Alrighty… Memphis was kind of cool, the hostel that I stayed at was attached to a church though and they made me clean which didn’t make me the happiest camper - but it was a nice quiet place.  The reason I went to Memphis was to try and see some Blues - but the closest that we got was seeing a Bluegrass band called The Get Up Johns, which was really cool - and completely random.  Just two guys, one always playing a guitar, and the other playing a mixture of guitar, mandolin, and violin.  If they ever get famous I can say that I once saw them in Memphis with like six other people at the Otherlands Cafe, but I dare say Bluegrass isn’t going to be the next music explosion.

Other than that, there’s not a world of things to do in Memphis - I didn’t go to Graceland, just because Elvis is kind of crap, so I elected to go to the Gibson Guitar factory instead - the factory in Memphis is where they make all of their Semi-Hollow bodied guitars, as well as guitars that are like, double. It was kind of interesting, and the tour guide through the factory had this massive southern drawl which just sounded phenomenal.  Oh, also went to the Rock N Soul museum, which was kind of cool - and Eman, they had this whole little thing on Robert Johnson - which was really cool.

Nashville would be a brilliant place, if you like country music - otherwise there’s really fug all else to do.  Did some interesting stuff here though - went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum - which would have been brilliant, if you like country music.  Spent one night out in town, which was would have been brilliant, if you like country music.  Do you see the trend?!?!  COUNTRY FRICKING MUSIC!  There’s nothing. else. here. It’s really hilarious for the first ten, fifteen minutes or so - until you realise that these people are serious.  

Having said that, the Country Music Hall of Fame did have a good exhibit on Ray Charles and his influences in and from country music - which I found really interesting - but the rest… CRAP!

Anyways, spent yesterday having a wonder around town with Dulcie - before coming back to the hostel to spend the afternoon/night drinking a beer called Red Dog ($7 for 12 bottles, absolute class) - with everyone staying at the hostel plus the owner, which made four people in total.  It was a really classy way to end the day, and I don’t really like making a big deal out of these sorts of things anyway.

Off to Washington later today which should be good - going to catch up with a friend from Japan which should be tops, although we keep getting told that it’s a dangerous place - so go figure.

Oh, I did want to go shooting yesterday, because I thought that would have been hilarious, but this was the only place I could find to go - and the whole thing kind of scared me and was kind of expensive…

Edit: I feel like a little bit of a jerk for being so hard on Nashville - I forgot to mention that I went horseriding here and it was really good fun - our guide’s name was Elizabeth and she was awesome - she kept saying things like "We’ll make a cowboy out of you yet Mr Shaun".  And she does Rodeo’s and junk.

At the moment, I’m on a train going from New Orleans to Memphis - I’ve got a new travel buddy, for the time being I’m traveling around with Dulcie, a friend of mine from Seattle/England whom I met up with in Austin, visited New Orleans and am now going to meet again in Memphis (she’s got a Greyhound pass whereas I’m on my last legs of my train pass).

I’m not too sure what brings me to the south, but I am enjoying being here.  New Orleans was brilliant and somewhere I could have defenatly spent a lot more time.  Bourbon St (The main part of the French Quarter) was a complete nightmare, however Dulcie and I spent a lot of time on Frenchman’s street, which is obviously also part of the french quarter, however its tucked in towards the end of it and is apparently where the locals go.  We went to this brilliant little place on Frenchman’s called the Spotted Cat a couple of times - the first night we went we made friends with these four Americans who we danced with (Dulcie being as un co-ordinated as I, it was good for us to have someone show us the ropes).  They were really nice people, and Megan was really cool to dance with.

I still can’t get over that they let people in New Orleans, not only drink in the streets, but they also let you take these drinks (which they give you in plastic cups), into bars that you go in, and when you leave a bar you can have a nice little take away.

I’m really not the most qualified person to talk about how New Orleans is recovering from Katrina (or as the locals call it, The Storm) - there seems to be an almost tongue in cheek sort of attitude towards it in some of the more touristy places, I saw a t-shirt in a souvenir shop which said "I was in New Orleans for the hurricane and all I got was a plasma tv, a cadillac and a stereo".  There are however a lot of damaged buildings and some obviously abandoned buildings - if New Orleans was like that before I not, I don’t know.

The hostel we stayed at was called India House, and was a really cool place to hang out.  The reviews that we read of it said that it was in a bad neighborhood, was really dirty but was a fun place to stay.  The decision was made for me though, speaking to an Australian guy in Austin who got bed bugs at the hostel, but then stayed for an extra week - I mean c’mon, he got bed bugs and still liked the place.

The hostel really wasn’t that bad at all, in fact it was actually kind of nice - there was a few cockroaches on the wall in the common area - however there was heaps of cockroaches in the neighborhood, so it really wasn’t something you could blame the hostel for.

The highlight in New Orelans was definantly the music - walking through the French Quater and hearing all this Jazz music just flowing out of places, one of the few band names that I can remember was the Expialadotious Band - and they play at the Spotted Cat every Saturday afternoon.  The group playing when we were dancing with random Americans was probably my favourite - they were a five piece band - had no microphones or anything like that (you really don’t need them at the venue though, because the furthest away you can really be away from the band is about three metres), were mostly just pure instrumental - however every now and then two or three of the members would start singing.  The best muscian that we saw though was from the French Quater All-Stars - they had a drummer that sang - and he was at least sixty years old with a voice with a real gravelly sound and had lyrics like "When you shmile, the world shmiles with you".

Anyway, so on my way to Memphis (which sounds like a country song), and am on the train again, but my pass expires on the 24th so from Memphis my next trip will more than likely be via bus or the ‘hound.  From Memphis I hope to go to a hostel called the hostel in the forest, where basically you sleep in trees - it’ll be nice to chill out some place quiet like that.�

 As a reminder - I need to write something about the Jazz funeral that we saw…

Alright, well part of my "plans" for this trip was to travel totally overland - flights are too expensive, security too overzealous, and airports are always a complete bitch to get to.  Travelling overland means you get to see more of the countryside, save on accomodation and generally meet some pretty cool people.

Normally I love Amtrak - Amtrak is straight up and down a good way to travel, large seats, heaps of leg room, normally two seats to yourself, and they sell beer.  So yes, Amtrak should get the big thumbs up - two thumbs up even - the only problem is that the bastard never runs on time.  I’m not trying to compare Amtrak to the Shinkansen - I understand that the only place you’ll be able to set your watch by the train time-table is Japan.  Anywhere within an hour of arriving on time, and I wouldn’t think twice, a couple of hours late on occaison is acceptable - but when trains run regularly 4-8 hours late - you start to have some second thoughts.

Having said that, I was cool with the 4-8 hour late thing, I mean - it’s not like I physically need to be anywhere: I don’t even know what’s in half of the cities I’m visiting, or when I arrive somewhere I realise oh, that’s right - Alcatraz is in San Francisco…

I guess part of the problem is how easily it is accepted, when I was leaving (frigging) Denver, I had the following conversation with the guy behind the counter:

Ticket officer: "Just make sure you call this number two hours before the train is due to depart, because this train always runs at least four hours late"

Me: "Why don’t you just change the time it leaves to four hours later, then the train’s not late, it’s like, you know, on time.

Ticket officer: "……., anything else I can help you with sir." 

Yesterday was the icing on the cake though, I arrive at the station in Austin - as I normally am, about an hour early.  I ask the guy if the train is running on time, to which he replies "It’s about an hour and ten minutes late" - fair answer, right?  Wrong.  He knew where I was going, having just confirmed that I had booked one coach seat to New Orleans, he just didn’t think it was important enough information to tell me that my connecting train was running eleven hours late, until I was boarding the first train some three hours later, at which point it was too late to try and suss out some alternative.  Now to put this delay into perspective - to catch the bus from Austin to New Orleans only takes twelve hours.  The delay is in theory long enough to mean that I could be in the New Orleans city limits, before the train has even left Austin.

 So I kick up a massive stink, and at the moment am battling Amtrak to try and get some money back on my 30 day train pass.  Out of all of the trains I’ve caught in the past 30 days or so (baring in mind that I’ve travelled from San Francisco to Portland, Portland to Seattle, Seattle to Sacramento, Sacramento to Denver, Denver to Chicago, Chicago to Austin, Austin to San Antonio, San Antonio to Houston and Austin to San Antonio again all by train), one was on time.  One solitary train.  One.  And I’m not saying that the others where just a little bit off either, I’m not talking half an hour late, I’m not even talking an hour late.  Before the miracle of a train running on time, the closest I’d been to on time was two hours late, the next closest was four hours.  

 Last nights train that I was meant to catch, the new record holder - running eleven hours late, meant that Amtrak quite simply gave up, they gave up and sent me via the ‘hound.  Now I don’t have fond memories of my last Greyhound experience - sitting in the Greyhound station in downtown LA is never a barrel of laughs, especially when you get a junky looking guy tell you "I just got outta jail".  But beggars cannot be choosers, and I got on the bus.  Now on the bus, I had the priveledge of sitting next to Ace.  I shit you not, his name is Ace.  Now Ace, will forever be known to me as State Trooper Rodney Farva, he looked exactly I imagine Farva from Super Troopers would have looked at 21 years old, with had no mustache.  Now I don’t want to bad mouth him too much - he was a dead nice guy, clearly a little bit slow, and the poor guy had just been in a car crash and was catching the bus back home. The only problem I have with him is how much room he takes up on a pair of Greyhound seats, and the fact that he wants to use my shoulder as a pillow.

 Anyway, that was my little travel bitch.  Next time, I’m renting a car (look forward to my next blog bitching about how difficult it is to drive on the wrong side of the road).

 Oh yeah, and I’m in New Orleans, to steal a phrase from an English guy about Philadelphia - I’m avoiding the dangerous parts of New Orleans, i.e. outside the hostel.

P.S. Guess who was finally taught how to add links (almost) properly… 

Mess with Texas, seriously, it’s fun.  A guy asked me at the bus stop where I was from, to which I responded, Australia - we had a little bit of a chat, and when conversation died down he asked me if Australia is a big city.

 Oh, also in Houston, saw a wicked bumper sticker in red, white and blue which said "I bust mine so I can whup yours".

I’m back in Austin now after spending a couple of days in Houston - Houston was cool, although if you walk down the street on a Friday lunch-time, there is no-one about - it’s kind of freaky and like something out of 28 days later…  Apparently most of the city is underground, I just couldn’t figure out how to get down there.

Whilst in Houston I went to the Space Centre, more for my brother than for myself - it was alright I guess - the lady at the tourist centre said to leave at least four hours for it, however I found my self looking for the exit after about an hour and a half.  The cool thing in Houston that I saw was the Art Car parade, which has been going for about 20 years - I was more than a little dissapointed by the corporate entries (such as a big Starbucks coffee cup and a car shaped like Ronald McDonald’s shoe) - but some of it was really cool.  Most of it was bizzare stuff, like big monster cars, and go-cart dragons, but there was a couple of classic cars thrown into the mix.

Just to jump around in time a little, and because I’ve gone to the effort of adding some more photos on to this bloody thing, here are a couple mo pictures for ya…

Wrigley Field, Cubs v Nationals - Cubs won 6-4 (This is a crowd for a one o’clock game on a Friday)

The Most depressing zoo (in Chicago, I think it was called the Lincoln Park Zoo - it’s free!)

And Austin, the self-proclaimed Music Capital of the World (I laughed when I heard this, but on Wednesday the 9th of May, Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse and Damien Rice were all playing somewhere in town - none of which I managed to see).

Edit:  I’ve got more pictures from the States here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136&l=38052&id=506660484 and here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2377&l=fa7e7&id=506660484.  And a whole bunch of old pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=287&l=3caa6&id=506660484

Trying to remember where I’ve been and what I’ve done since the last time I wrote anything for this and it’s kind of difficult to know where to start.

Colorado is a totally beautiful place, however Denver sucked total arse.  So let’s leave that and move on to Chicago.

Chicago was really cool - don’t really feel like I was a tourist there (did go up Sears tower, however went with a native - so it doesn’t seem so bad).  Amtrak as a system is totally unreliable, the trains are never on time, however it is a brilliant way to see the country if you’re not in a hurry and are prepared to talk to people and possibly play drinking games.  On the train from Denver to Chicago (8 hours late), was invited to play drinking games with a film student/artist named Sarah - I’m not too sure who the winner was, it definantly wasn’t me, and it certainly didn’t seem to be her.  Ended up meeting up with her again in Chicago, had an amazing couple of days hanging out with her and some of her friends, talking, painting, taking photos, drawing and listening to music before she had to go back to Iowa (Iowhat?).  I’m used to leaving people along the way, as you do when you’re travelling - but Sarah will most definantly be missed.

Also in Chicago I met up with some Kiwi’s that I went to Yosemite with, which was really cool - they’re both good guys (even if Scott thinks that I stole the girl of his dreams at some random pub - I spoke to her for two minutes dude when you asked me too, then didn’t speak to her again), saw the Cubs beat the Nationals 6-4 at Wrigley field, and went to the most depressing zoo (How often do you see a monkey that looks sad?), it’s a free zoo and they’ve got these tiny little enclosures - it’s sad to see big cats and rhino’s in enclosures the size of Norfolk Rd C.C.

I’m now in Austin of all places - wanted to make the most of my Amtrak pass so picked an epic train trip to take.  Not too sure what I’m going to do here, but am definantly going to do my best to mess with Texas.

Having trouble getting photos onto this thing, however you can see a brief selection here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136&l=38052&id=506660484