Our American Holiday 2012 – Part 4

So we awake early, again. Where are we? Oh yes Butlins Native American Campsite, Cherokee!

However, it’s a good morning, albeit early, the breakfast is complimentary! We like complimentary.

Today’s destination is Nashville, so we are driving through Tennessee. Now Tennessee is beautiful, with quaint towns that break up the miles and miles of highway. Each town with the requisite  churches, motels, restaurants, with every other building proudly flying the American flag. And every other town name ending in ‘ville.

One thing to note about the endless miles of highway, is the cleanliness of the roads, verges and medians (the bit in the middle). And this is because the Americans seem to have the right idea and get the incarcerated prisoners out in chain gangs, encouraged by guards with rifles, to clear up all of the rubbish. Something I‘d like to see happening on the M5!

Time to go off on a little tangent here, I know in the past I may have been a little harsh on some aspects of America and Americans, but after two visits, I really have fallen in love with the place. In the main the people of America are genuine, friendly and honest. And when they inevitably say; “have a nice day”, you believe they really mean it. And if you strike up a conversation with them, they can be fascinating to talk to and fascinated by us as well, especially when you say you’re from England!

“Oh wow! Do you live in London?”

“Do you know the Queen?” etc.

America is also a land of contradictions. The population can be obese, but the hotel baths are tiny!  Plus, and I’ll put my serious hat on for a moment, for a country, especially the South, where there can be endless days of sunshine and cloudless skies, the solar panel is a rarely seen sight. One has to surmise that oil is still the king here. JR Ewing has a lot to answer for.

Anyway enough of the serious stuff, let us take a moment to introduce a few of the characters that we met on our holiday. Firstly, take Miss Daisy. Miss Daisy is not her real name, but it will do for now.

Miss Daisy was a lone Australian traveller, somewhere between 68 and 300 years old. She was generally quiet, but could whip out a quip when called upon and also be a little feisty. However, the most striking thing for me, with regard to Miss Daisy, were her eyebrows.

Or lack of them.

She clearly pencilled on these eyebrows, which gave her, depending on the steadiness of her hand, a permanent expression of surprise, bewilderment or if she had a sherry the night before, a bit of both.

On with the tour.

We arrived at our Nashville hotel, after a quick spin around the city, stopping off for the obligatory run around a gift shop.

Now, what can I remember about the Nashville hotel? Well, it was opposite a Drive thru’ McDonalds and it had one of the things I really hate about some hotels; tiny pillows!

Tiny wafer thin pillows, it’s like having no pillow at all.

Or trying to sleep with your head on a soft Ryvita!

You end up having to roll up a blanket to get a decent neck support.

Mind you, when I sat on the bed the bedside light came on! And when I stood up, it went off again. I thought; this might get interesting tonight! Anyway, I sorted the dodgy light and we went ventured out to find somewhere to eat.

We actually found ourselves sitting in a real American bar, drinking real American beer, with real Americans. It was a fantastic experience, but Little Miss Dave wasn’t keen on staying for food, so we went to the McDonalds!!  Shame on us.

The next day we were off to Memphis! And we all know that Memphis means Elvis!

Cue Suzanne putting the Elvis CD on.

We travelled from Nashville to Memphis, listening Suzanne’s expert commentary, backed ably by Elvis. Graceland was our destination today and this was one that Mrs Dave was not going to miss.

Now, I’m not a huge Elvis fan, but to just be in the same house where “the King” lived was really quite marvellous. They have preserved it in the same way it would have been in 1977, when Elvis passed on and you walk from room to room, looking at the things Elvis would have gazed upon many years ago.

Really something quite special, I have to say.

Obviously, as with everywhere else, it was “Exit through Gift Shop” and you could pick up every single piece of tacky Elvis branded merchandise available.

The one thing that did surprise me, amidst all the glitz and glamour, gold records and jump suits, was the graves of the entire Presley family in the back garden!

When you commence the tour, you are supplied with an audio guide, which takes you from room to room, when it took us out to the garden and to the graves of Elvis, Mom and Dad Elvis and Nanna Elvis, I was most surprised and moved too.

Up until that point, it was a case of “walk, stop, take photo”, but confronted with a solemn place such as the graveside of Elvis Presley!! I stopped, took a few steps back and let what can only be described as pilgrims, take their moments with their beloved king.

I took pictures whilst they weren’t looking.

I’ll round off this part of the holiday blog with several facts.

We went out in Memphis to eat that night.

We went to the Blues City Café.

We ordered a 32 ounce T-bone steak. Yes, 2lb’s of prime American steak!

I swear, as long as I live, I will never eat another steak like that again. It was immense in every conceivable way. Totally and utterly gorgeous!


Click here for Part 5

Our American Holiday 2012 – Part 3

So we depart from Washington, with a new driver; Ernie. Who turns out to be a real legend! More about Ernie in a later blog.

And we also have the delights of a new tour guide; Suzanne.

Suzanne is German, like Edith. However, she’s a bit bigger than the thin and feisty Edith. Suzanne is more of a frumpy fräulein! However, Suzanne turns out to be a real star of the holiday too.

From Washington, we travel with our new driver, guide and some new faces on the coach, off towards Roanoke and the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia.

This is where we leave the urban and suburban sprawls and feast our eyes on the magnificent countryside and mountains that Virginia has to offer.

Our first stop en-route, for a leg stretch, comfort break and lunch stop, is a place called; Colonial Williamsburg. Which is a period town, run as a living museum. With quaint olde worlde streets and period buildings, restored to their original state. A really nice stop. This is where we first discovered the magic of free re-fills on drinks from the ‘fountain’. Never ending cups of Sprite, Mountain Dew, Coke etc. certainly kept us hydrated and needing those comfort breaks!!

From Colonial Williamsburg, we travelled down to Jamestown to cross the James river on the ferry to Scotland. (That’s Scotland, Virginia).

It is days like these, when you see so much countryside and picturesque views that make these holidays a real treat.

The afternoon was taken up with travelling the long haul to Roanoke. Where we ended up in a Holiday Inn for literally 12 hours and 7 of those were in bed! Still I had enough time to polish off a bottle of Pinto Grigio by myself in the hotel restaurant.

What?

I’m on holiday!

OK, so far, nothing funny has happened. I’ll try harder!

The next morning was an early start, to leave Roanoke and head off into the Blue Ridge Mountains, heading eventually for Cherokee.

Now, Suzanne was a very organised guide, she had details of each State we went through and would talk us through the history and the culture of the places we visited. She also provided personal recommendations of where to eat in every location.

Personal recommendations!

That would account for her larger than average frame, however, as she quite rightly pointed out; she is almost slim in comparison to some of the Southern womenfolk!

Anyway, as I say, she is very organised and gets us in the mood for the places we are going to visit, which includes playing music from the local area. So, we were subjected to the vocal styling’s of Jim Hendrix.

Not Jimi. Jim.

Jim sang a style of hillbilly Country and Western.

I hate Country and Western.

Although, it was brilliant when he sang one cover of a well known song, and all the old ladies on the bus joined in!

Good times.

If you weren’t enamoured by the vocal talents of Jim and his twangy guitar, all you had to do was look out of the window and take in the breathtaking views.

Lunch stop today was at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Cracker Barrel is a chain of country stores and restaurants, but I've never seen one before. The choice of Southern style dishes was fantastic. The Southern states really know how to do food. I had the Cracker Barrel Sampler, which was, according to their menu; “A hearty sampling of our Chicken n' Dumplins, Meatloaf and Country Cured Ham.”

It was delicious!

Little Miss Dave had a couple of her favourite American things, pancakes and a bottle of Root Beer to swill them down with. Although to me, Root Beer tastes of Benylin!

As I type these blogs up, I refer to my notes, which I made at the time; I clearly was off on a whimsy, as I have seemed to have gone all soppy and almost romantic with my notes. However, I wrote them then and I shall write them again now.

Picture the scene, rocking chairs on the veranda, root beer, hot weather, the Southern drawl of the locals talking, some Country and Western on the radio. This is what it was like outside the Cracker Barrel. And it’s at times like these, when you really need to pinch yourself.

Are we really here?

When I was a kid, I had no notion that I would ever travel so far. That was just fantasy back then. America was a place you saw on the TV. You could only go there in a dream. I have never been the adventurous type, so to travel so far and so wide for me, is a magical experience.

I know, I can hear you say; “Dave, it’s just travel, it’s not something new”.

But to me it is, it is new. New experiences, new flavours, new sights, new smells, new people, new sounds.

Truly magical.

OK, back to reality.

Our journey continued onto the native American town of Cherokee in North Carolina. Where our next hotel awaited us.

I say hotel.

It was reminiscent of the old Butlins chalets! However, it was clean, tidy and the swimming pool looked inviting, even as the early evening sun slowly made its way behind the mountains, the air was still warm, so we went swimming, and had the pool to ourselves.

Click here for Part 4

Our American Holiday 2012 – Part 2

So, New York City was really good, albeit just an evening and overnight. The tour proper starts now.

From New York, we were to travel to Washington DC, via Philadelphia.

This required the first of the early starts, which takes the form of a very early ‘Wake Up’ call, followed by a queue for the bathroom and then get the cases outside the room door before a certain time, normally around 6:30am! This is the life that we would become accustomed to over the next two weeks. It is hard work, but ultimately rewarding.

This leg of the journey was to be a transfer section where we would be mixed with other passengers who’d been on the first section of the tour, (which we didn’t do), which started in Canada.

Once at Washington, we would split into two coaches, so that the differing nationalities could be separated. Ostensibly our coach would be English speaking, whilst the other coach would be mixture of Dutch and other non-English speakers. Not including the Aussies!

Our transfer guide on the coach, who we had met on the first day, was Edith. Edith is a small German lady. Edith is “speaking likes these and is telling us all about zee American history on zee way to the Philadelphia. Vare vee vill be makings zee stop for zee lunch and look at zee sights, ya? OK?”

Philadelphia was really nice. Edith did the tour guide thing to perfection, showing us all the sights whilst travelling around on the coach, giving us all the information and history we needed to know.

We stopped off and took a look at the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted. After this we took time out for our first American lunch and what better to have than a burger and a hotdog?

Back to our Edith.

Edith is a little feisty and ran a tight ship. We were instructed that; “every-vone needs to be back on zee bus by zee 1pm sharp!”

“Any-vone not back at zee bus by 1pm , vill be shot!” She squawked, as she raised her arm in a Nazi salute and clicked her heels together.

Of course I’m joking; she didn’t shoot anybody for being late! She did shoot a couple, just because they were Australian!

I’m joking! They were from New Zealand.

(Please note, I am really joking, everybody almost without exception, on the tour were brilliant, friendly and delightful people to be with. We’ll meet the exceptions later!)

In Philadelphia, we took some time out to see the Museum of Art, or as it is known to the majority of tourists; the Rocky Steps, as this is where Sylvester Stallone ran and stood during one of the Rocky films. Not sure which one. Rocky 36 or something.

Anyhow, you get a wonderful view of Philadelphia and it’s a tourist honey trap. We discovered this, when an overly friendly chap came up and said; “Hey guys! Welcome to Philly. It sure is great to have you here! Say, let me take your picture”.

At which he took Mrs Dave’s camera and started ushering us together. I thought that’s it! That camera’s gone! 

But no, he took some pictures, swapped to my camera, took some more. Took Little Miss Dave’s camera, took some more photo’s, each time handing the camera back and saying; “Hey, yea, it’s great to have you in Philly. We’ll get some good shots for you”.

I thought, how charming, how very friendly. He finished up and said; “Well guys I hope you have a great time in Philly, thanks for coming, you have a nice day now”.

Brilliant I thought! How delightful. I shook his hand and he looked me in the eye and said; “Of course, I do accept tips, you know? 10 bucks is normal, but whatever you have. Enjoy Philly!!”

I could see this ending with me being stabbed in the face! So, Mrs Dave pulled out $10 and we said thanks very much and did a runner.

Actually, it was more than OK, he was just some guy who hangs around a tourist spot and makes some cash, he was harmless, but you never know. Lesson learnt. Oh and by the way, the photos were pretty good.

So from Philadelphia it was onto Washington DC and what was to be the best hotel of the lot, very plush, ornate, chandeliers, lovely pool, and a real treat. Unfortunately, Mrs Dave caused a bit of a scene at the lifts as soon as we’d arrived. We were waiting patiently, at the group of lifts and as a set of doors opened, some people who had just arrived, walked straight in! Now, as we all know the English love queuing, but we hate queue jumpers! Well, Mrs Dave didn’t hold back; “how rude! We’ve been waiting here and they just push passed!” One American woman, clearly from the South looked and said something in a marvellous Southern drawl, I didn’t catch it, but a few words were exchanged. Luckily another lift arrived and I started dragging our cases in, and ushered Mrs Dave to follow. Unfortunately, the woman who was “discussing” the lift situation with Mrs Dave stood outside the lift waiting. Mrs Dave said to her “well, are you getting in or what?”

“Only if it’s not going to cause you any inconvenience”, came the sarcastic American response. Needless to say the lift was extremely quiet on the way up. We eventually got to our room, after 3 hours of negotiation with the UN, Kofi Anan and Barack Obama.

Good times!

(You will note that although most of what I say is factual, I do exaggerate a bit! Carry on).

The first night in Washington, was taken up with an optional excursion into the city to include a meal at a restaurant. This was a popular choice with the coach and a fair number of us ventured out after a quick wash and brush up, giving us all a chance to wear that outfit that we packed for special occasions. Or in Mrs Dave’s case, several outfits, just in case!!

Anyway, off we went with Edith pointing out the sights on the way to the restaurant. The restaurant was busy, and our party shuffled through to a back room where three or four large tables were arranged for us. Now, we’d only just met, so there was some uncertain shuffling to find a nice seat. I don’t really do this communal eating thing, trying to make chit chat etc, for one I’m really quite shy and secondly, in a busy, noisy room I find it difficult to hear a conversation in front of me, so for most of the night, I hid behind my solitary glass of wine. In retrospect, this was not a good thing, as the three other ladies who shared our table were really lovely, once we got to know them better, later into the holiday. (You know who you are).

After the meal, Edith took us on the coach for some quick sightseeing of Washington at night, which was really stunning, seeing all the monuments, memorials and buildings lit up in the darkness. We stopped at the John F Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts, where you could go up on the roof for free and get stunning views of Washington DC.

The next day the tours of Washington continued, this time with a dedicated Tour Guide, who took us around all of the monuments and memorials, discussing at length and with great knowledge the history of each one. The most poignant, moving and visually stunning stop was at the Arlington National Cemetery. A massive military cemetery, that although being a place of sadness, was beautiful, well kept and respected by all. Very worthy of a visit.

We could have stayed in Washington, to look around the Smithsonian museums, but didn’t think we could do them justice in the time, so instead we opted to go back to the hotel and a chance to sample the swimming pool.

Now, as I mentioned, our hotel was rather large. And it was hosting, at the time of our visit, a Gospel Choir convention, so there were lots of people around, singing and dressed to impress. When myself and Little Miss Dave had completed our swimming session, we strolled back to the lifts to go up to our room. We were joined at the lifts by a contingent of big, black American ladies, who were clearly there for the convention. They were reminiscent of the housekeeper in the Tom and Jerry cartoons, well, their voices anyway. They were clearly affected by the heat, as it was extremely hot in Washington and as we all waited for a lift to arrive, all we could hear was (and please provide your own Southern accent as you read these);

“Sweet Mother of Mercy! It’s hot!”

“Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph, it’s swelteringly hot!”

“Sweet baby Jesus and the orphans. It’s like a barbecue with Beelzebub here!”

“You’m right there Sister. Uh huh!” “Oh yea, praise dee Lord, you’re right!”

“Sweet child of mine it’s hot! Oh yes, baby it’s hot!”

“It’s as hot as hell and twice as sticky!” “Amen, to that Sister!”

“Praise the Lord! Sweets for my sweet and shhhiiiiittt! It’s hot!”

You get the picture.

That was Washington DC.


Click here for Part 3

Our American Holiday 2012 – Part 1

It's that time again, when I put pen to paper (pixels to screen) and write about our holiday. Those of you that recall the previous American holiday blog from 2010 (LINK), will know that this is not an exercise in egoism; it’s purely here to record the fun times we had.

Normally, all you have left at the end of a holiday are memories and photographs, so to help preserve those memories, I write down where we went, what we did, who we saw etc.etc.

I hope you enjoy reading our memories.

Two years ago we took a short tour of the USA, along the West coast. We loved it so much, that we vowed we would do it again, but bigger, better and somewhere different. So two years of saving later, we decided to try and do the same sort of coach tour along the East coast. We were lucky to find just the right holiday through Virgin Holidays and why not, we have their broadband! (LINK).

This package seemed to have it all.

A trip to Graceland for Mrs Dave.

A day in Orlando and the theme parks for Little Miss Dave.

And the Kennedy Space Centre for me.

So, the holiday was booked, the flights booked and the tickets for Universal Studios bought too!

We were ready for the off!

We departed from Heathrow, travelling on Virgin Atlantic and why not? We have their telephone package too!

I will point out at this juncture, that I hate going on holiday. Being on holiday I love, it’s just the “going on” that bugs me. I tend to worry about every little thing.

Have we packed this?

Have we got enough of that?

Where are the passports?

Do they serve complimentary drinks onboard?

You know, all the important things!

However, this time, was different. We had done the America thing before; so this wasn’t such a big deal. Mind you, I did start worrying about the fact that I wasn’t worried!

I needn’t have worried though; they did serve complimentary drinks onboard.

And what is it with cabin crew? Are all the Stewardesses beautiful young things with hair up and immaculate makeup and are all the Stewards raging homosexuals?

We had one male cabin crew member, who was so overtly camp, he was almost a parody of the stereotypical image, but he was so funny. He would mince along the aisles outrageously flirting with some passengers! I thought, he’s no stranger to squeezing up an aisle or two.

At one point, whilst serving drinks (complimentary ones. Get in!), he put on a rugged deep, masculine voice and turning to a colleague said; “you got any Grolsch?” He seemed shocked by his own deep voice, so he said it again; “you got any Grolsch?”

“Oh God!” he said, (back in his camp voice), with his hand on his heart, “I think I’ve turned into a lesbian!”

I have no doubt that he has boarded via the rear entrance, many a time.

Anyway, we were off to the America!

We landed at JFK airport in New York and proceeded to go through the security checks. As we were used to this, I was not fazed, by the unsmiling, unemotional, jobs worth of an official who checked our details, fingerprints, retina scans, visa’s, DNA, blood sugar level, hair colour, political persuasion, favourite colour and which one of One Direction we liked best. He couldn’t even raise a; “have a nice day”.

Anyway, we were out! Next stop, the baggage carousel and the chance to watch endless idiots, acting like fairground gyppo’s on the Waltzer,  trying to collect their suitcases.

With cases in tow, we headed out, looking desperately for the Virgin rep. who apparently, according to our booking confirmation, was going to meet us.

Not.

Luckily, we knew that the actual tour was being run by a company called ATI, and as there was an old chap with an ATI clipboard looking hopeful, we walked towards him. As we reached him, he said; “You must be the Clifford family”.

“Um, yes, we are” I replied, “How did you know?”

“It was easy! You’re all wearing ‘The Clifford Family on Tour’ t-shirts!”

No, I’m joking, he said “I’m only expecting one party of three, and you look like ‘em”.

This holiday malarkey gets easier and easier! He checked our details, gave us our vouchers for our shuttle transfer and for our first hotel and we were on our way.

Hello New York!

We travelled into New York itself, via our shuttle van, with some of the people that we would be sharing the next fortnight with. Unfortunately, we had to wait an hour and a half, twiddling our thumbs in the lobby, whilst our room was prepared. It takes a long time to fold those towels and turn the corner back on the toilet paper!

This was a bit of a shame, as we only had one the one night in New York and by now it was 4:30pm and I wanted to get up to Central Park! So, a quick change and freshen up later, we were off into the heat and hustle and bustle of New York City.

Our hotel was on West 29^th street. Central Park and more importantly the Dakota apartment buildings (Yes, where John Lennon lived and was shot, but I wanted to go, so there!), is on West 72^nd street.

You do the math!

I kept saying it’s only an hour’s walk and we’ll see so much on the way. Which we did; The Empire State Building, Macy’s, Penn Station, Madison Square Garden’s, Times Square, The Ed Sullivan Theater!

It nearly killed the girls; we had to keep stopping in air conditioned shops, just to cool down.

Anyway, Central Park was worth it and just to stand where John Lennon stood and ultimately died was very moving, for me at least.

We also enjoyed Strawberry Fields, a section of Central Park set aside as a memorial to John Lennon, which, so it seems, attracts fans from all over the world, plus loads of spaced out nutters! We didn’t stay long.

There was no way we were going to walk back to the hotel, so we decided to take a cab back to Times Square and look for somewhere to eat. Mrs Dave did wonder how we would get a cab. I said “like this”. I raised my hand and a yellow cab pulled over!

Job done!

$7 and an air conditioned taxi ride later and we were back into the hustle and bustle of Times Square. With thoughts of just two things; food and bed.

Good night New York, the tour starts tomorrow!

Click here for Part 2