I am now in California

I'm not in New England anymore. I'm in California. We arrived today and I am currently in a smelly room with my brothers (they are the reason it smells) about to go to bed.

We went to NYC after New England and did a few cool things. Went up the Empire State Building and went to the Statue of Liberty, Times Square and the site where there used to be some awesome buildings before a certain act of terror. We went to the ground zero visitor center which has been set up as a tribute to all those who lost their lives, it was quite emotional really but it's kinda hard to explain unless you go there for yourself.

We were in NYC for 3 days, and on the last day we were there, my uncle had to go into hospital. We didn't get to hang out with my aunt and uncle at all that day. That kinda sucked because that was the main reason we went to New York, to hang with them. But last I heard Uncle Stuart was doing much better and so thats good news.

I just remembered the wierdest thing about driving through New England... Most people have seen roadkill, but not everyone has seen deer littering the roadside. Some obviously had been hit by trucks, there were varying degrees of carcase quality. Some dead deer were in pieces, others looked like they were taking a nap. Needless to say it was something different.



We also checked out Niagara Falls which are every bit as amazing as you would expect. Go there. You'll love it. That also involved crossing the border into Canada. If you ask me, Canada is just a copycat of america but with a few subtle differences, i.e. when we crossed earlier from the border at maine into french canada, you get 100m from the border and EVERYTHING is in french. We crossed back over in New Hampshire and for a few miles the signs etc were written in both french and english, obviously the US is a tad more considerate than french Canada.

But in Niagara Falls, it had all the same stores, food, everything, just a slightly different vibe and a different currency. I liked Canada but to be fair we didn't see a lot, just the stuff thats pretty much america anyway. So maybe one day i'll go to Vancouver or something and have a good look for myself.

ANYWAY... arrived in seattle on Thursday October 23 after a 6 hour flight from NYC. At around 11am local time in seattle we made our way to baggage claim where we were greeted by a tearful Aunt Cece who hadn't seen us in about 17 years. We stayed with her and Uncle Jerry at their house in Puyallup for 4 days and had an awesome time. Went to a wildlife park called Northwest Treck where we saw caribou, deer, elk, moose, bison, mountain goats, mountain sheep and coyote's, bears, cougars and a lynx that did a super good ninja jump from one tree to another. That was dope.
Also went to Seattle and checked out Pike Place Market which is famous for birthing a worldwide phenomenon - Starbucks. So naturally we sampled... When in Rome...

We left Puyallup on Monday and started a long drive to LA. We stopped today at Crater Lake, Oregon and yesterday we went through Portland. It was pretty much just another city that would be cool to check out one day but we weren't too worried about not stopping. Last night we stayed in a random little town that i forget the name of and today we went to Crater Lake which is another amazing place.

Tonight we are in a place called Crescent City in Northern California. Tomorrow we're going to check out the redwood forests and go drive through the tree you can drive through (apparently there's a massive tree with a huge hole chopped in it) which will be epic. We are going to be heading through Santa Cruz (which is a city with skateboarding heritage) on thursday, I can't wait.

Thats about it.
Peace

New London, Connecticut, New England

So its been a while. Since last time I wrote in here we've been heaps of places. I'll try and remember everything.

Left Memphis and the plan was to go to a Civil War Park near Chattanooga and an Apalachan festival near Knoxville before driving to my Uncle John and Aunt Anne's house in Manassas, VA via the Smokey Mountains. By the way, thats John and Anne SANCHEZ... They are awesome, not just because of an awesome last name.

We went on a different highway to the main one from Memphis and as a result got to drive through three more southern states, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. In Alabama we went through a place called Huntsville which is home of the US Space and Rocket Centre and Space Camp, and so we stopped there and had a look.
It was pretty cool, I had a lot of fun. It was cool to see some rockets and simulators and stuff. They even had a moon rock on display. Thats about it for there, you really had to be there... :)

We spent too long there and so we ended up stayin in Chattanooga. The next morning we went to the Civil war place at Chickamauga which is the site of a famous Civil War battle between the Union (North) and the Confederates (South). That was interesting and I learnt a lot. Here's a photo of a monument.
















From here we went to an Apalachan festival near Knoxville. I was convinced that 'Apalachans' were a tribe of Native Americans (Indians)... boy how wrong I was. I was so mad that I had to endure another day of bluegrass. But oh well, never again!!!!

We stayed in Knoxville that night, then drove all the way from Knoxville to Manassas the next day via the Smokey Mountains. That was awesome, the scenery is amazing! I highly recommend going there if you ever get the chance. We ended up going through Tenessee, North Carolina and Virginia that day. Here's a seductive photo of me.
















So we stayed with Uncle John and Aunt Anne in Manassas which is famous for... well nothing really, except if you have heard of Lorraina Bobbet. Probably not the kind of thing you want your town to be known for. Kinda funny though.

Manassas was cool, mainly because I was meeting my Aunt and Uncle 'Sanchez' for the first time and we went to Washington DC and checked out a lot of cool stuff. Things I got to see were a lot of monuments, the White House, Lincoln memorial, and lots of other cool stuff. That was Monday.
















On Tuesday I saw some museums which involved getting my bag searched at every entrance, and unfortunately in the process of getting my bag searched at the final museum for the day, the Natural History museum, I put my camera down and somehow didn't pick it up. So I now do not have a camera. It turns out someone picked it up and boosted, no camera's have been handed in and I filled out all the forms etc. I'm gutted. But it could have been worse.

Yesterday the boys went with Uncle John to the National Marine Museum at Quantico while the girls went with Aunt Anne to some mall. The Museum was epic, makes me want to make use of my US Citizenship and enlist. Only one problem - Iraq. Maybe one day haha! My Uncle was a marine back in the day, and its kinda cool seeing his pride in both the Marine Corps and his country. You don't really see people like that anymore who aren't hicks. Genuine people who are proud of who they are.

Today we drove all the way from Manassas to New London, which is in the state of Connecticut in New England. It was a big day, and we have another big day tomorrow. It should be good.
I'm trying to keep up with work and still have fun but finding the balance is not too easy!

Anyway, I miss all of you back home and hope your holding down the fort for me!
God Bless,
Peace,
ROY

ps Email me sometime, I may not get back to you straight away but I will get back to you. Its awesome to get some contact from my NZ friends.

I'm in Memphis

I'm in Memphis now. Its pretty sweet. Still quite hot.
The weather has been crazy, we've had tornado warnings today and now flash flood warnings, thankfully not right where we are but not far from Memphis. I have never seen rain so heavy for so long in my life.


It almost flooded our motel...


But I haven't seen a tornado and secretly I want to.





It's been exciting. Tomorrow we're going to see some stuff like Elvis's Maryland, the Gibson Guitar factory and the Slave Haven which was a house on the underground railroad before heading on towards my Uncle Johns house which is a couple days drive away in Virginia (right next to Washington DC).

Not a lot else to report. Weather has been insane! I'm stoked to be out of Nashville, and looking forward to DC and NYC when we get there.

Keep it real,
PEACE

Nashville WHAT!!!

I have been in Nashville, Tennessee with my mum, 2 brothers and 2 sisters since Thursday October 2nd. It’s now the 4th which happens to be my mum’s 53rd birthday and we are at a bluegrass festival…. YEEEEEEHAAAWWW.


But I can’t think of anywhere else I would see something like this where there’s a crowd and everyone is actually in to it. It’s really an experience I will never have again so when my mum asked if I was going to go, contrary to my initial ‘NO WAY,’ I decided it was worth a look. I have enjoyed myself and enjoyed watching the bands play; they are talented musicians even if I hate the music. I have been going to the sessions pretending I’m listening to non-hillbilly music which has helped me get through. I don’t know what my siblings do but they get through too.

I lost my bags when we left LA, but I have them back now. Stoked!
We were at LAX airport checking in to leave for Nashville. We got our bags weighed and ticketed, then had to go to a check point to drop our bags of for screening, where they would be taken away to be loaded on the plane. After we dropped them off, my mum noticed that two bags (my one and one of hers) were under someone else’s name. It was too late to tell the screening guys so we went back to the lady at the counter and told her the problem. To cut a long story short we basically got told by about 6 different managers who ‘were going to sort it out’ for us that our bags were lost and the best we could do was hope that they turn up when we got to Nashville. If they didn’t and they ended up going to Cabo like the labels said, we would have to sort it out from Nashville. Thanks so much LAX.

Now I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that in NZ, we would have probably been able to at least sort out the situation before getting to our destination without our bags. I even think Auckland airport workers would have made an effort. LAX is massive, I know, but surely we could have arranged to have our bags forwarded to Nashville ASAP from there. The Nashville guys were amazing, they were able to find our bags in Cabo and arranged for them to get here on the first flight from there. I had to wait a day and a half before my bag (which had all my clothes and toiletries in it) turned up. But hey I got them back now so I’m stoked.

I don’t know what else to say about America so far. Nashville... Well it’s a lot like CHCH, laid out like a grid and full of trees and stuff, but it has hills and the city centre is not scummy like CHCH, it’s actually really nice. It’s kinda like a mix between CHCH and maybe Dunedin or Auckland.

I don’t get to some internet often, I spend half my time finding somewhere that has it for less than 10 bux a day. So hence there has been a minimal amount of contact from me in the last few days. Sorry about that. I miss home, I miss C3 and Primal and I miss Holly heaps, but I’m having a good time here and I’m trying to concentrate on that.

That’s all for now folks!
God bless,
ROY

Arrival in USA

<----- This was a photo I took on the plane



So I'm in LA right now. We landed at 2.30pm Wednesday Oct 1 local time, but that is the same as 10.30am Thursday NZ time. I was a bit meh about the whole thing, couldn't be bothered with transition times and customs and whatnot. But this adventure of a lifetime has already had a lifetime of firsts so far!

Here's a basic list of highlights/firsts for me:
First time on a flight longer than 1hr20min
First time watching a movie on a plane
First time eating a meal on a plane
First time using a toilet on a plane (which is followed up by...)
First time doing poo's on a plane YEYA!!!

I can't really think of too many more firsts. But man I loved getting frisked at Chch boarding (metal detector doesn't like my metal belt and then security pwns me till they find no knife or weapon or anything of the like), getting frisked again at the metal detector at Auckland and finally getting the lucky 'random test' at the gate of the flight to LA where I was frisked again.

Compared to NZ, America is... well I dunno.
The security at LAX took about a tenth of the time that security at Auckland took, so much for panicky americans. The security guards in LAX have guns and its not intimidating. The people here are obviously different, but then again I already knew that having an american mum and all that jazz. They are really super polite people, well so far anyway.

My Aunt Linda and Uncle Ray met us at the hotel and are with us now. We are going to get some food soon which I'm stoked about. It's annoying how their accents sound normal to us but they can't tell what we are saying. It's annoying how no one here knows what I'm talking about when I say 'chur' or 'sweet as' or 'I'm beached bro,' but I'm sure we can work it out.

So in summary...
We got to LA 5 hours before leaving chch (due to time difference), Josh Pritchard and Jeremy Knox were meant to come hang out at Auckland airport while I was in transit but that ended up being jar bol (not sure whose fault but I'm saying I was not to blame haha). It was an emotional farewell at Chch airport for me and Holly after some crap pizza from the foodcourt, and I am going to miss her. awwww.

I will try and keep these updated regularly along the way. Miss you guys, hope your keepin it real in NZ!!
Peace,
ROY