Update: 15 October

We had lunch at the Old Boot Pub in the tiny village of Gagetown. Not as bad as it looks. It was their last day open before closing for the season so there wasn't a lot left on the menu.

We are finding a lot of places are closed, or closing, this weekend for the season. We assume they will open again when the weather gets warmer. Even most of the tourist welcome centres are closed.

It wasn't until I had almost finished drinking this chocolate milk drink the Vyv noticed the brand name. It gave her a little chuckle.

I am not at all keen on driving around this part of Canada at night. These signs, complete with flashing lights, are everywhere.

Thankfully the only Moose we have seen is this old bull moose in a wildlife centre. He is massive. In a car verses moose incident I don't think you would walk away unscathed.

Update: 14 October

We visited the Halifax Citadel. It was fortified in 1749 when the city was founded and has been at various times rebuilt for the American Revolution, The War of 1812, the American Civil War and was even garrisoned in World War 1.

It has great views over the city and would have a formidable place to try and over-run. However no battles were every fought there.

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The good old 78th Highlanders Regiment of Foot were stationed here from 1869-1871. Those Scots certainly got around. There is definitely a very Scottish influence to this part of Canada. There are even towns called Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness etc.

These guys are wearing the kilt for period effect but we did see a guy in his 30s wearing one on the streets today.

We did a walk around the cemetery where some of the Titanic victims were laid to rest, many of the tombstones have no names as they were unidentified.

8 October: A quick visit to Niagara Falls

I had completely the wrong idea of what Niagara Falls was like but Vyv had been there 10 years ago with her brother Martin. I thought it was located out in the country somewhere, I didn't know it was really in the centre of the city of Buffalo.

Finding the Falls was pretty easy, just look for the water spray above buildings. The city in the background, over the river, is the Canadian city of Niagara Falls.

While there we saw our first black squirrel. We don't care that the Americans consider them vermin, we think they are adorable.

The Olentangy Indian Cave in Delaware, Ohio

After leaving Florence (in Kentucky) heading towards Buffalo (in New York state) we came across this old cave. Once used by indians as storage and a place of refuge, it is now a small tourist attraction that has somewhat seen its better days. It was cool, damp and some passages were quite difficult to negotiate. Still, it was a fun distraction.

I had my doubts, but it was worth the visit...

Vyv was keen to visit the Ark Experience, as she had read about it in a magazine. I was very dubious because it is built by Creationists to explain their view of Noah and The Flood. It did not sound like something I would really want to see.

But, as much as I hate to admit it, this was one of the many, many times I have been wrong in my life!! It was actually brilliantly made and presented. The design and craftsmanship on everything was excellent. They really spared no expense, although the landscaping is yet to be completed.

The Ark cost $100 million to build and the exterior is clad in Radiata pine imported from New Zealand.

The interior scenes of life on the (mythical) ark are works of art in themselves.

But their Creationist theories just went a little too far. So now Noah took dinosaurs on to the ark??? As stupid as that may sound, it would make a hell of a movie. The dinosaurs escape on a ship where there is nowhere to run... a great horror movie would pretty much write itself.

Nashville

Karl would have been disappointed with us if we hadn't gone to a live music venue for dinner in Nashville. Good food and good music, although we did leave when they announced OPEN MIKE time. Might have been fun but we imagined karaoke quality singing.

I had to check out the Johnny Cash Museum while we were here, since he was such an early influence on my musical tastes. I remember listening to him on the radio and watching his TV show as a little boy.

It was well worth the visit!

All we knew about Nashville was the music side of things. One thing we didn't expect was this full-sized replica of the Greek Parthenon in the city centre, built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. It was quite a majestic sight.

Earlier in the trip Vyv got to act like a cougar and hold hands with a very young Elvis. Here she tries something more age-appropriate...

Vyv and I love the American Pickers TV show so we couldn't resist visiting their Nashville store, located in the historic Marathon Motor Works building, while we were there. It was fun checking out some of the stuff we remember seeing in various episodes.

Vyv loved this guitar sculpture. Probably because it so closely matched the colours and pattern of her blouse!

A very random encounter

We stayed one night in Paris, Texas, and in the morning Vyv went to pack the car while I checked out. With her usual difficulty with anything technical, she had problems working out how to unlock the passenger door (you have to push unlock twice) so another guest came to her aid. He turned out to be one of the members of the band Three Dog Night. At the same time, I was meeting the rest of the band at reception.

They had played a gig in town the previous night. I would have gone along had I known.

Such is life...

Update: 4 October

We went to Tupelo, Mississippi, to visit the birthplace of Elvis Presley. The house he was born in has been preserved, along with the small chapel his family went to.

It is hard to believe that families lived in homes this small. Just two small rooms and a communal outhouse.

She finally gets to hold Elvis's hand, even if it just a 13-year-old Elvis...

While visiting a private military collection in Tupelo, I was tempted to trade in our Hyundai Sonata rental for something a little bit more macho...

We had never seen tobacco growing before.

The smell of the leaves hanging drying in the barn was very potent.

The plants also grow a lot bigger than we expected...

Update: 3 October 2016

Since we were in Dallas we checked out the memorial to JFK at the site of his assassination. Somehow this memorial doesn't seem quite appropriate. We were expecting a statue of him or something a little more dramatic.

The visitor's centre in Tunica, Arkansas, is a little unusual, to say the least. They consider their town “The Gateway to the Blues".

We are quite used to seeing bales of hay in the fields but the bales of cotton out in the fields was quite an unusual sight for us:

The fields of cotton look quite beautiful...

But the cotton blows everywhere. It builds up along the roads and looks like it has been snowing...

We like to visit the old cemeteries we pass in our travels. A lot of them are quite touching to read, but this one stood out from the rest, in Helena, Arkansas:

Downtown Helena is very interesting, but also very rundown...

A couple of other sites seen in Helena, while old, don't look quite so decrepit:

Nearly over...

We arrived in California yesterday, staying last night in Davis (a small town) and spent today in Napa Valley (the wine growing area) and the difference in temperatures from our time in Oregon is startling. From below zero two days ago to 36°C today in Sonoma.

We are glad that we haven't had to contend with the California temperatures for our whole trip. We would never have survived. The heat and the brightness of the sun is exhausting.

We are staying tonight in downtown Santa Cruz. Everything is open late so we had a great dinner at an Irish pub and wandered the shops amongst the many buskers, tourists, drunks, dogs and assorted strange/stoned people. The place has a nice vibe and I enjoyed the walk in the evening when the temperature had started to drop.

Tomorrow is our last day and we don't have any plans at all. We will just see what the day brings...

guns and booze

If there are two things that really do not go well together it's GUNS and ALCOHOL. In Crescent, Oregon, Ken sells them both conveniently in one store. No wonder there are so many bullet holes in road signs.