Jarvo's Blog

Cowboys, Casinos, Christmas and Canyons

paul.j@rviz.bz (Jarvo) — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 18:17:24 GMT

Thursday 7/12/05 5.00pm
FINALLY !!!!! The van was ready yesterday, my one week to deliver and fit the engine turned into two and a half weeks with all the additional cost etc that with the extra time I calculated that it would have been cheaper to fly back to England for two weeks, but obviously the “oh just another day or so” routine kept me firmly ensconced in my motel. The drive yesterday was easily the worst so far, I left Texarkana at 9.00 am to travel 430’ish miles to San Antonio, there had been a storm front forecast moving down and across from the northwest and I hoped to be across to Dallas (200 miles) and dropping down south before it hit, NO SUCH LUCK ! as I reached Dallas the wind and freezing rain began now not only did this slow the traffic but, and here’s the really good bit, because the temperature dropped rapidly and I have a very big area of glass for a wind screen the water just froze even with the heater on (as you can imagine as the van is big the hot air expelled just dissipates into the ether) so on the motorway with my wipers now solid lumps of ice just skimming over the frosted surface and me praying for a service area doing that whole looking through the bottom 3 inches of my windscreen, saw a turning and just pulled off then into a luckily positioned lay-by I got out and scraped it off with a credit card, hands numb from the cold got back in and started off again 3 miles or so later dropped into a service area and bought a proper scraper. Now I guess I should just have parked up and waited but I was by now heading south and believed that I would drive out of it, NO SUCH LUCK ! This appalling weather continued right down to San Antonio and missing my exit due to it being in an area of road works and consequently poorly signposted ended up have to join the 410 loop rd (this was like the north circular on a very bad day with the Atlanta esc filtering roads situation) further more it was now 5.00pm and getting dark, but at least the rain had stopped. So after an hour or so I reached my junction, heading away from town on I-10, 15 minutes later turned of to Highway 46 then it began again the temperature dropped and the rain started the old screen started to frost over ,the problem was I was now on a single carriageway road in the dark and as more ice formed the glair from the occasional oncoming cars made it all most impossible to see, add to this the fact that the road did not lend itself to pulling over and was twisting I began to get really worried and as I had reduced my speed to about 30mph there was also a dozen or so cars behind me which only added to the tension, I kept telling myself to concentrate and not panic but every time I approached another bend I thought “ok there’s bound to be a lay bye or garage or something soon” and when there wasn’t this only served to increase my worry and tension, anyway mercifully after about 15mins, which seemed like forever a junction with a lay bye presented itself and I hurriedly pulled over as I came to rest and took my hands off the wheel and I was actually shaking with the whole scared tension thing and I can honestly say I cant remember being more scared, it was now 7.00pm. I started my genny, sat for an hour and had a sandwich and a cup of tea then venturing outside I noticed that the temperature had risen and the ice was now melting, I then realised I was only 15 miles from my destination and the rain had stopped, so I quickly re-stowed my cups, plates etc and headed back out arriving at my destination at 8.30 eleven and a half hours on the road, had another cup of tea and went straight to bed.

I woke this morning and thought about last night and frightened myself all over again with the thought running through my head “you complete twat, how bloody dangerous and stupid was that !” And have decided NEVER to get in that situation again I’ll just pull over and wait it out. On the positive side the engine ran very well oh and bye the way it was $5688.50 but hey sh_t happens. :o)

It’s been just above freezing here today and the locals hate it as its very unusual for it to be below 20 here its just a freak system that blew down from Canada but it should get back to normal by tomorrow evening. Got up and went out for my morning exercise down to lake Medina which looked wonderfully wild and rugged, the thing that struck me the most on my first site of this place is that its teeming with deer and you can go to within a few feet of them even the fairly big males , I have always liked watching this type of animal as when you approach them there movements are always so definite, they hear your feet and look up in a very sort of positive smooth way the movement then stops with out any juddering which makes them look as though they have an almost regal poise. This also makes them a little horny, another one for the boys!!!! Have spent most of the day getting everything back shipshape and had a good old clean through, I must say I love being back in the van its just so cool having a sort of micro house, I’m picking up a car tomorrow as Enterprise have a 50% off deal for a long weekend which means I get a car for 4 days at about £12.00 a day which is great, need to do some food shopping etc then plan to do the Alamo on Saturday and have a bit of a wonder around and will see what’s on offer on Sunday.

Saturday 10/12/05 6.30pm
Have just returned from a day out in San Antonio and I’ve got to say it was excellent, I arrived at about 10.30 parked the car and headed for the Alamo, as I approached the old mission it was a little surreal to see this very old building surrounded by all the trappings of a modern city, but once in the grounds I was taken by the history of the place, most of us (well mainly the blokes) as boys watched the film starring John Wanye amongst others but it was always just a film no matter how many times the sentence “A true story” appears. But this was really brilliant actually being there and imagining the whole battle and the odds they faced I was surprised to learn that amongst the 204 men who fought and died were 12 English, 8 Irish, 3 Scots, 1 Welsh, 2 Germans and 1 Dane (but obviously he wasn’t great!) When you go inside and have “the tour” you look at the walls and where they aligned with windows you can still see the holes where the musket balls hit, sadly the taking of photographs inside was prohibited which I didn’t really understand, but I guess there must be a good reason, and going to the gift shop there were no pictures in the form of post cards either (this is something that my cynically commercial mind always looks for in similar situations) but now writing this I’ve had the thought that perhaps its seen as a sort of burial site as some of the countries most famous sons died there. Anyway after a couple of hours I made my way down to Riverside walk this is in the centre of San Antonio and consists of a canal like water system the whole ambiance of the place was great your walking along the tow paths with lots of little craft stalls and cafes with people sitting at tables doing the whole social eating thing that I love so much especially as it was sunny (about 75 oopps ! sorry cold England) there were artists displaying their work and saw a really cool print at one of the studios so I’ve taken the guys card and might get him to ship it back to England for me but we’ll see, it reminded me very much of when I lived in Camden north London a really happening, bustling, cosmopolitan feel and of course there were plenty of soul food vendors so couldn’t help having a tray of noodles, bean sprouts and tofu I guess it’s just the hippie in me! In conclusion I would be happy to visit here again and spend a little more time, we’ll see.

Sunday 11/12/05
Drove out to Bandera a small town just west of San Antonio which is reputed to be the cowboy capital of Texas the main street was full of stores selling all the things a cowboy would need, ropes, saddles, boots, and many places to buy various Indian relics and memorabilia had a good few hours just wandering into places and browsing around which I really enjoyed, I was obviously compelled to go into one of the cowboy stores to buy the old hat and cowboy shit, a rather natty ensemble if I do say so myself. On the edge of town was an old Canteena so decided to pop in for a spot of lunch it sold a mixture of food but mainly Texmex order myself a plate of Fajitas and after a little while was presented with 1 plate containing the floured rounded beauties 1 plate containing beans, rice and a guacamole salad and a sort of hot plate with a mountain of sizzling slivers of beef, chicken, onions and green peppers they also brought a little round bowl containing reddish concoction and a tea spoon, so put a little on the edge of a fajitas and BANG! My mouth exploded with heat, eyes watering, nose running, tongue burning ah that’ll be the hot sauce then! I sat in wonder as I watched cowboys liberally apply the inferno sauce to all they consumed, with puny mouthed me having to let my tongue linger for a while in my ice cold beer before resuming my meal, minus hot sauces. One of the neatest things about this place was the bar for instead of the usual line of barstools there were poles with saddles perched on top and as cowboys entered they straddled the saddles and happily sat having a beer and chatting. Another good day.

Monday 12/12/05
Well, as i was now in the possession of my cowboy hat and shirt I really needed to get myself on a horse so made my way to the Twin Elm dude ranch for a days trail riding. As I’d never been on a horse before I don’t mind saying I was rather excited and as I approached the entrance one of those involuntary smiles appeared on my face. After signing the waver and paying my $50 I walked up to the corral to meet Mike my wrangle (that’s what they call real cowboys round here) as I approached he was saddling up my horse “Midnight” who, as her name suggested was black with a small flash of white on her face. We exchanged warm greetings and I was then mounted, I felt a little silly as Mike walked to the side of the corral and fetched an old chair to aid the “mounting” process, I bet John Wayne didn’t need a bloody chair I thought to myself, next on the agenda was “how to control your beast” this was in fact a lot simpler than I had expected, hold the reins in your right hand resting just in front of the pummel, pull back to your ribs to made her stop, once stopped release the tension or the horse would start to backup, move hand to right or left to turn and a mouthed clicking noise and a gentle dig with heals to the ribs to go forward , yes I think I’ve got all that.

Once off on the trail began chatting to Mike about many things, he had been working on the ranch for about 4 months and owned a small holding outside Fort Worth that his daughter and her husband now ran, he was 52 and had been a wrangler all his life the horse he rode was a 4 yr old that he had bread himself and had been on many cattle drives some of which were 1600 miles taking 6 months to complete in fact he had rode his horse down from Fort worth some 375 miles “well” he said “we take our time and when we’ve had enough for a day I just stop and make a camp” he was as you would expect knowledgeable on all things western, so if any one out there needs to know the breeding thing, here’s what mike had to say “well, when she comes on heat she wont stand for him, then on about the 3rd day she’ll be ok with it, then mate her every other day till she wont stand for him again” Hmm.. thanks Mike.

During our “ride out” we saw many deer, cattle and armadillos scurrying around like little old men. The whole riding experience was fun as we were riding western style “apparently” which is more laid back than the traditional up tight method, crossing rivers a bit hairy at times but if you remembered to “ride the saddle not the horse” as Mike said, you were just fine , leaning forward going up sharp gradients (this was usually done at a bit of pace causing me to hold on for dear bloody life!) and leaning back going down gradients as a horse carries 75% of its weight on its front legs. We passed a few deer hides with corn drums some 50 or so metres away (corn drums are about the size of an oil drum which on demand releases corn, deer then come to feed on the corn and the “hunters” then shoot the dear) Mike and I agreed that this wasn’t really hunting at all and such things shouldn’t be aloud.

We arrived back at the corral and I dismounted (without chair, thank you very much !) a few warm words and thankyou’s and I was gone. Mike had been a great companion on the day he was one of those people who just seemed totally content with his lot, the way he lived. I have met people such as Mike before and they all seem to carry a sort of quiet strength, a solidness that is so scarce in many modern people who are bound by the insecurity of modern living.

Wednesday 14/12/05
I’m leaving tomorrow and heading up to Carlsbad Cavers which should be cool just been doing all personal admin laundry, cleaning etc have met a couple Ron and Sherrie who are from Washington state very nice people indeed so have exchanged details and have been invited to pop in for a while when I get up there (sometime 2007!)

Thursday 15/12/05
Well my little babies have just arrived in White City, New Mexico on the edge of the Carlsbad National Park home to the world famous Carlsbad Caverns which I’m going to visit tomorrow, the main reason for this entry is to convey the drive up from Texas. But must first record how well the girl (van) ran today, very pleasing. So driving along I-10 when I notice in the distance these funny spinning objects, as I drove further down the interstate a ridge rose up probably 100ft high and about ½ mile away to my right , perched on top of this ridge were hundreds of massive wind turbines white and gleaming as they turned, considering I had spent the previous 2 hours driving through fairly nondescript Texas tundra it was completely strange, what’s more the ridge and the turbines proceeded to track the path of the interstate for the next 30 miles hundreds upon hundreds of them(I realize that in truth the road probably tracked the ridge, but I’d started out taking the road as my first point of context so had to continue) I’ve probably mentioned this before but I love big stuff and am constantly amazed at the feats of engineering that man has achieved in a relatively short space of time, anyway I had mused to myself some while ago that I’d not been on any of those roads you see in the movies, you know the one’s that seem to go on forever, well, turning north off I-10 onto Highway 285 towards Carlsbad I found one, driving along this road which was straight and flat with no roadside buildings, towns, garages etc just rough flat terrain as far as the eye could see with only the occasional motorist to share it with, I continued on this straight, flat course for nearly 100 miles! The only sign of humanity were the numerous nodding oil donkeys that inhabit this part of Texas/New Mexico. The parody between the old and new struck me, the sad old donkeys churning out the non replenishable black sludge that we have come to rely upon so heavily and the new bright shinning contraptions that seemed futuristic, clean and modern, if anyone needed convincing of the wisdom in advancing replenishable technology it sort of stairs you in the face, inescapable, oil WILL run out, some conservative estimates say that in only 80yrs we’ll be taking the last of it, what then? Ok I’ll stop now as I don’t want to use this as a personal forum even though by definition I suppose it is (pulls inquisitive face). As for White City if one were to look at the dictionary under “one horse town” I’m sure you’d find “see White City” its one street about 500m long with a grocery, motel, campsite, gift shop, million dollar museum(apparently containing such items as the two headed rattle snake, so I’ll take a look tomorrow after the caverns) all of which are run by the same company and that’s about it apart from one restaurant(closed down) and a Shell garage .Well I think that’s really all for today, goodbye x.

Friday 16/12/05
The day started quite comically as I had ordered a taxi to pick me up at 9.30 for the 8 mile drive up to the Caverns and as 10.00am arrived I phoned the taxi office to enquire the whereabouts of my ride “hello it’s Paul Jarvis here I ordered a taxi and it hasn’t arrived yet (now I was a bit annoyed but I’m not a rude complainer) “oh yes Mr Jarvis he’s just leaving now” came the reply “but I ordered it for 9.30!” I said “yes that’s right and he’ll be with you in about half an hour” and as I said “but that will be…..” I looked at the clock in the entrance lobby (which was my agreed pick up point) it read 9.00am, I then realised that I had crossed another time zone, as I sheepishly apologised the lady said “that’s quite understandable Mr Jarvis” her tone was very reminiscent of Sible from Fawlty Towers, stupid bloody tourist!

The cab ride although short took us through some really craggy scenery which was proper western geography.

Carlsbad Caverns? Completely amazing! So I arrive and go into the visitor centre pay my $9.00 ($6 for entrance and $3 for an electronic guide, it looks like a phone and along the way there are numbers, you simply punch the number in and you get chat on that location) then take the short walk to the entrance and am confronted by a huge opening below me, they’ve created an amphitheatre in part of this opening as during the summer the caverns are home to roughly 200,000 (yes, that’s two hundred thousand!) Mexican Freetailed Bats who exit on mass at dusk each day to go off feeding on the desert insects, this exodus takes about ¾ of an hour due to their sheer numbers. I immediately decided to come back here before I die to see it. Going down the meandering path that is a mile long and drops 750ft your struck by the sheer size and beauty of these caves, the Big room for example is 6 rugby pitches long and 225ft high at its tallest point, the decoration (a term used by the guide to describe the formations) are outstanding, if you take the whole route, which of course I did, you walk two and a half miles underground weaving through stone arches that open out to more huge rooms, sadly the dimly lit caverns mean your camera flash is totally ineffective so no images of any worth were recorded, but even if they were they simply wouldn’t do the place justice. Remember the Tuckaleechee caverns under the smoky mounts I visited well if Carlsbad were Big Ben then Tuckaleechee was one of those black plastic digital watches you bought from a petrol station in the 70’s, simply no comparison. Up and off again tomorrow, dropping down to Arizona and re-joining I-10 to take me closer to Vegas so they’ll be no entry for a few days ,just driving.

Monday 19/12/05
Well “no entry for a few days?” Not so, driving down to my first overnight stop before pushing on up to Vegas dropped down into El Paso on the US/Mexican border pulled of the road to do a spot of map reading then went to start the old van and… nothing , not a drop of life in the old girl, fortunately I was in the middle of town so called the insurance people who got me towed to a little garage run by a Mexican family the owner Mike Lopez had driven from his home to open up the yard, and speaking to him realised that they would not be able to look at it until Monday at the earliest which would mean my chances of being in Vegas for the 22nd were remote as it is about a 1000 mile drive. Hmm…

So have decided to leave the van in Mikes capable hands until the 11th Jan and fly up as I will have somewhere to stay with Troy and Deedee over Xmas and then on the 28th my brother arrives for a visit for a couple of weeks. Funny thing is I worked out the cost of flying plus my 4 nights in a motel and 3 days car hire here and its cheaper than if I drove! It’s odd how stuff turns out as the drive into El Paso was really lovely driving up and over the Guadeloupe mountains wild and rugged and there was a part of me that wished I could have planned to stay for a few days, and now, I am! El Paso itself is quite a big town and from my 3rd floor motel room (which has a balcony) I look out to the south and my view is wonderful the town is mostly single story white Spanish (ok Mexican) type dwellings so I look out over this sea of small houses and perhaps 2 miles or so as the dwellings end mountains rise up in a huge foreboding wall of rock, it reminded me of pictures of Rio and the stark and close contrast between civilization and nature. My vantage point also gives the opportunity of witnessing some beautiful sunsets and rises, at dusk the street lights burn bright into the distance a blanket of single closely knit specs, they’re my very own personal Christmas lights. The towns proximity to Mexico means that the population contains many Hispanics and pretty much everyone including standard white Americans speak fluent Spanish (or the Mexican derivative) Tomorrow I’m off for a tour around so that should be fun!

Wednesday 21/12/05
Well what of yesterdays tour, I was picked up at 9.00am by………(a bit about him) we met in the lobby of the hotel exchanged greetings and I was then lead to the “tuor2 bus, which in fact turned out to be a 5 seater people carrier , as ……….explained I was the only person to book a tour so he had brought his personal vehicle. Our first destination for the day was Juarez a town of about 2 million people 4 miles or so across the Mexican border, I realised straight away that I was in for an interesting day, as we pulled away I struck up an opening conversation “so how long have you been doing this?” Armondo immediately turned and said straight faced “it’s my first day” as his cincerety turned into an impish smile, I laughed out loud and relaxed; driving across the border amondo said “if you look to your right you’ll see the Rio Denatha (nothing) “the Rio danatha?” I enquired “Yes my friend, it was the Rio Grande but all the waters gone” and sure enough the water had gone. I had earlier looked at my map and had noted that the Rio Grande did in fact form the border between Mexico and the US, driving through Juarez I noticed the change in feel from El Paso, Juarez was indeed the poor border cousin, the cars were in the main very much older and driven in a completely mad fashion with no regard to law or safety, the whole place just felt impoverished, young and old standing out on the street with no jobs no, no money and little hope, Amondo explained that over the last 10 years over 20 American owned factories had closed (there operations moved to China), he explained that even at there height the Mexican workers were still only paid $35.00 (£20.00) a day. Even though I was not an American I felt a little sad and embarrassed. Our first proper stop was in a large roughly kept indoor market, at its edge were roadside café, and as we approached waiters from these cafes strode out into the road trying to encouraged Amondo to pull over in front of there particular café, the area reminded me of all those spy films when an sectet agent meets his contact in a bustling market setting somewhere in south America! Once I had finished my coffer went inside to the market it was full of stalls selling mainly craft items, and as I walked along many vendors ventured out with a” morning what can get for you today” sort of line, which whilst understandable after a while became very anying “will you just let me browse in peace!!!” Next stop a bull ring in the centre of the city, Almondo mentioned that he no longer organised tours to see the bull fights as they had become unpopular with the travellers he serves, also admitting that he thought it was wrong and cruel.

Friday 22/12/05
Arrived in Vegas and jumped in a cab gave the driver Troiy & Deedee’s address only to be told by my Cuban cabie that he couldn’t find it on his map “silverheart Ave is not on my map” “are you sure” I replied “oh yes” he said, “ok do you mind if I look” “ok,but its not there “ so looked on the index and sure enough it wasn’t under silver heart Ave ,but, it was under silverheart (all one word) “oh,oh um ok then” he said trying to appear completely at easy with his mistake.

Arrived at the home of Troy, Deedee, Tiffany & Garrett Tarply, well what can I say, you know in life you sometimes meet people and you immediately know that you have some sort of thing that makes you almost immediately good friends, well that’s what I felt meeting Troy and Deedee for the first time, and over the last few weeks that has been cemented, they are completely wonderful Dee dee has managed to strike a perfect balance between motherhood and retaining a senesce of youthful adventure, she’s a homemaking party girl ! Troy is a little quieter, steady and has much kindness in his heart (plus a really well stocked bar!) as a demonstration of that I arrived at 5.30pm and by 10.30pm I was drunk and in a hot tub

(bet ur jealous bobby) Also at home (see, I can call it that cause that’s how it feels) was Andy & Joyce,Deedee’s parents and her aunt Peggy.

Sunday 24/12/05
After a day settling in it was xmas eve and Troy and Andy suggested we spent the afternoon at a firing range, “what fun” I thought to myself. Troy and Andy both have gun licences and own hand guns as it is an Americans constitutional right to bare arms! As an aside under the law they are both at liberty to shoot anyone who enters there house unlawfully, which I personally think is great, as so many societies around the globe have gone soft on the basic human right to defend and protect what is yours, if they don’t want to get shot then keep out of other peoples bloody houses! It’s simple. So off we went to the range which also has a gun store attached, on entering I was amazed that on display on the rear wall was everything from a machine pistol to an AK47 and glass counters with hundreds upon hundreds of hand guns, anyway into the range for a little shoot up , luckily I had some, if distant experience of hand guns, firing Browning 9mm pistols in the army. I immediately took on the persona of Paul Paul Jarvis “Secret agent” 006 and 7/8ths imagining my erstwhile target to be some master criminal assassin,

and my mission, not impossible, to save the world from a deadly virus created and controlled by Sirius the albino love child of the head of the KGB and a hippie florist, now working in a small shop just outside Accrington Stanley. Some 45 minutes later my work was done with the albino safely incarcerated in a high security cell somewhere in eastern Europe (obviously the sequel will start with him being sprung by Chernobyl mutant terrorists!) then relaxing in the arms of Crystal Chandelier the IT girl of the secret service. Hmm.. Stop now before you get completely carried away. The rest of xmas eve was spent having a few drinks and enjoying the delights of family life at home.

Xmas day
Arose to find a stocking had been delicately placed by my bed,thank you Santa! The ritual of present opening, with tearing of paper and gleeful looks that are the stuff of the festive period ensued, and sure enough there were a few little bundles of joy for this solitary traveller, yet another indicator of the quality and kindness of my new friends. When the tearing and excitement had subsided it was off to the mountains, Vegas is set in a sort of bowl surrounded almost entirely by mountains, so off we went and after 45minutes and a climb of around 8500ft arrived at a lodge the views of the mountains were lovely,

then on up for a quick look at the ski and snow centre the slopes of which had received a fresh sprinkle of man made white stuff. It struck me that living here was a dream you could in fact drive 30mins and swim, water ski, sail etc then with another 45mins drive you could be whooshing down the slops on your snow board, brilliant!

Returning home by around 3.30 we settled down to watch a movie and at 5.30 time for dinner, a lovely spread of all the traditional fare masterfully created by Dee with the added bonus of home made Pumpkin and Peacan pies, the quality of which should have led to a front page tabloid headline reading “PUMKIN & PECAN, A TRIUMPH!”

New years eve was spent at a local watering hole with Sharn, Dan, Mike, Andy(mike’s wife) Troy and Dee,a top night with beer, shots and dancing with the one amusing moment when young Dave a Marine corps boy asked if I’d do a shot of Tequila with him (he was on a bit of a mission) so I explained that that particular tipple only spent a few moments inside me before reappearing, anyway as the words were coming out of my mouth I thought f-ck it I’m having some, consequently spending a few choice moments in the car park saying “hello again” to the mixture, luckily though through rugby, the army etc I don’t have a problem with throwing up then getting straight back on it, its almost Roman!

Well my lovelies what of “The Strip”, it’s completely mad, the hotels are massive and each is individually themed Causers palace built in the likeness of Rome with the nightly shows presented in a building replicating the coliseum, Paris with a ½ scale Eiffel tower , Excalibur capped by towers and turrets in a medieval collage and New York where the real New York sky line has been recreated with the addition of a roller coaster

which I rode three times, there is also a roller coaster that actually travels inside a casino. Treasure Island has a free show twice nightly where 2 full size pirate ships play out a little story the highlight of this particular show was one of the two crews were all very fit and scantily clad women(one for the boys!), but buy far my favourite was the Bellargio with huge water fountains that rise and fall in a watery ballet accompanied by music piped though speakers encased within the light standards on the sidewalk, there is of course the odd Vegas standard Elvis booms “A little more conversation a little less action etc” which has a fun all of its own, and I’m sure many a young lady has said a teary eyed “yes” to a proposal within the sight and sound of this beautiful creation, and I for one could happily stay outside all night to watch in wonder, at night the strip really comes alive with running sparkling lights overpowering anything else that’s going on, also each theme continues inside with small villages representing the theme with individual restaurants, bars, comedy clubs etc all of which are designed to keep visitor inside, because make no mistake this town is all about gambling! Everywhere you go there are machines even off the strip, I went into a supermarket to buy some water and in a small area in one corner was a dozen or so slot machines, I went to buy petrol, and, as I entered the shop to pay, yep you guessed it more slot machines, and the really strange thing is that there were always people playing them, a few times I got back to the hotel at 5 or 6 in the morning and people I’d seen when leaving about 8pm the night before were still there!. All in all my time in vegans was great from the warmth of Troy and Dee to the lights and wild nights of the strip, definitely a place to revisit with either a loved one or the lads!

Wednesday 4/01/06
Drove east to visit the Hoover Dam

now strangely its size was not the most impressive thing about it, more over the date and construction detail confirmed during the guided tour and subsequent film show , how navies and engineers all converged on this one desert spot and created such an enormous structure would have been something by today’s standards but when you consider that it was constructed in the 30’s without the modern comforts of air conditioned workers cabins etc (in the summer the temp reaches over 100 degrees for much of the time) its incomprehensible and reminds me of how soft we’ve become as a species . The turbines that provide power to 3 states are huge and again it’s a feat of engineering that they turn at all considering that each weighs about 150 tonnes!

Leaving the Dam behind drove further east to the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon it’s like another world or anything you’re prepared for and although I have a personal worry that one day technology perhaps in the form of some super advanced high definition TV will encourage us never to leave home again! You will never truly “get” the place, carved through millions of years of erosion out of the Arizona desert, had to jump on the tourist thing and watch the sun rise and set in turn across this mountainous range spanning as far as the eye could see, with simple words of description feeling completely inadequate to describe this place, and its title of one of the 7 wonders of the world is certainly justified. So to get a proper feel for it took a helicopter ride out for an hour and flying over the peaks that are contained within suddenly realised that some of then had not felt the tread of a human being for thousands of years due to their inaccessibility and more recent (the last 100 or so years) restrictions on access imposed by the government, it is simply a “must see” I’ll say no more on the subject and let the pictures say the rest!

More Vegas shots...

"Truly Autumn"

paul.j@rviz.bz (Jarvo) — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 18:15:22 GMT

Sunday 30/10/05
Have arrived at Maggie Valley in the hart of the Great Smoky Mountains where I shall stay for a few days, time to eat and sleep...

Monday 31/10/05
Well, I’ve just reviewed Sundays entry and although I did spend most of the day driving I shall drop it into the box marked “shouldn’t have bothered!” anyway moving on, have been chatting to the people who own this site, and in conversation it came up that they have been trying to find a local youth to spend a day or so helping out, a bit of strimming and general lifting type stuff around the place in preparation for the winter, as they are both getting on a bit, so I suggested that I did it (Ok I’m a little bit past the title of youth but I can still graft when I need to) and rather than pay me (something banned under the terms of my visa and a deportable offence) they offered to lend me a car for a couple of days, excellent! Bartering alive and well in North Carolina! Spent the rest of the day getting settled in.

Tuesday 1/11/05
A bit of strimming and general lifting type stuff!

Wednesday 2/11/05
A bit more strimming and general lifting type stuff!

Thursday 3/11/05
A bit of strim… Only joking! Decided to go up into the mountains for a couple of days and spend a night under the stars as the weather forecast is good and have also borrowed a little two man bivvy (that’s a tent) from the oldies. Hopefully won’t get eaten by bears.

Friday 4/11/05 (evening)
Now then, I’ve struggled a bit to think of how to put this down not ending up with the classic primary school essay on “what i did on my holiday” which goes; I went to the... and then I went to the…. and then I went to the…. And so on and so forth, so I have written a simple narrative which I hope covers it!

“THE DESCRIPTIVE BIT!”
Driving through mountain roads that climb and camber with edges that seem to drop away to infinity, then down to the valleys that twist and turn, bent to a rivers will, escarpments of hard granite forming overbearing faces of men who have lived many life times, where small deciduous plants cling as if for their very existence, the mountain sides covered with thousands upon thousands of trees their canopy’s bound together like broccoli tops in close order, with a hundred shades of green, gold and rust bursting forth announcing the onset of winter and the bright autumn sun setting them ablaze. Then, stopping to rest and setting a small camp fire, watching that bright autumnal sun set over a view not changed for so long to the symphony of crackling firewood sounding clear and clean in the stillness and peace of the evening, and laying back at darks fall, gazing up to black, diamond studded skies with the “whys?” and “what ifs” of a single mortal existence cast into mediocrity, as slumber, takes us.

Waking, to discover a world” newly born” thin smoke from the rekindled fire catches the nostrils and ground laid wet with dew dampens the feet, a walk to the stream, and, with a splash of icy mountain water to the face, time to begin another day...

Moving on up and up, ears popping, towards the mountains highest point with the last mile and a half taken on foot, the sides of this peak giving evidence of the twisters that form and dissipate during the high season with patches of forest laid to waste, trunks almost bear as telegraph poles with just the hint of their former glory in the guise of stubbled bows, then to the summit and pausing to view this magnificent sight, it is as if the whole world sat at your feet mile upon mile of forest clad peaks stretching away beyond human sight and comprehension.

Off again driving north to the Tuckaleechee Caverns once arrived being led down and down into the belly of the mountains and viewing with wonder these unreal structures beneath the earth, caves as big as two rugby pitches and half as high, glorious underground waterfalls and streams where the water is so clear and cool it is a crime not to stop and take a drink, oddly shaped crystal formations, that, in places appear to have been carved to represent a familiar face or well known object, these pointed out by our guide. Two hours later we emerge to another bright setting autumn sun and thoughts of heading back to camp a hot shower and steak fill the mind accompanied by the knowledge that sleep tonight will be sound and sure...

There hope that covered it

One thing I found a bit strange, was that part of the Smokies is a Cherokee Indian reservation, now over the past few years negotiations have taken place as to give native American Indian certain rights, which is only fair, anyway one of them is that no one is allowed to open or operate a casino or betting shop within a hundred mile radius of the reservation , now you might think this is due to the tribal elders attempting to keep their young people away from being corrupted, not so, in a crafty move they have secured the monopoly on gambling for a 200 sq mile radius and so your driving through this beautiful natural valley and as you turn a corner your confronted by a massive 15 story Casino/Hotel complex its completely surreal. Conversation on the subject uncovered that on average each tribal family receives upwards of $100 thousand dollars a year from this enterprise and other associated interests, betting on horse racing, American football etc but this has also meant that numbers amongst the tribe for alcoholism and other social problems have gone through the roof . Simple people need simple pleasures, and money rarely brings true contentment…

Saturday 5/11/05
As am heading out tomorrow decided to have a slobby day so spent from lunch time till late watching American football eating nachos on which I had placed hot chilli and grated chesse and not forgetting a side order of jalapeno’s washed down with ice cold beer! Hoora!

Sunday 6/11/05
Have set up in a wildlife preserve some 60 miles south of Nashville and talking to a ranger have discovered I’m the only one here in this 830 acre preserve of forests and lakes,

after a little thought have decided to stay for a week and just be totally alone and walk and think with the radio my only contact with the world, and plan food , oh “plan food” perhaps I should explain , as people we all have our little foibles and some might say I have a few more than most, anyway I have always taken much delight in food , its planning, its preparation and of equal importance its consumption , setting a table for friends and spending a few hours sitting around eating and drinking has to be one of the best things we do, but also for me, the planning as this is filled with glorious anticipation.
With regard to food I think the Romans would be pretty hard to beat they had feasts that lasted weeks and they enjoyed the pleasure of food so much that small pots of mild poison were always set along the centre of the banqueting table and (you’ll like this bit!) as they reached their fill they could consume one of these retire to the vomitairium “unload” then return to begin again just for the pleasure it gave the mouth!!! But vouchsafe I shall never head to the Bulimic side of town. So with a week of solitude ahead that planning, preparing and consuming thing will possibly be the highlight of the day, with regard to “what to eat” have discovered during my time so far that steak here is very cheap and very good, and in truth have had to stop myself from moving to a diet which exclusively contains steak and red wine (which is also cheap and carried by me in 5lte boxes) anyhow as my onboard freezer (very handy) also contains Catfish and pork chops as big as a side plate, I can create and experiment to my harts content.

Thursday 10/11/05 9pm
Well my little cherubs its been 5 days without site or sound of another human being, accept for the occasional wave from a passing ranger whilst out walking, consequently not much to report on things external, but had some interesting time with things internal, thoughts and feelings being given their proper time without the distraction of everyday life in all its facets, a poet, author and song smith named Shel Silverstien once supposed that our lives were like a pieces of rolling cheese with a segment missing and that for some the journey to find the missing segment was more rewarding than the completed cheese. Hmm… Does make you wonder.

Anyway as an aside the people I’ve talked to over the past few weeks have all frowned severely (especially Miranda’s Jeff) when I’ve mentioned picking up the “other” Jeff Mr alcoholic bank robber it would seem that the country is teeming with dodgy drifters and have been advised that this course of action should not be taken again. Well this just poses a whole new thing, I’ve always been a fairly trusting human being believing that everyone is entitled to the benefit of the doubt and infact if it was me trying to hitch a ride then I’d want someone to pick me up ! When mentioning this to one of the oldies he replied “yes but you wouldn’t stab somebody and rob them, would you?” I suppose that comes under the heading “fair point well made” So have decided to refrain, but I still think it’s a shame and a sad indictment of our world, still nothings perfect.

Sunday 13/11/05 4.30pm
On Friday night I was joined here by a few weekenders, one of whom was a local man Henry and his family, I probably forgot to mention that over the last couple of weeks the old girl has been a bit sick not firing on all cylinders (it’s a technical engine thing, apparently) this had been re-mentioned to me by the ranger I met last Sunday and I had decided that it would be good to get it sorted before breaking down “on the road” which would be bad, anyway Henry had been talking to the ranger who mentioned my sick van ,as Henry is a mechanic and has worked on RV’s he knocked at my door and introduced himself. So we removed the 3ft square panel between the drivers and passengers seat to reveal the engine and after 20 mins or so of starting, stopping and poking about we established the problem, some of the plug leads were not working, he asked when it was last tuned and I obviously said I didn’t know as I had bought the van “as seen” accept of course for the basic safety checks that revealed the LP problem(see post “Adventure begins”). He said he could sort it out but not until Wednesday as he was busy until then, so I’ve decided to stay until then, he was though very complimentary about my engine in general the Chevvy 454 is an upgrade and not the original engine which was good as this means the108k miles on the speedo is not accurate, for the engine at least and he said there was no better petrol engine on the market for this purpose and once he had fixed it and tuned it up I would really notice the difference.

On Saturday afternoon there was knock at my door and a lady named Sandra introduced herself and explained that she was my neighbour as her and her husband were one of those who had pulled in on Friday night, anyway they were expecting guests that night who about lunchtime had had to cancel, the upshot was that the large pot of chilli that she had made was now to big for them to handle and would I like some, my answer in the affirmative lead to the presentation of a lovely bowl of chilli! an hour or so later I dutifully returned the bowl all washed and clean and was invited into there 5th Wheel and met her husband Bob (they live in northern Mississippi and had travelled up for the weekend) , well we started to talk and they were delightful just good kind people who were as interested in me as I was them we exchanged views on politics, religion and many other topics and i got an opportunity to wow them with my ipod and itrip(see previous post “Adventure begins”) I stayed talking and drinking beer and a very healthy cup of scotch till late at night, it made a lovely change to my solitude, but subsequently their parting along with the other weekenders has left me here alone again tied to a need to be here by the van fixing, and am frankly a little low , with no signal on either mobile or internet and 30 miles from the nearest pay phone, but I know that in a few days I’ll be off again which is good. I have discovered, that, like all of us I suppose, I do need people even if their not my dear loved ones. Time spent with Bob and Sandra was one of the reasons I m travelling ,ok there the sightseeing the bars the aqueducts and all that, but for me meeting new people I just find so bloody interesting and I could spend many years just meeting and talking to people from different places and cultures I just find it really stimulating.(ok, gone on enough about that Mr Jarvis!) anyhow I have their address and have promised to pop in and see them in Mississippi sometime in January as I will be heading back across country about then. Its funny you know but now, right now, my spirits have been lifted just talking to you all, thank you very much x.

Wednesday 16/11/05
I’m still here with all my solitude and Henry is coming to fix my van this afternoon Hoora !! but let me tell you about last night so it was about 5.30pm and as previously mentioned I have only the radio as company, so all of a sudden this storm starts and when I say storm I mean proper, proper storm the likes of which I have never experienced with continuous claps of thunder that made the whole van shake and lightning that lit the sky as if it was daylight, anyway all of a sudden there’s this high pitched squeal on the radio that has an increased volume then this voice comes over the radio “This is the Doppler weather centre Nashville we have tornado warnings for the following areas Marshall county etc until 9.30pm, if you are in these areas go to you basement or if you do not have a basement lei on the floor and cover yourselves with mattresses and anything that will help protect you “So I thought SHIT!!” right get my map out and find those areas after a few minutes another warning giving other areas, now, at that point something kicked in and I don’t know why but I suddenly thought “I’m an Englishman and if I’m going to get screwed by a bloody tornado I’m gonna go down drinking!” and reached for a large bottle of red wine, anyway picture if you will me, 3 hours later the storm still raging, completely bollocksed trying to follow the course of these tornado’s. Sufi’s to say I survived with the only casualty, my head in the morning. But listening to the radio today there were 8 or so in all, all of which caused extensive damage to property and sadly two fatalities.

Sunday 20/11/05 10.30am
DISASTER STRIKES! so driving down the old interstate towards Texas when suddenly lots of banging and clattering and thick smoke streaming from the exhaust, well as you can imagine I was a little concerned so pulled over immediately. Right then what to do next, now on glancing at my mobiles one had no signal the other had just 7.5 units left on it ,so what to do as was several miles from nearest gas station etc. Did the old mental thing “do I leave it and start walking, but if I do what if someone comes?” so sent a text too Miranda who called me and I’ve given her my details also sent lynne Hearsey a text and e-mailed my details to her (as I know Sunday is a sacred “at home” day), unfortunately my call to Miranda used the last of my air time, so I thought, ok, ill just start the old generator sit tight and watch a bit of TV so sitting waiting for a reply to e-mail or some roadside assistance thought I just pop for a wee, came out of the toilette to find my TV smoking for all its worth!

Well that’s just great!

11.45am
Still no news, but a kindly soul stopped to see if I was ok sadly not in possession of a mobile but he did offer to call someone for me at the next exit (about 8 miles) so gave him $10 and Mirandas number and hopefully he’ll let her know more precise location as I was rushed before my last few seconds of time ran out, thought about having a look myself but then remembered my stupidity in all things mechanical, and I recalled a time about 20years or more ago ,I had bought an old brown Avenger from Kelivin Gardener (an old rugby club member) and had just picked up my lady of the time Diana Hayes from stonegate station, June, the mother figure had come along for the ride, anyway about 1½ miles into the return journey smoke started pouring from the bonnet, so I popped the hood, got out, opened the bonnet and peered in, as I looked back in the car June and Di were creased up laughing, when I irritatedly asked what was so bloody funny they simply replied through their laughter that I hadn’t a clue what I was looking at despite all my manly posturing! Well I guess another time for “fair point, well made” and brought a smile to my face also.

1.45pm
Spotted a few figures working on a partly constructed industrial unit across the interstate and simultaneously remembered my $10 energancy any provider top up card, so with no further ado and dodging motorway traffic, skipped across the 6 lanes, over the fence, across the field and hailed them, Oh great 8 mexicans digging a ditch! Well after a few minutes of pointing speaking loudly (always a surefire move when devided by two different lauguges!) and a lot of shirrard type stuff finaly got to borrow a mobile phone (which I offered to pay for but a smile and a “no worries” in pegion English made me smile graciously and thank with sincerity) made the call to the insurerers and am now waiting for… Hold on a godam minute the biggest f_ck off tow truck has just pulled up on the hard shoulder… gotta go!

5.45 pm
well, what can I say, got towed to a local repair centre who are approved by the insurance company, the good news is that the roadside recovery is covered by the insurance, the bad news, yes the very bad news is that I have a broken crank shaft which will require a NEW ENGINE! Hoora!!!

They will ring me tomorrow but a ball park figure was, now wait for it, between $5500-$7500 dollars!!!! This is obviously not covered and will completely wipe out my emergency fund (the money I planned to go wild on in Vegas) this coupled with the obvious 8 nights in a budget hotel (from where this is written), eating out, transportation etc, now the thing is it’s a shame, sure.. but theres no point in getting down or frustrated you have to be ok about it, for a start I can count my blessings that I had an emergency fund and also I’ve always thought theres no point in getting down etc about something you have no control over, weather it’s a traffic jam or problems at work or whatever because all you can do is give your whole self to a problem, work through it calmly and once you’ve done that, that’s it, theres no more you can do. I was once told a little saying that I have never forgotten “It doesn’t matter whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist the outcome is all ways the same but the optimist has the better journey” my only slight sadness is that I shall not be in Houston for the thanksgiving which is obviously huge here and promised much fun. Well will finish now and find a burger king or the like. Bye.

Monday 21/11/05
THE WAITING BEGINS
Woke up in the old motel quick wash and brush-up and across the parking lot to Sonic for a sausage and egg thing and coffee, looking through the telephone book found company that offers car hire for $10 a day plus $0.10c a mile so I think I’ll give them a call and think about what to do, still waiting for the repair people to ring with price and how quickly a new engine can be sourced.

Wednesday 23/11/05
Spoke to the garage who has ordered my engine which will hopefully arrive tomorrow, with a projected completion of sat/sun. Picked up a visitors map of the town only to discover that there’s not really anything much here, as an example listed under “attractions” are The Town Hall, The Central Post Office, Bi-State Justice Building etc etc. However one thing is the towns strange geographical position as the centre is smack bang in the middle of the state boundary between Texas and Arkansas hence the name Texarkana this gives rise to a few oditties but the most apparent is the alcohol rules, so your driving down State Line Avenue if you pull into a supermarket on the right hand side there is no booze for sale but if you pull in on the left you can get as much as you like!

Anyway as I shall be here for thanksgiving have decided to had a Christmas dinner dry run by attempting to create a lunch of proper quality using the microwave, obviously when I’m back in the van I’ll have the cooker at my disposal also, so off to Wall-mart for some premium micro beef, pre-mashed pots, peas, carrots the old favourite Mr Broccoli and instant gravy granules with an astounding cherry pie and cream for pud! and of course a nice bottle of new world Shiraz, apart from that not much to report so ill probably fill you in on my triumph or disaster on Friday.

Friday 25/11/05
Well what news? Lunch was a roaring triumph, flavoursome and oh so wholesome with horseradish and English mustard, the engine however is not due until Monday what with Thanksgiving and all, so hopefully will be out of here Weds, today is called black Friday which is the biggest shopping day in the country with some stores opening for sales at 5.00am. I have e-mailed some of Julian’s fiends in Vegas and received a delightful reply which has increased my anticipation of good times ahead. Done a couple of bars with not loads of success, you see people seem to be very friendly but if you don’t have an “in” mutual friend or interest they are happy to say “hello” and spend a few minutes but that’s really about it, I discussed this with Bupster who’s feelings on the subject are pretty much the same, we did however conclude that the general response in England may be the same, and I must say the people I’ve spent time with I have had something in common, namely travelling in the van.

Sunday 4/12/05
Well what can I say, still bloody here and its been two weeks, done the whole talking to garage thing everyday and have been promised that I’ll have it tomorrow which is not a moment to soon.

Have decided to post this now as in review the last 4 weeks or so have been rather dull and want to start the next with something good as I’m heading to San Antonio for a look around the Alamo and some cowboying.

Time for another little verse, this by Peter Falks who describes the onset of winter and has one of my favourite opening lines:

“WINTERS COMING”
When autumn fell without a cry
And swift and swallow had to fly
When cow was locked behind closed gate
And tortoise chose to hibernate
When bright Jack Frost came to stay
And things got darker every day
When woollen mits appear in shops
And on the mouth those cold sore spots
When wellies in the garden shed
Are lifted from their summer bed
And pipes are lagged and doors shut tight
To shield us from the cold winds bite
And for the first time collars raised
That once laid flat midst summer haze
When balls of snow and sledge appear
Within the minds of children dear
And stocks of wood are piled up high
For fired nights when lovers sigh
Then house proud Jone’s have a fit
And rush to buy a bag of grit
The smell of egg and bacon fried
Makes you want to stay inside
You can be sure and have no fear
That winter time is almost here…

“NIAGARA AND BEYOND”

paul.j@rviz.bz (Jarvo) — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 15:55:29 GMT

Thursday 6/10/05
Arrived in Niagara Falls at about 6.30pm, parked the van and checked into a hotel (I had decided to do this as there were no places for me to hook-up the van).

Friday morning, up early and out! into the bloody rain, had checked the weather before I left the hotel and indeed it was due to rain for the next 2 days with dryer times forecast for Sunday & Monday which was also Canada’s thanks giving day, I strode down to look at the falls and yes they were very big and very impressive, on Sunday did the whole tourist thing “Trip behind the falls” “Maid of the mist voyage” etc etc

These pics don’t really convey the power of the thing with 34 million gallons of water going over the falls every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every year. One more geeky fact . the only person to survive an unintentional trip over the falls was in 1960 when a 7 year old boy fell in the water upstream while on a fishing trip luckily he was wearing a buoyancy aid which kept him afloat but heaven knows how he survived. On one part of the walkway by the horseshoe falls you get to within 15 ft of the edge and I couldn’t help getting that “I could just jump over” feeling that I’m sure we’ve all experienced when on a cliff edge or crossing a high bridge but I managed to restrain myself but did have to walk away quickly ! What of Niagara Falls itself? Hmm… How can I put this ? It was completely disappointing! a little piece of Blackpool on the Canadian/USA border.

The main town consisted of 50 or so hotels and motels and 4 main streets each one with it’s own generous supply of amusement arcades, fast food joints, “Kiss me Quick” shops and delightful attractions the “Guinness book of records” museum 2 casino’s the “WWF” experience “The museum of horror” outside which the amplified pre-recorded voice boomed “it’s cold, dark and very very scary !!” well, what did we expect from the “Museum of horror” a warm, friendly atmosphere with a host of kindly fairies enjoying a nice slice of Victoria sponge with Poo bear and his friends !! A warm Mrs Beaton’ esc kitchen feel, full of hot tea and crumpets! These main 4 streets were contained within an 800m square block and there were 5, yes 5! Bloody waxworks museums!! Madam Tusaurds , Luois Tusaurds, The Hollywood wax museum, the Giants of Rock wax museum (with Ozzy Osborne in the window) and most surprisingly and especially with the under 12’s in mind “The wax museum of serial killers !!!!” OK I’m beginning to babble its just I don’t know why it had to be here, ok, yes I do, money the power of the dollar still sadly is mightier than reason or good taste ,just 3 minutes walk from one of the most beautiful natural occurrences on earth, could they not have built it a mile away with perhaps a frequent mono-rail serving the site and left the surrounding area as a natural “lead in” to the falls. One of the most striking things for me was the amount of Japanese tourists mostly between 55 & 65 yrs old they contributed at least 85% of the people in the town and the hotel, on more than one occasion I stepped into a lift with just enough room for one more, with all the other occupants barely 5 ft tall, this gave rise to a few giggled words in Japanese and though the language was foreign the intonation was very familiar. As for meeting people spent a few hours at the Spicy Olive a bar recommended by a friendly waitress at the hotel, when I say “a few” hours I actually mean 1.5 as the “trendy” bar was full of holiday makers who I can only presume had taken advantage of some late season offer on a “two for one package” I was until that point oblivious that the shell suit was still in existence and apparently formed part of expectable evening attire ! Nuff said ! My advise to anyone ever considering a visit would be that 2 days is enough.

On crossing back into the USA I have been informed by immigration that even though I have been granted a 10 year multi trip visa I cannot remain in the US for more than 6 months in any 12 month period (it would have been nice to be told this by the embassy official in London!) so have decided to return to the UK for a brief visit at the end of Feb, then spend 4/5 months doing central/south America before returning to the US to do the west coast.

Thurs/12/05
Arrived at Ellicote city a small town between Baltimore and Washington DC and have hooked up with Miranda who is living here with her American fiancé, another Jeff. One of my life greatest regrets was hurting “Tweeter” she has true beauty within and consequently one of my life’s greatest thankfulness’s (if that’s a word) is that she allowed me to be part of her life again which I cherish greatly. Nuff said.

Monday 17/10/05
Jeff phoned me to ask if I was up for some “man time” as Bupster was at a girly party and of course I said “YES PLEASE!” As we got into his car I asked if we could go to a “proper bar” but I think he already knew that ,we ended up at a right good watering hole, a real red neck spit and sawdust joint, music playing loud and American football on a couple of screens “Oh yes ! I was home!” we sat at the bar ordered a large portion of buffalo wings and talked bloke shit all-night, drinking bottled beer interspersed with shots of something called Guegmiseter (I think) a sort of slightly sweeter Sambuka, had a few words with a few girls but as so often is the case by the time the opportunity arose I was completely shit faced, anyway got back to Jeff’s place ,collapsed on the floor only to be woken a few minutes later by the sound of violent vomiting, and, moving towards the bathroom discovered Jeff slumped over the pan speaking to god on the big white telephone, as a side note wherever I go I am sure of being able to hold my own or indeed excel at the old drinking “GOD SAVE THE RUGBY BOYS!”

Tuesday 18/10/05
Set off for a day trip to Baltimore with Miranda, Baltimore is a harbour town sitting on a large water inlet called Chesapeake Bay the region is famous for shellfish especially crab. We decided to drive into town and set off following one of the smaller roads as we thought there would be less traffic, this whilst initially seeming a good idea turned into a slight worry as we entered a very dodgy part of town with many houses boarded up and groups of men out on the street, it was all to reminiscent of scenes from movies where unsuspecting characters stumble into the wrong part of town! Luckily we were driving a 1992 Buick with tinted windows, which I had earlier christened “the pimp mobile” so our pasty faces were well hidden, Now you might think I’ve possibly oversold the whole dodgy area/danger thing just for effect, but, to put it into context Baltimore is just a little bigger than Brighton and recently on the local evening news there was a report that crime figures were improving with only 219 murders so far this year compared with 234 at this time last year!

Once safely parked took the short walk onto the harbour, its got that cool look, the one where you look across the water and tall modern office buildings stretch up from the edge,

moved around the harbour area via water taxi which number many its been a nice change to look at stuff with someone, especially someone with such a happy sunny outlook who I am very fond of and am so pleased she has found good love with Jeff, who appears to be a decent human being.. During my time here I have had the luxury of the car (that Buick) lent to me by Mirandas friend Peggy a delightful lady whom I enjoyed a dinner and conversation with on sat night (14/10/05) as J & M were away for the weekend. On the Friday night(13/10/05) another of Mirandas friends Heidi took me into Baltimore for a night out a nice girl but bats for the “other side” or should it be the “same side” Hmm… anyway we met up with some of her friends, their was a married couple 30’ish the bloke Eric “top man” was studying to become a professor of history at Johns Hopkins university, some of you will recognise the name Johns Hopkins (his first name of “Johns” and was a family name) he was a very successful merchant who, on his death left his considerable fortune to a committee of local business men with the express instruction to create a university of quality and that dream has certainly came true but more for the teaching and research into things medical than anything else. Anyway went to a part of town called Falls Piont it had cobbled streets and a sort of Camden lock feel, very fashionable and cosmopolitan with bars selling “dark” beer that’s bitter to you and me, it was a good night and got completely faced, their dark beer is very yeasty and a couple of the bars even had pint glasses, also in attendance was a couple of Heidi’s “friends” one of whom was already fairly drunk a skinny enimic looking girl called Sarah, in doing my duty to God and the Queen (no pun intended) I thought it proper to get a round in, on asking the thin bloodless one what she would like she replied “vis duzzn’t mean you can tek me home” to which I promptley replied “off course not ! I have a penis you know!” like many of my mates I have met many lesbians in my life they’re usually very very very attractive and can be found late at night in clubs and pubs, well… they must be lesbians?!!!

Woke up on Heidi’s sofa with a cracking hangover and after a sausage and egg McMuffin (essential in such hangover cases) drove back to the van avoiding the Baltimore marathon which had started at 8am that morning , spent the rest off the day being good to myself (no lads, that not a metaphor for masturbation!).

Thursday 20/10/05
Drove into Washington DC for a days sight seeing with Bupster (Miranda) found a dodgy rough roadside car park for $15 a day (about £8.50) which is pretty dam good for the capital. CHRIST! have I sunk into middle age without noticing and feel compelled to mention the price of parking (note to self: always be on guard against onset of middle age!) Well, I have to hand it to the yanks they do have the old monument thing really sorted not only in their stature but also proximity, imagine if you will looking at a crucifix from above, well at the bottom of it you’ve got the US capital building, in the centre the Washington monument at the top the Lincoln Memorial on the left hand end the Jefferson memorial and on the right the White House, and on the edge of each side of the main stretch are the museums.

Whilst outside the White house we watched as a cavalcade of police motor cycles , 4x4’s and semi-armoured vehicles sped into the gates the outriders stopping traffic as it came, and it was “HIM”’ ol’GW (confirmed by a mounted cop standing guard, but that wasn’t the end of it about 2 hours later as we sat by the Washington monument one of those big presidential helicopters appeared in the sky and set down on the lawn in front of the White house, where it sat for a few minutes rotors turning, we then noticed two more of these whirring monsters circling the skies above, a few minutes later the two airborne copters flew a pattern that brought them to either flank of the White house coming straight at us, and, as they passed the presidential building the one carrying “HIM” lifted into the air and moved out forming a skybound triangle passing no more than 100 ft directly over us, excellent! I got that whole Dan Dare/Boys own feeling!

Monday 24/10/05
Was taken to Annapolis by J&M another smaller harbour town on Chesapeak Bay the main purpose of our visit was to sample crab , we went into a restaurant and ordered 24 crabs , 1lb of steamed shrimp and 2 dozen oysters (oysters if you didn’t know are always served in baker’s dozens, that’s 13) well the oyster has never been my favourite fare but obviously had to do the whole manly thing and I must say they were very good, especially if accompanied buy a little horseradish sauce. As for the crab, now don’t get me wrong crab meat is nice, I like it, but what I found pointless was the whole business and work involved in getting to it! Cracking off the legs, smashing and twisting claws, holding the main body of the creature between the palms and forcing it apart then scraping out the guts (I love that word!) then cracking it in half and then! cracking each half open to reveal a piece of meat no bigger than your thumb! I guess of the 10 or so crabs I ate the total meat would barely fill an empty backed bean can! But as Jeff said it is a very social way to eat with a big tray of steamed crabs in the middle of a table with everyone just dipping in, and I am great full that he took the time to let me have the experience.

Wednesday 26/10/05
Will be leaving here in the morning and heading off for a few days driving south towards Nashville and on southwest towards Texas where warmer climes await as Autumn is well on the way with the forecast for frost in the northern areas of Maryland. I’ve had a great time here and its been nice to have had company, I do feel like I’ve been a bit of a tourist for the last 3 weeks or so and am looking forward to being back in the countryside again, also haven’t worn shorts for 4 weeks which really wont do…

Friday 28/10/05
Arrived at a site on the shores of the Piankatank River, this site belongs to the group that I signed up for when I purchased the van, it has all the usual stuff but also a spa , had only intended to stay for 1 night but on my arrival was handed a “Halloween Weekend Events” flyer which included an item entitled “Pet costume contest” well I just had to stay! how could I miss the opportunity to see at first hand this plunge into canine insanity. Now then, the whole Americans and their “dog rat” thing, they’re obsessed by these little yapping pieces of fury pointlessness, with every conceivable breed in evidence from Deusthound to Shiatsu they’re everywhere, and for 85% of the time the owners carry them, they don’t even get to use there legs, possibly for fear of getting dirty, heaven forbid! Anyway as show time neared I made my way to the pavilion full of expectation, and I was certainly not disappointed there were about 30 contestants each with their pooch dressed in various getups, as I walked amongst them the general hubbub and excitement was nearly to much for me! I had brought my camera to take a few snaps of this fury rat fest, but initially I found myself trying very hard not to laugh out loud as these icons of the simple minded were paraded around in front of 3 judges the owners doing there level best to make little Mitsy etc walk nicely. Anyway after much debate and another 3 walk rounds the head judge stood and announce the 3rd and 2nd place with people cheering and applauding rapturously! Then, the moment had come the winner was… Birty! Yes little sausage dog Birty had done it! As his owner moved forward (Birty tucked neatly under one arm) I noticed something rather odd, our little friend Birty was dressed as a cowdog, with his little cowdog trousers a small gun belt with 2 miniature 6 shooters, waistcoat and cowdog hat perched at a jaunty angle on his head. Now, forgive me for being a bit picky but wasn’t this a “Halloween” fancy dress contest? with every other contestant got up as a witch or at least something proporting to be a little scary. It was, for me at least, the perfect absurd end to a perfectly absurd event!

Halloween here is equal to the 4th July the whole country really gets into it with people decorating their houses and stuff , on the site it was much the same chatting to a few people they confirmed that quite a few groups of friends and family congregate at sites such as these for the weekend and indeed this could be seen, as walking around at night camp fires blazed with people sat around drinking beer and talking it had a bit of a music festival feeling and was really nice.

Not withstanding the dog rat thing my 3 days here have been very cool and the river and surrounding area are very beautiful indeed, and so tomorrow (Sunday 30/10/05) will head for the Great Smoky Mountains for a week of natural stuff.

God was that it! October come and gone, oh well they do say time flies when your having fun, till next time take much care x.

Poem of the month

As Mary Oliver’s piece was possibly a little heavy (but good) thought I’d lighten it a bit, this is a little ditty from Anthony Sykes who describes me, (or rather a man like me) while out drunk with Jeff trying to pull while shit faced! And aptly called…

“NO CHANCE”

That letching look
That gaze of lust
That need for someone
That need or bust
The incoherence,
Control misplaced
With time elapsing,
He’s losing the race
His speech is clumsy,
His text unfound
Involuntary swaying?
He’s run aground
His time is passing,
He’s losing the thread
His time is passing
His intention near dead
But his jokes are unfunny
With a tumbleweed pause
And his drunk execution
Is so full of flaws
He’ll smile to please her,
But he’s really a fake
He’ll do just about anything
If shell give him a break
Perseverance his watch word,
He’s tied to the cause
But she’s leaving his presence,
With no sound of… Applause

paul.j@rviz.bz (Jarvo) — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 13:28:46 GMT

“THE ADVENTURE BEGINS”

Greeting and welcome to the first of my” reports from across the pond” Firstly thanks to Julain for this Blog (whatever that means?)

Ok so lets go back way back to the departure lounge at Gatwick arrived at 6.30 am bought a copy of the Times, ordered my full English and waited for my departure time happy in the knowledge I had an emergency exit seat with lots of legroom, sitting their I plugged in the ‘ol iPod and flicking through came across Vivaldi (the four seasons) and the opening movement appealed to me as it has always engendered a feeling of new and bold beginnings full of the promise of adventure. Ok so that’s probably a little anal but frankly I don’t give a toss. Its funny how you think of stuff at times of change, I have always believed that we do not take enough time to properly value the people we love and so over the past few weeks I have tried to remember this and at times when in the company of those “loved ones” I have taken a moment to quietly stand back and watch and savour those people, the conclusion of my observations is (and I have always known this) that I am so very fortunate to have those people and their love, I know sometimes its difficult to remember to take the time, its like trying to remember to drink less tea or eat less pies (Bradders!) but we should all try to remember now and again as it is such good food for the soul. So, sat in the departure lounge of this very English airport, home of the economy airline, the chav and the stag party where the fun begins on arriving for a 7.30 flight to Dublin (or some similar destination) for a few days and heading straight for the bar for that early morning out of the ordinary pint which brings the promise of much fun, and later, vomiting.

Newark international airport

Have just arrived at my transfer destination was waiting for that assumed grilling at immigration but the best thing happened, the bloke in front of me who I think was Egyptian or something didn’t speak very good English and there seemed to be a problem with his papers so the official asked for the man to follow him to a supervisors area well the bloke patiently didn’t understand as he walked straight up to an adjacent door and opened it the door being labelled “Maintenance personnel only” he was shouted at by the official and led to the correct area, perfect, so as I approached the area I opened my greeting with “Has he come to fix the heating” now this comment was obviously designed to give me and the official some common ground even if it was wholly unfair on the Egyptian, but I was tired and it worked so I sailed through and even got a “Have a nice trip” for my trouble.

Orlando

Landed at 8.30 US time 2.30am UK time went to motel and slept, the following morning I picked up my hire car and drove the 80 miles to lazydays which is the biggest RV (Recreational vehicle) centre in the world with a 150 acre site containing row upon row of coaches (the US for camper) with my trusty salesman Lee Perella showing me the way, after a little time I scored myself a 29ft Coachman with back bedroom ,bathroom and galley kitchen that can sleep six, ok so perhaps my estimation of how many US women I can talk into it at any one time maybe a bit on the high side but a blokes got to have dreams & to be honest my first intention is to travel and see stuff and not just go on a USA shagfest not to say if the opportunity arrises that I shant be taking advantage of it ! So there’s me and Lee out for a test drive when he pulls over and says “why don’t you take her for a while?” now appreciate if you will, that this thing is not only 29ft long and 10ft high but 9ft wide. But in the true tradition of the bloke bullshitter I gave him the ol’ line about having driven similar sized vans in the UK whilst straddling the beast, any way off we go, hmm, yes, not to bad, starting to get the old trucker feel, just me and my rig on the open road, chatting with Lee in a very relaxed “It’s ok everyone I’m in control” sort of way. Then with a combination of overconfidence and cocksureness drifted to the right and wiped out 3 mail boxes, at about this time Lee had also seen me heading for the boxes and hurriedly said “mi ou bos mr Ja “now what he wanted to say was “mind out for those mail boxes mr Jarvis” but as we all know when your trying to say to many words for the time avaiable you cant really rely on anything that comes out. I must however give Lee his due; he was obviously concerned about 1. The mail boxes 2. Damage to his product & 3.making a sale, he managed to craft his tone from a mixture of worry and frustration into an “Oh you rascal, Ha! Ha! “ sort of feel, later trying to reassure me that to mend them would be an easy job and that it “happens all the time” consequently he got a deal!

I’m now waiting for the whole money thing to be sorted and have taken a room in a motel for a few nights. I’ve started to wander around the local Wallmart superstore which apart from a plug adaptor for UK>US sells pretty much everything and starting to consider my first trip which I think will be up the eastern seaboard (east coast) on interstate 95 (it’s a motorway) the plan is to drive the 1800 miles or so up towards the great lakes then work my way down and around following the warn weather, I’ve got to say that although I’ve only been here 3 days the people are really friendly, even if your just wandering round Wallmart and you meet another shopper in “your isle” they smile and say hello not even knowing I’m a pom. Have always had the theory that attitude is directly attributable to climate these are, in the main happy sunny people with a fairly good outlook on stuff. I am wondering if this will change the further north I get, we’ll see.

Tues 6/9/05

Arrived back at Lazydays to pick up my RV just waiting for all the final bits & pieces to be finished off, when there ready I will apparently be given a walk through so I can become accustomed to all the stuff that goes on ie how to “hook up” and “visit the dump stations” Hmm… dump stations I think it sounds like it means ! Been shopping this morning for all those things a good “home on the go “ should have, in all truth I did use this to speak to a rather attractive women in Wallmart by marching up to her and announcing “I need a woman !” I then went on to explain that I had to kit out my RV and thought she could help me form a list and shop for those items falling under the heading “Domestic supplies”, she obliged but no action as within 3 mins she’d mentioned a husband etc and I thought it might be a little harsh to ask her to find me an attractive single assistant. Well any general observations to report? Yes the whole “fat American” thing, I know iv only been here just under a week but from what iv seen there are quite a few fatties but there are also a good covering of thinnies I think the difference is that the fatties are quite a bit fatter than those in the uk so there proliferation appears greater.

Weds 7/9/05

Woke up in the motel again this morning, while doing the routine checks the dealership discovered a leak in the LP (Liquid Propane) system, so they quite rightly kept it for another night to make sure all was safe. Hoping to finally get on the road today, but watching the weather on the TV there would appear to be a tropical storm (Ophelia) approaching the east coast of Florida which is not only directly in my way for heading north but may turn into a hurricane ! Hoorraah !! By purchasing a vehicle from lazydays I get to spend a few free days in a site of my choice so I can at least get a handle on the whole way of life thing and finally properly rub shoulders with some real Americans. I am as a you might imagine straining at the bit just to get on the road. Oh well hopefully next time I write I would have achieved that at least. Still Weds 7/9/05 but sometimes having the odd delay is very beneficial you see as iv been stranded waiting and iv had time for another look through the gumf they gave me in exchange for my purchase not only do I get a few free days at a camp ground but also 3 months free at a group called Thousand Trails 152 sites, plus for $478.00 I get all year membership plus a rate of $8.00 per night at Royal Park International parks and there are over 350 of those, this basically means I can probably just about afford to stay on proper RV sites for most of the time and yes these sites are close to all I want to see and also are on shorelines and in mountain ranges etc the good thing is it still lets me be free if I want a few days/nights just alone somewhere, by the way the one off initial joining fee for these resort companies amounts to over $8500.00 which is covered by lazydays, this might seem like a big benefit to me who only paid just over that for my vehicle but there are a lot of coaches here that are upwards of $500,000.00 and they sell between 350-750 a month dependent on the season so I guess iv got the big spenders to thank !! So my only concern leading on from my free RV sites is that they are probably designed for the serious RV’er with the plush new coach, my rig as you might expect somewhat follows the line of myself , a little older and a bit knocked about around the edges, still hopefully when they hear the old accent they’ll move there opinions from trailer trash to English eccentric , and do you know what, I think they will ! just sitting here iv hatched a great plan “Behold the majic of the iPOD/iTRIP” as the IPod is still relatively new I can wow them with its massive memory and then for my piest de resistance the ITrip (with love and thanks to BK & CB for both technologies) this piece of modern witchcraft allows me to play my ipod music through my vehical radio (yes Claire you would have been impressed, as I down loaded and set up all on my own obviously confirming that necessity is indeed the mother of invention !) the thought of it returned my mind to an old film “A Kenkucky yankee in King Aurthers court” starring Danny Kaye where he was transported back to medieval times and just as he was about to be beheaded worked out that there was an eclipse imminent ,so he vowed to cast Authers kingdom into darkness unless he was released! Needless to say the plan worked perfectly, so with the same bedazzlement in mind in years to come we may see a sequel perhaps entitled “A sussex trickster does the yanks!”

Although I cant see Spielberg reaching for the phone ! god the old mind certainly ran away that time ,but I liked it! Just been told the old bus will be ready for me in the delivery site at 5 pm, I have, as previously mentioned already begun to assemble the belongings of a good camper and am hoping Wallmart will open until late tonight so I may finish my purchasing as this will give me more time tomorrow as the luxury of my hire car runs out.

Thursday 8/9/05 5.50pm

MADE IT! yes its 5.50 its Thursday and im finally sorted all provisions are stored away itrip laying down some Wild Wood in the van and im just contemplating my first “in house shower” I may however wait until the morning when I shall attempt my first morning exercise hour, the thing is that luckily I know myself fairly well and I always function the best when there’s a little routine in my life so what better routine than one of exercise . Will finish now and take that first shower then the old tuna salad ,you see I do like me ‘ol routine! Well that was it and I gotta say it was quite good plenty of gushing water being carefull to just get wet then larther up then on again to rinse. I didn’t mention that today I had my “Walk through” where a member of staff takes you through the whole vehicle and iv got to say I was rather impressed by the old bus as its all designed to be really self sufficient it has its own water heater, water pump, the toilet flushes properly (this was one of my biggest concerns having had the pleasure of building site chem loo’s for some time, didn’t fancy the stench much!) fridge/freezer ,TV point and comfortable living space as well as a double bed at the back ! Must close now as I need to plan tomorrows first day on the road and possibly look at my next site, catch you later.

Friday 10/9/05

Finally on the road at 12.30 pm during my last few hours here have been perswaded to spend 3 days at a site near Orlando where I can be properly inducted to the RVing way of life, a motherly type at the dealership spotted I was a babe in swauthling clothes and sort of insisted ! My first drive on proper roads ! now I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little aprehencive. OK STOP RIGHT THERE ! what I mean to say is I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little SCARED cm’on guys we all know that the word apprehensive is just used by us blokes because we don’t want to use the word “scared” (Woops avoid soap box moment at all costs) So off we go and on to I-4 (remember from earlier it’s a motorway) well the thing is my van is 29ft long, 9ft wide and 10ft high and just fitts into a single lane, what I had failed to consider is that due to the fact that it is built to live in all the fittings and bodywork are very light as to not impede, its speed, anyway the upshot is that your going along about 55mph just minding your own business when you get overtaken by a frigging great lorry doing 70mph and his slip stream literally blows you to the right ! Anyway after a fraught but by the end more comfortable 50mile jouney arrived at Thousand Trial resort Orlando, and I must say its quite good, swimming pools,tennis court, boating/fishing lake (proper big) , pitch & put as well as organised bike rides around the preserve and nature walks, in there published weekly programme they advertise “Lakeside fireworks” but they actually mean gather by the lake and watch the Disney display for free ! Met a loud fat friendly American who sat next to me while waiting to sing up at dealership he said he lives on the resort and gave me his pitch number so I may look him up later. Anyway going for a shower now as they have this facility, excellent !. Have planned to drink some wine and eat ribs tonight, we’ll see.

Sunday 11/9/05

Well it’s Sunday afternoon the wine drinking rib eating thing of Friday night was a glorious success and in truth, intoxicated thoughts of you all brought a warm smile and a tear but as I have tried to explain on a few occasions its good to miss people it makes us appreciate what we have and the fact that iv gone for a while is a testament to the strength of those friendships , i have no insecurity about there value and strength on my return. (God !, I’m such a girl !!!) Starting the long haul up country tomorrow out on I-75 towards Unadilla a small town nestled in the heart of Georgia, have booked a pitch there for the old RV then Tuesday on up the 75 into Kentucky staying at a Flyin J’s truckstop just outside Walton, then by Thursday night will hopefully be looking out onto lake Michigan just outside the town of Mears were I intend to stay for a week or so and hopefully will be able to send this first instalment and some pics, before pushing on to Michigans upper peninsular which boasts miles of underdeveloped shoreline. Oh well all for now as its 5.22pm and I need to make sure everything is stowed away before tomorrows off.

Monday 12/9/05-Thursday15/9/05

Set off early Monday morning hoping to get a good days driving behind me as well as the Florida heat, took the I-75 north up into Georgia ,once again had a few early scares but within an hour or so was quite relaxed and enjoying having the confidence to look about at the scenery had a while slipstreaming a fellow RVer he however was driving a 50ft bus with a car on tow, but I did get that sort of “Convoy” feel. After 6 ½ hours & 366miles pulled off to my booked site for the night set up, ate and sat in the early evening sun and played my guitar (badly of course)

Early next morning I was off again once more heading north along the 75 all had gone well until I suddenly realised that the I-75 takes you straight through the middle of Atlanta , so imagine if you will good old PJ Jarvy Jarvo happily going along on the old country motorway, then, suddenly being filtered into a 10 yes folks 10 lane high way, with all lanes moving at different speeds and all manor of junctions and off ramps each with there own set of signs all of wich are different depending on weather the filtering road is an Interstate, a US Highway, Avenue , Boulavard or bloody standard trunk road ! AND all the other drivers on this “Satan’s carridgeway “ were your typical London city driver, rarely out of third gear and oblivious to any other road user especially a poor bloody pom in an oversized camper van ! Well after about 45 seconds I ……….ly said to myself outloud “right come on concentrate !” There was the odd pause in the movement of traffic and I surprisingly had the presence of mind to reach for my camera (which I have taken to having at hand on the dash ) and take a few snaps of the skyline

, well the rest of that days travelling was fairly uneventfull but I did notice that the country side became a lot more rolling the other side of Atlanta, moving on up into Tennessee and just north of Knoxville came to rest at the “Volenteer camp ground”

Now then ,up until this point I had only really encountered Americans who were pretty standard but old Bud and his little enterprise was something completely different,a real “Backwoods America”.

“Due to Buds lack of schooling he wasn’t quite sure when Christmas was , but was determined to always be ready !”

Whilst outside the camp store a woman (mid 50’s) asked me if I was staying and on my reply in the affirmative suggested that I might like to go to the dance that evening at the Old Oprey and pointed to a wooden building some 50metres away, and I thought shit yes lets get into it. Well on the stroke of 7.30 I left the van and walked down to the venue, I entered to be confronted by a group of 8 musicians, all of whom I later discovered were local towns folk, a dance floor about 25ft square and around this square were rows of chairs about 40 of which were inhabited by more local people not one under 50 and most ten years or so older ! Well the music began, what a bloody noise (now look I’m not country music’s greatest fan but I can appreciate anything played well, and this most definitely was not) anyway people began to get up walk over to others ask them to dance and begin the old, one step back two steps forward thing ! after fifteen minutes or so IT happened, despite my best looking down at the ground between dances efforts a small women approached and asked if I would and of course I said yes. It turns out that Ruth (my parteners name) drove 60 miles every Tuesday night to go dancing she was mid 50’s and very nice and polite, talking to her while we danced I discovered the she’d only been out of the state 3 times in her life but didn’t seem to care. I found myself feeling a little sorry for her but later decided that I guess she did have a choice, and, that contentment comes in many different packages, anyway after the initial “breaking in the new bloke dance” I was barley allowed to sit and had a few more encounters with ladies all of whom were delighted to have someone new to dance with, any way after about 2 hours I decided I’d done my duty to dance and the modern man and left. I considered taking some photos but felt doing so would turn these honest and decent people into tourist attractions, but I did do 12 seconds of secrect video which I hope captures the whole small town thing. (Please pay special attention to the multi-coloured gliter ball in the centre)

Click here for the video! [2.5Mb]

Wednesday drove another 350+ miles still on the I-75 up through Cincinnatti and left onto I-70 and pulled in at a site in the small town of Harmoney (PIC took off on my bike for the last few hours of daylight and came across an old abandend drive-in movie theatre it was abit eary but fun to actually see one, sadley had forgotten my constant companion Mr Camera so didn’t get a snap to show you.

Thursday drove a long haul 420 miles to reach Timberlakes on the east banks of Lake Michigan on my arrival met Josh, Rik, Tina and Tabby (blokes nice enough girls deffinatley do’able ! ) I asked about car hire for a couple of days as this area is quite away from anywhere and was told the nearest place was Muskegone (Muss-Key-Gone) a town about 35 miles away Josh was going down that way so he kindly offered me a ride down, got to the hire place and waved Josh off into the distance went through all the usual form stuff then placed deposit on Visa card and… ah slight problem card not authorised , so 5.30 US time 10.30 UK time $60.00 in my pocket SHIT ! well decided that the cab fare(around $60.00) back was a bit pointless so walked around to 5 motels and finally booked the cheapest one for $48.00, got some strange looks as booked in with T-shirt, jeans and little else. Any way got up at 5.30 the following morning and walked to a big 24hour supermarket and purchased a telephone card ($8.75), phoned my bank who confirmed that there were funds in the account but because I hadn’t told card services I was going to US and the card had been used a few times they had put a stop on it and requested that the retailer phone for authorisation, sadly it was , as mentioned 10.30pm UK time so nothing got done anyway enough to say we got sorted in the end. Spent Friday settling in and around 5.00pm decided to take my first walk across to the lakeshore (about 90 metres) and thought it would be cool to sit play my guitar (again badly!) and watch the sun go down, well, walking along for the first time I was struck by the ordinariness of the small wooded pathway it was like any other you’d find in many other parts of this or any other rural area, there was however the faintest sound of gently lapping water, which grew the closer I got , the wooded path dropped down and as I turned the last corner opened up onto the beach and the lake, to call it a lake is a massive understatement ,it’s like an ocean 80 miles wide & 260 miles long with waves and everything. I think the thing that struck me the most was how desolate it felt, how quiet and natural, it made me feel very small and insignificant like a single spec of sand on the beach itself. It’s strange but I think part of the feeling of solitude came from the fact that I have seen big bodies of water before but usually in the setting of a seaside resort ,where the view is always accompanied by the bustle of holiday makers or in winter the site of closed ice cream kiosks etc , but with this there was nothing.

As I watched the sun set over the lake its untouched naturalness was completely beautiful and made me feel totally calm and at home with myself

, if you care to look at the other photos you will see I took lots, I just couldn’t help it , I didn’t want to miss anything… The next couple of days were taken sorting out the last of the bits and pieces, a wireless internet provider (as the internet café is a dieing thing here and for a lot of the time I will be some distance from civilisation) and another “pay as you go” phone as the one they sold me in Florida doesn’t work in northern North America, great! On Saturday went to a SAND DRAG meeting this is basically the same as Drag car racing but along a 300 metre strip of sand cut out of a hill side it was fairly cool for a while and some of the Dragsters where pretty funky

but when you’v seen a few big fast cars going alone on sand very quickly there’s not to much left to hang around for anyway there are more pic’s if you feel the need. Took a trip up to a small coastal town called Pentwater very pretty with quaint main street and stores selling all the usual stuff

then went up to the dunes on Silver lakes these are around 5 miles from from where I stopped and are completely massive, sand dunes up to 70 feet high running half a mile back from the shoreline and about 3 miles along it, and again this was totally unexpected just a left turn of a wooded highway.

Weds 21/9/05

tomorrow I head north again for 1 nights stopover in Mackinaw City then over the 5 mile bridge to the Upper Peninsular where the shoreline becomes properly rouged and wild...

Friday 30/9/05

Well it’s been 7 days since I last wrote the reason for this will unfold as we meander through the last week or so, as mentioned drove up to Mackinaw city to stay 1 night on the shores of lake Huron then headed over the bridge into the upper peninsular, for some reason or other missed my junction to travel west and ended up fast approaching the Canadian border so turning around at the last exit before Canadian soil spotted a hitch hiker on the ramp I was going down so decided to pick him up; Entre Jeff as he climbed aboard we discussed his destination of Detroit and I mentioned that I wasn’t going that way until id been to Marquette further north (I had planned to drop down and cross Canada to reach Niagra Falls) well he said he was in no rush and asked if he could ride until I eventually got to Detroit area, I agreed. Anyway bear in mind if you will that this conversation took place within 3 minutes of meeting, by minute 4/5 he had told me he was a homeless Vietnam vet and an alcoholic “ I’m just an old hippy from the 60’s man” (he was 52 about 6ft 3in had a beard and was never without his bandana and sunglasses) I was about 3 hours from Marquette a university town on the shores of lake Superior and by the time we arrived he had also informed me that he’d been on the road for the last 2yrs as previous to this he had finished an 11yr stretch for bank robbery having previously served a further 8.5 yrs for 2 other bank jobs, and as we travelled I was give a rundown of the states correctional facilities as we passed signs for the towns in which they resided “ but I don’t steel from people” he said reassuringly, hmm...

On our arrival in Marquette we had our first slightly awkward conversation as I approached the subject of personal hygene as frankly he smelt pretty bad, he was surprisingly ok about me telling him that he smelt and was a little embarrassed which was a shame but the words had to be said, so armed with my spare towel and shampoo he marched happily to the bathhouse (most parks have these) on his return we discussed the issue of clean clothes and he admitted that all his clothes were dirty and hadn’t been washed for sometime, so the next point of call was a local laundry, he travelled with two small holdalls and a ground sheet neatly folded on top of one, as I watched him gather his spare dirty clothes from these bags I noticed that the contents, a few cd’s, and personel bits and pieces were very neatly arranged inside, and this site gave me a strange confidence about him. His alcoholism, another point of concern was also quite ordered , he carried a half gallon plastic bottle of cheap vodka and every morning he would rise and decant 75ml into a small empty water bottle, this he sipped throughout the day usually complimenting his intake with bottled beer during the afternoon (provided by yours truly) but by 8 oclock every evening he’d sit back and say “that’s enough booze for today” I asked him about his drinking and he told me that he was trying to cut down. He had lived in Detroit for his formative years, was married with two children Billy & Brandy his wife Sheryle had died in a house fire started by her lit cigarette, he showed me the newspaper clipping reporting the death it was dated 1998. He had not seen or spoken to his children for over 2yrs and was trying to cut back on the drink so as he put it “when I see them I can take care of my business” meaning he didn’t want them to see him drunk and out of control this I found admirable. He was very into sport and music and was knowledgeable on both his cd collection contained all the old 60’s drug sounds, Janice Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix and the like. His favourite expressions were “Hey dawg what y’doin” and “that’s good look’n out my friend” (a sort of thankyou, when I fed him or dropped him a few bucks for beer/fags etc) after our initial conversations I had an almost immediate trust of him, on our second day together I had gone exploring on my bike and returned to find him gone and the vehicle locked ,he returned about half an hour later telling me he gone into the forest to meditate and didn’t want to leave my stuff unlocked, I guess you could call that “good look’n out” in conversation he had proper opinions and could convey them intelligently ,as long as you had them before 12’ish. The day before we parted we were watching the morning news, (this had quickly become part of our daily routine) and I noted to myself how much more whole he looked just for a few days of proper food and regular trips to the bath house. On our final morning I dropped him a few miles outside Detroit and as we parted he showed me a Chippawa (native American Indian) handshake. I hope he finds his children and ultimately himself...

Well then stuff about me… the drive to Marquette was pretty cool starting with the crossing of the 5 mile bridge which joins Mitchigans main body to the Upper Peninsular this was a bit of a scary ride as every other sign leading to the bridge warns of high winds and the caution required, this allied with my previous observations about the van and Jeffs helpful remenicences about vehicles being blown off and their occupants plunging to certain death did make for a slow and apprehensive drive but finaly reaching the otherside without too many problems then up running along the top of the UP through both parts of the Hiawatha national forest and coming to rest at our destination, took my bike out for a spin, this certainly was a student town with lots of them out on the streets and in the numerous fast food joints that accompany such areas with one particular group who had set up a sort of makeshift bar on the garden outside their house, on the edge of the road a sign read “You honk, we drink” and by the look of them quite a lot of honking had taken place ! The town was fairly pretty with a large sports dome

the shoreline was again rouged and unspoilt with bike trail crisscrossing the town, spent two days exploring including a morning at a craft fair held in the big dome, then with rain forcast for the Sunday decided to us the day to drive back to Mackinaw but this time using highway 2 on the southern edge of the UP that tracks the northern edge or lake Michigan this drive again had some beautiful shoreline.

Once back in Mackinaw city planned to take the short boat ride to Mackinaw Island this small body of land is noted for two things , the first that the only vehicles allowed on the island are one ambulance and one fire engine, this is born out by this picture of an articulated lorry wich was driven onto a boat, then when it reaches the island is unloaded by one fork lift without leaving the boat!

everything else ,people goods etc are transported by horse and cart or bicycle and secondly Fudge making. Arriving on the island I decided that the first order of business was to circum navigate the island on my bike as there is a shoreline road that runs the entire 8 mile circumference. The shoreline was dotted with large houses all of which had a colonial feel which was later explained by a visit to Fort Mackinac built in 1780 to guard the straights of Mackinaw and captured by the British in 1812 during the American revolution whilst at the fort saw a riffle shooting demonstration the significance of which was that it was the first to use a breach loading rifle as apposed to a barrel loaded weapon letting a soldier fire 12 times a minute instead of 4 times, ok enough of the history stuff, visited numerous fudge shops where people were making and shaping the rich sweet confectionary, it was quite strange but no one I asked could actually tell me why fudge was the big thing, spent the rest of the day just bumbling around doing the whole tourist thing and had a nice relaxing day.These pictures are of the main street, see no cars!

Weds 28/9

drove down to just outside Detroit where I am spending a few doing nothing days to chill and plan my trip into Niagra and down into Washington .

FOOT NOTE TO THE DAY; Just cycled 10 miles round trip to the local town, firstly confirmed to myself that I am physically incapable of walking , cycling, driving etc passed a big supermarket without going in , I love it ! I can spend ½ hour just wandering around looking at all the stuff and in this one they had an English section so I bought 1 can of Heinze baked beans just as a treat ( $1.59 that’s nearly a quid !) as I’ve promised myself I would not do that whole “a little part of England everywhere I go” thing plus they had no Marmite my only real food miss.

Hope you enjoyed “The adventure begins” will post more end of next month.

Thought I’d add a little feature called “poem of the month” this is aptly named “The Journey” by Mary Oliver

THE JOURNEY
One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice-

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life !”

each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with it’s stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough , and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do-

determined to save

the only life that you could save.

paul.j@rviz.bz (Jarvo) — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 16:43:33 GMT

Welcome to Jarvo’s Blog…

Paul Jarvis or ‘Jarvo’ to his long suffering mates is having a bit of a midlife crisis. He has decided to up sticks and travel the world, sampling the delights of any foreign parts he can get!

Ranting after leading the vets to triumph in France!

We are hoping that this blog will enable Paul to keep in touch with all his mates, especially those at Heathfield & Waldron Rugby Club, letting us all know what he is getting up to.

So Paul, have fun and for anyone who meets up with him on the way good luck, as you will find out over the next few years he is ever so slightly insane, but great fun to party with…

Experimenting with flaming sambuca!!

Let the madness begin!