U.S.A Trip 2017

August - September 2017
A 35-day adventure by Aaron Read more
  • 14footprints
  • 2countries
  • 35days
  • 7photos
  • 0videos
  • 29.5kkilometers
  • 25.6kkilometers
  • Day 24

    Tanger

    August 29, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 22 °C

    After pulling up into the Tanger Outdoor Mall (I'm going to refer to it as T.O.M) we checked if it was ok to sleep there for the night, it was... just about... In the morning we decided to check out the mall a bit. I stayed in the camper turning the beds back into couches until dad came and collected me. It was a cool mall, all outdoors except the actual shops themselves, they were indoors, it had charging stations, store wide wifi and benches. The stores I went to were, Auntie Anne's (pretzels), Lindt Chocolate, As Seen On TV, Sketchers, Toys'R'Us Express, Book Warehouse (I got a new book) and many more... I'm not too sure about what else to write about T.O.M. This is one of my shortest blogs purely because it's just a mall. Well, we've hit the road again and are headed to Louisville. See you after 30 Lindt Truffles! (So good!)Read more

  • Day 27

    In and out of Nashville

    September 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    How do I start these things?

    The first thing we did before heading into Nashville was the Corvette museum. I picked out my favorite car, the stingray. It has a cool symbol and design, I'm not sure how to describe it... the best thing there had to be the sinkhole. There is this dome building that had a sinkhole appear beneath it, it was huge! They fixed it of course but they did leave outlines of the cave and hole. 8 cars got crushed, including the 1,000,000th Corvette! I picked up a new shirt and a box of car cookies (they tasted awful).

    After that we went to this train museum. It wasn't much TBH. The only real thing there was a big train out the back with running tours. In the tour we got shown the engine first, just an engine with huge engines that took up the space of the engine. The next car was the mail car, we got shown how they would've hooked in the mail from the smaller towns, all while moving at 85 mph. Next, seating with fold down beds, cool. Followed by dining and kitchen. 9 meals a day, 3 Breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 dinners (it could only occupy 48 at a time). First class was next with bunk beds, we learned about the cars' history, the owner didn't want to sell them, so he leased them. There were workers onboard... I can't remember all their names... there was George, George... umm... George, etc.... they were all called George. For simplicity? Then we got to the president of the railroad's car. It was flash in comparison to all the other cars! Not so flash nowadays though.

    Then we went into Nashville. Ever heard of rain? No? Nashville is your answer. We caught the remains of Harvey and so some of our plans got... left out in the rain. We were going to see a baseball game... turns out baseball tickets don't allow us to watch swimming. 'And it's out of the park! Home Swim!' We went to a big mall with an aquarium eatery next to a macaroni and cheese place, we ate at 'Johnny Rockets' (burgers) though... We got a car and had a look in town, that's when the downpour REALLY started. It was raining, not hard though, when we decided to look in this store called 'Cotton Eye Joe', dad couldn't find a park so he dropped us off and we looked inside. Not that good of a store. When we left, IT WAS POURING. We couldn't find dad for several minutes. When we finally did find him, we booked it to the car. About 10-15 seconds in the rain... soaked. When we got back to the RV, we heard tornado warnings from the next town over. Well that was horrifying. In the two nights we spent in Nashville, we mostly rested. Nice rest though.

    Been on the road for ages. Tomorrow brings 5 more hours of travel to Birmingham.
    Till then!
    -Aaron
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  • Day 34

    New Orleans, Houston, Auckland and Home.

    September 8, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    In New Orleans we took a bus, followed by a train into town, then took a ferry down the Mississippi and had a look in town, the cathedral was closed so we went back tomorrow for it. It was so quiet and cool in there, did you know that the 200 year old church has lightbulb chandeliers? Then we went down Bourbon Street, it was hot and smelled like smoke... cigarette smoke... We stopped at Hard Rock Cafe, for the first time in ages, for dinner, I had to share ribs with dad. At first, I was disappointed I had to have ribs seeing as there was macaroni and cheese on the menu... I found a new love for ribs though! When we finally made i out of the alleyways, I was NOT upset. We took a train, then a bus, and got back to the RV. Day 2 wasn't that bad, we didn't do too much though, we stocked up on supplies for the last time, saw the cathedral, had Popeyes (I didn't like it, KFC is better), and went on the oldest functioning street car ride around the garden district. Come day 3, we got up early for the alligator swamp tours. It was great! We saw two alligators right off the bat, wild boars and raccoons, beautiful scenery and a small fishing village. We saw the alligators being fed marshmallows, why? Because alligators will eat things that are small, white and float on the water... like turtle eggs and marshmallows. It was fun, and only Jared got eaten! (He didn't... duh)

    We headed into Houston for the second time, driving past all the flooding damage from hurricane Harvey. We dropped the RV back off at Tom and Jean's place, rested for a while, appreciated the size of an actual house in comparison to the RV... good times. When we needed to go, we went in Tom's truck to the airport. Once we got all our bags out, we said goodbye to Tom and checked in. After waiting for boarding, we -well- boarded and saw that the plane was the same as the one we arrived on. I managed to sleep twice for 30-60 minutes, watch The Incredibles, Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Long Haul and the Lego Batman Movie. The best parts of the plane rides are takeoff and landing, takeoff blasts you against your seat whilst landing gives you a bumpy ride (which I like for some reason...). We transferred from one plane to the next at Auckland, glad to be in NZ all the way no matter how hard the rain, and flew home. When we landed in Tauranga, we saw Aunty Kay waiting for us at the end of the departure gateway. She helped us take our 10 bags home as we retold our adventures.
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  • Day 35

    The Trip.

    September 9, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Overall, this trip was really fun. We had some good times and some bad... mostly good though! Being in one motel room for 3-4 weeks would drive anyone insane. If I were to do it again, I would take a car/truck/definitelyatruck and use hotels instead. I have the experience now though so... that's something. I've done some long travels now that I think about it. A 14 and a 15 hour trip, and long stretches of catching up. I haven't slept much either. 1 or 2 days of minimal sleep. I feel semi energetic. Ever been tired but awake? When you do something and think 'how did I have the energy for that?' That's me... it's a riot, I know. It was fun in America and all, free refills, lenient parents due to low prices, wake up whenever we want... but... being back in NZ just feels right. It's nice to be at home. A place where we know we don't have to uproot soon, have our own beds, don't have to watch for a drip every time we want to go inside. It's not Canada cold here, nor is it USA hot. Best part about home? Perfect temperature. I don't want to unpack. Pushing these buttons to write feels like a partial chore.Read more