Roger's Fixed (I think) and we're now GMT -6

I did promise more regular posts, and seeing as I have the opportunity now, I'm posting another blog!

We woke around 7:15am (12:15pm GMT) when Susan (Sarah's mum) called the motel room to have a chat. Sarah was pleased to hear from her mum seeing as they've mainly been emailing since we've been away!

We fell back to sleep afterward, but woke around 8:45am remembering that we have a free "continental breakfast" which ends at 9:00! We got dressed quickly, and ran to the lobby to chow down. Now, I'm not going to down-talk the free continental breakfasts, because we need food, and anything free is massive bonus - but this wasn't that great. You were allowed one item per person, so I chose a coffee and Sarah had a bowl of cereal. I'm pretty sure that the cereal had been sat in it's dispenser for about 5 months based on the facts that this motel is in the middle of nowhere, and it was empty. That being said, we did manage to catch a glimpse of Roger over the road in the garage.

If anyone cares, you can see where we stayed on Google Street View, and if you rotate the image, you can see just how close the garage really was! NOTE TO IMPATIENT PEOPLE: Give the map time to fully load, and you'll see the actual place we're at, not just a map, you can move/rotate the image too. We were in the room with the door fourth from the left, on the bottom. You can also see "Alan's Tow Truck" which is the same truck that picked us up. Funny how he took us to the place he BLOODY WORKS AT THE SKANK!

Roger was still hanging up in the air from where they left him yesterday, so we knew he wasn't ready then. We watched TV and packed our stuff up just before the checkout time of 11am, but as the girl over at the garage said "Come over before you check out and see if the van's ready, if not we'll ring the motel and get them to extend your checkout time for you.". So, we popped over there to be told that (and I really wasn't that surprised) "The parts the mechanics ordered were wrong so they're getting different ones in later, it'll be ready around 1pm.". She did ring the motel for us and they said that we can stay in the room until the cleaner comes to do our room - after that we could sit in the lobby.

That was fine with us, so we went back to the motel. 11:01am and the cleaner knocks on the door. I had a feeling that would happen somehow. So we grabbed our bags and relocated to the lobby where we set up the laptop and sat around for nearly 2 hours. When the people running the motel started to eat their lunch in the lobby, we decided to go and get something cheap to eat from the petrol station across the road, with bags.

After chatting once again about the cricket to the Indians (real Indians from India, not native Indians) that run the petrol station, we left with our lunch:

• 1 x packet of salt and vinegar pork scratchings (not that great)
  
• 1 x packet of sour cream crisps (nice)
  
• 1 x bottle of water (it's water...)

and sat on the road outside the garage to eat it. Once done, we went inside and they said it'd be another hour so we just sat tight and eventually all the work was finished! I stood up and settled the bill ...umm hang on wtf? It says $399.86 now? What the hell is going on? The manager told me that the different parts have bumped up the total cost unfortunately, but the work's done now so they can't change it. One thing's for sure, garage's in America are the same as England. Reservedly, I paid for it and we left in a pretty happy mood seeing as we were back on the road. Sarah slept for a few hours whilst I drove 200 miles north, then we swapped and Sarah drove another 200 miles to our current destination - Ramada motel in Clarksville, Tennessee. We found a nice cheap voucher for this place ($33) so we thought seeing as we've barely eaten today, we can afford it.

We arrived, and it's very surprisingly very, very nice. Probably one of the best places we've stayed! This town (although it's dark now) looks much like Asheville in North Carolina. We can see the skyline composed of thick forests growing over mountains. I have to say, as low as we were yesterday, we're much happier now - and America really does have a lot of amazing scenery to offer - something we didn't expect as much as we're seeing.

When we checked in, the (Indian [they must get everywhere]) lady told us that we'd have to pay $40, plus tax, for a double room as the only single room she had left was a smoking room. Now, I do smoke, but smoking rooms really stink and even make me feel ill in the morning. We said that it'd be ok and we'll take the smoking room for the $30 price. That was fine, and we went to our room. It doesn't smell anything half as bad as previous smoking rooms we've checked into! It's also quite spacious, has a fridge-freezer, microwave, ironing board (not that we'll use it), coffee, a sofa, coffee table and even a basic dining table! Most of these things are extras that you pay for!

After receiving a quick phone call from the front desk lady to check that the room was cool with us (to which we replied "Yes! It's lovely!" in a very ecstatic manner) Sarah noticed that we didn't have a coffee maker. We rang the lady back and she said she'd have a look around and call us back in a mojo. A few minutes later she rang back and told us that she has one for us to use if we could go get it from the lobby. I went and got it, which is where I learned that it was actually her coffee maker for her to use tonight, but we could have it AND she also gave us an "Outdoor Adventure Pack" which she said "It's a gift, you can have it" :).

I whisked myself back to the room with coffee maker and gift, eagerly wanting to open it to see what's inside. Sarah put the coffee on and I opened the gift to find:

• A tube of toothpaste
• Some Halls Soothers
• Some Aspirin
  
• A heat pack for your back pains
• Three Tampons
• A health bar snack thing (nuts and raisins)

How kind!

So that's where we're at for the moment. We're 24.4 miles away from Elkton, Kentucky which is where we should hopefully rendezvous with Sarah's uncle. Roger has been making some "popping" noises every time we remove our foot from the accelerator, but it's not the same as the horrific noise of the drive shaft trying to escape. We've also passed through a time zone, so we're now on Central Time, that's GMT -6.

Missing everyone lots!

Lots of love!

A happier, Ed & Sarah :)

Orlando, Florida Keys, and It Was Bound to Happen!!

When I last wrote a blog entry (I will try more often, promise!) we were staying in Orlando with Steve, Kerry, Remy and Jake.

Steve winning again...

Staying with Steve and co was a massive help! The house was lovely and it gave us time to re-assess how much we had left to spend and where we could go after leaving theirs. We went to Celebration on the 4th July to watch the Independence Day fireworks and soak up the atmosphere. It was actually pretty good, and the fireworks were better than Paignton's (purely judging on the finale where you get most of the heart-thumping booms [i'm sure Joe knows what I mean])!

Boom!

During our stay, we popped to the local bar a few times where our friend Jesse gave us all of our drinks for free - wahey! On our last day there, Steve pointed out that we had a leak in the engine which was a weird one because it stained the driveway like oil, but we don't have an oil leak at the time of writing this touch wood ...oh hang on, I can't because it's all covered in tasteful laminate. We're in an Econolodge by the way (and I'll explain why in a short while), not in Roger - he has waaaaaaaay more style than to wrap himself in laminate!

That evening we ate pizza and drank lots of alcohol :-). We sat outside for a short while, where I decided that I had seen an interesting animal off to the side of the pool. I called Sarah over to have a look, at which point I threw her in, but stupidly dragged myself in at the same time! We dried off, and played some pool (I did seven-ball Steve earlier in the week, but I don't want to bring it up too much!). Steve kicked our butts pretty much all night, so we decided to go to bed ready for our departure the next morning.

We said a sad goodbye and left to go and see Jesse. I say sad, not because everyone was crying and feeling blue, but because it made us feel a bit homesick really :(. What was also sad was that we were leaving such a comfy, cosy, perfect-temperature bed!!

We arrived at Jesse's a little while later where we keenly reminded him that he promised us a ride on his motorbike. Sarah was first up, so she donned her helmet and jacket and they set off. About 25mins later she arrived back a little disheveled but ecstatic with the ride, so I quickly got ready and set off. Once you get the leaning part down its great. You just lean into each curve which does feel a bit sketchy as you get so low to the ground, but without doing that, you'd probably die. Oh yeah, we hit a top speed of 147mph on a normal road which was a bit stupid, but still fun! I asked what would happen if the cops caught him, but he said that he'd outrun the cars no problem, which I can believe. It was when he said he could outrun the choppers too that I became skeptical.

Roger, looking on in envy...

Later that day, one of Jesse's friends came over and we had a jame (or is it jamm? [again, probably only Joe will get that!]). I played on the drum kit, while Jesse played bass and his friend played guitar. It was cool to get behind a drum kit again, but it's just not the same as my own kit! A little later Jesse had to pick up his new bass amp from a shop called "The Guitar Center" which was about 30 miles away - just a normal pop to the shops for the average American! We took Roger so that we could fit it in, and I let Jesse drive (Sarah stayed at Jesse's, waiting for his partner, Sabrina, to finish work). Halfway down the interstate I noticed that Jesse was doing about 85mph. A speed we've never done in Roger before. I said he'd better slow down a bit because the red warning line on the speedometer starts at 70mph on Roger, so he did.

We arrived at The Guitar Center which was JUST like the music shop in Wayne's World. After gazing in awe at all of the guitars, my eye caught the drum section. I speed-walked over and saw many kits, mainly the three that were set up behind glass screens for anyone to play. I had to do my Garth (from Wayne's World) impression, so I got on the kit and oh man was it nice to play! I had a little jam on the kit before we had to leave. We picked up Jesse's new amp and plonked it in Roger. I let Jesse drive again, reminding him that we'd best not do 85mph again due to the fact I could smell something burning. Jesse turned the key, Roger tried to start but wouldn't kick in - even after about 8 attempts. We turned the key once to check the engine temp and it was maxed out. Definitely not good! We "popped the hood" and poured some water onto the radiator and sure enough it bubbled. The only thing we could do was let the engine cool and drive it back a little later, which is what we did.

We played Rock Band that evening (again) which I loved (again) and they let us crash on their sofa that night so we could set off the next morning. We woke and ended up staying until around 5pm in hope that we'd catch the now four times delayed shuttle launch. We left for the Florida Keys and sadly we didn't see the actual shuttle launch, despite being about 45mins away from it, due to the cloud cover!

When the I-95 turned into US-1 we decided to stop for the night:

1. Because we were tired
2. Because the engine was getting very hot

Sarah flicked through the motel voucher book that Kerry picked up for us and chose "America's Best Value Inn & Suites" for a reasonable, but not cheapest, $39.95 a night plus Florida tax of course. Some of you can probably see where this is going...

After driving about 10 miles right past the motel, we decided to turn around. Where we decided to turn around, there happened to be a man selling peaches - so Sarah jumped out and got 2. We were so hungry, thirsty and tired that the peach tasted like the best peach I've ever had.

Sweet Georgia Wha..? Stupid windscreen wiper!

Heading back towards the last mainland town before the Keys (Homestead), where the Inn is, we took a few wrong turnings, the engine was blasting out heat onto us, it was about 97°F (36.1°C), we were tired, thirsty etc... and I think I had just had enough. So when I pulled into a "drive-thru bank" car park to turn around for the millionth time and waited for the traffic to pass (because NO-ONE lets you out here, and I'm not exaggerating at all!), Sarah piped up and said "Just pull out" to which I snapped and said "Don't be so stupid, I hate it when people think they can just barge out into traffic, it really gets on my nerves blah blah..." and carried on grunting similar phrases until we finally arrived at "America's Best Value Inn & Suites" where I was finally cured of all annoyances due to the fact that we had some relative comfort and air conditioning! Or so I assumed...

Everything that could be wrong with a motel room was wrong with this motel room apart from the air conditioning which did work surprisingly (after I plugged in the very sketchy-looking plug and set it to max cold). The TV & bracket was hanging out of the wall, the bathtub was absolutely rank and there were fag burns everywhere! The sick on the curtain was a nice touch though, I think it went well with the decor.

LOVELY sick ...not too keen on the palm-tree curtains though.

Spot the problems with this room

I couldn't wait to take a bath here...

It's ok, I normally watch TV at a jaunty angle in bed anyway!

We decided to just stay put on the bed and watch TV that evening. We both woke up in the middle of the night to some girl screaming and crying in a room near ours. Could have been kinky whatever, but it sounded like it wasn't. Nevertheless, we stayed put and hoped that if she needed help she would have shouted "help", then we would have done something, like maybe use the pee-stained telephone to phone for help.

Random island with it's own slip road off the main road

Seven Mile Bridge

We eagerly left the next morning and arrived at Key West, the most southern point of America, where we checked into our amazing hotel which offered a free champagne breakfast! I can't begin to explain how amazing this place is, but it's like Newquay in an extremely tropical setting. Bear in mind that this place is closer to the equator than some parts of the Bahamas! When I say that this place is tropical, I mean that there's literally palm trees, tropical plants and bushes growing out of every possible crevice between houses and in open areas. Key West uses the "gridlock" layout (as do many towns and cities in America) which I actually quite like. While it can lead to causing the town to lack some character, it's much easier to navigate, it looks cool when you just stop and stare down a street and it does sound somewhat good when you say "Oh, it's just four blocks down".

Tower used to look out for shipwrecks around Key West

An actual ship wreck

We went out that night, on a very low budget, but we still had a great time. We met some college guys from another state, and even a crazy guy who looked a bit like a cross between Patrick and Gandalf! We spent the next day looking around the town, lazing on the beach and staring into the clear blue water. We loved it so much we decided to stay another night, but the hostel we were going to stay at was fully booked so we stayed at the same hotel as the night before.


The next morning we filled up Roger's oil and water (because the water seemed worryingly low) and cained it to north Florida where we decided to stay the night, in a motel yet again as it's just way too hot to sleep in a non-air-conditioned van in what we've now realised is a hooker central - the mighty Flying J. We checked in around midnight, and left pretty quick the next morning. Not because it was skanky, but because we're trying to get to Kentucky fast! We refilled the empty water in the radiator, checked the oil etc... and headed out. After a few hundred miles we had to stop because the engine temperature was just way too hot, and we smelt burning.

When we stopped, we moved our cooler which was full of ice and normally holds ice in ice-form for about 2 days, to discover that the cooler had actually melted onto the floor of Roger due to the sheer heat that the van produces. Needless to say the ice inside had melted and our fridge-based goods were once again swimming in water that has been in mixed with a nice concoction of butter, frankfurter juice, perished cheese and carrier bag.

We stopped for about an hour, refilled the water and headed back out. It didn't take long to smell the burning again, but we couldn't see anything smoking so we continued on to Perry, Georgia (it's in the middle of Georgia). After staying in a better, cheaper motel than the one in Homestead (with the sick on the curtains), we once again filled up the water, checked the oil and headed out. 20 miles up the road and we hear this horrible banging sound coming from the middle of Roger, under the floor. I decide to pull off the interstate, and find somewhere to park up. We find a little parking lot and I get Sarah to drive back and forth whilst I look under the engine. What do I see? I see the entire bloody drive shaft bouncing up and down out of it's restraint! Not only that, I see water pi**ing out of the engine and a massive gash along the side of the muffler - part of our "half exhaust" as the rear-pipe section we lost along time ago.

Sarah stops the van and we have a think. We decided that the best course of action would be to ring the triple A (same as AA back home) to get them to have a look at it, and take it from there. So I grab my valuables from the van, my laptop, wallet and our passports and we head out looking for a pay phone. Before we leave the car park, we tell the shop that we need to leave Roger there for a mo whilst we find help, and the guy kindly rang the AAA for us.

About 25mins later an independent tow truck pulls up. This is their AAA service. They outsource all the work to smaller independent companies, rather than having a corporate owned structure like the AA in the UK. While this may seem like a good thing, I think it's rather crap. I'll tell you why...

The guy gets out and I say hello and begin to explain the problem. During my description (bear in mind, the guy hasn't actually said anything yet, bar "hello") I decide to give a demo - so I jump in the van and move it back and forth. The guy looks at me funny and says "line it up here" pointing on the floor, so I line it up and he hooks it up onto his tow truck. This guy didn't even look at the van at all, he wasn't interested in seeing if it could be easily fixed at all, he just wanted to tow us. He said we can go 100 miles in any direction, so I asked to go north as far as possible and to drop us at a cheap motel (which we'd pick out of the voucher book) and work something out from there. We'd probably ring Garry next to see what he recommends. However things worked out differently...

This guy recommended a motel opposite a good, AAA recommended, garage. We agreed and we set off. About 8 minutes later, we arrived at our motel, the Econoline I mentioned at the beginning of this post, in a shabby-looking industrial place called Byron. He said to take it over the road immediately, but I said no, we'll check into the motel and work something out. After finally realising that this is what the AAA is all about here, and that we'd been completely shafted because this guy wanted to take us to HIS garage we sat and had a think. We came to the conclusion that we're in the middle of nowhere, we don't have hardly any cash left and we can't get anywhere - so we should at least get a quote from the garage. We took the van over there, got a quote of $309 for the needed caliper and also the water leakage problem. I decided that we kinda need it, so said ok to it. We let them know that we're in the motel over the road and that they can contact us there (as it was going to be an overnight job due to the fact they needed parts to be ordered in).

We got back to the motel and about 15 minutes later the phone rang. Sarah answered and they upped the charge to around $385 due to some mis-calculation or some complete and utter horeshit. Excuse my french but they know we're completely screwed, have no money, are English and need to get out of here and they're exploiting that to the max.

Fine, we could have said no, but where would have that got us? We'd be stuck in this motel with a van that's about to cause a massive problem on the interstate (either we'll see one of our wheels going past us, or worse, the whole van will lock up and we'll probably crash). So we can stay in this motel until when? Our money completely runs out? I don't know really... but I do feel like we've been taken for a ride and there's not a lot we can do in our vulnerable position at the moment.

I suppose the good news is that the van is getting repaired, and we should be on the road tomorrow. If not, I think I'll explode.

Stay tuned for the next blog post to see if I have exploded or not.

Love to everyone!!!

Ed & Sarah!
xxxxxx