Camp America 2005

Met up at 7.30am to start my trek outside the Hacienda hotel, quite a few treks leaving at the same time. Shared a room with one guy on my trek, Andrew, and two guys who are doing the Grand Trek, six weeks doing both the Northern Trail and then Southern Sun, same as us. Our guide is a black dude from Cali, called Derek, with mint dreadlocks! Loaded up then drove to Philadelphia, getting to know each other in the van. One of the Aussie guys said it should be easy for the Brits to remember his name, Blair, then I pointed out it still didn't mean we had to like him either! First day of Southern Sun and it rains all bloody day, not impressed, but Derek promises it'll get a lot better! Had a Philly cheese steak, wasn't great, prob cos they used stupid nacho cheese (real cheese does not pour!). Then we headed to Washington DC and had a night tour around the reflecting pool, Lincoln memorial and the World War II memorial. Unloaded at campsite, sharing a tent with Andrew, we wanted a tent called Bitch, but it was soaking so we had to have Happy. Because we volunteered to load and unload the van, we don't have ever have to cook, clean up or wash the van, awesome!! The garage phoned today, car has a cracked intake manifold and a clogging cat converter and to fix that plus the two windows and door lock would be three grand, not likely! He said the cat would cause the car to lose power but he didn't know when the intake would fail and would not even hint whether the car would make it back to PA. Bit worried now! Other people in the group are: Katy, Claire, Kim, Julie, Louise, Sam, little Dave, big Dave, James & Andrew - English, Sivan - Israeli, Blair & Jimmy - Australia.

Free day to do what we wanted around DC, so we went to Washington monument, the Holocaust museum, which was really powerful and I could have spent far longer there, and the Air & Space museum. Went on this flight sim with Jimmy, which moves you around with the plane, I started off flying quite sensibly trying to let him shoot stuff then I realised I could throw it into a triple barrel roll and loop the loop!! Was class fun generally just throwing the plane about, though its pretty tough when the other guy is flying and you have no idea what his next move will be! The field in front of the Washington Monument had the world's longest letter, over half a mile long, written to President Bush by loads of kids from nearby schools. Went to White House as well, and it has a box with a button on the front fence but if you push it, nothing happens. Gutted.

Just drove to Virginia yesterday, was Katy's birthday, not much else happened. White water rafting on the Ocoee River today, the same river they used in the Atlanta Olympics! Our guide explained that the rapids are classed 1 to 6, 1 is easy and 6 will kill you. Seriously, there was a weir where we boarded which used to be a 6 until a boat accidentally went over the edge, they lived (but broke lots of bones) so it was downgraded to a 5! Boys in one boat, girls in the other. As we sailed down we saw a few other boats which had got stranded on rocks (Ha ha!!) but we were skilled enough to miss them all! A few of us fell in but our guide wanted us all in, so she pulled a stunt where she made us deliberately fall in, not impressed it worked! At the very end the guys boarded the girls' boat, I threw in Julie, Katy and Claire but big Dave threw in their guide, the owner, and he was really pi**ed! Went to this backwoods bar that night which was pretty cool, though had a few "colourful" characters!!

Drove to Memphis yesterday, went out for dinner on the infamous Beale Street. Went to an awesome little bar with this guy playing harmonica with his band, was really cool! Then we headed to another bar and ended meeting up with the other trek. Ended up a pretty messy night, with Claire and Kim singing "My Girl" on the street with some random guy, though somehow I ended up on my own and couldn't find the hotel, 411 wasn't much help cos they had 4 hotels in the area, so texted Derek and then realised I was stood outside it. Oops!! Andrew and Sam couldn't get in because they're underage which put a bit of a downer on the night though. Carrying on in the hotel after was a good laugh, pushing Jimmy up and down the corridors in a luggage trolley (we only crashed a few times!). Tried to use it like a skateboard but it hit me in the head pretty hard so I gave up! We dragged Blair, who was in a right state, into the lift (which was already soaking after me and Louise had a water fight in it earlier), threw the luggage trolley in for good measure and then pressed all the floor buttons. Was bout 30 mins later we realised the lift had not appeared and it wasn't until the next day we found out that Blair had forgot what floor we were on and had ended up going to a party in one of the other trek's rooms.

Went to Graceland today and was a really impressive house, wasn't over the top like some music stars' houses nowadays but was all (mostly) really tasteful, in a 60/70's style! Each room looked as though plenty of thought had gone into it and he had taken time to do the work. His collection of cars was awesome, he had some classic cars! There was a sign with a quote from Elvis that said "The first car I ever bought was the most beautiful I've ever seen. It was secondhand but I parked it outside my hotel the day I got it and stayed up all night just looking at it. The next day it caught fire and burned up on the road." Awesome, but I'm thinking I shouldn't have laughed so much, I still have to drive back to PA!

My mum's birthday and I remembered!! Happy Birthday! Drove through Texas yesterday, stayed just outside Dallas last night, largely uneventful except that Kim managed to nearly blow up the campsite by leaving her lighter in her clothes when she put it in the propane powered dry cleaners, doh! Drove to Austin today, stopped off at some hot springs which were freezing! Just lay about in the sun most of the time and messed around with Dave's underwater camera! We've been collecting fridge magnets to stick on the side of the van and I found some with names on them so I decided to name the van Eleanor (not after the car in Gone In 60 Seconds but cos I liked the name and another reason). Had a night out on 6th Street, went to this awesome piano bar called The Lair which had a guy on the piano and another on drums, singing pretty much whatever anyone threw at them. Big Dave arrived and realised he forgot his id, so Derek took him back to get it, but then found out little Dave had the key for the cabin, in the bar and Derek wasn't doing another trip. Then a stroke of genius, he told the night watchman he needed some important papers in the cabin (at 10pm?!) so he let him in and Derek had to drive him back to the bar, just as he opened his first beer! Supposed to be doing a pub crawl so I got everyone moving to another bar to try a different band, except we stopped at a place with 50c Coronas and stayed there with the other trek! Sounds a good deal except the bottles were probably smaller than a can of Redbull! Got shot down by Kim (raging!) though she said it was because she still really liked her ex back home (So? He's back home..) but at least she was honest (Amira!). Put a bit of a downer on otherwise quality night!

Arrived in Del Rio!!! We should have had air conditioned cabins because it was so hot but the government said the site had to give them to hurricane Rita refugees, but when we arrived we had one. As van loaders me and Andrew automatically got places (don't know why, to be honest) along with a few others, then the rest went into a hat for the remaining spaces. Off to Mexico!! After checking we would all definitely get back across customs we had a fantastic meal in Crosby's and then headed to this club called Ups and Downs which Derek loved, but it was shut! It had two floors with a stripper/fireman's pole between the two floors, gutted! Tried another club that had a spinning cage on the stage, but it had cats running around, it stank, was halfway through renovations and had the worst toilets we had ever seen. I got bit by a dog too, so we left there pretty quick! Headed onto El Lantro (I think) with $2 Corona's and tequila slammers and UV lights that turned my grey shirt bright white! Met the other group in that bar and we all staggered back to customs, where half the people fell asleep waiting! Special mention to Sam, who staggered across the bridge bouncing from one side of the pavement to the other, hilarious!! Was supposed to have a pool party with the other group but they went to a lake instead and ditched us. Derek was pretty gutted, for good reason, and the night was good, but should have been so much better. Especially as I didn't even sleep in the nice air conditioned cabin, which cost me $5, but crashed in the tent with Kim and Claire, why?!

Feeling pretty rough this morning, though better than most of the group! Especially Andrew who yelled at me to pack it in when I was dancing on the roof of the van with him stood at the front, think the bouncing of the van disagreed with his stomach! Was baking hot when we had to load the van, which did not help either and I think I left my torch. Drove to Carlsbad Caverns, a huge underground cave network 750ft below the surface which was really impressive. Most of it was tens of thousands of years old and a lot was still active so the stalagmites and stalactites were still growing. Was freezing cold though and this was one of the few times I had packed my hoodie in my rucksack. The main attraction was the Big Room, which was a huge cave and we spent a lot of time discussing how good it would be as a nightclub or a set for James Bond!

Stopped in Roswell yesterday, went to the UFO museum, was a bit tacky but was pretty cool. Highlight was buying a mascot for Eleanor, admittedly not my idea but at least I did it, I bought a little green inflatable alien to tie to her grill, and christened him Fat Head. Then we sat up till about 2am playing cheat and watching for shooting stars, Kim and I sat with Claire while she rang her mum and told her we were driving from New Mexico to North Carolina the next day, which she believed and told her mum! And I did not sleep talk last night, alrite!

Arrived at Betty and Rusty's ranch today, who are proper cowboys and he's about 90 and runs round like he was 50 odd. When we first met them she said don't' ever marry a man who is the same size as you, because he'll pinch all your clothes, then he came over and said exactly the same thing! He was a bit on an "outlaw" when he was young and at one point was caught for stealing a horse. In court he told the judge he merely stole a rope, there just happened to be a horse tied to it! He had to give the horse back but "ah gotta keep that rope!" Unloaded then got ready for horseriding. My horse was called Slim Blue and at first was uncontrollable until he got to eat some hay, but then insisted on trying to stop every 5 mins for a snack, was good fun though. Stopped at halfway to go for a swim in Lake Pleasant, which was really warm and it was cool being so far from civilisation. Had steaks cooked over a fire that night and they were fantastic then Betty and Rusty sang us a few songs. We sat chatting and watching for shooting stars then we slept below the stars, which was pretty mint. Apparently during the night some people were woken up by animals howling and squealing, which we later found out was coyotes that had come onto the ranch and the two dogs, Lucky-Dog and Bandit-Dog, had chased them off.

Up this morning for a proper cowboy breakfast at the ranch, potatoes, biscuit and gravy and scrambled eggs. Tasted so good! Then time to shoot pistols!! First time round I got most of the targets, second turn I got everything!! Well chuffed, except that no one believed it was my first time, especially as I'm Northern Irish! Arrived at Grand Canyon and Derek produced these paper bags, which we each drew faces on and then placed over our heads. We then held hands and he lead us past loads of bemused tourists a viewing point on the south rim, so that when he lifted the bags all we saw was an instant view of the entire canyon, rather than seeing bits of it as we walked up. The view was amazing, the canyon was just immense, the size and height of it was just unbelievable, took loads of photos but they don't really show the true scale of it. Then it was off for our helicopter ride!! I flew with Claire, Kim, Blair and big Dave and the girls thought the pilot was gorgeous, but he was pretty boring. The flight was awesome though, across the canyon to the north rim and back, with a few little swoops and banks along the way!! It rained for the first time during dinner today and I got a call from Gary saying the car had broken down, overheated. Spoke to Kali who said a mechanic told them to fill the coolant with water, aah!! Its gonna boil!! If it blows up then I probably wont have to drive it back to camp!

The Big Hike! Started walking to Plateau Point at about 10am but I got split from the others and ended walking (slowly) with the Claire, Kim and Julie, but having a really good laugh. Sang 100 green bottles along with a few other daft songs! At the halfway point we met the rest of the girls and headed to the point with them. The views again were awesome and I climbed down from the point a bit to sit on a ledge to myself. It was really amazing to be sat completely on my own with my legs hanging over a huge drop and the canyon spread out to either side. Took loads of photos but they still cannot do it justice. When we started to head back, Kim, Claire, Julie and I were last to leave but on the way back we met Sam, who hadn't been feeling well. I didn't think the other group should have left her on her own, especially as she said she was light headed and could have fainted anytime. She got worse as we went then when it started to get dark Kim and Claire started to get worried too, though Julie and I were ok cos we've hiked loads and I knew we were ok. Sam got worse, especially after we missed the last bus, but we just kept on going, using the weedy little light from my phone when it got dark! Eventually we met Derek about 20mins from the end though when we got back the two groups had a huge fight over it and the guys were blissfully unaware at the pizza place! We did take the accolade as the latest group Derek had ever had to finish the trek to Plateau Point!