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Tennessee to Texas... the beautihil T


FEATURE


he size of America dwarves that of England, mas­ sively so; to the pointwhereyou


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don’t fiilly realise how big un­ til you travel around it. So for the Easter holi­


days an American (Evan), a German(Hongi) and myself loaded the Hyundai and set off fipm Connecticut with the aim to hit Texas. To go the way the crow flies


. is easy, but boring, so we went for the longer route. I’d regret


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. missing out on some great American sites and cities if I missed them in passing. DAY ONE


We set off Thursday night


to avoid the traffic in New York, New Jersey and DC. • Sfacty miles into the jour­


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ney and Evan’s idea to go it alone had failed; we were heading in the wrong direc­ tion. Google Maps became a loyal friend for the rest of the trip, 900 miles in 24 hours.


THESTORYSOFAR.- Clitheroe Student Philip North is spend­ ing ayear studying at Central Connecticut State University in the USA, as part ofanexchange


DAYTWO The sights from the Blue -


Mountains stun the eyes, al­ though they get a little repeti­ tive ^ e r a while. . Withhundredsofview-


points to stop at, it wasn’t long until we started to pass the majority of them. There is only a certain amount of times you can look down into yalleys of woodlands before you get a little bored. We decided to pull over


and have a little walk down the footpath to find the wa­ terfall labelled on the map. As we stepped out of the car, Evan noticed a skunk bur­ rowing in the distance. As we headed on down


the path it was tricky to stay on our feet, as the snow had


turned to thick ice, pushing programme run by the Uni­


versity of Central Lancashire. Since he's studying creative writing and journalism, it is oniy natural that Philip should write about his adventure, so here is the latest of his monthly letters from America...


Hongi became a great source of entertainment.


As we got closer to the


waterfall the rocks around us had huge icicles dangling


from them - 1 can’t say I’ve ever seen bigger. . I relived an old childhood ■


tradition of snapping and sucking them like an ice lolly.


Ididn’t remember, however, how cold they are to hold j 1 must have been wearing mit- terisasakid.


For the remainder of the drive, a monotonous slow


paced turn after turn after turn, tree after tree after tree plagues the eyes.


Only so many trees make


an inipression that you see fix)m above before you get


bored and start to nod off in - the passenger seat.


In front of a large pair of cowboy boots. I guess if I wasn’t an Eng­


lish country bumpkin the sight of deer in the road may cause more of a stir out of me, but unfortunately instead deer meat with a side of chips crossed my mind. DAYTHREE ’Travelling through


Asheville and Knoxville we approached the Smoky Mountains. After the long drive


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through the Blue we decided to skip the scenic route and drive along the main high­ way.


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Despite not reaching the peaks of the mountains dr


■ anythinglikethat,theviews ahead of us of fog (smoke) dancing along the mountain tops took our breath away. Looking for the first tour­


isty thing to do, we came across the first legal moon-


' shine still; good enough.' As we walked around


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it became quickly obvious that Ripley invested a stupid ' amount of money into the town, as'eveiy touristy shop plastered his name across the top. A colourful toy town full


of wooden bear camngs and tacky souvenirs litters ' this place. The highlight oc­ curred when we entered the Smdkey Moonshine still as a man with a guitar played country music outside and people queued up for their free shot of moonshine.


. 'As Evan and Hpngi looked for their souvenir to take . home, I wandered around the shelves looking at the dif­ ferent flavours. Rather than get some fast food from one of the numer­


ous places to eat on the way out of the Smokey’s, we de­ cided to get some southern


Hongi and Evan In Nashville.


style BBQ at what turned out as someone’s house convert­ ed to a mini restaurant. With the wife behind the counter, the husband in the kitchen and S12 for a dustbin lid full ofpork BBQ, an absolute ' bargain. As we made our way to-


the back room, I felt like eyes followed me as picture after picture ofbeafs littered the. walls along with little carv­ ings to hold the salt and pep­ per.


As we left Gatlinburg we


approached Nashville and its lively night life. Enter­ ing the first pub a rendition of “God Bless The USA” sang by a drunken crowd singing greeted us. DAYFOUR Just before we left Ten­


nessee for Alabama we took a little detour to Lynchburg to ' take a tour around the Jack Daniel’s still. After Moon­ shine and a heavy night in Nashville, a certain pattern began to emerge. Our tour guide was aguy


called Dusty and couldn’t be anymore stereotypically southern if he tried. Wearing his dungarees and JD base­ ball cap. Dusty slurred his words arid often forgot what he was talking about. He pickedhis ears as he talked and made numerous hand gestures when he couldn’t think of the right word. It turns out that he works'


at the loc^ elementary school as a teacher during the week and he does the- ' tours at weekends. I guess it is very much a family thing as his grandfather was the mas­ ter distiller in his day. i- ' i DAYHVE In New Orleans, unlike • New York, the smell of dirt, •


and grime seems authen­ tic here. During the day the


bums and tourists mix to­ gether through the narrow streets with little problem. As the bums legally drink


in the streets I guess it’s a case that they live the life of Riley. If they begin to steal, police will move them on. DAYSIX With only a couple of days


before we had to get Hongi to Houston airport we left N ew Orleans and headed to San Antonio. The city is very picturesque with the man made river walk the main at­ traction. With the river going


through the city they have made a little canal coming off of it for little boat tours.


. There isalsoalotof pubs and restaurants along it. It would be a shame to


come all this way and not do something cultural, so we stopped by the setting of the Alamo. Unfortunately, John Wayne was not around but we made the most of it as we took a stroll around the building with hundreds of others; DAYSEVEN We dropped Hongi off at


the airport and bad decisions began to take hold of our trip as Evan and! decided to head back to New Orleans. DAYEI6HT With no supervision any­ more Evan and I (frove back


;to New Orleans to experience ariightout. , During the day it is as


safe as houses as homeless arid tourist mingle in the ’ same areas. At night, things change a little as street per­ formers and hustlers line the street in search of easy pickings.


Apparently I’m easy pick-


-ings as a black man left his crew to approach us to play a game of “I can guess where you got your boots.” As he shuffled us against a wall he alerted us that, “You got them on your feet,” gave them a quick polish before getting uncomfortably close and de­ manding $20 a shoe from us. : Looking over his shoul­


der at the group of black men


that he hung with and the po­ sition we found ourselves in, it seemed easier and safer to just open our wallets.


■DAYNINE Hungover


DAYTEN When we got to Austin,


the Texas Relays also oc­ curred and the police shut off the main street and peo­ ple lined the streets in huge numbers.


When we entered the first


bar, the Mooseknuckle Pub, the barman told us that far more police on patrolled the streets than usual. “Track events attract a lot


of black people, and black people attract a lot of police. Some of the pubs refuse to open on this weekend be­ cause things always kick off when they are in town,” he said. I couldn’t believe what left


hismouth, but coritinued to chat as he kept supplying us with firee tasters of the local brews.


Later that night, as it got


closer to closing, it became apparent that we stood on— the streets as the only whites


around. When kicking out time arrived, groups of black


men stood on the side of the streets with their shirts off


posing and calling out to the women as police strode in


atop of their horses ordering everyone to move along. I’ve not seen such a farce


since the local football der- biesbackhomein England. DAY ELEVEN ■ The previous night Evan


had gone back to the car early, leaving me to drink the night away on my own. 'When I got back to the car he wasn’t there and he wasn’t picking up his phone. Evidence that he had been in the car was visible, but he was nowhere to be seen. After hobbling round


Austin with my blistered feet from the boots, I decided to


.ring the police and hospital. No sign of Evan. When he finally appeared, eight hours later, he told me that he had been arrested for sleeping in his car. In Texas you can be arrested for public intoxica­ tion without a breathalyser test. DAYTWELVE Travelling through Dallas


we stopped at Evan’s auntie and uncle’s for a couple of nights in a town called Fris­ co. The houses here are stun.- ning and it was lovely to sleep in a proper bed after the car ' and cheap motels. After unpacking and


showering we sat down for tea, a good home cooked meal of smoked pork and corn beef. I couldn’t have felt more welcome if they tried,. as I was supplied with beer and margafitas whilst we all played a rude version of Ap­ ples to Apples, a card game. • The morning after, Evan’s


cousins Chris and JJ took us to Redneck Heaven for lunch. This place is similar to Hooters, but a little more risque, the best description • is that the waitresses are us­


ing it as a stepping storie to working in a strip club. The food is cheap in big quanti­ ties and so is the beer. Upon hearing that I was


English I had all the girls coming over to talk to me and teU me of their plans to kid­ nap me. I can think of worse kidnapping scenarios. DAYTHIRTEEN Before we left Frisco we


were greeted with tortillas with pork and begf, Texan food is very good; although if you’re a vegetarian they’li probably drag you out into the street and shoot you. With a full stomach we


packed up, said our good­ byes, and started the long trip home. Due to lack of time and lack of riioney we couldn’t see Memphis, Am­ ish Town or anything in be­ tween, but the later we will try to do before I come back toEngland; By the time we got home


we had driven 6,228.1 miles and pushed the car over the 100,000 miles mark. In my honest opinion the south of America is much better than the north. The people are very friendly and the . way of life is very laid back. My favourite places are the majority of Tennessee and New Orleans (minus getting robbed).


■ - Iflhadtorecommend-


America to ahyorie, I’d rec- . oirimend the south. The only bad thing about travelling round-the south is that I have picked up a liking for country music and as soon as I get a little workshop the first thing I’m going to make is a rockingchair.'-; ■ To keep updated visit


www.connectwithconnect. blogspot.co.uk - ‘ '


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South is tops on Phil’s US journey


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