Week 49 - USA - Moab, UT to Phoenix, AZ

After breakfast on Monday, we headed north out of Moab and drove past the town of Green River. There was a lot of snow on the flat plain so in parts the countryside was completely white. Then we headed southwest past Hanksville and the Capitol Reef National Park with towering red and orange buttes and we stopped at one point beside the Fremont River to see petroglyphs of bighorn sheep and anthropomorphic figures carved on the red rock walls.

We passed through the small town of Torrey before getting on the Scenic Byway 12 towards Bryce Canyon National Park. We drove up to 9,600 feet on Boulder Mountain and just outside a viewpoint saw a small group of female deer. They looked in great condition but moved off when we stopped and got out of the car. The mountaintop was spectacular with deep snow, large green conifers, and bare birch trees and incredible views over the red mesas and canyons to other snow capped mountain ranges. We had just pulled out and gathered speed going downhill when we came around a corner to find a larger group of female deer including young ones standing in the middle of the road. We braked and they froze and then darted in all directions.

We stopped to have a picnic lunch at the entrance to the Calf Creek Recreation Area in the Escalante National Monument Park. It was warm down by the small river running through the canyon. We soaked up some sun while we ate our lunch. When we went down to the creek to wash our hands, we found some paw prints which may have been from a mountain lion and a fish shot off from the shallows.

After lunch we headed off again and at one point the road ran along a ridge with steep canyons falling away on both sides! We kept driving but had to keep stopping for photo opportunities so that we only reached the Bryce Canyon National Park at 4.00 pm. We scooted around the Sunrise, Sunset, Bryce and Inspiration viewpoints which offered views of different points around the Amphitheatre. From the canyon rim we looked down on thousands of different spires of red and orange below falling away for miles across the valleys. The scenery was magnificent. There were cliffs, canyons, mountains, mesas and pinnacles covered in a thick blanket of snow as far as the eye could see.

We exited the park thinking ourselves lucky to see three national parks over the last three days. The scenic road went through two natural rock arches in quick succession as we headed for Page on the edge of the massive Lake Powell, reputed to have a longer shore line than California. We arrived at 7.00 pm and checked into a Best Western without bothering to check anywhere else. We went out for dinner to Mexican Fiesta and bought lunch for tomorrow from the Safeway supermarket before retreating to our room.

On Tuesday, we woke up at 7.00 am, had a rushed breakfast in the hotel and then checked out. The drive to Monument Valley located within the Navajo Nation on the Utah-Arizona border took us about two hours. Monument Valley is one of the most famous American Wild West landscapes having featured as the backdrop in several classic cowboy and Indian films. At the entrance gate, we paid our park entry fees, and then paid a quick visit to the Visitor Centre to have a look at the gift shop and admire the views of the rock formations from the balconies.

Inside the park we drove along an 18 mile unpaved loop road to get a closer look at the monuments - sandstone mesas, buttes and spire rock formations. The monuments in the park all had names, and we had quite a bit of difficulty reconciling the names to the monuments. Obviously we were lacking in imagination! It took us an hour and a half to complete the drive. We had lunch and then decided to tackle the Wildcat Trail – a 3.2 mile trail that took us around the base of the West Mitten Butte and gave us a sense of how enormous the monuments were.. It turned out to be a very easy walk across some soft rock bed and sand dunes through the native vegetation including Juniper trees, yucca, Sagebrush, Russian thistle (Tumbleweed) and Navajo Tea.

After we left the park, we drove to the Grand Canyon National Park, a steep sided canyon carved out by the Colorado River in Arizona. The drive took us about three hours and the sun was just beginning to set as we arrived at the park entrance gate. The helpful lady at the ticket office directed us to the Desert View Point, half a mile from the gate where we arrived in time to see the canyon turning a rosy pink in the setting sun. From the Desert View Point, it was a twenty five mile drive to Grand Canyon Village within the park. We had dinner at the Yavapai Cafeteria and after viewing an expensive drab-looking room without WiFi, we decided to drive to the nearby town of Tusayan where we checked into a lovely room at the Canyon Plaza Resort and settled in for the evening with a bottle of wine.

We slept in until 8.00 am on Wednesday, had breakfast and then headed over to the visitor centre. At the visitor centre, a very enthusiastic local lady helped us so we knew what to do for the day.

We drove back to the rim and parked the car at the Shrine of Ages and walked to the rim trail. We walked along the rim stopping at every lookout, watching out for ice patches and trying to soak up sun. Every few hundred metres there was a polished rock sample with name and age and as we walked the rocks on display got older. The last rock was an Elves Chasm gneiss 1,840 million years old. Of course there were breathtaking views of the canyon with all its side canyons running off at right angles looking very good in the clear air and sunlight. We saw a lady with what looked like a TV antennae and she was waving it around in the air with faint crackling sounds coming from a battery pack she was carrying. We thought she might be a new age nut, of which there are plenty around – listening for aliens possibly. She left abruptly so we had no answers.

We reached the Bright Angel Lodge and turned down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon to the Phantom Lodge down by the Colorado River. The trail zigzagged back and forth but unfortunately large sections were iced over and it wasn't long before Suzie fell over so we had to turn back. We did manage to get through a natural rock arch and saw a couple of cowboys bringing a line of mules up from the bottom. How they didn't slip over on the ice was amazing. We watched them but only one hoof seemed to slip at a time. Apparently there were two bridges over the river and the mules would not cross by the bridge with gaps because they could see through to the river below. Only the solid bridge was deemed safe enough by them!

We wandered on several miles further, but we had to walk a long way to get a different perspective as the panorama was so vast. Eventually we turned around and headed back to the Bright Angel lodge where we enjoyed a battleship burger and a tortilla salad. We had a look at the interesting display about Fred Harvey from England who started as a dishwasher and decided that there was money to be made from food services – particularly on the railway routes. He ended up building the Bright Angel Lodge and when he died they had 47 hotels, 23 dining cars on trains, and serviced one cruise steamer. As we walked out we saw a beautiful blue jay and followed it into the balcony of a tourist shop. We lost the bird but saw some great Grand Canyon photos including the California Condor. Keith bought some genuine imitation Indian stone arrowheads.

Afterwards, we caught the free shuttle back to our car. Then we drove out along the Hermit Trail past where we had walked stopping at numerous lookouts. At one lookout the lady with the weird antennae was waving it around so Keith approached her and it turned out that actually she was quite sane and was tracking the 75 tagged California condors living in the canyon between here and Utah. We had a good laugh with her and headed back towards home. We did stop once more at Mather Point on the eastern side of the park to see the last sunset light up the canyon walls.

On Thursday, we packed up and checked out of the hotel. It was a beautiful day as we drove out of the mountains and down to Phoenix, to stay with Keith's cousin Tom and his family. As we approached Phoenix, we started to see the long fingers of saguaro cactus on the surrounding hillsides.

We had some lunch and then drove to Tom and Claudia's to meet them, their children Iain and Madailein, and the five dogs (Boomer, Izzy, Baxter, Lola and Jelly Bean). We spent all afternoon chatting to them and we were joined later by Uncle John and his dog Chloe. Keith and Iain played soccer while Tom cooked up the barbecue. The soccer stopped when Boomer knocked Keith over and Keith broke his sunglasses heading the soccer ball!

We had a delicious dinner of tri-tip steak, salad, spaghetti squash, corn, and Spanish rice with vermicelli. We drank a pinot noir, a zinfandel and a cabernet sauvignon (Charles Schwab – three buck chuck) and tried some of Tom's Guatemalan rum. It tasted like a smooth scotch.

We had a really relaxing day on Friday. We spent a leisurely morning playing with the kids and then headed out to the Mexican Ranch Markets to buy some supplies for tonight's Thai dinner. It was just like being in a Mexican supermarket - there were a lot of unusual ingredients and we found at least eight different types of dried chilli!

Back at home we met Tom and Claudia's friendly neighbours Rich and Linda and admired their beautiful red Corvette sports car and Dodge station wagon. We saw a rabbit at last light and then we went inside and started peeling and chopping in earnest. We started off by making some Thai green curry paste and Thai red curry paste in Claudia's food processor. After that, we put together the ingredients for a prawn tom yum soup and chicken and vegetable curry. In the process Keith broke a kitchen cupboard door and had to drive to Home Depot down the road for a bottle of Gorilla glue. On the way home he saw a coyote trotting along beside 7^th Avenue. We fed the kids and after Claudia arrived home from work, we had the tom yum soup, followed by a red chicken curry and a green chicken curry. Despite several improvisations, the meal was delicious.

On Saturday, Tom was at work and Claudia took us shopping. We went to Kohl's down the road first and bought clothes until it was time to go home for lunch. We had a great time going through the clearance racks and finding pretty decent clothes for ridiculously cheap prices. Claudia, who is an amazing bargain shopper and makes Suzie look like an amateur, had a coupon so on top of the already discounted prices, we received another 15% discount!

After lunch, we went to some factory outlets a few miles away. After some more purchases of clothes and shoes we went home just after dark. Then we all went out for dinner at Chili's close by. We had guacamole, salsa, and corn chips, Buffalo wings, Caribbean salad, and baby back ribs with chips.

On Sunday, we had a family barbecue and early birthday celebration for Tom, with Uncle John, Aunt Maura and Lloyd (Tom's brother) and Rich from next door. It was a really beautiful day and we were able to sit outside on the patio for lunch. The food was delicious – marinated skirt steak, plantains with sour cream, pico de gallo, gallo pinto (rice and beans), avocado salad and Nicaraguan tortillas. We had pears poached in red wine and Tom's tiramisu birthday cake for dessert.

After everyone left, we had a big clean up and then spent the evening relaxing in front of the TV, booking our accommodation for Las Vegas and reading about the next stage of our trip.

Week 48 - USA - Amarillo, TX to Moab, UT

It was very cold, windy and raining when we woke up on Monday morning. When we walked across the car park to the Big Texan Steak Ranch for breakfast there were patches of black ice on the ground. We chose the breakfast buffet option at the Big Texan and opted for fruit, cereal, and omelettes, pancakes and French toast made to order. While we were eating our breakfast someone else took on the 72 oz steak challenge! To our surprise, he actually managed to finish the steak and sides in a little over fifty minutes, receiving a t-shirt and certificate for his efforts. He did look kinda sick though towards the end – 72 oz is about 2 kgs and there is no bone!

We checked out of the motel, packed up the car and then had to spend twenty minutes in the freezing wind scraping the ice off the car windows. According to the thermostat in the car it was minus 7°C! Finally we got going and headed West on Interstate Highway 40. We stopped briefly at the Cadillac Ranch to take photos of a line of ten vividly spray-painted Cadillacs planted nose-down in a dusty field right next to the highway.

As we drove into New Mexico, we noticed a marked change of scenery. The flat gold empty plains of Texas were replaced by flat-topped mesas, purple rocky outcrops and plains dotted with green scrub. We arrived in Albuquerque with a spectacular range of mountains in the background highlighted by the setting sun.

We checked into our hotel and had a rest before dinner. It was so cold that we didn't want to walk too far for dinner so we ate at the nearby St Clair Winery & Bistro.

On Tuesday morning, we checked out and packed up the car before walking a few blocks in the crisp air to the Golden Crown Panaderia. We enjoyed the faux adobe houses and structures everywhere. They were all painted in various shades of adobe brown and were all low set giving the town a completely different feel and look. The original adobe was a mud brick used by the native Indians which lasted extremely well in the desert conditions.

The Golden Crown Panaderia was run by a character called Pratt Morales who had been in the army and then had been running the bakery for 35 years. The New Mexican bakery goods were outstanding. Every customer got a free biscochito (traditional New Mexican cinnamon and anise cookie).

After breakfast we walked around Old Town admiring the pottery, jewellery, moccasins and native art. There were miniature sculptures of animals and spirits called fetishes carved from different stones, shells and deer horn. There was a lizard carved from serpentine, eagles with folded wings carved from a sea shell, an Indian spirit carved from deer horn, and a tiny animal carved from a striking rainbow coloured rock. There were exceptional hand-made pottery vases and figures glazed with black from manure and ash with designs etched into the glaze. We also saw some great bear shape pottery and a couple of cow skulls with small turquoise pieces stuck all over the forehead and then sealed with lacquer. We resisted temptation and walked away with nothing.

We checked out the San Felipe de Neri church on the plaza which was established by the first Spanish settlers in 1709. We went back to the Golden Crown Panaderia for lunch to try their pizzas with special New Mexican crusts – we tried a Hawaiian pizza with a blue corn crust and a vegetarian pizza with a green chilli crust.

After lunch we headed for Santa Fe on Interstate Highway 40 with a brief stop at a Mormon monument to a battalion which had participated in the Mexican American War. At Santa Fe, we checked into the Villas de Santa Fe which was part of an international group of timeshare properties called Diamond Resorts. We headed out to walk to the supermarket and grabbed some groceries for breakfasts and chicken and salad for dinner so we could eat in like normal people for a change.

We had shredded wheat, banana and blackberries with a cup of Dilmah tea for breakfast on Wednesday. Even having breakfast in makes a nice change. Only a couple of Dilmah tea bags left but they have lasted us pretty well - all the way from South Africa!

After breakfast, we walked into town. It was a cold sunny day and Santa Fe looked fantastic. There were lots of great shops, art galleries, museums, and sculptures around town, all framed by the low set adobe brown buildings. We walked around the main plaza and took a side street where we ran into a theatre which had Norman arch windows, wrought iron grilles and a white dragon design running around the adobe roof. We found an amazing carpet gallery across the road and gawked at the amazing carpets from Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, and Kazakhstan. This place must have had millions of dollars of stock and they were displayed beautifully on walls and floor with light fittings which were also works of art. Suzie bought a purse on sale from Overland. It wasn't quite as cheap as we thought because tax had to be added. It's a real pain – you think that you are getting a really good deal and then you have to add tax (and in restaurants – a tip)!

We walked down to Tomasita's in the old railway station building for lunch. We wanted to try the New Mexico version of Mexican food. We ordered a jumbo plate between the two of us with a side salad. It had a taco, an enchilada, a tamale, red and green chile sauce, a stuffed chilli, beans and Spanish rice. There was also a sopapilla with butter and New Mexican honey for dessert.

We stumbled across Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery gallery which had a collection of incredible hand-made pottery by Indians from the nearby pueblos. Pueblo pottery is typically made from coiled clay and shaped by hand rather than thrown on a potter's wheel. The pots are usually painted and then polished with a stone before being painted with traditional designs. Each of the pueblos had their own particular style. This store had examples of Hopi (colourful designs on terracotta coloured clay), Acoma (brilliant white clay with black geometric designs), and San Ildefonso (black on black, polished on matte designs) pottery. We stopped by the chilli shop and admired the prints of all the different chillis of the world.

After breakfast on Thursday, we did some preparation for our next few legs, reading the Lonely Planet, our large map book and researching on the net. Our next few legs would take us into the southwest corner of Colorado to the cliff dwellings in the Mesa Verde National Park, then into Utah to the Arches National Park, and down to Monument Valley in Arizona on the Navajo tribal nation territory. From there we hoped to go to the Grand Canyon National Park, Sedona and on to Phoenix. We were excited but slightly nervous about the weather at this time of year.

We finished and walked a circuitous route around town to the Visitor's centre. The lady at the Visitor's Centre gave us some information about our first leg to Mesa Verde National Park and a couple of ideas for things to see in Santa Fe.

We walked to the mission next door which was closed. Apparently it was the earliest church in the USA being established in 1610. We walked past the Loreto Chapel to the Basilica Cathedral San Francis of Assisi with beautiful bronze doors and a modern looking interior. There were colourful painted designs in the arches and ceilings, beautiful stained glass windows, and a large marble baptismal font in centre. Back in the Plaza we walked past a lot of Native Americans selling stone jewellery and some pueblo pottery.

We went to The Shed for lunch. We had a chicken enchilada in a blue corn tortilla with red chilli and green chilli sauce (Christmas) and a pork stew served with a cheese enchilada in a blue corn tortilla with red chilli sauce. It was substantially hotter than yesterday's lunch and we both found ourselves sweating at the end. Northern New Mexican food seems to be more chilli-based than its Tex-Mex neighbour. Tex-Mex food seems to have more smoky flavours and tomato based sauces rather than pure chilli-based sauces.

We spent the afternoon walking around town looking for streets that we hadn't seen and soaking up the atmosphere on our last day in Santa Fe.

After breakfast on Friday, we packed up the car and headed north out of Santa Fe to Cortez, Colorado and the Mesa Verde National Park. We drove past a succession of Indian-run casinos (apparently they get tax breaks) and a series of Indian pueblos, some of which looked very run down with dilapidated trailers. Then the landscape changed to large rock buttes in beautiful hues of yellow, orange and red. It was below freezing and the ground was covered in a thick blanket of snow. We drove past a large lake and there were forests of snow covered conifers. We saw a large brown eagle with white head and neck on one of the trees.

We stopped for lunch in the pretty town of Durango. When we got back to our car after lunch we had a parking ticket! Luckily it was only $9. We paid it at the Council cashier a couple of blocks away and then hit the road again.

We stopped briefly at the entrance to the Mesa Verde National Park but there was no one there so we continued on to Cortez where we found a room at the Baymont Inn. We went to the Visitor Centre in town and saw some great photos of the cliff dwellings in the park.

We'd had a really magical day driving through the white snow in the bright sun. It was also a relief to find that the roads were clear and dry even though there was a lot of snow on the ground.

After breakfast on Saturday, we checked out and then drove to the Mesa Verde National Park. It was a cold crisp morning but there was no wind and the roads had been cleared.

Mesa Verde National Park was made up of canyons, mesas, and red rock formations. It was home to the Ancestral Puebloan people who built whole villages around the mesa tops and on ledges, niches and caves in the canyons. Once in the park, we drove straight past all the lookouts to the Chapin Mesa museum because there was a guided tour starting at 10 am.

At Chapin Mesa, we walked along a bitumen path with Ranger Sean Duffy to the nearby Spruce Tree House, the most well preserved of the cliff dwellings. The buildings built under the massive overhang housed 40-50 people in sandstone and mortar apartments up to three stories high. The buildings were beautifully fashioned with the sandstone bricks forming square or round buildings reaching up to the roof and walls of the cave and moulded to fit the shape of the surrounding cave walls. Tree branches or large flat sandstone slabs were used in the lintels over doorways. The exterior and interiors were painted in adobe reds and ochre. There were public spaces and communal areas for grinding corn making the entire area undercover a small village or pueblo. The buildings were three deep with a lot of smoke blackening on the roof of the cave. Doors were very small as the average height of an adult was five feet. We noticed holes in the floor with ladders sticking out. We descended into one of these kivas or ceremonial rooms built underground. It was a round room with a fireplace in the middle and a ventilation shaft opposite with deflector stones set into the ground in front. There was a smaller hole in the ground near the centre of the room which is the sipapu or opening to the underworld. The Puebloans believed that the cosmos was a series of worlds with devils and witchcraft in the lower worlds and light and good life in the upper worlds (sounds familiar).

After the tour of the Spruce Tree House we walked around the museum where they had an excellent video covering aspects of Puebloan history and culture. They also had great displays of stuffed birds, carved stone/bone tools, textiles, painted ceramics, weapons, jewellery and basket weaving including a large snare. Many of the items were in amazingly good condition, probably preserved in the caves.

We drove out along the six mile long Mesa Loop road and stopped at a series of lookouts and excavations of early mesa top pit dwellings and later above ground constructions. Interestingly they all contained the kiva ceremonial room underground construction. The lookouts were extraordinary because you were looking down into the canyon at points where the cliff dwellings were visible along or across the canyon. The largest cliff dwelling was the Cliff Palace housing approximately 150 people.

We stopped at the Sun Temple for a picnic lunch. This was a huge mesa top construction which was never completed. There was also no evidence of habitation. We enjoyed our lunch in the warm sun looking over the miles of golden canyon walls, white snow and green conifers. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful. We drove out of the park slowly stopping at a couple of viewpoints for photos of the snow covered plains below and mountain ranges in the distance.

We drove north on the highway into Utah where we saw some deer searching for grass in the snow. The landscape changed with large brown buttes, towers and walls rising out of the plain. In the setting sun the brown and red colours were magnificent. We reached Moab as it went dark and checked into our hotel.

On Sunday morning we drove out to Arches National Park for the day. The park is home to the world's greatest concentration of natural sandstone arches. It was also full of other amazing red rock formations – fins, spires, pinnacles and rocks balanced precariously on inadequate looking columns. We spent the day in the park driving around stopping at the view points and where possible hiking to view the formations close up.

 

Our first stop was the Park Avenue viewpoint which was a canyon lined with large red sandstone blocks reminiscent of skyscrapers. We had a short walk around Balanced Rock (a large balancing rock the size of three school buses), and then a more substantial hike around Turret Arch, North Window and South Window. We took our lunch with us on the next hike to Double Arch and while we were eating our lunch we watched icicles breaking off and crashing underneath the arches as they melted in the sun. After lunch we drove further on into the park stopping at the Fiery Furnace Viewpoint - so named because the rock formations look a fiery red in the afternoon sun. At the Devil's Garden Trailhead which was the end of the road, we went on a hike to the Landscape Arch (an improbably long and slender arch) with short side trips to the Navajo Arch and the Partition Arch. These hikes were a little more challenging because the bitumen path ended and we had to follow a primitive trail of compacted and very slippery ice over some boulders. We both fell over on the ice but nothing was hurt except our pride. Our last stop for the day was the Delicate Arch Viewpoint where it was just a short walk along a muddy slushy path to see the lone standing arch in the sunset which has become a symbol of Utah.

 

We drove out of the park as it got dark and stopped at Pasta Jays where we had garlic bread with artichoke and spinach ravioli with creamy tomato sauce, and Portobello mushroom stuffed with chicken breast, spinach and ricotta on a bed of spaghetti and tomato sauce. Then we went to the supermarket and bought dessert and some supplies for tomorrow's lunch. We weren't sure where we would be staying tomorrow night so we wanted to try to get an early start and maximise our driving time. We were planning to drive in a big loop and end up close to Monument Valley.

Week 47 - USA - New Orleans, LA to Amarillo, TX

We woke up early on Monday morning and after a quick breakfast, we checked out and hit the road for Austin, Texas. We drove out of Louisiana through bayou country – lots of flat low-lying wetlands and marshes full of trees growing out of the water. At Baton Rouge we drove over the Mississippi River on an enormous bridge.

We stopped in Texas for lunch at Al T's Seafood & Steakhouse. They were still serving Louisiana specialties such as gumbo and jambalaya, but we saw some Texan-sized steaks on their menu and big bags of "crackling" for sale. The friendly waitress gave us a piece each to try, but in addition to the pork rind there was a big crispy layer of fat underneath – probably our fat allocation for the next two days. We settled for a burger and a large chicken salad. We hit the road again across the flat brown Texan plains. There were lots of billboards along the freeway advertising casinos, personal injury lawyers and fundamentalist Christian propaganda.

We arrived in Austin just after dark only to find that there was a convention on, however we still managed to find reasonable accommodation on the edge of downtown. We had a rest in our room and then went out to find some dinner. It was a ten minute walk into town and we walked along Sixth Street which was lined with bars playing live music and tattoo parlours. We walked around a couple of blocks and then headed back to a Tex-Mex restaurant on Sixth Street for dinner.

We were woken up in the middle of the night by some people in the room next to us. One lady was describing very loudly how she got her tattoos in jail! When Keith opened the door to our room, they were really apologetic and quietened down immediately.

After breakfast on Tuesday in the overcrowded dining room, we walked to the stunning pink granite Italian Renaissance Texas State Capitol. Like everything in Texas, it was bigger - fifteen feet taller than the US Capitol in Washington, DC. We entered the building through the South Foyer where we were greeted by life size marble statues of Stephen F Austin and Sam Houston. A guide conducted us on a short tour of the building and then we were free to wander around ourselves. Inside the foyer there was a beautiful terrazzo floor commemorating battles fought on Texas soil, a rotunda and a dome. On the rotunda floor was the Great Seal surrounded by the six seals of the countries (France, Spain, Mexico, Texas, Confederate United States and United States) whose flags have flown over Texas. Portraits of the Presidents and Governors of Texas circled the four levels of the rotunda, and two hundred and eighteen feet above us in the dome was a star measuring eight feet from point to point. We visited the Senate Chamber, the House of Representatives Chamber, the Supreme Court courtroom and the Court of Appeals courtroom, which contained beautiful antique oak and walnut furniture, drapes, and paintings. We left the Capitol building and spent a little time wandering around the Grounds admiring the flower gardens, fountains and monuments.

Then we made our way to the Visitor's Centre on Sixth Street where we got some information and a brochure containing a self guided walking tour. The walking tour started at the Texas State Capitol and finished on Sixth Street so we decided to do it backwards. We had just started the walking tour when it began to rain, we tried to keep going but the rain just got heavier so we decided to stop for lunch. It was still raining when we finished lunch so we walked back to the hotel to collect the car.

We drove to South Congress Avenue which was full of really interesting and unusual shops. We went to Uncommon Objects which had a great collection vintage clothing, accessories, home wares and antiques. We visited Allen's Boots which sold very expensive Western clothing, Stetsons and beautiful leather cowboy boots. There were also a few lots along the Avenue where fast food vendors were plying their wares out of shiny silver retro caravans (Air Streams).

We decided to have dinner at the highly recommended Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood. It was a twenty mile drive away and appeared to be in the middle of nowhere – but it was worth it. There was a big brick smouldering BBQ pit with big slabs of brisket, turkey, ribs and chickens cooking on racks over the coals and Germanic looking sausages hanging from hooks above. We tried brisket, pork ribs, turkey and sausage with potato and slaw. For dessert we shared a warm blackberry cobbler with ice-cream. It was all really delicious!

On Wednesday we walked into town to complete the rest of the walking tour we had attempted yesterday. Today there was clear blue sky and we started near the Capitol and worked our way south on Congress Avenue past the Governor's Mansion which had been burnt down by arson and was under reconstruction, and the old Capitol building ruins, also burnt to the ground. There was the beautiful Old Bakery building from 1876 which was now a tourist visitor centre. We saw St Mary's Cathedral built in 1874 and Millett's Opera House from 1878.

We wandered around checking out the old architecture including copper bay windows and cast iron store fronts. We stopped at the immaculately restored Driskill Hotel for a grapefruit juice and walked around the lobby and bar areas marvelling at the antique furnishings, stained glass fittings, paintings, trophy heads and sculptures. We continued on to the Second Avenue shopping district past old hardware shops, livery stables, grocery stores etc.

After lunch we set off to check out the northern area of Austin. We walked up Guadalupe Street past the University of Texas with an impressive clock tower, cheap restaurants and good street art. We stopped at Supercuts for Suzie to have a haircut and the lead story in the local paper was the closure of Macy's at a local shopping mall after 31 years. We checked out Trudy's Tex Mex as a dinner possibility on the way to walk through Texas University. The university was enormous with roads running through it and it took us a while to reach the travertine Lyndon Johnson Library and Museum. We saw a recreation of the Oval Office with memorabilia from the LBJ days – the tumultuous 1960's with the Cold War and the Vietnam War. There was a display of the gifts from numerous heads of state visiting the White House at the time. We sat and listened to a great humour exhibit (with a life-size animatronic LBJ doll) give excerpts from famous LBJ speeches including the hard of hearing drunk (I liked what I was drinking, better than what I was hearing), and Winston Churchill receiving the temperance union lady (We have achieved so little and there is so much more to do). We were kicked out at 5.00 pm and on the way back to the hotel we found a mobile phone on the road. The grateful owner gave us a giant chocolate éclair – as if we needed that!

We went to dinner at Trudy's where we shared their infamous stuffed avocado, a salad and flan for dessert. The stuffed avocado was battered, fried and stuffed with spicy chicken and cheese. One of the waiters warned us that "People do not come here for health reasons".

We had an easy day on Thursday as we were driving to Dallas to visit Keith's cousin Sonja and her family and we wanted to arrive after they had got back from school and work.

We checked out of our hotel late morning and drove out of Austin stopping on the way at a shopping centre for lunch. It was only a short drive to Dallas and we drove along the Interstate Highway 35 most of the way. Sonja and Mike live about twenty miles north of Dallas so we had wonderful views of the skyscrapers with the blue sky in the background as we drove past the city on the way to their house through a spaghetti of highways.

It was really great to see Sonja again as we last saw her with baby Jack (now almost fifteen) in 1997. We were meeting Mike and their other two kids Luke and Annie, and the squirrel hunter dog, Max, for the first time today. After we unloaded our bags, we had to head out almost immediately to take Luke to basketball practice, and then we drove on into town for dinner at Patrizio (Mike and Sonja's favourite restaurant). After dinner we headed back to Mike and Sonja's place where we spent a couple of hours chatting before turning in for bed.

On Friday, after Sonja got back from dropping her kids off at school, we drove into town to check out the JFK memorial.

We parked downtown and walked to the Sixth Floor Museum. The museum was housed in the old Texas School Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal bullets from the sixth floor. It was an exhibit detailing the events leading up to, during and after the assassination. There were displays of memorabilia, detailed eyewitness accounts, original photographs taken by onlookers, documentary film and video footage.

Then we walked to the nearby Victory Tavern for lunch. We spent such a long time chatting over lunch, that we had to rush to go and pick up Annie and Luke from school. After we got back to Mike and Sonja's house, we left the others and walked around the lake to the supermarket where we bought fruit, chocolate and wine. It was just getting dark when we walked back to the house, and on the way we saw lots of coots and ducks in the beautiful sunset over the lake.

Back at the house, we helped put together a salad while Mike grilled some steaks on the barbecue outside. We had a lovely dinner with lots of laughter and we spent a pleasant evening catching up.

On Saturday morning, after various children had been collected (Annie from a sleepover and Luke from hockey practice), we had a lovely big breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs and tortillas together. We spent a leisurely morning and then headed out to watch Jack's ice hockey match. The game was on an oval ice rink with two teams of six players wearing a lot of protective gear. It was very fast-paced and physical with the players constantly slamming into the barriers and each other and sliding across the ice. The game was very exciting and Jack scored three of the goals in a 6-3 win.

After the game we all drove to Fort Worth (Cow Town) and it was very touristy, but had excellent stockyards with Texas Longhorns and horses to ride, a stockyard maze, Cowboy hall of fame, mechanical bulls, Indians and cowboys galore, and associated paraphernalia. After the kids had made it through the maze and Annie had ridden a horse, we left for Joe T. Garcia's Tex Mex restaurant around the corner where we had the best Mexican food we had ever eaten. We started with corn chips and salsa, followed by nachos topped with tomatillo salsa and cheese, enchiladas in rich tomato sauce, corn tortillas, flour tortillas, beef, chicken, onions, capsicum, guacamole, rice and refried beans with a smoky pork flavour. We shared some sopapillas for dessert. These were deep fried tortillas with honey and cinnamon. We drove home with a detour round a massive traffic jam and relaxed in front the gas fire in the living room.

After breakfast on Sunday, we said goodbye to everyone and then headed off. It was raining very heavily so we made slow progress. As the morning progressed the temperature began to drop and we found ourselves driving through sleet which turned into snow. The roads were icy and the countryside was white. Just before lunch we came out of the other side of the cold front.

The sun was shining when we arrived in Amarillo but it was still bitterly cold. We drove through Amarillo and then decided to drive back to the highway to check out the Big Texan Inn opposite the Big Texan Steak Ranch - an "Our Pick" restaurant in the Lonely Planet. We had seen signs for the Big Texan Steak Ranch's 72 oz steak challenge (the steak is free if you can eat it together with all the accompaniments in less than an hour) all along the highway. The facade of the motel resembled a street in an old West town and the room was really nice with chunky wooden furniture, fringed bed linens and curtains, all decorated with the Texan five-pointed star.

At 7.30 pm we walked across the car park to the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The inside of the restaurant looked like a big barn. There were light fittings fashioned from cartwheels and antlers and animal heads mounted on the walls. Neither of us felt up to the steak challenge – opting instead to share a 21 oz steak with sides of coleslaw, okra, cowboy beans and green beans and we tried a couple of delicious tender smoked beef ribs. While we were in the restaurant, a man attempted the steak challenge with much fanfare and applause. He gave up after about forty minutes having barely made a dent in the steak. Sitting at the table next to us were three old timers from Illinois who were heading to New Mexico to do some quail hunting. We all left the restaurant at the same time and they showed us their six hunting dogs (setters) in their custom built truck. Each dog had its own compartment filled with hay.

Week 46 - USA - Charleston, SC to New Orleans, LA

On Monday, after a final breakfast in the hotel lobby (including some wicked sticky cinnamon buns with pecans), we checked out of the hotel and started our drive to Savannah. We drove south out of Charleston, to the islands which were cut off from the mainland by inlets and tidal marshes. It was a beautiful clear day in contrast to the snow the day before.

It was a short drive to Johns Island, where we paid a short visit to the Angel Oak, a Southern live oak estimated to be 300-400 years old, standing 65 feet (20 metres) tall, measuring 28 feet (8.5 metres) in circumference, and covering an area of 17,000 square feet (1,600 square metres) with its canopy.

Our next stop was Wadmawlaw Island, where we paid a brief visit to the Charleston Tea Plantation. Unlike the other tea plantations that we had visited on this trip, the tea plantation was on flat ground, there seemed to be no gaps between the tea bushes, and the bushes were a uniform height with perfectly flat tops. Inside the Visitor Centre we found out that the tea was harvested mechanically. We went to the viewing gallery in the Visitor's Centre where we could see the spotlessly clean factory and tea processing machinery. After a brief look at the gift shop, we were on our way again.

We stopped at Beaufort (pronounced "byoo-furt") for lunch. After lunch we walked to the water's edge and then had a short walk along the town streets lined with antebellum homes and magnolias draped in Spanish moss. It was really cold so we were pretty keen to get back in the car for our next leg to Savannah.

It took us a little over an hour to drive to Savannah from Beaufort. On the outskirts of the town we stopped to check out the rooms at a brand new Hampton Inn. The room was really nice and because it was new, the price was really good too. The only downside was that it wasn't within walking distance of the Historic Centre. We drove on into town, checking out another couple of options along the way, but they were more expensive and not as clean and nice. We climbed down a couple of flights of stairs to River Street, had a short walk along the riverfront, and then decided to have dinner and go back to the Hampton Inn.

After breakfast on Tuesday, we drove to the city. We parked in the Visitor's Centre and walked around town from square to square. The historical centre had a small green square every few blocks and each one had either a fountain or a monument in the centre of an area of grass dotted with large shady oak trees festooned with Spanish moss. It was very picturesque in the sunshine and each square offered a couple of good photographs from the monument, fountain or sculpture to the impressive surrounding buildings with shutters, iron work, Greek/Roman columns and capitals, and antebellum architecture. We walked to the edge of the Historic District where we found the large Forsyth Park with a beautiful fountain next to a great Civil War monument. It was so cold that there was ice hanging off the white sculptures in the fountain.

We stopped for lunch and then continued walking to River Street, the historic cobblestone street along the Savannah River. In the daylight we could see that River Street was at least two storeys lower than the rest of the streets in town. There we saw the riverside and converted cotton warehouses in the daylight. The street was lined with sweet and souvenir shops targeted at tourists and there were also tourist river boats offering cruises on the Savannah River. We saw an old pirate's tavern which supposedly inspired Robert Louis Stevenson in the writing of Treasure Island and the First African Baptist Church (which was closed) before we stopped at Mabel Francis Potter's Cupcake Emporium for afternoon tea of a red velvet cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting.

We arrived back at the car having enjoyed walking around Savannah's historic squares immensely, and drove past our hotel on Abercorn Street to a shopping centre where we did a bit of window shopping before having dinner, followed by a warm cinnamon bun with icing and pecans (unbelievable) from Cinnabon. Afterwards we watched a guy making the "Cinnabons". He spread copious amounts of butter onto a big rectangle of pastry, dumped a mountain of cinnamon sugar on it, rolled it up and then cut it. They went into the oven with icing to be added afterwards. No wonder they tasted so great!

We drove back to the hotel and collapsed into bed earlier than normal because we wanted to get an early start for the drive to Mobile, Alabama.

On Wednesday we hit the road after breakfast. We drove out of Savannah on Interstate Highway 95 until for the first hour or so and then we headed inland on a couple of lesser highways. We had to keep slowing down as we drove through small towns. This was the most interesting part of our journey. We drove past more trees draped with Spanish moss, marshland, pine plantations, vultures foraging on the side of the road, lots of Baptist and Gospel Churches and some dilapidated mobile homes in trailer parks.

We stopped for lunch at Granddaddy's BBQ at Thomasville. We tried fried green tomatoes, smoked chicken salad, pulled pork with tasty house BBQ sauce, and fried okra followed by pumpkin pie. It was all really delicious and our first taste of eating at a real home-style BBQ as opposed to a chain restaurant.

We hit the road again after lunch and at Tallahassie (capital of Florida), we turned onto Interstate Highway 10 on which we drove all the way to Mobile, Alabama. On the way into Mobile, we drove past an enormous car dealership containing seventeen acres of brand new Honda, Toyota and Hyundai vehicles. After ten hours of driving and one time change (the clock went back an hour), we arrived at Mobile at a little after 6.00 pm. We had decided that we were going to push on to New Orleans the next day so we drove out of town a little way to check out some accommodation options. After checking out a few places we went back to the Hampton Inn, where Jennifer the friendly receptionist dropped the room rate by $30 and then unasked, gave us an upgrade to a suite. After checking in, at Jennifer's suggestion we went to Carrabba's Italian Grill where we had a delicious meal washed down with some lovely red wine. It was a great end to a long and tiring day on the road.

As it was only a short drive to New Orleans, we slept in on Thursday, and had a leisurely breakfast before checking out of the hotel and hitting the road. We drove out of Alabama and through Mississippi to Louisiana. Just after we drove into Louisiana, we stopped at a Tourist Information Centre where a helpful lady gave us a map of New Orleans, some helpful tips and recommended a Best Western hotel a little way out of town because all the down town hotels were either fully occupied or prohibitively expensive because of New Year and the huge Sugarbowl football game. We checked into the hotel and dropped off our luggage before driving into town.

We stopped "Uptown" and had a delicious lunch at a tiny little cafe called The Milk Bar. It was owned by Inta (from Australia) and Kevin (from the UK) who were really friendly and eager to chat when they found out that we were from Australia. Inta was really helpful and went out of her way to suggest some jazz clubs and places to eat around town. After lunch, we spent a couple of hours browsing at the nearby Borders bookstore because we had some discount coupons to use.

Then we drove to the French Quarter where we had some difficulty finding somewhere to park as the roads were really busy and all the parking lots were full. Finally we found a metered parking space near the French Market, parked the car and went for a walk. We walked along Decatur Street looking for the Information Centre only to find that it was closed. We had a quick look at the Mississippi River before heading into the middle of the French Quarter to Bourbon Street, a historic tourist –trap street spanning the entire quarter. The upper end was home to bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and strip clubs. As soon as we walked on to Bourbon Street, we were accosted by a charming hustler and before we knew it we had donated $20 to Food for Life and we were each sporting a New Orleans baseball cap! We walked along Bourbon Street, past all the flashing neon signs, bars blaring loud music (jazz and cover bands), restaurant spruikers, strippers having cigarette breaks, beggars and street entertainers to the much quieter and less touristy neighbourhood of Fauborg Marigny. We walked along Frenchmen Street which had a number of live jazz bars, cafes and restaurants. We had a delicious dinner at the Middle Eastern Mona's Cafe and then drove back to the hotel.

New Orleans had a very different feel from anywhere we had already been in the USA. It was much warmer and humid, much like Brisbane and was the first place where we didn't need our coats. It was extremely wet and low lying and driving over the massive highway bridge to New Orleans made it feel like an island (although it is in fact on a thin strip of land between the Mississippi River and the huge Lake Pontchartrain). There was a very Bohemian undercurrent – there were many strange people around and lots of evident poverty. For example a lady was begging for money (panhandling) inside the Borders store. There was a strong musical element also visible everywhere in the street with bars and buskers producing music.

On Friday, we had to rush to breakfast before it finished at 9.00 am. Outside it was raining, so we decided to have a lazy morning reading and sending emails and go into town later. At 2.00 pm we were collected by the Triple J minibus organised by the hotel to take us into town and the French Quarter. Our driver's name was James and the Triple J was named for Jesus, Joan (after his late wife) and James. James dropped us off at Bourbon Street which already had a festive feel about it. We walked to the edge of the French Quarter to Port of Call which James said had the best burgers in New Orleans. Other people obviously thought so too because it was full inside and there was a big queue outside. Luckily, because we were happy to sit at the bar rather than wait for a table, we were able jump the queue and place our orders in a relatively short time. The food was really delicious – our burgers were perfectly cooked and instead of the usual fries, they came with a baked potato so we didn't feel too guilty.

After lunch we spent a few hours wandering around the French Quarter. We paid a visit to the National Park Visitor Centre on Decatur Street. There we found that as there was no parkland, the park rangers were actually jazz musicians and there was a schedule of free concerts that they performed.

We stopped at the Cafe du Monde (a New Orleans institution) for cafe au lait and beignets (a square doughnut coated liberally with icing sugar). The Lonely Planet had suggested it was overrated and we had been put off earlier by the lengthy queues, however to our surprise, we really enjoyed the experience especially as we were entertained by a talented street jazz band while we were there.

We walked to Jackson Square which was all lit up and surrounded by tarot card and palm readers. Then we continued walking around the Quarter for a couple more hours before joining the queue outside Coop's Place for dinner. While we were in the queue we met some locals and some Texans who were all very friendly. By the time we were allocated a table, we had a list of restaurants to go to and things to eat in New Orleans, Austin and Dallas. Coop's was a no-nonsense Cajun country shack with wobbly garden furniture and plastic cups but the food was delicious. We shared a Cajun taster plate which included seafood gumbo, rabbit and sausage jambalaya, red beans and rice, spicy shrimp Creole and fried chicken with a bottle of 2008 Tercos Malbec from Mendoza.

By the time we finished dinner, there were a lot more people in the streets and Bourbon Street was crammed full with revellers drinking in the streets (legal in New Orleans) out of large plastic novelty drinking vessels. Some of the drinks were notorious for their potency – in particular the "Hurricane" (a fruit punch and rum drink) and the "Hand Grenade" (ingredients unknown, but billed as New Orleans' strongest drink) served in a long plastic tube shaped like a hand grenade. There was a real carnival atmosphere. Almost everyone was wearing strings of shiny plastic beads (bling) which were being thrown from the balconies of the bars lining Bourbon Street, and some people were wearing carnival style masks, crowns and headbands with feathers. Adding to the chaos were the thousands of young fans who were in town for the Sugar Bowl (a game between two top ranking college football teams) on Sunday.

We'd had enough by this time and we called James from Triple J. He collected us and we arrived back at the hotel just in time to see the fireworks going off at midnight on the TV in the lobby. We'd had a really good day. Despite the rain in the morning, it only rained intermittently during the day and we had managed to walk around without being rained on.

The sky was grey and it was raining when we woke up on Saturday morning. After breakfast we drove into town and parked on Carondelet Street just outside the French Quarter. On the map this is in the CBD but the place was absolutely deserted and a bit eerie. There were rows of buildings with for sale signs on them and everything looked a bit rundown. We had been surprised by the appearance of some suburbs from the freeway. Many houses were still in a state of disrepair and looked like they had been bombed! Apparently when Hurricane Katrina struck many people had either no insurance or insufficient insurance. Most people who were able to recover money from the insurers left and never came back. This meant that rates collection revenue to the city council dived and services were severely cut back. Hence many of these houses are still ruined and deteriorating today.

We walked up to Mother's restaurant near Canal Street but there was a huge queue so we walked into the French Quarter and joined the shorter line outside the Camellia Grill. It was a large diner with extremely professional staff. Our waiter Will barked out orders to the grill chef a few metres away and the food flew out.

After lunch we walked through the French Market and then along the "Moon Walk" – a little path way along the Mississippi River. Unlike previous days it was quite cold and windy. We were only wearing light t-shirts and were unprepared for this, so we were pretty happy to retreat into a shopping centre on the edge of the French Quarter. After doing some window shopping, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.

Later on we drove around in the area near our hotel looking for somewhere to eat. Unfortunately all that we could find were fast food outlets. All of the staff at both these outlets and all of the customers were black.

We woke up earlier on Sunday morning and drove into town after breakfast. It was a much nicer day with sunny clear skies but outside there was a chilly wind. We parked at a parking station that was much closer to the French Quarter. Then we walked into the French Quarter to begin the Lonely Planet walking tour. The walking tour was quite short and took us through streets that we had already walked along, but on the way we saw buildings and architectural features that we hadn't noticed before and took some detours down a couple of interesting side alleys.

We started the tour at Jackson square which led on to the Ursuline Convent, the oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley, and then to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop where legendary pirate Jean Lafitte ran his tavern (which was purportedly a front for his illegal slave trading activities). We walked along Royal Street enjoying the bright coloured eighteenth century Spanish colonial architecture and fabulous wrought ironwork, stopping to peek through the windows of antiques galleries. We walked past a couple of literary haunts such as Faulkner House, the home of William Faulkner where he wrote his first novel "Soldier's Pay" and Avart-Peretti House where Tennessee Williams wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire". We finished the walk in about two hours and decided to make our way to the Croissant D'Or for an early lunch.

After lunch we walked to Canal Street to catch the historic St Charles Avenue streetcar which took us on a long journey with lots of stops (including Loyola and Tulane Universities) to Audubon Park. We walked one mile through Audubon Park to the Audubon Zoo. It was well set out with lots of great information boards and all the animals looked in great condition. There were some fantastic exhibits including the Asian Domain (with replica Indian temples and sculptures), Reptile Encounter, African Savannah, Louisiana Swamp and Jaguar Jungle (with replica Mayan ruins). We spent three hours there and only left when they closed for the day. One of the highlights was all the wild waterbirds which flock to the zoo to get fed, from pelicans to herons to ducks. Other highlights were the white alligators, bobcats, Cape hunting dogs, Amur leopards, white Bengal tigers, porcupines, white rhinos, various colourful frogs and a giant sloth trying to find a tree to climb up.

We caught the streetcar back and got off just before we reached the French Quarter. We walked to Mother's Restaurant where we shared seafood gumbo, crawfish etouffee with cabbage and turnip greens and a side order of the restaurant's famous baked ham. We had a slice of pecan pie for dessert and bought a couple of cookies to take back to the hotel.