A few photos

Just a quick few words, these photos are from Iowa (went to John Deere in Milan) through to St Paul in Minneapolis, where we stayed for 4 nights, we some of Rach's friends, we went to a Nerd Party, also on the Saturday we carved pumpkins, which was a lot of fun.

Then from there we went to Mt Rushmore, and yesterday the Yellowstone National Park, which was awesome!! Saw bison, elk, a bear, some coyotes, and of course alot of deer. Anyway gotta hit the road again..

5500 miles later...

So we have traveled over 5000 miles now.. which I think is a pretty good effort.

So from NYC, we went to Boston, which wasn't really our original plan, but we had time, so we thought why not.. which turned out good, since Boston is a really pretty town, maybe a little more upper-class too.

On our travels to Boston, we got a bit distracted by a premium outlet stores.. which were fantastic! but anyway we had fun.

After Boston we headed towards the Niagara Falls. We got to the Niagara falls on Saturday. bit of a miserable day.. anyway we got to see the Niagara Falls which was cool. We parked our van, and walked over the border into Canada, which has a far better view of the falls. Then on our way back, it started raining.. so lucky us got to stand out in the rain, waiting to get back through border control into the US... then we drove across the border into Canada.. which we should have done at the beginning ah well..

So stayed in Ontario, Canada for a couple of days.

We are now back in US. Got a oil changed yesterday, and the mechanic was rather happy to met some people from Australia, since he hadn't before.. So I'm glad that we made his day. hahaha

So below are some pics from Boston to Canada..

On the road again..

Photos from NYC. - Thanks to Margaret, who let us stay a couple of nights.. :)




So have spent three days in NYC. Has been a blast. Stayed with Margaret Amos, for those who don't know her, she came over to NZ for a year or so, and we went to school together. :) so has been awesome to catch up with her. Sunday night she took us to the restaurant that she works at, and we had a fabulous meal, would go there again! mmmmm

We also saw the Brooklyn bridge, and the statue of liberty from a far off..

On Monday we went down wall street, which was amazing, and went to Century 21, which is a big department shop, with designer clothes discounted, also everything else.. was pretty cool, but there was sooo much stuff, you didn't really know where to start.... Then we headed to Times Square.. and went and saw Chicago! Was great!! what a blast.

Yesterday we went to Central Park, and sat on a rock and saw a couple of weddings.. tiny weddings but they were cool, a day of relaxing, wander down the street from there for some lunch, into Borders.. stock up on our book supply... wandered the streets some more, and then ended up in Times Square again.. hmmmed and ahhhed whether we would go to another broadway show, and thought why not.. since its something we really do any other time.. so we went and saw West Side Story.. we were hoping to see Mary Poppins.. but it wasn't on... but West Side Story was good, but I like Chicago better.

Today we are on the road again.. heading to Boston..

Texas to Georgia

So rather long days of driving. Been trying a different fast food places as we go, not too impressed with any at the moment.

On saturday drove from Lubbock to Texarkana. Tried Sonic "America's favourite drive thru" so all their car parks are drive in, you place ur order, via normal drive-thru speaker. Pretty greasy food, more than normal fast food. So we won't be going there again.

Sunday we drove from Texarkana to Crossett. Stayed at a RV park near a little lake. We went into wal-mart to stock up on our food supplies, decided that we would make our tea and use our little gas cooker. So got bagels, ham and salad, and toasted bagels and had ham and salad in them with cream cheese, which tasted rather healthy. :)

Monday, we drove from Crossett (Arkansas) to Lake Lowndes State Park (Mississippi). Drove over the Mississippi River, which was cool to see. Also saw the town where Kermit the frog originated from. Tried our next fast food, called Popeyes. I tried a chicken wrap, it had a mexican beans and a sauce. All I can say about it, is I didn't eat it all, because I didn't like it, so won't be going back there either.
Camped at the campgrounds in the state park, which had a nice lake beside it. Saw some Canadian geese. Nice and relaxing. And cheap accommodation :)

Seeing some real pretty trees, mixture of colours, yellow, orange and greens. I love autumn time, or should I say fall. :) so I hope ya'll doin fine.. And no I haven't picked up the american accent at the moment..

Today we headed to Atlanta. We went to the Coca Cola World... which was a whole lot of fun. Fast food for today was Arby's best so far.. just had a BLT which curly chips :) Thinking of giving fast food a miss for the next couple of days.... well thats all for now.

Monument Valley to Texas

In the correct order this time...






So sleeping in a carpark next to Macas drive thru isn't something I would recommend.. Not much sleep and no shower... meh! Anyway early start for Thursday, headed to see the Monument Valley, which was awesome, probably enjoyed this more than the Grand Canyon, since we were just driving around seeing random rocks sticking out here, there and everywhere! Then we made our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the trip after the monument valley was pretty dull, and long since we were feeling rather blah, from no shower, so we were looking forward to stopping at our first RV park for a shower!! Free breakfast here, so cream cheese on bagels, which is rather enjoyable.

So today we drove to Amarillo, Texas and saw the random Cadillacs sticking in the ground, that was rather cool, then drove south to a town called Canyon, and went out to the second biggest canyon - Palo Duro Canyon.. which was different to the Grand Canyon, there were alot of trees in this canyon.. but it was cool as well, since we got to drive down into it, but no where as big as the Grand Canyon. Have stopped in Lubbock tonight, hope to drive to Texarkana tomorrow. So these last days have been rather long days, but its ok, since we are seeing new things... well thats all for now.

Las Vegas to the Grand Canyons

Below are pics from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, but in the opposite way..






So we picked up our van on Monday, and then drove to Las Vegas, Rach did most of the driving, I did the last of it, and went ok.
Checked in at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas, and then went down Fremont Street, to experience the massive light show. Ordered Irish Chips, expecting fries, but no normal chips, which sour cream and yellow cheese.. not so nice...
On Tuesday headed down "The Strip" the hotels were amazing, massive. Lights are tacky, but suits Las Vegas. Awesome free shows, such as the fountain.
Yesterday drove over the Hoover Dam, which is massive and went to the Grand Canyon. HUGE!! Looks great when the sun is shinning. :o)
Quick update, internet is rather slow.. at macas..

Mario heads to the US

Keeping up with the latest travel trend, of taking a soft toy along with you, I have taken Mario along with me. Rach has brought Spud. So there will be plenty of photos of the two. :)

So landed in Fiji, spent a long 5 hours there. Had a yummy Chiciken Tikka pizza. Then flew to LA, which took about 10 hours. We were fortunate that we had two spare seats beside us, so we could spread out a bit, and get some sleep. Got through customs without any trouble, and have booked in at our hotel in LA. We have been to a supermarket, so that was fun looking at the different types of food. I'm looking forward to a good sleep tonight.

Below is our plane from Brisbane to Fiji, in Fiji.

Blast off!!!

So the day has arrived, off on our big adventure. All checked in and through border control. Just waiting to board our flight to Fiji. Chuckling at the annoucers trying to annouce difficult names.
Only a short post this time.

2 more sleeps...

So only 2 more sleeps until we will be in the US. Pretty much packed now, which has been a big task, deciding what to take and what I really don't need, and the other thing that didn't help me packing is that I reading the scales wrong, so I thought my bag weighed more than it was suppose to be, and couldn't figure out why the weight wasn't going down, when I took a couple of things out.. and it turned out that I was reading the pounds part and not the kgs.. so instead of 30 pounds.. which I was thinking that I it was reading 30kgs... just a little dumb moment.. i will put it down to stress, frustrated or something.. hahaha.. so I have 15kgs.. which is pretty good. I can buy 10kgs of stuff over there :) :)

I fly to Brisbane tomorrow, so saying goodbye to damo for 6 weeks. oh gotta love goodbyes.

Also have found out that, we won't be getting a painted up van, since the one we were going to get, was involved in an accident, so we are getting a brand spanking new one, which should be great, even though I was looking forward to having a painted up one...

Well i better head to bed, since I don't know how much sleep I will get tomorrow night.

24th-25th September

So my last day of work has now come and gone, and I am now jobless for at least 2 months. This will be the longest time I haven't had a job since I started working about 5 or so years ago..

Worked at Thermo Fisher/Biolab for 3 years. So my first job in Australia. :o)

Had a fantastic day, but a bit sad with all the goodbyes.

Below is pictures of me at work, and with Julia & Bernard my work colleagues. Also note the nice tulips that Julia got me. :)

Also on the 23rd Damo & I have been together for 4 years now. So he arrived with some beautiful flowers, and we went out for tea at Meat & Wine Co. in Southbank, had a great view from our table too.

Below are pictures from our tea. There is a really stunning photo of myself.. hahaha not..