With a final quick wave goodbye to the east coast, we made our way west and on to Cleveland. We picked up Dr Jones, Jenny departed from Akron, we met Sudarshan for a quick bite and then picked up Erich from Cleveland airport. And the boys (Jones and Erich) still managed to make a night of it at a brew pub that also had the best chili I've ever tasted (I think it was a pork chili with chorizo).
The trip itself covered over 6300 miles (including the first part of the trip with Jenny around the north east), took in another 3 national parks, passed through the cities of Louisville, Nashville, New Orleans and Phily and resulted in a strange encounter with some familiar marsupials.
First stop was Louisville, which was a beautiful town in the heart of the Midwest. We met up with Jenny's cousin Brett and sampled some of the states finest bourbon. On the way down to Nashville we made a quick stop at Kentucky Down Under (wtf) and the Mammoth Caves National Park. We were too late to take any cave tours so we just decided to hike around the park in our flip flops.
Nashville was definitely one of the highlights. The entire city is centered around music and every bar has live music all night. We spent a couple nights bar hopping... and unfortunately PJ decided to get the tequila shots out, discovered a definite favorite band and spent our final afternoon lazying in park at a local music festival on the river.
New Orleans disappointed us on the first night, mainly because we spent most of our time trawling Bourbon Street which, as anyone who know New Orleans well will tell you, is the place you stay clear of. Unfortunately for Erich, he left after the first night, we discovered more of a local scene on Frechman's Street just outside the French Quarter, and hung out in several bars listening to cool jazz. PJ would fly out the next day, but not before we tried to squeeze in nine holes of golf before being chased back into the clubhouse by lightning and torrential rain!
Nashville was definitely one of the highlights. The entire city is centered around music and every bar has live music all night. We spent a couple nights bar hopping... and unfortunately PJ decided to get the tequila shots out, discovered a definite favorite band and spent our final afternoon lazying in park at a local music festival on the river.
New Orleans disappointed us on the first night, mainly because we spent most of our time trawling Bourbon Street which, as anyone who know New Orleans well will tell you, is the place you stay clear of. Unfortunately for Erich, he left after the first night, we discovered more of a local scene on Frechman's Street just outside the French Quarter, and hung out in several bars listening to cool jazz. PJ would fly out the next day, but not before we tried to squeeze in nine holes of golf before being chased back into the clubhouse by lightning and torrential rain!
On to Florida!
A word of warning to anyone going to the Everglades in summer. The mosquitoes are mind-boggingly horrendous and will bite you through and piece of clothing you put on. You will need to be in your tent before sundown, and forget ever thinking about going to the toilet in the middle of the night.
But besides that, it was great. No crowds, free camping and great paddling around the mangroves and swamps. I did take one day and drive the length of the Keys, took a quick look at Hemingway's house, got trapped in more torrential rain, but also took a walk in the Caribbean at Islamorada.
I also managed a glimpse of a few alligators as I was exiting the park after I finally had enough of the mosquitoes and decided to pack up camp one day early and start the drive towards the Smokey Mountains.
On the way to the Smokeys I stopped in at the Cotton Hill campground in Fort Gaines, Georgia. It was probably the nicest campground of the entire trip.
The Smokeys themselves were quite breathtaking, although as one of my friends once said, after you've been hiking on the West Coast, the East Coast will never seem as grand. The forests reminded me a lot of the Blues Mountains back home but unfortunately I didn't make it to any of the high vantage points on the hike I did to take in some of the great vistas.
From the Smokeys, I drove back to Boston to fly to Indy for the fourth, but I did stop in for a night with Andrew and Amanda in Philadelphia to check out their new place and new neighborhood.
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