Mobile, Alabama

Last night we arrived in Mobile, Alabama! We drove all the way
from Louisiana, via Mississippi. We slept in a Lowes carpark again,
and this morning drove into the town. Mobile is real nice. The houses
are amazing, and people really were sitting on their front porches.
Mobile county is where To Kill a Mockingbird is set.

First Streetcar, now this. It's like GCSE English all over again.

The houses are massive and all colonial looking. Quaint yet bloody
huge. We found a little cafe and had hot chocolate and ate some super
delicious food. The sun came out and we sat outside and watched
teenagers ballroom dance in the park opposite us.

Mobile are celebrating St Patricks day today, and we have finally figured
out why we've been seeing trees drapesed in hundreds of strings of beads
as we've driven across the country.

We thought it was Mardi Gras, but no, it's St Patrick.

They went crazy for it. As we walked around the town, there was a
green-clad gathering on the square. The worst festival in the world,
I named it. It all seemed a bit lame until the parade started.

Then, it started raining sweets and toys, and thousands upon
thousands of coloured beads! It was the best thing to happen
to anybody, ever. We collected sweets off the floor like the
scummers we have become, and I weighed myself down with
beads. They'll come in useful, for sure.

We're back on the road this afternoon. We had no plans to head
into Florida, but it seems a shame to miss it as we're so close.

New Orleans

We awoke on Thursday morning, still in a Lowes carpark, still
in lost in New Orleans, but thankful for the sunshine, at least!
We had a plan; find the internet!

The internet can be a pretty tough cookie to find. Cookie. Heee.

But we tracked him down, in a hospital, and used his knowledge
to find us an RV park to spend the night.

Thankyou internet!

So, we got parked up by ealy afternoon, tried to converse with
some bloke who didn't understand a word we were saying, and
headed off into New Orleans, proper.

We caught a bus, and got stared at the entire time for being the
only white folk around. It didn't feel hostile this time, at least.

We hoppped off in the French Quarter, which is where the famous
streets, like Bourban, and the streetcars are. It was all quaint
streets and pretty houses. Definitely more Blanche than Stella.

We stopped at a bar and ate fries covered in all sorts of fatty
delights. Not very Louisianan, but they sure tasted good.

The bar was serving two dollar drinks. So we abused this until
we could abuse no more.

We moved on to another bar, and abused ourselves with more.
We met a bloke called Matthew, a caricature artist from Michigan.
He sat and drank with us a while. I don't remember what we spoke
about, but he was cool. Although I do remember feeling slightly
disconcerted with the caricature thing.

We got a taxi back to our RV park, and slept.

This morning we fed our hangovers a fried chicken breakfast and are
currently awaiting our laundry before we hit the road, once again.

Shut up and drive

On Tuesday evening we found ourselves in Jasper, which
I think is in Texas. On the drive there I got pulled, again!
Apparently I was driving real close to a lorry in front of me.

This is lies, the problem is everyone slams their brakes on
when they see a cop car. Anyway, they were pretty nice and
didn't bother searching us. Lucky, what with all them dead
bodies and heroine stashed in the bathroom.

Our problem is, we look suspicious. Our RV doesn't exactly
blend in. Maybe the cop stops will stop when we're away from
the Mexican border.

We stayed in a state park, right on the edge of a lake. Now,
not only did we have mountain lions and coyotes to contend
with, we had alligators too. Not that we saw any.
It was too dark. Reassuring.

Will built us another fire and we ate jacket potatos and beans
and cheese. It was literally the best food either of us have
ever eaten. Maybe beacuse it was the first hot food we've
been able to make ourselves! Or maybe it just tastes better
if you cook it over a campfire.

After leaving Jasper, we found ourselves in Louisiana on
Wednesday. We headed for Baton Rouge. However, after
arriving in the dark, in the rain, in the hood, we decided to
push on for New Orleans.

So on yesterday evening we got here. Once again, we found
ourselves in the hood. Only this time, it was actually pretty
damed scary. I spazzed out and drove the wrong way down
a busy one-way street. New Orleans is a one way city.
I got beeped, a lot!

We'd planned to sleep in a state park just outside the city,
but we got all freaked out by the area it was in. So, instead
of lovely showers and electricity, we spent another night in
a carpark. Lowes, this time.

Dallas

Last night we parked up our RV in a carpark in a town called
Abilene, Texas. I had the worst nights sleep I've ever had,
on account of some chuffing birds that a) would not shut up
and b) entered my nightmares.

It was so bizzare, there were literally thousands of birds
gathered together in a carpark until well after midnight,
making horrific noises and turning the trees black. I would
like somebody to tell me what the balls they were doing. Thanks.

Anyway, I had some weird dream about a murderer who'd
trained a bunch of birds to kill people, and the squawking
outside my window didn't do much to help.

So this morning I woke up all stressed, in a carpark, in some
odd little town in deepest darkest Texas. Then I drove god
knows how many miles to Dallas in a nomadic shack.

Dallas is super hot. Humid and sticky and stressful. But it's
nice, all the same. We did the JFK stuff. The 6th floor museum.
Which cost a fortune, but Will seems to like JFK, or he likes
the conspiricy, or something.

Either way, despite having a lovely earpiece telling me all I
needed to know, Will took on a Tourguide of the Month routine
and maintained it for the rest of the day. Ha. I'm joking Will,
it was interesting, really.

He got a little annoyed, I think, because I'm not clued up on
the story. Plus I think it's perfectly plausable that Oswald guy
shot him!! Jeez.

We just watched The Watchmen at a cinema. It was a wildgoose
chase finding one that was actually showing it, but we succeeded.
Sleeping in the cinema carpark tonight. I smell bad.

Carlsbad Caverns

We've driven about a million miles since Wednesday.

On Thursday we drove almost the whole way across
Arizona into Lordsburg, New Mexico. We went through
a bunch of odd little towns and lots of pretty amazing scenery.
Arizona is mountainy. We spent the night in a carpark behind
a restaurant, after stealing showers from Pilots truck stop.
Thanks Pilot!

On Friday our intention was to drive the whole way from
Lordsburg to the Carlsbad Caverns, also in New Mexico, but
via El Paso, Texas. On the way we drove through a border patrol,
each vehicle is stopped to check for illegals. Third brush with the
law! I've never once been stopped in England!

We did pretty good, and managed to get about 50 miles west
of Carlsbad before we ran out of gas! The highways here are
endless, and we managed to get through half a tank without a
single sign of life. We chugged into an RV park way up in the
Guadalupe Mountains on the last of our fumes.

The sign for the campsite couldn't have come a moment sooner;
a single extra mile and we'd have been camped out on the highway.
We used a payphone to call AAA, and a couple of hours later
we were fueled up! We decided to stay the night, as it was
pretty damned late anyway.

We escaped this morning without paying (again) and made it to
Carlsbad Caverns by 9am this morning. It's in a creepy little town
called Whites City. The kind of place that breeds murderers and
psychos. It's also the windiest place ever, dust storms and tumble
weed keep battering our lovely home!

I decided today is my day off, so we're hooked up in an RV
park recharging our batteries, literally and analogically.
Is that a word?

We went down into the caverns this afternoon. It was cool!
13 degrees in fact. It was impressive, for caverns. Although
there were no blokes sat in rowing boats playing the violin,
like the caverns in Majorca!

We just ate burritos. Feel a bit sick.

Back on the road in the morning. Goody.

Joshua Tree

Yesterday we drove through the Palm Springs windmills!
Have you seen Alphadog? I watched it at Leon's. The windmills
are in that film, and show the scale of them. There are literally
thousands. We parked up in a sand pit and walked across desert
to get a closer look. It was windy!

Someone did good with that location.

A helicoptor flew over us, and I discovered the incident in the
Hollywood Hills has given me a phobia of them!

At sunset last night, 200 miles into our trip, we hit Joshua Tree
National Park. We headed to one of the campsites and found a
spot big enough to squeeze our 30 footer. We did good!

When I say we, I mean I.

We had a picnic bench and everything! Will made a campfire
like a real man and we sat round it drinking beer and eating
chips and home-made guacamole. The stars came out and there
were zillions, and we were nestled inbetween the biggest
boulders ever. Everything looked surreal.

It was a super nice night!

Today we woke up to the sunniest, quietest, most pretty day
ever. We went for a walk and climbed some rocks. There were
tonnes of chipmunks and other fluffy creatures Will reckoned
were 'ground squirrels'.

What rubbish. We didn't see any coyotes, although Will heard
them howl or something while he smoked a dirty midnight
cigarette. Again, what rubbish!

In the afternoon we drove deeper into Joshua Tree to Keys View,
where you can see all the way to Mexico! Then we began to make
our way out, via a few stops such as skull rock and Cottonwood
Spring. Oh yeah, it's called Joshua Tree because it's full of Joshua
Trees. They're cool.

We escaped without paying, somehow. Thirty bucks saved.

We're spending the night in a truck stop just to the west of
Phoenix, Arizona. No showers for us! On the way here we got
pulled by the cops. We had a brake light out, but he was obviously
suspicious of us because he split Will and I up. He made me stand
by his car while Will was told to stand way behind the RV by a road
sign. He questioned us separately about how we knew each other,
who were were and whether we had any drugs on us.

Then he searched our RV, which was slightly disconcerting.
Especially when I saw him go into my underwear drawer through
the rear window!

Anyway, we escaped with a verbal warning and carried on our way.

It turns out I got sunburnt today. The desert is a tricky trickster!

In and Out

Today we finally left LA! We said goodbye to Leon this morning,
after he drove us around while we sorted out AAA breakdown
cover and moved our luggage from his kitchen to our new house!
Then he took us for burgers at In and Out, best fast food EVER.
We also eventually got insurance this morning. Talk about
organisation.

We're only about 100 miles out of LA, but it feels good to be on
our way! We're staying at a proper Koa RV site tonight, as we
wanted to work out how our hook ups work. Luckily, the electrics
work! Although we have realised we have no hose for water.

Yesterday we went to the Griffith Observatory. The views over
LA were awesome and we watched the sun go down from the roof.
We'd planned to see Dana in the evening, but in the end we stayed
in with Leon and his friend Sunday and played Rock Band. I'm
bestest on drums.