USA, September 16, 2010
With all the improvisations, it's hard to keep this one updated ;) Sander and I didn't get to go see MLK because a taxi ride was way too expensive. Besides, he'd probably wanted me to take a quick picture and go back, and I like to take my time anyway ;)
So, we settled for a quiet day at the pool, instead, and did some swimming. Later that night, Delain had a signing session and after that, Jamye picked me up. We did the MLK trail on Saturday morning, and went to see three plantation houses in Roswell, GA. We visited the biggest one, and at the second one, we strolled through the garden -- for a little while, because I literally had to slap the mosquitoes off of me O_o Since it's been such a weird summer in the Netherlands, they hadn't really bothered me so I just forgot about them, but here, they eat me alive!
In the evening, we went to the concert. It was pretty cool to see Delain play in the USA, even though the show wasn't one of their best ;) Furthermore, they had equipment issues so Delain delayed the schedule with 45 minutes ;)
On Sunday, we said goodbye to Delain, who were flying out to Mexico for their next gig, and Jamye and I headed for Charlotte, North Carolina, to visit Amy! Unfortunately, Jamye got some bad news family-wise, so she just dropped me off and had to head home :(
Amy does a really good job keeping me busy ;) On Monday, we visited this museum-bus on German POW's in America during WWII. Very impressive; they were probably treated WAY better than the American POWs in Europe! They had a nice documentary, too, so we spent a little over an hour there. After that, she took me to the Raptor Center, where they have all these birds that people found and brought there. The ones that cannot take care of themselves they'll keep, the other ones will be taken care of and released out into the wild again. Very cool! I was impressed by the giant owls and bald eagles :)
Because I really wanted to go to the Cherokee reservation, Amy and I looked for a car I could rent. That proved to be a bigger challenge than we thought it would, because we couldn't find a car!! I decided to book a hotel there for one night, since we had to go to Enterprise during office hours and it was a three-hour drive to Cherokee.
I left at around 11 in an enormous Dodge Charger (real American experience, hee hee -- everybody just moved out of the way for me! There's something to say for big cars), and arrived around 3 (I'm not used to driving long distances, so I'll usually take one or two breaks), checked into the hotel, and went to walk around. The visitor center was closed already and it wasn't even after 5! Instead of doing something culturally, I just decided to walk around. Immediately, I got reeled in by these two roadside chiefs, who offered to take pictures from me with them and then they'd show me some dances. I even had to participate in the last dance XD They had to convince me (because really -- despite the adventures so far I'm always a little insecure) but eventually, I did it!
It left me with a little mixed feeling, though. On the one hand, I think it's sad that they've degenerated into these caricatures that the tourists really want to see when they encounter a "real" indian. The way they've commercialized the common picture of indians makes me a little icky. At the other hand, I understand completely because there's a LOT of people paying for it.
On Wednesday, I had a more cultural day. I visited the Museum of Cherokee History, which was awesome. It taught me stuff aside from the basic things I already knew and I loved how they set it all up. Then, I went to the Qualla gallery across the street. You know, I wanted to buy some Cherokee souvenirs but I kind of had the feeling that the souvenirs I'd find at the roadside where from real Cherokee artists. And though the Qualla store was slightly more expensive, at least I know the money'll go to the right people AND I have genuine stuff ;) Or, I hope so, anyway :P
I drove up to the Indian Village and we got a tour by the most bored guide ever. We weren't bored, but I had the feeling he was. He'd just tell his story, ask if we had questions and before somebody could say anything, he'd move on. The second guide was way better, and the third one was actually quite funny (yeah, she was female, too :P) I had a few questions so after the guided tour, I looked up one of the other guides, and asked all I wanted to know ;) He was actually pretty helpful and talked quite animated, so I left there with a good feeling ;)
I decided to go to Mingo Falls, which is a fall combined of two creeks. Very pretty! Stayed up there for half an hour (it was quite the way up), and then, I just thought I NEEDED to go to Tennessee because Tennessee has a pretty name ;) So, took the scenic route from Cherokee to Gatlinburg, Tennesee, which was a supercool drive through the mountains, and set my thought on buying a lapel pin from Tennesee.
You know, when I started out the trip, I thought it'd be way cool to collect these pins from every state I visited, but they're harder to find than I thought! I am still missing many of them because I simply can't find them anywyere: Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts (though I have one from Boston), Georgia, and South Carolina are not in my possession yet. I walked around for about an HOUR in Gatlinburg to find one, and eventually I did! The store even had one from Connecticut which I also didn't have before, so yay ;)
From Gatlinburg, I went back to Charlotte. It's only 3,5 hours, but I was so tired when I got there. When I still had 2,5 hours to go I told myself not to stop until I'd find a Starbucks sign at one of these Food Exit boards, and of course, I couldn't find any so I drove straight to Charlotte ;)
This morning, we brought back the rental, and Amy and I went shopping! I needed a new hand-luggage suitcase, because mine's broken and it's pretty annoying to have to carry the suitcase around instead of just pulling it behind me. I also bought two comic books (way cheaper than the Netherlands, yay!) and two summer dresses (yay colors!) ;) And it took some effort but I have a North Carolina lapel pin! :D I wanted to buy a bear from Build-A-Bear because I think it's such a cool concept!! I ended up with a grey kitty which I named Charlotte and Amy bought it for me, thank you so much! I got so used to sleeping with a plushie that when I gave it away as a gift, I felt a little disoriented in these hotel rooms so Charlotte's gonna keep me company :D
All in all, because of the improvisations I've had to spend more money on hotel rooms than I originally thought I would, and I've had to book more travel-tickets, too. Money goes way faster than planned (and hey, those dresses actually were cheap!) so I'm trying to figure out the cheapest possible options to travel around now ;) That means I'll leave for New Orleans in the middle of the night tonight by taking a train where I'll be meeting up with Jamye again, and instead of travelling directly to Utah I'm going to make a 2-day stop in Denver, from which I'll take the Greyhound to Provo, UT. I even have a supercheap hotel around there!
I'll probably be okay till the end of September and if all goes well, the paycheck will come in next week which SHOULD take me through the entire journey. And you know, if not, I'll just hitch-hike everywhere :P At least I have the return-ticket to the Netherlands already, and I have 200 euros that I don't touch except for very serious emergencies, so I'll always be able to go there and live in the airport for a little while. ;)
So, we settled for a quiet day at the pool, instead, and did some swimming. Later that night, Delain had a signing session and after that, Jamye picked me up. We did the MLK trail on Saturday morning, and went to see three plantation houses in Roswell, GA. We visited the biggest one, and at the second one, we strolled through the garden -- for a little while, because I literally had to slap the mosquitoes off of me O_o Since it's been such a weird summer in the Netherlands, they hadn't really bothered me so I just forgot about them, but here, they eat me alive!
In the evening, we went to the concert. It was pretty cool to see Delain play in the USA, even though the show wasn't one of their best ;) Furthermore, they had equipment issues so Delain delayed the schedule with 45 minutes ;)
On Sunday, we said goodbye to Delain, who were flying out to Mexico for their next gig, and Jamye and I headed for Charlotte, North Carolina, to visit Amy! Unfortunately, Jamye got some bad news family-wise, so she just dropped me off and had to head home :(
Amy does a really good job keeping me busy ;) On Monday, we visited this museum-bus on German POW's in America during WWII. Very impressive; they were probably treated WAY better than the American POWs in Europe! They had a nice documentary, too, so we spent a little over an hour there. After that, she took me to the Raptor Center, where they have all these birds that people found and brought there. The ones that cannot take care of themselves they'll keep, the other ones will be taken care of and released out into the wild again. Very cool! I was impressed by the giant owls and bald eagles :)
Because I really wanted to go to the Cherokee reservation, Amy and I looked for a car I could rent. That proved to be a bigger challenge than we thought it would, because we couldn't find a car!! I decided to book a hotel there for one night, since we had to go to Enterprise during office hours and it was a three-hour drive to Cherokee.
I left at around 11 in an enormous Dodge Charger (real American experience, hee hee -- everybody just moved out of the way for me! There's something to say for big cars), and arrived around 3 (I'm not used to driving long distances, so I'll usually take one or two breaks), checked into the hotel, and went to walk around. The visitor center was closed already and it wasn't even after 5! Instead of doing something culturally, I just decided to walk around. Immediately, I got reeled in by these two roadside chiefs, who offered to take pictures from me with them and then they'd show me some dances. I even had to participate in the last dance XD They had to convince me (because really -- despite the adventures so far I'm always a little insecure) but eventually, I did it!
It left me with a little mixed feeling, though. On the one hand, I think it's sad that they've degenerated into these caricatures that the tourists really want to see when they encounter a "real" indian. The way they've commercialized the common picture of indians makes me a little icky. At the other hand, I understand completely because there's a LOT of people paying for it.
On Wednesday, I had a more cultural day. I visited the Museum of Cherokee History, which was awesome. It taught me stuff aside from the basic things I already knew and I loved how they set it all up. Then, I went to the Qualla gallery across the street. You know, I wanted to buy some Cherokee souvenirs but I kind of had the feeling that the souvenirs I'd find at the roadside where from real Cherokee artists. And though the Qualla store was slightly more expensive, at least I know the money'll go to the right people AND I have genuine stuff ;) Or, I hope so, anyway :P
I drove up to the Indian Village and we got a tour by the most bored guide ever. We weren't bored, but I had the feeling he was. He'd just tell his story, ask if we had questions and before somebody could say anything, he'd move on. The second guide was way better, and the third one was actually quite funny (yeah, she was female, too :P) I had a few questions so after the guided tour, I looked up one of the other guides, and asked all I wanted to know ;) He was actually pretty helpful and talked quite animated, so I left there with a good feeling ;)
I decided to go to Mingo Falls, which is a fall combined of two creeks. Very pretty! Stayed up there for half an hour (it was quite the way up), and then, I just thought I NEEDED to go to Tennessee because Tennessee has a pretty name ;) So, took the scenic route from Cherokee to Gatlinburg, Tennesee, which was a supercool drive through the mountains, and set my thought on buying a lapel pin from Tennesee.
You know, when I started out the trip, I thought it'd be way cool to collect these pins from every state I visited, but they're harder to find than I thought! I am still missing many of them because I simply can't find them anywyere: Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts (though I have one from Boston), Georgia, and South Carolina are not in my possession yet. I walked around for about an HOUR in Gatlinburg to find one, and eventually I did! The store even had one from Connecticut which I also didn't have before, so yay ;)
From Gatlinburg, I went back to Charlotte. It's only 3,5 hours, but I was so tired when I got there. When I still had 2,5 hours to go I told myself not to stop until I'd find a Starbucks sign at one of these Food Exit boards, and of course, I couldn't find any so I drove straight to Charlotte ;)
This morning, we brought back the rental, and Amy and I went shopping! I needed a new hand-luggage suitcase, because mine's broken and it's pretty annoying to have to carry the suitcase around instead of just pulling it behind me. I also bought two comic books (way cheaper than the Netherlands, yay!) and two summer dresses (yay colors!) ;) And it took some effort but I have a North Carolina lapel pin! :D I wanted to buy a bear from Build-A-Bear because I think it's such a cool concept!! I ended up with a grey kitty which I named Charlotte and Amy bought it for me, thank you so much! I got so used to sleeping with a plushie that when I gave it away as a gift, I felt a little disoriented in these hotel rooms so Charlotte's gonna keep me company :D
All in all, because of the improvisations I've had to spend more money on hotel rooms than I originally thought I would, and I've had to book more travel-tickets, too. Money goes way faster than planned (and hey, those dresses actually were cheap!) so I'm trying to figure out the cheapest possible options to travel around now ;) That means I'll leave for New Orleans in the middle of the night tonight by taking a train where I'll be meeting up with Jamye again, and instead of travelling directly to Utah I'm going to make a 2-day stop in Denver, from which I'll take the Greyhound to Provo, UT. I even have a supercheap hotel around there!
I'll probably be okay till the end of September and if all goes well, the paycheck will come in next week which SHOULD take me through the entire journey. And you know, if not, I'll just hitch-hike everywhere :P At least I have the return-ticket to the Netherlands already, and I have 200 euros that I don't touch except for very serious emergencies, so I'll always be able to go there and live in the airport for a little while. ;)