Mississippi (swamp tour)

So we travelled on, listening to the one and only Dane Cook (helarious american comedian like lee evans). Once we arrived we set up tents and ordered pizza. Woke up and travelled on further where we reached our swamp tour destination, we saw lots of Crocodiles and teh aftermath of hurricane katrina.

Tom, Zoe, Leah, Kags and Anne marieSome of the houses at teh riverside
Big al, the king of gators in the area where we were!

Tennessee (Jack Daniels distillery)

Arrived in Tennessee about midday, felt like we had gone back in time, teh town Lynchburg (where the JD distillery is) hadnt changed one bit.
Take a look at this sweet ford model T that was used to transport the barrells.
The distillery was free to go around in and this classic looking whiskey drinking guy called randy took us for our toor (on the right)
We were taken to the place where the yeast is fermented and the proof is %140, ive never experienced anything like this, the smell was so intense, literally it made you jump back when you took a whiff! Whilst on that note, you stand anywhere in Lynchburg and their is such a sweet smell in the air, its beautiful man!

Here is a photo of me with Jack
The size of the storage room was huge, im sure james would love to work here!In the gift shop I found this Indy Car that's sponsored by Jack :) After the tour of teh distillery we went into the town and had a lovely meal at this old restaraunt where we made a box of Trek america for teh roof of teh restaraunt. The law in Lynchburg is that you can only purchase JD from the distillery and maximum of 4 bottles, you cant drink JD at all.
I went into the original JD gift shoppe and baught a t-shirt and a gift for james, the woman gave me a free JD glass :D

West Virginia (white water rafting)

In the morning we woke up real early, packed our bags and headed for west virginia which took 7hrs.
Once we arrived we set up base camp and then chilled out, played soccer with the other trek america group, frisbee and american football.
Later on we had spag bol for dinner and I made a fire and we all had some beers, we ended up hooking up with the other group for some beer pong, flip cup and finally circle of death which is a card game where (1-4 you drink that ammount, 5 everyone downs, 6-10 you dish out, J= everyone must drink your ammount , Q= drink to the queen, K = make up a new rule and joker = question master).
We all woke up the next morning ready for some white water rafting! This was so sick!!! we went down teh new river through about 25 rapids which ranged from level 2 to 5, we had one level 5 rapid and a few 2-3. The first rapid we went through all exept jack and debbie came off teh raft, it was quite scary being swept down stream by a ferrocious current, after that we did really well on the difficult rapids, further down the river we did some swimming rapids where we swam through them, about a hour into it we stopped off at this big rock about 15ft high, I ran and jumped off it, it was soo sweet to fall so far, later on we also played some raft games and somersaulted off teh raft, hit some more rapids but rode them out!
Came back to base camp had lunch and watched teh video that had been filmed of us rafting, then packed up and rode out down teh 81 interstate to Tennessee.

Times Square

Hi Guys
Just a quick blog from times square, had a lovely meal earlier on today, off to see monty pythons spamalot show tonight on broadway.

Hope everyone is all good, cant wait to see all you guys at uni on the 16th.
I got ya all a gift, shame I aint rich because I saw an awsome present for jamie today, its this big starwars character which cost like $300, also went in to the worlds biggest toys r us store hehe and I got max a sneaky picture of the naked cowboy who plays his guitar in teh middle of times square!!!

See you all soon!

Washington DC

Ok so after the illumination tour, the next day we walked around DC, the first place we visited was the White House.We walked around it and had ice cream, then we uploaded some pictures to my memory stick in this posh hotel because I had run out of space on my camera, walked down the street a few more blocks and stopped off at the house where abraham lincoln died and it just so happened to be on my birthday (he got shot across the street in the Ford Theatre in the back left side of his head).We then went to the International Spy Museum

which was $15 to get in but it was sooo kool, well worth it, came out an hour or so later on and had lunch in the museums diner, (apparently their are teh most spys in Washington DC than anywhere else in teh world).

We then walked to teh National Archives and saw one of the first 14 declarations of independance (john hancock has teh largest signature on it) and the original copper plate that was used to copy it.Also saw the constitution, the bill of rights, the emancipation of proclaimation and teh original log of the apollo 8 space mission we then moved on further to the capitol where lots of people ride segways. its wierd! we chilled out on the lawn of the capitol in the hot sun and then later on walked round the back to the supreme court of justice.

Yet again moving on further we walked down the mall (on forest gump where he gives the speach, and martin luther king). Headed towards teh national space museum but it was closed :-( so we carried on up to the washington monument and headed for the national history museum. Its cool they have giant animals and stuff with loads of info, the dinosaur part is sick!Finally we went for some food in the ESPN restaraunt (if you dont know what that is its the worlds biggest sports channel, most popular in the states.This had a 2 hour wait for food because the Yankees vs Redsox game was on soon, so we went to macdonalds and had the best Maccy D's ive ever had!

Came back to camp, swam in the pool for a bit and then slept.

Keep me posted guys, I still got lots to write about, sorry the last few blogs wernt written in order.

Last Day at Camp & NYC before Trekking

Ok guys this is the journal I wrote from teh very start of Trek when I was in teh chelsea star hotel in NYC.

Last day of camp - Last night was awsome, we went out for a meal, their was an open tab for 3 hours on beer and wine but unfortunatly it was for the 21+ group so we baught liquor and beer for the way back.
Once at camp (11pm or so) we all filled teh eskis with beer and ice and carted them to teh appalacian trail for one last time, Barney filled a nalgene with Jim Beam and coke for me because i found his hoody, which was a good deal! when we arrived at the trail their was someone camping their so we had to find somewhere else, we eventually went to pemigewassett's steak out fire pit and made a roaring fire, teh quote of teh night from me was "put more conifer on it!" lol it was an awsome night, logs around teh fire for us to sit on and heir was also a hatchet (small axe) so a few of us split some logs for teh fire, later on we came back and everyone chilled in teh girls cabin for an hour or so, some stayed their and slept but others went back out, me, jesse, pete and parish, went to take teh eski down to the car, but it had vanished? so we were looking around for ages, eventually we found it and chilled on the beach after leaving parish for being loud and pete for being an ass, then me and jesse had teh kool ideo of canoeing to orford beach, so we did at 4am, teh lake was awsome at night it was eiree and misty (lake placid) we finally got to the other side and chilled out had some beers and canoed back for sunrise at 6:30am, I woke up at 9am to say goodbye to everyone who was leaving for montreal!
That day sucked because everyone was leaving, that night we made a fire had some food around it and watched jackass teh movie in teh rec hall.
The next day I left camp with a nice $800, I was geared up for heading to NYC, waited till we had to set off by playing some ball for a while with robin.
At 11:00am me robin, bracken, abi and gus said goodbye to all teh staff who were staying for listen (underprivalidged kids group). We arrived at White River Junction and I baught a burbon glazed chicked 12" subway (sounds good dont it james! I recommend it)
Said goodbye to gus who was leaving to boston, half an hour later we left and hit the road to NYC, was helarious on teh way down talking to robin, a tribute to Alex the bus driver (classic old american guy on the mic). Another funny moment was when we ate all teh good harry potter beans and fed abi and bracked all teh bad ones like "rotten egg, vomit, dirt etc"
Arrived at port authority 15mins early, then said goodbye to the others and hit the subway to madison square gardens (penn station), found my hotel fairly easily. I imagined debz to already be their, but when I opened the door she wasnt :( so I got a quick wash and headed back down to make a phone call to her and to my amazement she was at the check in desk, she turned around and we just hugged for ages, it felt like time had stopped for us! she started crying, but I just felt so warm! I helped her taker her bags to the room, then we went and walked and talked for ages before sitting in a park and telling stories whilst cuddling.

The next day we hit the city and baught a ticket to tour manhatten downtown, saw places like teh empire state, chrysler building, woolworths building, WTC ground zero and teh beggining of the freedom tower, saw ellis island and the statue of liberty, we chilled out in battery park and had an ice cream, then toured on and saw teh bronx, brooklyn bridge, manhatten bridge, went to china town and little italy, stopped off at central park, walked through one side to teh other and saw donald trumps big gold building, had a lovely panini at applejacks, then went on shopping at times square, I baught a t-shirt from mtv store and a luggage bag, also checked out prices for an ipod and a digicam, but ill wait to see the deals. Then we caught a taxi back to madison square gardens which is 1 block away from our hotel.

Ok their are teh pictures of NYC, im gonna write more later on, I gotta go get my laundry now then im off to chill out on miami beach hehe!!! Im 1 block away from the beach on ocean drive.

Key Largo

Hi guys, I roughed out the emense force of hurricane ernesto! lol, to be honest I wouldn't even class that as a hurricane, its not even worthy of a name!

Im writing this blog unexpectidly, right now I should be scuba diving off the coast of key largo, but their was a few big thunderclouds that rolled in after some emense heat and scuba got called off till tomorrow morning, so I ended up coming in to the library, just a few moments ago the library was struck by lightning and all teh power went off, it was pretty sweet!

I got loads to write about and post pictures of but I left them back at the camp in my bag.

Other things that have happened are, the other day we stayed in a very nice cottage in orlando for 3 nights, when we arrived I felt amazingly painful as id been jet skiing the day before and teh waves were bigg! debbie is a maddog, we took it in turns on a 110bhp wave runner and thrashed it across the water, it goes about 55mph so my spine was aching after that, got a wiked nights sleep and then the next day went to disneyland, did magic kingdom, MGM studios and epcot, went on most rides, like hollywood's tower of terror, aerosmiths rock n rollercoaster, soarin etc... saw fireworks at both epcot and magic kingdom!

Next day we did universal studios, the tickets were soooooo expensive! but I had to do it, we did both parks and the rides etc were generally aimed at adults because they were so much better. the hulk is wiked, so it dueling dragons and spiderman, their were others which were good aswell, the day was awsome but very tiering (got photos to post of both days)

hope to hear from you all. take care guys and keep posting

"havin the time of my life!!!!"

Panama City Beach

Hi guys, arrived in panama last night. It was so warm!!! I was sweating whilst writing this journal.
I heard on teh news their will be a catagory 3 hurricane hitting the coast on thursday (they claim 115mph winds) I cant wait, sounds awsome, also heard on the news that the space shuttle launch has been delayed due to lightening hitting it, which means we might be able to see it launch.
We went to the beach and played soccer on it, watched the sunset and then had a dip in the gulf of mexico, the water is so nice and warm, waves are big and the sea is very rich in salt!
we had burgers for dinner and then chilled out, our tents are right next to the beach which is kool! last night was difficult to sleep because of how warm it was, it was funny at one point because as I was laying their in the tent this guy shouted out "ARGHHH GOD DAMMIT I BURNT MYSELF!!" it was so cliche lol.

Today were just gonna chill on laguna beach, which is just a bit further down from santa monica off jet skiing for 2hrs which is $120 get to ride by the side of dolphins. Here are some pictures.

Jet skiing ROCKED!! Ok so we started off parked our van in hooters car park some of teh people who didnt come jet skiing played soccer on teh beach and sun bathed, We went shopping today and debz baught some stuff, the shops are wierd one of them had sand as the flooring, it was very surfy and kool, then later we went to the place where we were jet skiing I had to take a temporary boat licence test, with questions like which side of the boat do you pass on? Starboard - I knew it all from camp. Then we went down to teh docks and out to the gulf of mexico, it was me and debz on teh jet ski and she started off, when teh waves got choppy its sick!!! debz is a maddog when it comes to jet skiing, full throttle everywhere until you almost come off, 110bhp they travel at 55mph approx, we went along the alcove and stopped off to swim with dolphins that was NICE! Then I drove to this island called shell island, I expected teh wakes to provide good air but their is a certain part of teh gulf that is choppier than the rest and the wakes were a real let down, when we arrived at shell island we were told about teh wildlife and their was an endangered species on their that was nesting, we then went for a swim and saw lots of crabs and stingrays. I went to pick up this one shell that looked pretty big and I got nipped by a crab and then i stood on another lol. When we got back on teh jet skis I got to ride through teh choppy waves and we caught some massive AIR!!! absolutly loved it, when we got back we had fries at Hooters which was overlooking the beach. Then we went back to the camp site and the beach for the sunset.
I cooked dinner at 8pm and made jacket potatoes on a hot coal fire followed by fortune cookies :) We then all went and got drunk on teh beach, swam in teh ocean (so warm) when you splash aswell the water shimmers because of teh phospherus content! We played lots of drinking games with our camp plus a girl called pru from another trek group. Then I dug a big dip in teh sand to sleep in (shelter from teh wind) we stayed their till 4am and the wind picked up it got a bit cold so we all walked back to camp (I slept coated in sand) Woke up in teh morning and had breakfast with sand on my face.

Trek America

Hey guys, I know I posted a blog before about me in new orleans, ok so to start off from fresh.

After staying at the chelsea star hotel for 2 nights with debbie, we set off on our adventure, first stop Washington DC, the road trip went well I shotgunned front seat which was a good call on my behalf. When we arrived it was about 4pm so we pitched our tents and then started to cook dinner, me debbie and a lad called drew were on dinner duty that night so we prepared fajita's and burritos for the rest of the group.

Later on in teh night we had an illumination tour of all the monuments in DC, its so romantic and it was sooooo nice to spend it with debbie, we talked and caught up on stuff that happened at camp.

The capitol (above)

Abrahams monument Washington MonumentTheodore Roosovelt memorial

Mr Lincoln Himself

I got lots more to post guys but very little time to do it, hope im keeping you informed well. Take care guys and keep me posted with the latest.

P.S predicted hurricane rolling in to New Orleans on tuesday, hopefully we will be in Orlando, FL by that time.

New Orleans (Burbon st)

Ok the stuff posted at teh bottom was added a while ago, here is my journal.
So... We arrived at our hotel in teh french quarter of new orleans, it was pretty amazing, we basically had a huge house for our trek group.
The first night we went out for a mealHad a ghost tour and then down Burbon Street! I ended up getting really drunk, I had this cocktail that is supposidly the strongest one you can get, its called a hand grenade! it was such a fun night, Both the girls and us Lads ended up doing a kareoke at a bar called Cats Meour.
The next day we were all gonna go and do some voluntary work to help the people recover from katrina, but it got called off so we shopped in New Orleans, then later on in the afternoon we all went for a hurricane Katrina tour of teh worst affected areas! Below is a picture of the superdome which is where all teh people seeked refuge during the hurricane.

This is in teh Ghetto's it was deserted, it kinda made you feel like you wanted to help for just a day by demolishing things and ripping them down, things like servo's were toppled over on their side, A whole SERVO!!!! its crazy! another wierd thing about the city is that everyone drives sweet rides, this is because their car insurance covered them for the hurricane but their home insurance only covered hurricanes and not floods which is what did the most damage to the houses!
On a lighter note, here are some of teh more beautiful areas of new orleans that I visited!
This is a crazy pirate robot I saw in a shop, its jaw was jittering and it was just so funny!
Jazz, thats what New Orleans is all about aparently, I didnt experience much jazz, mainly because I dont like it so I got a photo of these 3 guys.

(during trek)
Hey y'all.

Im in New Orleans now, got lots to tell ya when I get more time to blog and upload pictures, the last few days have been mighty fine!!!

James btw I went to the Jack Daniels distillery if you didnt notice by the email I sent you, I picked up a little something special for ya aswell!

Gonna try to upload pictures to my USB memory stick now so will catch y'all later on, maybe tomorrow because tonight were off out for a meal then for a ghost tour.

quote of the day "duchebag"

Keep me posted