pocket of shops about 10 minutes from the center of town, this was going to be a long day.

With literally nothing to do in the city we decide to watch the NBA and NHL from the comforts of our room and get some dinner from the Taco Bell across from the hotel. 

Our food in hand we settled in front of the TV until.. The power goes out, all across Jackson, if it's not a tornado or storm it's the electricity!

The power wasn't due to be back on for a few hours so we go back down to the car, get the tent and open it up inside the room so it can dry out.

A faint smell of dirt and mud still remained on the tent.. So with nothing to do it was bath time, we get a couple of face towels and give the tent a nice soapy wipe down from head to toe until she's gleaming and looking a million bucks. A job well done.

Click, the power comes back on at around 10:30pm, with a failed attempt at getting the TV to work with a usb card so we can watch a movie we downloaded, we switch off and go to sleep, happy to have no immediate danger to our lives for one night.

Snap Crackle and Pop in Louisiana

With yet another tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warning over, we awake to find that Huston, Taxas was badly flooded over night, thanking the stars we made the decision not to head there that very night for the NBA, they weren't even letting the fans out of the stadium it was so bad.

We leave our quaint little B&B and say farewell to the lovely Scottish couple that owned it. Before leaving Hot Springs we head back into town, park the car, pull on our hiking shoes and delve into the Hot Springs National Park trails for a long peaceful walk.

On our travels we see a lot of run off from where it had been pouring down the night before, from the winds we witnessed from out the window the our restaurant during dinner, we were very surprised there weren't more trees and branches down, just a few twigs and a lot of leaves.

We take on the mountain pass trail which guides us on a loop around the park, somewhere in the middle we find an observatory tower and go up to have a look.

From the tower you can see all of Hot Springs, a small town with only one Main Street, but it has a lot of character and history.

We soak it all in, finish our walk and then before leaving we duck into Jimmy Johns for lunch, some snacks and then we are on our way to Shreveport, Louisiana.

Checking the weather forecast time and time again on the drive down, we make the decision to keep our plans of camping and don't upgrade to the cabin. We have our tent set up in no time and drive off looking back at our lonesome tent the in the rear view not knowing if we made the right decision...

Before venturing too far into the city we stop at Starbucks for a quick coffee and ice chocolate, the weather here was warm and muggy. Next door was a grocery shop so we stock up on giant pink lady apples, mini carrots, yogurt for tomorrow's breakfast and strawberries.

With the weather being hotter than usual we make the purchase of a cooler bag and it worked a treat.

Then we head to the city and walk along the boulevard, we find a Nike outlet and purchase another bargain of the century. With time getting on we stop for dinner at Hooters and meet Caroline, the nicest waitress ever.

We watch the NBA game with one eye on the black clouds rolling in.. Ah oh.. We finish up our nachos and bam, It BUCKETS down, yet again, we are caught in a huge thunder storm.

Heading back to the campsite we expect the worst, the rain held steady for about an hour, fortunately there were only a few puddles here and there and opening our tent everything inside was dry, phew, our little tent was serving to be a warrior in all sorts of extreme weather.

We tuck in for the night hoping that no more rain would come... Until.. 3am CRACK, one of the loudest strikes of thunder we had ever heard belted across the sky and shook the ground underneath us, rain pelted down yet again and every time the lightening lit the sky it was like a warning light for yet another huge crack of thunder.

This went on for about an hour, huddled together we eventually fall back to sleep not knowing if we would survive the night.

The calm before the storm

Linnie with her new friend

Tornado warnings in Arkansas

After a nice relaxing three days in Oklahoma City, it was time to hit the road again, this time to the state of Arkansas. With a 5hr30m drive awaiting us, we decide to get up pretty early. But the long drive was the least of our worries, as we would learn later on.

It was a pretty long drive on what was just a one lane highway, but it was good to finally see some green scenery rather than the desert and cactuses in Arizona and Texas.

We originally planned to camp the night in Hot Springs here in Arkansas, but the weather had been a bit unpredictable lately and we didn't want to risk getting washed away. What a wise decision that turned out to be!

The place we stayed out was a lovely little B&B called the Alpine Inn pretty close to town. The lady there was Scottish and because she loved Australian's she upgraded us to the King Suite free of charge, which we were pretty happy about.

Next we headed into town and grabbed some lunch at a nice little cafe whilst we watched Ninja Warrior live on the tv that they had going. We had no idea what it was, but it was pretty insane. It is a cross between the ironman challenge and gladiators.

We then went for a walk up and down the main strip and then walked up a little mountain that was in the middle of town which had boiling hot water springs. It was pretty warm so we decided to head down and find a drink.

Turns out we randomly found this Duck Boat Tour thing which we ended up getting tickets for. They took us on a tour around the city and then out on to some lake as the car converted to a boat.

The guide was a bit hypoactive, but he put on a pretty good show. It was great out on the lake, apparently heaps of celebreties own houses out there and some of the worst criminals in history like Al Capone used to knock about there as well.

By now we were pretty hungry so decide to head Outback Steakhouse for some Aussie steak. As we were driving it was getting darker and darker, then the radio cut out and there was a severe weather warning that took over all the radio stations.

Whilst we were waiting for our meal the heavens opened and boy did it pour down rain! It absolutely bucketed down, there was thunder and lightning and even the electricity went out inside the restaurant leaving us sitting there in the dark.

After the meal we make a run for it and go back to our hotel. The radio cut out again with another warning, this time for a "Tornado Warning". People had put sandbags up along the street preparing for the floods too.

It was a pretty scary experience driving back as it belted rain, we couldn't even see the lines on the road. We decide to have a quiet night in as they warned people to be indoors. Lucky the NBA was on, which we decided to watch.

Turns out booking a hotel rather than camping was an inspired move afterall!

The calm before the storm

Last day in Oklahoma City

After a nice little sleep in, we head down for our buffet breakfast and start to plan our day ahead. But as usual, you guessed it, it was raining!

So we had to find some things to do inside. We hear they have a good Science Museum in Oklahoma, so that seemed like an interesting enough thing to check out.

It was pretty cool too. Plenty of interactive things to do as we travelled around the museum. Who knew learning could be this fun? We spent a good 2hrs there in the end.

After we walk out it is still absolutely belting down rain, so we make a mad dash to the car and set the GPS to take us to Jimmy John's for lunch, yet again. As usual it was a great feed.

By now the rain had started to stop a little so we thought it would be a good chance to go and check out Bricktown which has gotten some big wraps as a "must see" part of Oklahoma City.

It was good fun. We wondered up and down the canal area and throughout the different parts of Bricktown and we also found a kickass cupcake shop which we stopped at.

Then we found a micro brewery called Bricktown Brewery. They had a raft of different beers which they brew onsite including an amazing chocolate/coffee stout which went down a treat. We grabbed some wedges, watched the start of the NBA and NHL and then head off back to the hotel.

We had one last swim and spa where we met a nice dude who come from Kansas City, MS. We chatted to him for a while then went for a nightcap down in the lobby.

The last quarter of the NBA was on with Cleveland playing Atlanta in Game 3. It turned out to be a ripper with the Cavs winning in OT.

We also ran into yet another character while watching the game. Some guy obsessed with the rubik's cube who could solve it in less than 30 seconds. He just sat there messing it up, then solving out. I reckon he solved it about 10 times while we sat there.

It was a great three days in Oklahoma City and we'd love to go back and visit again one day if it was a bit dryer. There was still plenty of things we missed out on seeing and it was our favourite stop of the trip so far.

The puppy and penguin we created at the Science Museum

Linnie enjoying one last nightcap

The real Oklahoma Thunder

Another sleep in down we were ready for a full day of Oklahoma, unfortunately for us it was STILL raining, this was getting ridiculous.

So with the weather being what it was we decide to head to the outlet shops and do a spot of shopping. We come out with a lot of bargains, $20 Levis, $25 Nikes, $80 Asics, safe to say we cleaned up.

Across the road we spot a brew house and head there for lunch. Getting quite tired of the American menus at 99% of restaurants consisting of every dish either being fried or smothered in melted cheese, we opt for sharing a salad. Even half a salad is enough to feed 2 people, where's the portion control people!

We head back to the hotel for a bit of a rest, shopping is hard work, before we head out to the local cinema in Bricktown to see Tomorrowland.

Getting out of the cinema we walk along the little canal that runs through Bricktown, such a picturesque spot with little ducks waddling around everywhere and beautiful gardens lining the pathways.

Then the rain comes, and gets heavier and heavier, by the time we find a restaurant to hide in for dinner we are fairly drenched.

We end up in 'Toby Keith's' a supposed famous country singer's restaurant that we'd never heard of, but it kept us dry.

You couldn't see or hear the rain apart from a lot of thunder rumbles, but when all the satellites went down and the TVs froze on vision of the weather radar with flooding and tornado warnings we knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

Knowing we couldn't stay there all night we made a mad dash to the car and took it slow and steady all the way back to the hotel watching the lightening show crack all across the black and grey sky.

We end the night with a hot chocolate by the imitation fire whilst watching the NHL ice hockey with a couple of locals, getting a few history lessons and rule explanations it was quite the productive night.

Raining yet again...

The cinema where we watched Tomorrowland

The canal which runs through Bricktown

Some ducks enjoying the wet weather

A recharge in OKC

Having had a very restful nights sleep in out little cabin, we step outside and it is still raining, looking ahead for the Oklahoma City forecast it isn't letting up for the entire weekend, there goes frontier land and water parks, bugger!

We take the rain as a sign, and after driving the 3:30 hours we checked into our very spacious hotel room in Oklahoma City and decide to have a restful day in, only heading out to check out the OKC Thunders stadium (Chesapeake Arena) and then grabbing some Jimmy John's for lunch.

While we wondered around we came across some Botanical Garden exhibit so decided to check that out. It wasn't bad for something to do, but when we got out the rain had gotten even heavier.

The rest of the afternoon we hang out in and around the hotel, using the gym, a quick swim in the pool, room service (which was horrid) watched a few movies and then a nightcap in the lobby area watching some TV with a friendly guy from New Jersey.

Pretty nice room we have

Entrance to Chesapeake Stadium, where the Thunder play 

A view of the stadium from further out

A very green Texas

Opening our eyes this morning we had never been so happy to see daylight, after a night of gusty, strong winds we were glad to be alive and not sucked up by a twister and dumped a few kms down the road.

Even the campground manager drove down on his little golf cart to ask how we went, very unseasonable winds he said, "Haven't had winds like that in a very long time." Just our luck!

As we packed up the tent we were in admiration that not even a peg had come loose, thanks for looking after us tent.

On the road again we stop in at an ihop for breakfast, we thought we had earnt a nice hearty meal. Our oats, eggs, juice and hash browns eaten we leave Albuquerque and make tracks for Amirillo, Texas.

With the forecast for that night going to be wet, we decide to upgrade our tent site to a cabin, the last thing we want is a soaked tent and mud all over the place.

The little log cabin was nothing short of adorable, it had steps leading up the a verandah where a little wooden chair swing hung out the front, entering there was a double bed, a couple of bunks, a very old TV and my favourite, a heater. 

At nearly 2 weeks in to our trip, a load of washing had to be done, otherwise we would be going commando soon. The washing powder purchased we wait the half hour for the washing to be done and then another half hour for the dryer to make our clothes toasty warm.

Us being the only ones in the laundry room we couldnt resist to get changed into our warm clothes as they come out of the dryer, aaaaahhhhhhh.

We had a fair lined up to go to tonight but with the incoming rain we decide to go to the cinema, our first movie since arriving in USA we were having withdrawals, there's nothing quite like switching off for a couple of hours and getting completely intertwined in a story, tonight's movie was Mad Max.

After the movie we pop over the road to a steakhouse for dinner, it had been a while since we had a good steak and it didn't disappoint, the meal was delicious, the best part was the giant baked sweet potato, we left that place feeling very, very full.

A little further down the road we drop into the Firehouse Sports Bar to catch the last half of the NBA, the place was packed full of people with TVs hanging in pretty much every space on the ceiling and walls, it was sport overkill!

Heading back to the cabin we look forward to some sleep in our new digs, tomorrow we head to Oklahoma for a few days, let's hope the weather clears up and that we're not just following this storm all around the USA.