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SOUTH EASTERN USA
Apr. -
Jun. 2009
Friendly Americans
After a long flight from South
Africa, we retrieved Dipli form
the storage near Phoenix,
Arizona. When we stopped to
check the GPS for the Wal-Mart
parking lot, a young guy in a
pick-up, pulled alongside and
said: “come and park at my place
rather” and took us to dinner
too. The next day we collected
the diff which had been sent
from Germany.
It
was 40ºC in Phoenix, and we
sought a higher elevation – once
again – at our friends’ place in
Prescott. 9 days and 3
“Overlander travellers” -parties
later, with ratchet hoist and
hard work, the new front diff
was installed.
Southern Arizona, near
Tucson had towering
Saguaro cacti and a park
with mountain lion, peccaries,
bobcat, ocelot and grey wolf. As
our interests always take us
from the natural to the
scientific, we had to see the
Titan Missile Site left over
from the cold war of the
1960’s.
When
we were crossing New Mexico,
we wished we could once again
detour to the farm where we had
been to twice before.
Texas has large landscaped
rest areas with wireless
internet and barbecues for the
good Texan steaks. At the
Houston Space centre
we were amazed at the length of
the Saturn V rocket. The
International Space Station, the
size of a football field, was
duplicated exactly for training
and for us to gawk at.
On
Avery Island, Louisiana
in 1868 Edmund McIlhenry had
harvested his own crop of red
chillies. The sauce he made was
so sought after, that he started
bottling and selling it. We saw
how 700,000 little long-necked
bottles of Tabasco pepper
sauce are produced there now
each day!
Central New Orleans has
restored or unscathed (by
Katrina) ornate balconies, pubs
and seafood restaurants.
Mardigras shops have
multi-coloured costumes, beads
and masks. Jazz buskers play in
the square.
On
the Gulf coast of
Mississippi, where Hurricane
Katrina had destroyed the
buildings and had washed the
beach sand onto the road, the
Vorsters were parked by the sea!
The bliss lasted until the next
day when we found ourselves
covered by itching sand fly
bites.
After the hurricane, some houses
were rebuilt but many lots with
just a concrete slab were for
sale. The palm trees were tilted
and some trees were still
sheared of branches on one side.
From a kiosk we bought a book
and a doll which had survived
the hurricane, although the shop
had not.
In
Biloxi, MS, we could not
check email because one library
was just gone, and one was still
having the roof repaired.
Battleship Park in Mobile,
Alabama encompasses a
submarine and the massive USS
Alabama Battleship which had
served from WWII until Operation
Iraqi Freedom. Ammunition
storage, engine rooms, living
quarters, huge kitchens, work
shops and movie rooms took us
half a day to explore.
Northern Florida’s
beaches are so gorgeous!
Long causeways across bays
connect spits of land to provide
even more holiday accommodation
on the built-up coast. Leone’s
practiced eye spotted the
perfect parking next to the fine
quartz-crystal-white beach
overlooking the fluorescent
aquamarine sea. Swimming and
snorkelling were divine too.
Soon
after, Jan had to weld a bracket
by the roadside. Then we had two
flat tyres in two days.
One
evening over sundowners in a
forest we were viciously
dive-bombed by blood-sucking
deer-flies. Inside the camper,
the extermination rendered more
than 20 ‘attackers’.
In
search of some history, we
photographed the cannons of the
fort of St Augustine, FL,
continuously inhabited since
1672. It was raining and “Huddle
House” seemed to be the right
spot for lunch.
We
had a number of rainy days and,
due to Dipli’s scarred body, wet
clothes and bedding had to be
contended with; until we found a
“Spin City” Laundromat between a
“Piggly Wiggly” supermarket and
a coffee shop called “Vinny Van
Go Go”.
In
Savannah, Georgia we came
upon a Memorial Day parade next
to the epic Savannah River.
Flags, military uniforms and
marching music honoured the
departed and the serving.
South Carolina, founded in
1670, epitomizes the gracious
air of the old South. Antebellum
houses line the streets of
Charleston and in the
country we saw grand mansions of
past cotton plantations with
landscaped gardens and rows of
slave cabins.
Where once the Cherokee roamed
in North Carolina, stands
the magnificent, most sumptuous
250-room French
Renaissance-style chateau.
Biltmore was constructed by
the van der Bilt family (of
railway riches). We needed a
full day to wonder through the
exquisitely furnished 5 levels
and magnificent gardens. (It is
also the largest private home
structure in the US).
Kentucky Fried Chicken
started in Corbin,
Kentucky. The café with the
original kitchen is still there.
Colonel Sanders started the
pressure frying of chicken with
the special spice mixture, in a
small café in 1940. Later he
sold his business for $2million.
In a
fragrant honeysuckle field, when
Dipli had a starting problem, a
curious passer by happened to be
from an RV repair shop nearby.
He invited us to his work shop
on 85 acres where he also has a
large house with pond and pool,
and a cabin in the woods. He
tracked down and delivered a
special large battery for our
vehicle.
Kentucky is horses and whisky
distilleries and Blue grass
music and Steven Foster’s songs
like “My old Kentucky home”. In
Bardstown we camped out
with a friendly crowd at “The
Kentucky Blue Grass Country
Music Festival”.
In
the capital of country music,
Nashville, Tennessee we
enjoyed a sold-out performance
at the Grand Ole Opry Hall,
which seats 4400 people.
“H2Oh!” advertised the aquarium.
The restaurant’s tables were
placed right around a massive
tank with ornamental fish.
From
the home of new friends, we went
to the Parthenon – a full
scale replica of the one in
Athens, Greece, complete with a
gold leaf-covered statue of
Athena - 14 m tall.
In
Memphis, Tennessee, at
Graceland “where Elvis
lives” we heard the music, saw
the house, cars, Priscilla’s
wedding dress, concert outfits,
awards, planes and his grave
next to the swimming pool.
Flowers from fans are still
delivered there every day. We
read that in the 20 years after
his death in 1977, 400 million
music albums were sold.
After the forests and rivers of
Great Smoky Mountains
National Park we stopped at
Oak Ridge,TS where
75 000 people had worked on the
Manhattan Project to build the
first atomic bombs.
At a
NAPA dealership in Perryville,
Missouri, where Dipli
had to get a new alternator, we
once again received the friendly
American help with parking,
electricity and even a lunch at
the American Legion.
Beneath the famous Arch in
St Louis, Missouri,
we were trying to catch
the late night breeze next to
the Mississippi, when the police
moved us along to a spot beneath
3 railway lines and a freeway…
Compensation was: to be received
in a handsome home on a 4000
acre farm with soy beans, corn,
wheat and hay and the best farm
machinery, near Shelbina.
We
crossed the Mississippi river 9
times. We never ceased to be
amazed at the size of it! In
Hannibal, Missouri,
where Mark Twain had been
a steam boat pilot and had
written “Huckleberry Finn”,
etc., we took a river boat
excursion on the Mississippi.
President Abraham Lincoln’s
life is portrayed in a most
modern museum in Springfield,
Illinois, depicting history
by means of wax figures and
voice recordings. Mary Lincoln’s
sumptuous dresses have been
re-made in fine fabrics, using
paintings of the 1860s as a
guide.
We
loved Chicago and
its parks and beaches next to
Lake Michigan. While we were
gaping at the skyscrapers and
the biggest T Rex, young artists
had left a note on our camper
and invited us to use their
house as a base. They took us to
a typical Chicago music bar, to
a lakeside concert in Millennium
Park and at midnight to a
foundry: roaring, hissing,
sizzling and glowing with molten
steel. (Seldom a dull moment!)
Next NORTH
CENTRAL USA
This
journey up to June 2009:
Time on the road (excluding home
visits): 5 years, 7 months
Kilometres driven: 238 000
Countries visited: 88 (with
Dipli). US States: 30
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