Introducing Kitty

May I take the opportunity to introduce one of the integral parts of the road trip, the car.

Kitty is the younger gay cousin of Kit, she's butch, she snarls, spits, has a drink problem and she bends the law at every turn.

At home on a dusky track or a swanky city blvd, she's a bit of a hoover... great for picking up bit's of fuzz - shame it's the Five Ooo though.

We've covered over 4000 miles in her, the stereo has gremlins in it and manages to choose any number of random bluetooth devices on a whim just to keep us on our toes, she has a few rattles for a new car, some would say she has a screw loose, it's always the crazy one's that you love eh!

There may be faults, but It's good to favour the good times to which there are many, we haven't had sat nav so it's made our journey alot more fun, we sometimes don't know where we're gonna go in the next hour let alone day, it's really spiced up our adventure.
She's great for taking sunset pictures out of the window most evenings too.

I thank you Kitty for keeping us company and I thank you Neil for not saying yes to the Jetta - the all American road tripwould have lacked in anything but an all American Roadhog.   

Work and play in the USA Part9.

Weeeeeeell heloooooo theeyyyrrrreee siirrr and welcome to Louuuuiisiana! 


Thursday morning we left Sulphur and headed through the swamps to New Orleans, we got there after lunch and checked into a hotel and had a mooch, first impressions were good, the place is lawless and completely bonkers but by all accounts thats the way its always been. Its European influence has helped this American gem thrive and develop - it was quite simply mad and we love it for that reason. Neil took me to CW Fins, the best fish restaurant in town, it was 5pm and we had the most amazing meals, starters of Sashimi and lobster dumplings then mains of butter fish and blackened swordfish,  the food was just exquisite and the couple of bottles of Viognier were a delicious compliment.  

We staggered out and decided to have a swim on the roof top hotel pool before we went out. Feeling a little more sober we went out and the place didn't disappoint, we started around Bourbon street, it's a completely crazy area in the french quarter where anything goes, we drifted up and caught some beers and live music then headed up to French street to catch another big band on a small stage. The rest of the night became a little hazy and unprintable but it involved anthropologists, pogoing band members playing crazy wind instruments (likened to the flumps), chaotic dancing, more beer, 24 hour diners, other clubs... bed. 

If you are wild at heart then go to New Orleans, memories have been tattooed onto my brain of this place and the madness in the air. My new favorite city in America!

Today was mega hangover of death day, finally getting out of bed at 12.30 we grabbed some lunch then reluctantly said goodbye to my favorite city - our original plan was to stay another night but I don't think either of us would have coped, we tore the ass out of it last night and in the process us boys took a hell of a beating!

We drove from New Orleans swampy Louisiana, through the big rivered and swampy Mississippi, through swampy Alabama and in to our last driving state, swampy redneck Florida, we are by the beach in Pensacola and I feel sad that we have reached our last state.


We've just gone out and watched 'Due Date' the movie that's just come out, it was really funny but emotionally harrowing to watch as we've pretty much driven the same route that the film road trip took, go watch, you'll see the same scenery that we've been breathing for the past 10 days.

Work and play in the USA Part8.

Awakening on tuesday morning in the Thunderbird hotel, Marfa we had a bit of a down day, bit of planning for the next job etc. We took a walk around town and had lunch outside under this weird dutch barn with a catering van called Food Shark, we had some cabbage stew with one chunk of sausage in it, it was bit wrong and this was soon to be theme for Texas.

Marfa did seem to be fairly cool though, a lot of artists and galleries wherever we walked, we discovered a bar that was straight out of 'From dusk till dawn' and had burger and many beers to make the place a little more bearable. A band called the Thunderados started playing, I can't find em on myspace yet but they were pretty good.

We made the decision to drive for a long time on wednesday and get out of Texas, we hit the road at 8am and travelled for 13 hours until we reached Louisiana. All you need to know is some of Texas has the smell of crude oil in the air, people breath it in 24/7, the ability to get lost in any town or city is amazingly high due to dumb placing of signs, it's pretty full of Rednecks, music scene is really good, food was the worst we'd come across in the USA and the best thing about it is the state line!


We stayed in a place called Sulphur that night, it was over the border in Louisiana, we were happy!

A car I would be seen dead in

Found in Marfa Texas.

Preferably in the back of a box whilst being driven by a stuntman and jumped into a big grave and buried.

it's for sale you know, do ya think it'll last until i die?

Work and play in the USA Part7.

Ok so yesterday we drove, we drove a lot!  Off we went East on the I-10, we hit New Mexico, it was flat and there were dust storms, it was windy!

Over the state line we went again in Texas towards El Paso, I have news for you my dumb American friend serving me coffee that morning in Tucson - El Paso looks like a frickin huge lawless city that borders Mexico, It's not just a cooking sauce!  Btw, we didn't stop!


On we went to the 90 and headed towards a Little town Called Marfa in Big Bend, Neil had some inside info on a cool Hotel called Thunderbird and we were on a mission to get there! we drove for ages with no lights anywhere apart from what was stuck to stuck to Kitty, until that is we discovered a Prada shopfront at the side of the road, complete with bags, shoes etc. etc. We stopped.. until I noticed the bullet hole in the glass that is.


We arrived in Marfa at this very cool hotel, the town appears to be shut till wednesday but it's like nothing I've experienced before - let the good times roll! 

Fuel Prices

Ok Kitty the Mustang has a big fat engine and loads of power! She forged our path the equivalent of London to Scotland yesterday - how much did it take?

How Much would have that cost in the UK?

Work and play in the USA Part6.

We awoke Sunday morning ready to tackle the hike to Coyote Butte, packed up our stuff to head on out, at which point I decided to put my back out. A few deep breaths and some weird core energy stuff whilst driving there enabled me to hobble along until my muscles stopped with the spasm and started to work again. This was just as well as the hike through the desert was probably about 4 miles over rough terrain, rocks etc. 
After the fear of getting lost and forgotten in the unforgiving countryside more than 14 miles away from the nearest road we hit the wave, it's like finding gold only much more exclusive. No place in the world looks like this!

There were rock waves with amazing layers, you could see where the water had eroded into the mountains, whirpools etc. It was quite amazing, the solitude of it all made everything so much more special as well.

We hiked back to the car and said goodbye to our journey into a geologists perfect porn film and then headed south east from the second time on our road trip, this time we were going to get a little closer to Miami, driving for 6.5 hours down to Tucson Arizona!

Again Dave had written about a great place for live music and Neil checked us in to the Congress Hotel.  This place was just great, some pretty different looking people with some edgy get ups, sunday night was karaoke and it wasn't to disappoint! After many beers and an illegal Mescal Tequila we staggered off to bed ready for a journey into New Mexico and Texas!  

Work and play in the USA Part5.

In the last three days we have managed to squeeze every drop of juice out of life.  We got up on saturday to try and get permits to see coyote butte, only 10 are allocated a day and we secured 2 via a lottery for the following morning! all excited the speeding incident occurred dampening the mood a little. still on mission we went to Kanab, had some breakfast, checked the footy results in england and headed in the direction of Zion National park, enroute we took in Coral Pink Sand Dunes and then stopped off and rode some horses around the top of zion before heading into the canyon in Kitty. I loved riding, haven't ridden a horse since i was a child and had a ball. 

If you go to Zion i would suggest more than an afternoon, perhaps a week. it's pretty amazing, lots of trails, made me feel dizzy looking up all the time, quite breathtaking though, even if they have laid tarmac in far too many places and its a well oiled tourism machine. 

After Zion we stayed in Kanab ready for the next days Hike to Coyote Butte, Neil bought loads of trail bars and water and we got an early night after a mighty fine burger and apricot beer. tidy!

I got caught speeding when i was 35..

I took the first one for the team this morning. I overtook onto oncoming traffic, rather quickly as to be safe. Only problem was the oncoming traffic was a unmarked police truck.. oops!
Luckily they only had me on the radar at 100mph as i fear i was going a little faster!

Its your turn for a ticket next Neil!

Work and play in the USA Part4.

Today we went to the Grand Canyon National Park. People in the past have said to me that they've been a little disappointed and it's been a bit of an anti climax.. seriously what the fuck, are you from another planet because this blatantly is!

It is a true wonder of the world, not a man made structure. Its over a mile deep in some places and over 25 miles long - it blew me away, made me emotional and I felt seriously strange after my experience, I loved every second. One thing that helped me feel strange was walking out on a crazy rock with only air below - Might sound mad but i seriously had the urge to jump, it's true, vertigo is a killer!

I think if you have a chance to visit this amazing place just do it, if you are visual do it, if you aren't visual then believe me my friend - the world would be a better place for you if you were.

More pics to come from a real camera soon.

Work and play in the USA Part3.

Today was mostly spent changing plans and routes, instead of heading to Tucson through Pheonix we drove through Joshua Tree and then headed north to Tusayan via I40 (route 66). We are now about 10 miles away from the Grand Canyon. We are planning on hiking tomorrow and then driving further off the route to Zion National Park, a couple of friends always said it blew their minds when they visited - it's an assault on the eyeballs - I can't wait!
I emailed my old photography tutor Dave Green http://www.greengallery.co.uk/ as he's spent a lot of time around where we're traveling and he came back to me with an amazing comprehensive where to go and what to do email - we are now following a new route Dave, thanks!

Oh, one other thing. We are staying at the Indian Feather Hotel or something like that, if you like getting electric shocks then don't delay, it's time for a holiday here!

Work and play in the USA Part2.

Yesterday we arrived in Korea town LA to our hire car firm, we had all the intensions of grabbing a mid sized vehicle but somehow it didn't seem right to drive a Japanese or German car from west-east coast of the USA in anything but an All American Beefcake of a vehicle and in the end we opted for a Black Ford Mustang, surprisingly economical actually (had to say that, Mukti might be reading). 

We convoyed off to Sunset blvd to drop off the lesbian hairdressers car that we already had, I actually had a dream moment when i ran ran a red light turning left onto Melrose and wheelspan around the turn with other cars beeping at me - it was amazing, not big nor clever but amazing! Car dropped, down to Santa Monica, watched football in a bar, City drew with the scum, quick Jamaican lunch then start of the road trip!

We opted for a short leg to Palm Springs, Neil heard about a place that was 'weird' up in 29 Palms so we high tailed it there. twenty nine palms inn was actually really nice  - complete culture shock but excellent, live bluegrass whilst we ate out locally reared ribeyes, washed down with rather too much Malbec, top bombing!

We sat up and talked in the cold outside then hit the hay ready for a bigger journey today....

 

Work and play in the USA Part1.

Firstly my apologies as I should have started this 11 days ago when I touched down in LA. At that point I was pretty stressed with the production side of a big photo job that I was walking into after a mad 3 days of packing my entire place up ready to move house.  News is that the job finished and went off amazingly well, LA had a mahoosive heat wave whilst we were doing it, I changed my flight home so consequently haven't moved into my new home yet back in the UK. The great bits are that Neil and I are still in LA, chilling out in Malibu and around town having a pretty fine time. We've been surfing, partying, burger, rib, sushi, grilled fish, thai and roast dinner eating, all in a t-shirt and shorts.

The Plan!
We are gonna stick around for a few days then rent a car and road trip from LA - Miami where our next job is taking the southern route along the gulf of mexico. Really looking forward to it but also nervous, I've never been down south in America and it gives me all kinds of scary thoughts provoked from films. deliverance, texas chainsaw massacre etc. etc. If I meet some vampires in louisiana ala 'true blood' then i will be made up though!