Day Twelve

Having a suite not just a room meant we felt like we should spend more time in it, so this morning we didn't rush. Watched a bit of cricket. Headed downstairs for breakfast after nine. It was the cleanest, nicest hotel breakfast we've had. Nice dining room, everything neat and clean, helpful staff. It was definitely a fair reflection of the hotel as a whole.

After breakfast went back to the room and watched Root and Bell knock off the final thirty runs to win the test match. That made it about time to leave, so we packed up and checked out.

Before we left we googled the cheapest fuel in Joplin, so made our way there. Passed part of the area devastated by the tornado in 2011. It seems to have been rebuilt successfully although there are still areas which have been cleared but not rebuilt.

Having left Joplin, we headed into Kansas and followed US Highway 400 the entire way to Wichita.

We stopped for lunch at Augusta. We desperately searched the town looking for an old fashioned diner, but to no avail. We even found the old part of town, but still not a sign of what we were looking for.

The old part of town

Eventually we had to make do with Subway. By this stage we were fairly close to our destination, so just cracked on. Arrived at the hotel around 3.30pm. We are staying here:

http://wichita.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

Ann had requested a high up room, and we got one. 15th floor, with a view of the river.

I saw the Arkansas....river

She also chose free parking as an option when booking, so that has paid off too. You have to use your room key to get in the car park, so we went and stuck the car away having unloaded.

Hotel seems quite busy with sporty people as there is some sort of baseball marathon going on at the stadium just across the river. Something like a 48 hour baseballathon with lots of teams playing.

We hung around the room for while. Ann did some three way Skyping with moderate success. By this time it was about 5pm. Ann had planned for us to visit Old Cowtown, a museum thing/recreation about the old days, but it shut at 5pm so we couldn't go there.

Instead we searched the web for somewhere to eat and then headed out.

Ended up going here for dinner. http://www.jimmiesdiner.com/

It was old school with a soda fountain and everything. Walked in, it had two or three tables worth of people already there. Got seated by a batty old greeter. Had our drink order taken. We both went for proper old fashioned milkshakes. Got given some iced water whilst we waited. Had our food order taken. Another batty waitress said it might be a little while due to the other people who arrived not long before us. When she had gone, I had a look around the diner. Counted at least fifty empty seats. Said to Ann how do they cope when it is properly busy??

Food arrived, we started eating. Still no sign of our milkshakes. Every time the batty old waitress came over she kept saying your milkshakes will be done in a minute. Got a little soul destroying. Eventually they turned up. They were worth the wait. It was like having a dessert as they were so thick.

We paid up and then headed to our evening activity. It was not far from the restaurant so worked out ok. We weren't sure how early to get there, so ended up arriving a good hour early. At least it meant we got the best choice of spots.

This was our destination. http://starlitefun.com/

Friday night at the......

As you can see we went to a drive in movie theatre. We parked centrally about halfway back, so we got the best view. We were originally confused, as all those who had arrived before us had parked facing away from the screen. We realised that they were all planning to sit in their back of their trucks to watch. We parked facing forward.

Went to the concession stand to get some drinks and then headed back to the car. It was still very warm out, so we kept the engine on so the air con was cool. You had two choices for audio, you could go with the old hook on the window speaker or tune your radio in to the frequency. We went for the latter as it would have better sound quality.

As it got dark, Ann suggested that we turn the engine off and open the windows so we could experience it the old way. I pointed out that it was still fairly warm out and that we would die like puppies trapped in a hot car, so air con was best.

I got overruled.

We watched Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. By the end it was baking hot in the car. Ann said she was fine. There were two more films on that we could stay and watch, but seeing as it was already 11.30pm, the next one was Antman followed by something else just as rubbish, we decided not to.

We headed on back to the hotel. Got to our room to look at the city at night. Looks good, but hard to take a picture of.

Best we could get

Ann is currently still awake, despite the fact it is 1am. I think the diet Pepsi she had at the drive in might be keeping her awake.

Batty waitresses seen - 2

Moose watch - low

States visited - 11

Day Eleven

I will apologise before I start for the lack of anything remotely interesting in today's blog.

We had breakfast in the hotel and then got on our way. We drove up out of Arkansas and into Missouri. We arrived at Joplin. We stopped twice. Once in a rest area and once for lunch at a Subway.

That pretty much sums up the day. We've since been out for dinner at Denny's. It was fine.

We are staying at Homewood Suites by Hilton. Our room has a kitchen, a lounge and the bedroom and bathroom. Ann is now watching Independence Day.

To make up for this completely unentertaining blog, here are some pictures of things from our journey.

Tunnel

Plane

Scary Bus



Gorilla with fireworks

As you can see, a highly entertaining day.

And here is a video of our room.

Moose Watch - Low

States visited - 11

Day Ten

Another day, another journey. Had breakfast in the hotel and watched the news. It had about the dentist who shot the lion. There is now a tribute to the dead lion outside his dental practice. They showed it, it was just some toy lions. Apparently he has done it before with a bear. Enough said. It wasn't the main news though, that was Tom Brady getting a four match NFL ban.

We left Greenville and won't miss it. Nothing particularly wrong with it, just not a place to spend any time.

Not far from the edge of the city, we crossed the Mississippi River for the second time in our lives. The first time was on our original trip in 2010, when we were much further north. As we crossed Ol' Man River we also moved into Arkansas.

After just 17 miles, we veered off course and took a 40 mile round trip south to tick another box. When we got there we saw this.

Sign

It meant we could cross Louisiana off our list of states we've been to. Didn't stay there long, didn't go any further in.

Getting back on our actual route, we headed north west up into Arkansas. We stopped for fuel and to get supplies. As we left the gas station, Ann asked me whether I had seen the woman's chest. I felt this was a trick question with no possible right answer. Anyway, it turns out that apparently this woman had a hairy chest. I could safely say I hadn't noticed.

We then found a nice place to stop, on a small dirt track next to a railroad. Ann got all David Bailey, although the heat made it difficult to stand outside for too long. Also watched some more crop dusting going on.

A very corny photo

We hoped to see a train go past but we only saw two of these cheeky things.



I don't even know what it is

We carried on driving and then as we passed through a small town called Sheridan, we saw a little place called Brew Heaven Café. We decided to pull over and grab lunch as it had gone 1.30pm. Glad we did. It was shutting at 2pm, so there weren't many people in it. When we sat down, a guy sat eating, I think he was called Mickey Redneck, recommended the pork chops. He seemed slightly annoyed later that we had ignored his advice. We decided that it looked like a very trendy place in London, polished concrete floor, old style furniture, bare old walls. Probably would cost you £10 for a coffee if it was.

Shabby Chic

We ate, it was very nice and then later had a long chat with the people left in there about what we were doing. They tried to persuade us to go to the local museum whilst we were in town. We were terribly British and accepted the leaflet they gave us and said we'd check it out. Then, when we got in the car, we drove away.

We headed onward, watching the outside temperature gauge get higher and higher, eventually topping out at 102.

We reached our destination of Hot Springs around mid afternoon. We checked in, sat around for a bit (I watched Ashes highlights), before heading out.

We went to play our first mini golf of the holiday at the Pirate's Cove.

There were two 18 hole courses to choose from, so we picked the difficult one. It showed in our scores. It was a par 42 course.

Final scores were:

Roffe - 59
Knightley - 52

It was still burning hot, to the point that we were both sweating buckets by the time we finished. Luckily there was a gas station next door, so we ran into the shop to cool down when we had finished. Bought some drinks and then sat in the car finishing our cool off.

We then went for a drive around the area, crossing over Lake Hamilton before heading back into downtown Hot Springs. Thought you might like to know that Hot Springs was the boyhood home of Bill Clinton and the birthplace of Billy Bob Thornton. Maybe you didn't want to know that.

We stopped for dinner at the Dixie Café, http://dixiecafe.com/, where we were served by Misty and saw the funniest male hairstyle, before heading back to the hotel.

Bears seen - 0

Moose Watch - low

States Visited - 10

Day Nine

This should be the shortest post I’ve ever written. We did very little today.

Up, breakfast and left the hotel. Headed straight across town to see Tupelo’s only claim to fame.

And here it is: 

Elvis has left the building

That’s right, as mentioned yesterday, Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis. More specifically this house, that Mr Presley Snr built, is. There is a museum by the house but we didn’t bother with it. Just had a look at the house and that was enough. It also has Elvis’s car.

Caught in a speed trap

After stopping for all of two minutes we left and headed south west. Last night when I googled the route, it looked like we would be back on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Luckily the sat nav had other ideas. We ended up spending the majority of the journey on smaller highways, which was more enjoyable than the parkway or interstates.

You get to see many more weird and wonderful things, like this sure sign that we are in deepest Mississippi.

Yeehaw!!

Soon we were on the Mississippi delta and the temperature got steadily warmer. We stopped to get a drink from a gas station. We didn’t stay long.

In actual fact, we arrived at our destination, Greensville, by 2pm. We managed to check in early. The hotel is ok, but the area has one major downfall which is the water is brown due to filtration through peat or some such thing. Therefore if you fill the sink up it is a light brown colour, but perfectly clean.

We nipped out for lunch before heading back to the hotel for a swim in the outdoor pool! Did bit of sunbathing in the 97° heat. Was great. Ann hid in the shade.

Decided to just eat snacks for tea, so we didn’t have to bother going anywhere. Planning to get up and out early.

Moose watch - low

States visited - 8

Day Eight

Got up early for once. We were out of the hotel just after 8am and on the way to our first stop. It wasn't far and it was the reason we were staying in Bowling Green. So by 8.30am we were in here http://www.corvettemuseum.org/.  Corvettes have been made in Bowling Green since 1981 and the museum opened in 1994.

The first Corvette from 1953

There were plenty of different Corvettes from over the years. We wandered around and decided which ones we would have and which looked a bit naff.

My choice

Ann's Choice (It was Roy Orbison's car)

In the middle of the museum was a place called the Skydome, which was basically a round room with a high ceiling. What we realised as we looked at the exhibits was that last year a sinkhole opened up underneath it and eight cars fell in. Their total worth was about $1million. They got removed in the days afterward but most were damaged beyond repair, so now they are just on display as they ended up.

Not much to look at

We spent about an hour and a half there before we started our journey south. Soon we had crossed the border into Tennessee and not long afterwards we passed through a famous city.

Nashville - Home of country music

Soon we stopped for gas. Decided to get some supplies in. The woman behind the counter had a very southern drawl and confused Ann when she said to us 'Doyoowannaaasaaakk'. Ann looked at her bemused whilst I replied no. She was asking us if we wanted a bag. It did, however, provide me with much entertainment for the next hour as I kept asking Ann 'Doyoowannaaasaaakk?'

We headed on south and soon got onto the Natchez Trace Parkway. We didn't really know what it was but we joined it as it took us towards another place we needed to go. In actual fact in turns out it is an old Native American trail which runs from Nashville to Natchez, some 444 miles. It has a lot of historical sites along it and a variety of wildlife. Thought we might have a chance of seeing a bear, but we didn't. Did see some extraordinary spiders webs in the trees.

Large webs

I asked Ann whether she thought that the spiders that spun them were big enough to catch bears and store them in the web. Was told to shut up about spiders.

It wasn't long before we reached our next goal of Alabama. Decided to stop for lunch but had trouble finding somewhere. Eventually found Florence and stopped. The woman behind the counter of Subway was amazed by our accents. Don't think they get many outsiders down that way.

We ate and moved on, eventually we made it into Mississippi. Stopped for the night in Tupelo, the birthplace of The King. Woman on the reception desk asked us where we were from. We said England. She said I knew it was from somewhere that way and pointed yonder.

Had a swim in the hotel pool, unfortunately it was inside which meant we couldn't make use of the sun and the 93 degrees outside.

Popped out for dinner at the Waffle House. It was Ann's idea but as soon as we got there she was regretting it. It was not the most salubrious of locations, but hey ho, we're British and we got on with it. It was fine. Hilarious moment when we ordered. The waitress thought Ann asked for 'Two more toasts' with her scrambled egg, ham and toast. Ann then had to adopt a southern drawl and say 'Tumatetoes'.

Anyhow, now back at the hotel. In a surprise twist, Ann is not watching Harry Potter, however she is watching Jurassic Park 3, which I am sure I have mentioned in past blogs three or five years ago.

Tomorrow we move on, but not too far, we don't even leave the state! Hurrah. Hoping for an outdoor pool.

Day Seven

We have now been here a whole week. It seems to have shot by, but already the first few days seem a long time ago. Strange really.

We got up about 8am. Ann did some Skyping and then we went for breakfast. Packed up and headed south.

Journey was fairly dull. Passed the time by taking photos of odd things. Eventually we drove through Cincinnati.

Cin City

It seemed a fairly tired place with lots of derelict buildings in some areas. It also sits right on the Ohio/Kentucky border, so we moved across into another state. The further we moved into Kentucky the odder it seemed. We saw lots of places advertising Adult Books and Peep Shows or Girls, Girls, Girls. Most looked grimy, dingy places like the one below.




Pussy Galore

The next thing we saw also linked with Pussy Galore, for Kentucky is home to Fort Knox. We drove past and took pictures from the side. You can drive along Bullion Boulevard in front of it, but you are not allowed to take photos along that road, so we saw no point in doing so.

Mr Goldfinger

$337billion worth of gold is supposedly stored in it, although some people reckon there is not one cent worth in there anymore. Who knows? You can't go in like you can at the Federal Reserve in New York. We did that in 2010 and saw more gold than Fort Knox has.

We stopped for lunch at a Subway not long after. Didn't stay long. Carried on south. Took pictures of more weird and wonderful things.

My kind of shop

Eventually we reached our destination of Bowling Green. Checked in and then watched more Harry Potter.

Popped out to IHOP for dinner. Was a fairly forgetful experience. We did get asked where we were from and the waitress said she loved our accents, but she also told us she'd been working almost non stop since Friday. It showed. Ann ordered two blueberry pancakes with banana and scrambled eggs with no bacon. She got two blueberry pancakes, bacon, hash browns and scrambled egg. Ate quickly and left.

Now back watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two. Getting ready to leave early tomorrow as we have stuff to do before we head even further south. The accents are already very thick here, but they will get a whole lot thicker tomorrow.

Bears seen - 0

Moose watch - low

States visited - 5

Day Six

Went to bed early.  Was awoken at about 2am by an argument going on somewhere. A man and woman shouting at each other, I presumed it was outside the window, but I couldn't be bothered to check. Thought it might end with a gunshot, but it didn't.

Was woken again at 7am by the wall behind our bed being thumped rhythmically. Presumed it was coital activity going on next door, but I couldn't be bothered to check. Thought it might end with a gunshot, but it didn't.

Woke up really late. Ate breakfast in the hotel. We both decided just to have cereal as we had eaten a lot of crap in the last few days. Ate lots of cereal.

Headed out to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Set the sat nav and off we went.

Unfortunately we had a bit of a mare. The sat nav took us to one of the main base entrances not the museum one, although it did say museum when we programmed it. Couldn't find any alternative and we had left the paperwork with the actual address back at the hotel. Had to go back to hotel. Used Wi-Fi in car park to look up the museum website. The address it gave was the same as the sat nav, but it did have alternative one (for a building opposite the entrance) you could use if the sat nav couldn't handle it. Used that one instead. It worked.

When we arrived the car park was very busy. Ended up having to park in Ermington and walk back. Went in. It is a free museum which is incredible considering how big it is. Even with the car park full, there was so much room inside as it takes up three massive hangers.

It was 11am, we had until it closed at 5pm, so decided to start at the beginning and work through. The first hangar was in two sections, origins of flight/WWI and WWII. It was very interesting. We spent a lot of time reading all the exhibits and taking pictures of the planes. There were lots of planes. A lot, lot of planes.

Here are a few of them.

Plane

Plane

Plane

Plane

Big Plane

Two Planes

It was a very thorough section. All sorts of planes and bombs, including a Spitfire, a Messerschmitt, V1 and V2 rockets. Also learnt some interesting facts like that Walt Disney let his animators design insignia for the US Military during WWII for free.

Then all of a sudden we came across something that we didn't know was at the museum, probably the most infamous aircraft of the 20th century. If I tell you it's a B29 bomber called 'Bockscar' you may still be none the wiser. If I tell you it killed 35,000 people and injured 60,000 more, you might have guessed where its target was. It was used in the second and last nuclear attack in history, destroying 44% of Nagasaki.

Bockscar complete with a replica of the Fat Boy bomb it dropped

Now all around the museum it had signs saying don't touch the aircraft, but seeing as this and the Enola Gay are the two most notorious planes on the planet, I felt I could ignore the signs. So I did. Now I can say I have touched the one of the most infamous things of all time. Not often you can say that.

By this time it was about 2pm, so we had spent three hours in the first hangar. The website says to give a whole day to your visit and we were pleased that we had decided to do so. We decided to go and sit in the café and have lunch. It was a good idea as our legs and backs were aching. We discussed that we had noticed that lot of American families had a much older dad with a younger mum, especially those that had oriental wives. Presumed it was because they were all mail order brides.

After lunch we had just over two hours left, so we decided we needed to speed up. We headed to hangar two which housed exhibits from the Korean war and from Vietnam. It included one of the most famous US plane models and pop groups, the B52. It was bloody massive!

Love Shack

We finished off by going into hanger three, the cold war to modern section. Had to whip around it fairly quickly.

Still lots of planes.

More Planes

Did see another iconic plane.

B2 Bomber or Stealth Bomber 

By now time was getting on, so we headed to the shop and then outside to the final handful of planes that are kept outside. Was very hot. Started sweating very quickly, plus it hit 5pm, so headed back to the car to sit in the air conditioning. Decided that it had been a very good day.

Headed back to the hotel, stopping off to get some subs to take back for tea.

Ann is now watching a Harry Potter marathon. Order of the Phoenix and now the Half Blood Prince.

Tomorrow we move on.

Bears seen - 0

Moose Watch - Low

Plane Watch - High

States Visited - 4

Day Five

Actually slept quite a lot, although maybe losing the hour made it seem as though we had slept for longer. Woke to the devastating news that Ermington's cricket match had been called off due to rain. Looked out the window and it wasn't raining. Remembered we were actually somewhere where the weather is nice.

Got up and had breakfast in the hotel. Packed up and hit the road. Ann decided that she wanted to drive. Headed out of Michigan back into Indiana. Nearly got attacked by a crop dusting plane.

I picked a helluva day to quit drinkin'!

Bonus points if you can get the movie from that quote. Paul Knightley will be able to.

Stopped for a quick break. Broke our Dunkin' Donuts duck, having never been there before. It was alright, I had a strawberry iced ring, Ann had something.

Carried on driving, moving into Ohio. Plugged in the iPod and put our 60/70s rock music on as we went. Nothing better than cruising to Creedance Clearwater Revival and Grand Funk Railroad. Went off the beaten track for lunch, driving off piste until we hit Celina. Parked up by the old courthouse. Ate in the Fountain Restaurant. It was ace, old school diner in the heart of the town.

Scrap at the Fountain

As we walked back across the street to the car, I pointed out to Ann that the courthouse looked like the one in Hill Valley in Back to the Future. There was no sign of Doc carrying out weather experiments. Carried on driving south. It was very flat. Listened to K-Mullet radio. Not much more to report on the drive other than we completed it. Arrived in Beavercreek, Dayton, Ohio. This place is just down the road from our hotel.

Crazy name!

Checked in.

Decided to eat yesterday's leftover pizza for tea. Bought some extras from Walmart to go with it. Had a Hershey's dessert. Tasted very much like a 'Birds Eye Lovely' dessert from the 1970/80s. Watched 'Waiting for God' whilst we ate. Thought it was very strange for it to be on American TV.

Ann is now watching Downton Abbey. Bates has just been sentenced to death and Isis is missing.

Bears seen - 0

Moose watch - low

States Visited - 4

Day Four

Time to leave Chicago.

Got up at 7am, out at http://eggsperiencecafe.com/ for breakfast again by 7.40am. I had waffles, Ann had eggs or something. She sat in blueberries and ruined her white shorts.

Back at hotel to pack up by 8.30am, checked out by 9am.

Walked out of hotel, taxi drove past, I looked at it, it stopped. We got in and were back at O'Hare Airport by 9.40am.

Taxi dropped us off right by the Alamo Car Rental office. So far, everything had gone to plan. That didn't last long.

We had booked our car pre holiday and as ever chose a standard SUV. Now both previous times we have ended up with decent size cars, but today we ended up getting the exact one it gives as an example of the size, a Hyundai Sante Fe.

We got in it and within seconds Ann got a paddy on. To sum it up succinctly, she hated the car and couldn't understand why we had it. I tried to point out that it was exactly what we had booked but she didn't want to know. I tried to point out that on both previous occasions we have ended up with bigger cars by luck rather than judgement (In Washington, we got to choose from four different ones that were ready to go out and in Miami they had nothing except a bigger SUV so the guy just said 'It's not the right one, but just take it'). This time however we got the standard SUV we had booked, end of argument.

At this point I offered to get on a plane and fly home to help out. Apparently, that wasn't a helpful solution. By the look in Ann's eye, I could tell that the next twenty five days were going to be hell if I put the car into drive and left the car park.  Eventually I told her if she wanted it changed she needed to go back inside and speak to someone. She did. She came back and said that we could change it if we paid for an upgrade. So, what do you do in this situation??

Answer: get your credit card out and shut up.

I did just that. The two ladies behind the desk were on Ann's side, but seeing as they work for the company presumably they wanted us to throw money at them. However, they also did their best to help us. We paid for a one level upgrade, but they sorted us a two level upgrade car. One of them then went and made their maintenance guys do an oil change on the one they wanted us to have, as we were doing such a long journey. She then had it washed and drove it over personally. Ann hugged them. They asked if they could come on holiday with us. Computer said no.

We got in the car. Ann was no longer in a paddy. She was in a Dodge Durango.

The right car!!

Set the sat nav for Stevensville and away we went. It took us back into Chicago as it felt that was the best route following I90 and I94. What this did mean was that two hours after leaving, we were right back where we started. Traffic was slow. Felt like we were never going to actually be able to get away from the city. An hour later and we were still within the outer reaches of the suburbs. Eventually we managed to break free of the city's force field and into the state of Indiana.

Didn't stay there for long, moving into Michigan and to Stevensville. You can tell when you get to Michigan as the road surfaces are bloody terrible. Arrived at 2pm, although it was now 3pm as we had changed time zones. Checked in, ate left over cheese and biscuits for lunch and then headed out for quiet afternoon.

Went to Jean Klock Park beach on the shore of Lake Michigan. Sat in the warm sun and swam in the warm water. The perfect antidote to two days in Chicago. It did resemble the Alfred Hitchcock film 'The Birds' though. Lots of seagulls all just stood motionless, staring at you. I stared back. Think I won the war of minds.

Eventually we headed off and stopped for dinner on the way back to the hotel. Visited an old favourite from the last time we were in Michigan.

Still Fabulous

Sat in the car and ate it. Ann dropped sauce over her other pair of white shorts. I got sauce on my shirt and the sun visor. Bought stain remover from Walgreens.

Headed home and now sat doing this whilst Ann has been down the launderette cleaning all her shorts.

Just seen another USA shooting massacre on the news, this time in Louisiana. Made us glad that we are literally dipping in and out of the state later on in the trip.

Bears seen - 0

Moose watch - low

Seagull Watch - extremely high

States visited - 3

Day Three

Woke up a bit later this morning, which was good. Told Ann about last night's fire truck activity. She didn't hear any of it, which considering they were right outside the window with the sirens blaring for twenty minutes, says much about how dead to the world she was. Mooched about for a bit longer before heading out for a late breakfast.

Went back to the same place as yesterday, http://eggsperiencecafe.com/ . I had waffles, Ann had something. Saw some guys washing windows via the medium of abseiling. Didn't fancy that as a career.

Headed back to the hotel in order to get ready for the day. Got everything and then headed back to the http://www.coachusa.com/chicagotrolley/ . Caught it down to Willis Tower, where we got off and boarded a different tour. This one took us much further south, via Chinatown and the US Cellular Field (Home of the Chicago White Sox), to the Museum of Science and Industry - http://www.msichicago.org/. The journey took much longer than we were anticipating. We were dying by the time we arrived.

Found our way in and immediately got a drink, before setting off around the place. From our past experience of American museums, we knew to expect a slightly simpler selection of exhibits and labels. Today we learnt some interesting facts, for example, did you know that a tsunami is a big wave? It was ok, not the best museum we've ever been to, but not the worst either.

Did see a vortex.

And this. U505 captured by the US Navy during World War II.

Up Periscope

We had a look at most things before deciding it was time to leave. Caught the trolley tour back to downtown Chicago. Stopped to claim the free t-shirts we got with our two day passes. Walked back to the hotel and then went out for dinner.

Went here. http://www.unos.com/ It is on the corner of our block so not far to travel. It claims to be the home of the deep pan pizza, the first company ever to make it. We both had pizza. It is very deep pan, like a pie with cheese. To be fair, we both weren't particularly keen on the pieness of them.

When we finished we headed down to the Navy Pier for our last Chicago activity. Proved to be the best. Went out on a large speed boat to see the Chicago skyline before returning back to the harbour to watch fireworks. Tried to take pictures, but was very difficult due to darkness and the boat moving. The video came out better.

A great way to round off our stay here. The skyline at dusk was amazing on its own and then to see the fireworks was the icing on the cake.

When we got back on land we had a look at the pier attractions. Saw this.

The big wheel is too big to ride on.

Wandered back to the hotel to start the packing up procedure and to type this. Thought I would show you the hotel lift having mentioned it the other day.

Cover up

Now have The Late Show with James Corden on TV.  As ever, Ann has gone to bed.


Bears seen - 0

Moose Watch - Low

Submarine Watch - High

States Visited - 1

Day Two

Woke up at 6am. Not too bad all things considered. Tried to sleep for longer, didn't really work. Got up at about 8.30am. There was a knock on the door, it was housekeeping. Told them to come back in about an hour and we would be gone. Put on some 60s/70s American rock music and got ready.

As good as our word, we went out at 9.30am. Headed a short distance to this place  http://eggsperiencecafe.com/. Had breakfast -  pancakes with syrup, Ann had scrambled eggs or something. First three pancakes were fine, last one was a struggle.

Headed back to the hotel to get ready to head off across downtown Chicago. Room had not been serviced. Went out again. Bought a two day pass for the Chicago Trolley and Double Decker Bus Co. tour. Caught said bus to our first port of call, The Willis Tower. It used to be the Sears Tower, but now it isn't. Used to be the tallest building in the western hemisphere. Now it isn't. The new WTC 1 in New York has beaten it. Chicagoans seemed annoyed by this.

Walked into the entrance to find that the approximate waiting time to get to the viewing deck was an hour. Seasoned pros like us had already foreseen this and had bought fast track passes in advance. We made it to the 103rd floor in no time. Took photos of the various views across Chicago.

What you talking about, Willis?

The tower has a new feature which we decided to queue for. There are now four glass boxes sticking out from the edge of the tower that you can go and stand in. Whilst queuing, came to the conclusion that people these days don't want to experience anything anymore, they just want a picture of themselves at the experience. Couldn't believe how long we had to wait whilst people took a million photos of themselves and each other doing various crap poses. Of all the people who went and stood out in the box we queued for, only one, a boy of about five, actually looked down. He was utterly transfixed by it and I don't blame him.

When we finally got our turn, we spent most of the time staring down at the gaping drop. We did take a couple of photos, but mainly so we could show you good folk what it was like.

We're Walking in the Air!

As I stepped out onto the glass I was hoping they had built the thing properly. Mum would have loved it!!

After we had had our fill, we headed back down to earth and caught the bus again. Went just one stop before getting off and walking back to the hotel. Nipped to the Subway opposite and bought lunch, then went back to our room to eat it. Room still had not been serviced. Skyped Paul. Knock on the door, it was housekeeping. Said we're going out in a minute, come back in about five and we'll be gone.

Headed out to the Navy Pier. It's a pier. Quite hot in the sun, so sat inside and ate huge ice cream cones. I had chocolate, Ann had something.

Then we made our way to the second major activity of our day, a Segway tour of the waterfront with http://www.chicagosegwaytour.com/. Had to be there for 5.10pm, so we got there just before 5pm. Sat and waited. Filled in a form that basically said if we died or whatever the company were not to blame. Waited for ever. It was meant to start at 5.30pm, hence why you had to be there early to fill in forms and get a bright yellow helmet. People were still arriving at 5.35pm. Man was not happy. Another man who worked there came riding in on a bike quite fast, before turning a corner and falling off. We laughed a lot. Eventually they started the safety stuff and then we got to have a go. Ann was chosen first.

I finally got my own Segway, and when everybody else was up and running we headed on out. Tour lasted nearly two hours. There was the odd bit of trivia but basically it was an excuse to drive a Segway around. Shame we had to follow the bloke really. Our group had one or two incompetent people in it, who seemed to travel very slowly. We stopped for a photo op.

Niles Crane and Daphne.

On the way back, I heard a scream from behind and saw a French girl that was in our group speeding out of control. Luckily she was heading straight at me. She seemed to have forgotten how to stop, so panicked and jumped off. The Segway ploughed into mine. I had seen it coming so was prepared for impact. It was very funny. Man got annoyed with the girl and from then on she had to go at the front with him, the Segway equivalent of the naughty step.

It was great fun and would thoroughly recommend it. Told Ann I want to get my own Segway. She asked why, I said so I could spin around on it.

We eventually finished the tour at 8.10pm, which scuppered our final plan for the evening. We were hoping to head to Lincoln Park to watch a free outdoor screening of Wayne's World, but as we finished late, we couldn't get there in time.

Instead we wandered back home, picking up some cheese and biscuits for tea. When we got back the room had been serviced. Hurrah.

It is now quite late as the computer decided to do some updating so had to wait an age for it to do so.

As ever, Ann is asleep. She has just missed out on this though.

Eventually, they all got back in the trucks and buggered off. Time for bed now.

Bears seen - 0

Moose watch - Low

States Visited - 1

Day One

It's never good when on the first Monday of the holidays your alarm goes off at 6.25am. Although we'll make an exception in this case.

Got up, got ready and were sorted by the time mum and dad arrived to drive us to the station. Arrived at Totnes just a little bit early. Sat in the café for a while. Eventually the train arrived. A rush of people trying to get on meant I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye as said people blocked the door. Found our seats.

A quick quiz question. If there one hundred empty seats on a train and only two have reserved tickets in them, which do you sit in?

Well, if you are miserable bastard wearing a light mustard jacket then you sit in a reserved one. As we arrived by our seats, he had the temerity to point at the seats opposite and say you can sit there if you like. That didn't go down too well. I pointed out that we'd like to sit in our seats. He huffed and threw his laptop across the table and moved in a deliberately flouncy way. We gave each other a sideways glance and sat down.

Train got busier and busier. We thought we'd never seen a First Class section so full. Turns out the train before us was cancelled due to a dodgy speedometer, so they were just piling everybody on to the train in any seat, and then any aisle. By the time we left Westbury our carriage had people stood all the way down the aisle. Ann and I agreed that we should be smug as we had reserved seats and had no intention of offering them to anybody.

I had the joy of a Waitrose family standing next to me. Both parents appeared to be utterly pointless. Their young daughter's eagerness to show her father the writing she'd just spent half an hour doing was soon met with him taking the book, not looking away from his phone and saying 'That's amazing' before jabbing the book back at her without a glance. She looked very glum. I felt glum for her.

Eventually arrived at Reading. Got off train, got on RailAir Link coach. It was less crowded. Breezed along to Heathrow Terminal Five. Checked luggage in, ate some lunch, sorted out my car insurance and then waited for the gate to open.

It did, got on plane, waited, waited, waited, eventually took off fifty odd minutes late. Flight was fairly uneventful. Watched a couple of films, bit of TV, won 'Who wants to be a millionaire', ate food. Not much more to say.

Before long we saw this.

The Windy City

Landed at Chicago O'Hare. Got through immigration without any hassle. Caught a cab. He tried to drive past our hotel. Checked in to http://www.acmehotelcompany.com/

It is a bit funky, a bit old school punk rock. Album covers on the lift walls.

Got to our room, looked out the window.

Chicageeee!

The bathroom is funky too!

He's the Lips

Went for a walk to grab some drinks as we both were feeling a bit dehydrated. In the shop, Ann threw a whole shelf load of stuff across the floor. Neon sign said it was 87 degrees. Feet got hot.

Now back in the room. As I type this Ann is awake, which is unheard of, although I think she may be asleep with her eyes open as she has been very dopey since we've arrived. She has just been unable to find her phone charger which was right in front of her.

Anyway bed soon as it is now 10.20pm CDT, which is 4.20am BST. Travelled 4000 miles and been up for nearly day. Need to be ready for tomorrow.

Ann is now asleep as ever.

Bears seen - 0

Moose Watch -Low

States Visited - 1