Airboats and Bedbugs!

We got in late last night so didn't meet the lady hosting us and strangely she seems to be hiding from us today so after a while of waiting around we give up and leave without saying goodbye (some airbnb-ers are very trusting). At least her husband was nice last night.

Today we want to do an airboat ride so we drive around until we spot a nice cheap one. We get on board and the driver tells us not to be worried if its our first time on an air boat as it's his first time too, ooh errr!! The ride is brilliant, so fast and so loud. He throws in a few spins for good measure and the whole thing lasts for at least half an hour, we'd recommend it to anyone. We didn't spot any gators but we saw so many yesterday we're happy with the thrill ride. Did we mention we even got the front seat to ourselves?!

We're not sure where our next stop is, we're going to drive in the direction of New Orleans and check into a motel when we're fed up of driving. Surprisingly this doesn't panic us anymore, we're getting quite used to planning a few hours ahead at most! Is that good on a CV?

Checking into a motel everything is fine until it gets to 12.30am and Christine spots something crawling on the bed...bedbugs!! Jumping up we find a couple more and squash them in a tissue. We can't see any more but we can't relax so ask to change rooms. The guy at the desk is really apologetic and moves us straight away. We show him the bugs and he shudders. The new room seems fine and we manage to get some sleep.

The next morning James goes to speak to the manager about the bedbugs. She's not very sympathetic and when James shows her the dead bugs in the tissue she says it doesn't prove anything and they could be fleas that we brought in (ooohhh the cheeky...). He shows her the black spots (another sign of bedbugs) and she says its just mildew and if there were bedbugs the mattress would be full of them now. Yes, those nocturnal bugs would be out at 8am wouldn't they?! Just as James is losing patience a big fat bedbug runs across the bed, perfect timing! There's no denying that one so she mumbles an apology and gives us a partial refund. You're still getting a bad review for calling us flea-ridden liars Mrs!! Our advice is always check the reviews online and if there's even one mention of bugs, or switching rooms in the night because of a mystery problem, then give the place a miss.
As we are packing up the car a black guy says "Man it's hot, I'll be workin' on my tan. I'm going from a 32 black to a 33 black, aw yeah." James replies that he'll be going pink like a lobster prompting the response "I'll see you at the beach, boy!!" Heehee!

It's another day of driving to get close to New Orleans. We book into a motel, check the bed and have an early night. We're looking forward to tomorrow! Jazzfest!!!

The Everglades

Arriving at the visitors centre we're crossing a bridge when someone points out a baby alligator to us, awww! Now that we've seen one we can move onto the next place. Bye Everglades!

Excited!

Awww, baby gator.

Just kidding of course. We park the car up and cover it with a vulture protector (tarp) and a guy tells us that we don't need to do that unless we have a dead body in the car HAHAHA...maybe we have old man, maybe we have... Anyway, on to the walking trail and alligator spotting. We spot some turtles and pretty looking birds before coming across our first adult gator just casually floating about, wondering how to get on to the platform to eat the humans. The family next to us shout "HEY LOOK AT THIS HUGE TURTLE! Oh it swam away. HEY THIS ALLIGATOR IS SLEEPING!" Not anymore it's not loudmouth, heehee!

Well, I WAS sleeping...

We spot an alligator hiding underneath the walkway and a few more with their heads just visible, people are charging past us and we think they're silly for missing this gator action until we hear a loud ROAR! Going around the corner there are loads of Alligators having a nice chat  and all of the people who we thought were silly are here, I guess we were the silly ones weren't we eh?  When they finally shut up the alligators hear Christine rustling in her bag and swim over hoping to get some cheese and onion crisps. When she doesn't comply they give her some right evils! James says the gators sound like his Dad snoring!

Ever been worried about falling in whilst walking over the gaps on Blackpool pier?

The big daddy

But Cheese and Onion are my favorite!

We carry on walking and as James is watching an alligator sunning itself a huge vulture lands right next to him and he poops himself. He doesn't want to move anywhere for fear of being pecked/gouged but is glad his pockets a empty today. We see lots more vultures, other birds and insects before ending our trip and driving along Alligator Alley (which is actually just a boring highway) to our next host. It was the gators that really made our day!

Just topping up my tan

Ere mate, got any corned beef sandwiches?

Vulture faces

Florida

It's going to be a long day as we have a 10 hour drive to get back to Denver where we'll be getting a flight to Florida. We finally arrive at the airport, get rid of the car and have time for a drink in the hope that it will help us sleep through the flight...nope, it didn't work. We miss the  trains and coaches of Europe!

We get to Florida at 5.30am pick up the hire car and get to our hosts house in Miami. It's a gorgeous day and other guests are chilling out in the garden but we're so tired that we go straight to bed.  We wake up in the early afternoon and take a trip to downtown Miami. There doesn't seem to be much that we're interested in doing so we have a walk down the marina before finding somewhere to eat. We see a park with statues so go to investigate. The statues are of famous peace lovers (Mother Teresa, Ghandi etc) holding guns and ammo. It's supposed to be about anti violence and anti guns but it looks more like its promoting them to us. 'Hey look, Mother Teresa says guns are OK!' -  We definitely don't like these statues.

We get the free trolley around town in the hope that it will take us somewhere interesting but it doesn't. The driver is confused because we don't get off anywhere and he laughs when we say we're just having a free tour. Maybe he knows what a silly idea it was! Time to go home which seems to take a million years, the public transport in the USA is rubbish!

The next morning we're feeling a bit more alive so we join our host and the other guests for scrambled eggs and pancakes, yum! Everyone is nice and one of the girls has visited quite a few places we're planning on going so we get a good long list of tips to check out on our way up north. After watching two lizards mate in the garden (heehee!) we get in the car to drive to the Everglades!

 

Helllooooo pretty ladies!

 

Yellowstone National Park

We've both been really excited to come to Yellowstone and we're glad to see that the roads have opened as planned today. We were starting to get worried with all the talk of 'worst winter ever' that we've been hearing. Driving in we decide to take the nature route which is the north road. We see lots of buffalo, deer, elk and a yellow-bellied marmot (who seemed to be as interested in watching us as we were him). Excitement mounts every time we think we've spotted a bear or wolf but each time it's just a rock or a big log, tut.

Stopping at Mammoth Springs we don't like the rotten egg smell but it's cool to see the different colours and the bubbling water. It starts to rain and it's getting late so we decide to head towards our motel for the nite, just as well as it's 30 miles away through more of the park with a 35mph speed limit! We know we can look forward to another day in Yellowstone tomorrow. We're staying in a really nice motel which has more of a B&B feel to it and is really cosy. Walking around the town we're not surprised to see that everything is closed for the season but we still manage to find a nice place for pizza and local beer, and it's well earned after a long day!

In the morning we set off early and we're excited to see the geysers and hot springs. As we're driving through the park James spots a tiny moving blob on the snow in the distance, but what is it? We take loads of pictures on full zoom and magnify as much as we can and agree...it's a wolf! Yet another animal ticked off the list, still waiting for those bears though!

Can you see him?

The next stops are Lower Geyser Basin and Grand Prismatic Springs where we 'ooh and ahh' at the different coloured hot springs and splurty geysers, they're wonderful to see up close. The colours (caused by thermophilic bacteria in the water) are so bright and vivid and waves of steam make the pools (and Christine) appear and disappear as if by magic.

On to the main attraction of Old Faithful. We sit next to a family who say they have been waiting for an hour so we should only have an half an hour to wait; Yes! After a while, and a few false starts, Old Faithful starts to splutter and then turns into a 40ft fountain! It lasts for about 5 minutes so we're surprised to see people leaving after 2 minutes. Fancy waiting for over an hour to see it and then not staying to watch it for the full 5 minutes, strange! When it's finished we go for a walk to see more geysers but most of the walking trails are still closed. We can still see a few different ones firing off in the distance.

Getting in the car we start to make our way out of the park but still have time to see more geysers and springs at Black Sand Basin, the eggy fumes have started to make us feel a bit sick though. We haven't booked anywhere to stay tonight so it's a drive for as long as we can manage until we spot some motels in Jackson. It's a spectacular drive through the mountains and we did well not to be on the road after dark!

We're disappointed with the no show bears, they're getting a bad review on tripadvisor! Wake up bears!

Badlands, Mount Rushmore & Devil's Tower

James makes a proper breakfast on the stove (aren't we turning into pioneers!) and we make our way to the Badlands, only a short drive since our cabin was right on the edge of the park. First stop is the visitors centre to wash our hands, water...lovely, lovely water! The Badlands are stunning and we have fun walking around the trails with James pretending he's landed on the moon.

Ooohh!

one small step for (wo)man

View from above

Driving through the park we finally see some Prairie Dogs, yippeee! They pop up out of their burrows and wag their tails at us, heehee! By the time we leave the park we can't believe we spent so long trying to see the first few which were so far away as now they're pretty much running alongside the car!

'Ello mate!

awww I want one.

We leave the Badlands behind and drive to Spearfish which we've heard is a lovely town in the Black Hills. The motel owner is really nice and gives us some tips to explore. We walk around the quiet town, we like the places where people are surprised to see tourists! We stop for food in a steak house place but it makes Christine queasy so that ends the night!

Time to visit Mount Rushmore. We take the scenic route and drive through Deadwood. Just by looking at the houses and the simple layout of the town, nestled in the mountains, Christine decides that she could quite happily live here. Signs for rhubarb wine catch our eye so we stop for a wine tasting session. Rhubarb wine is quite sweet but crab apple wine is good! It's a shame we have to drive as we see a few more wineries and breweries where we could have stopped for a tasting. We arrive at Mount Rushmore, walk through the avenue of flags and end up face to face (to face to face to face) with Lincoln and co. It is impressive how it's been carved out of the mountain (more so that 90% was done with dynamite) but we did expect it to be bigger. We remind ourselves of the important lesson Father Ted taught us; "Small. Far away." Time to get a little closer and do the president trail which leads you around the bottom of the mountain so you can get a closer look and a different perspective of each face. We don't have time to visit the Crazy Horse memorial but we wish we did, it has a great story behind it and is so much bigger. The people we asked doubt it'll be finished for decades.

Nailed it.

Afterwards we drive through Custer park which is known for it's wildlife. We see buffalo, prairie dogs and a bunch of burros who come up to our window in the hunt for carrots. James has fun driving back along the Iron Hill road with lots of winding turns, pig tail bridges and tunnels carved through the hillside which give a view of Rushmore as we go through them.

I'll wash your car for some carrots.

On the way back we go in search of a diner which looks like Arnold's from Happy Days. When we get there it's clear that the photos for the adverts were taken quite a while ago!  The portions are huge but alas the food is a bit blah so we can't even finish it but we're happy when we get to take away a homemade blueberry pie, mmmmmm!!

The next day we drive to see Devils Tower which is a sacred Indian site but is now better known for starring in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The legend of  how the rock appeared is that 7 sisters were playing by the river when they were approached by a big bear. They ran away but the bear gave chase. The girls climbed onto a rock and prayed to it to save them from the bear. The rock heard their prayers and started to rise upwards to the sky, out of reach of the bear. You can still see the bears claw marks on the rock (he must have been massive!) and the seven sisters are now seven stars in the sky. The reality isn't as entertaining (unless maybe you're a geologist so you can look that up yourselves) but the rock looked awesome up close. It had so many different shades of colour on it and almost had the texture of a giant tree trunk (I said almost!).

waiting for the aliens

Bear claw marks

It's a long day of driving but we rest at Little Bighorn and read about the defeat of Custer before finally getting to Bozeman for evening food and sleep.

Little Bighorn