Indy

Our weather is warming up, and that seems to mean dead skunks everywhere. They absolutely reek and totally infest your car when you drive past one. If you can imagine that strong rainforest smell (smells a bit like someone smoking), well times that by about 20 - literally! It is the most pungent smell ever!

Speaking of weather, we hear/saw that things have been pretty bad back at home. Hope everyone is doing OK. It even made our CNN news over here!

This weekend we drove to Indianapolis, Indiana, about 6 hours away from Erie. There were begger's on every corner of the main road, who all rattled the cups of money at you as you walked past - i guess the camera was a dead giveaway that we were tourists!

First up, we went to Monument Circle - a giant round-a-bout with a 284 ft Soldiers and Sailors monument in the centre. All the buildings lining the round-a-bout were curved, which looked pretty cool. The State House looked nice as well.

Kristy in front of Monument Circle

Ryan with the Monument

Our hotel was actually built in to a train station that was still active!


In the morning we drove to the Worlds most famous race track - the Indianapolis Speedway which plays host to the Indy500 (which is on next week, but we are going to the NASCAR race in Michigan).

The track

Ryan in front of the Pagoda on the track.

Ryan with an Indy car in the museum

We got to do a lap around the track doing about 37mph in a bus, and then went through the museum dedicated to the Indy500.

Next up was Columbus, Indiana. Columbus is famous for its architecture, and apparently gives the likes of NY and Chicago a run for their money. Well, lets make it clear right now that the tour (you buy a map and drive yourself around the sites) was crap. There were 3 or 4 interesting buildings, and the rest were just like your everyday buildings and definitely nothing out of the ordinary. The tour had us going past schools, golf courses and even a retirement home! We quit halfway through and headed for our destination for the evening (and second visit) to Louisville, Kentucky. We love Louisville. We spent the evening drinking and eating.

One of the few interesting bits of architecture

Doing what we do best!

This man was a host at one of the Louisville restaurants - look familiar???

Yep - knew we had seen him somewhere before! Kentucky is the home of KFC!

The next morning we drove west of Louisville, back to Indiana to a small town to canoe along the Ohio river. This is where Ryan sent Kristy in to the Male toilets, where the lock didn't work and a man walked in (lucky she was finished!) Along the way we saw heaps of turtles, and the forest was nice. We completed the 7 mile paddle in just under 2 hours. At the end of the trip, these 2 guys we passed tried to keep up with us, but had nothing on us!!!

Ryan by the Ohio River at the end of our canoe trip

We grabbed a pizza and hit the road, and drove another 40min west to the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial - this is where Lincoln lived from ages 4-21years. The remains of his family's cabin is still present along with a replica pioneer farm.

We then had an 8 hour drive home. We stopped at a restaurant called Hoggy's on the way home for some good 'ol Southern food - Ryan literally ordered half a chicken! Lucky doggy bags are all the rage over here!

Ribs

Not a very eventful weekend this weekend. It was nice to finally have a relaxing weekend of not doing much at all.
The weather is warming up over here and it seems to bring all sorts of people out with it. This week has been the week of the Rib Cook Off in Erie, where the people of Erie get to vote for the best tasting ribs. This is where we spent Friday night, and it seemed like all the 'cool' people of Erie were out to get some ribs too!

One of the stalls at the Rib Cook Off

A BBQ, sorry grill they cook with

Yep, love their sauce over here. This is the sauce for the ribs. You have a choice of sweet, mild, hot or killer.

We had some ribs for dinner, then moved on to a bar down town, where we proceeded to have a few more drinks. We were both pretty tipsy by the end of the night and crashed when we got home, about 1am (after a Maccas run of course!). We were in a very deep sleep, when the phone rings at 4am!! We thought, who the hello would ring at this time? Sure enough it was Dynee's birthday party and everyone thought they would ring to say hello, cause they thought it was about 5pm our time (not sure what time calculator Ian was using???)!!! It was good to hear from everyone though.

After a big night and not the best nights sleep, we had a pretty lazy morning, laying around and sleeping in until about midday. We had a BBQ for lunch and went for a swim in the pool in our estate.

Saturday night we headed over to Luis' house for a BBQ and drinks, but had a fairly early night.

Sunday, Ryan played golf with Dylan and Rod (the other Aussie family down the road), while Kristy went shopping (and found some good bargains - Ralph Lauren Jeans - $12!) with Cheryl and Casey. We had a BBQ for dinner along with a few games of cards at Cheryl and Rod's house.

The Trip Home
The trip home was over 13.5 hours long, so we broke it up with a few stops along the way. First up was the Corvette Museum. Here they had about 75 Corvettes on display, ranging from old to new.

Some of the Corvettes on display

Ryan with a Corvette

Kristy with a pink Corvette

The next stop was Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. This is the world's longest cave system, with more than 365 miles explored, with the next closest rival a third of its size.

This is the entry to the cave

Us leaving the cave - if you squint you can see us!

We done a short self guided tour through the caves. The largest room we got to explore was over 1 acre in size (with the largest room in the caves being 2 acres). There is evidence of human existence in the caves as far back as 4000 years ago, where they would chip of bits of the stone (no one knows why yet). It was re-discovered in the late 1790's and has been used for many things including a tuberculosis hospital and as a source of gun powder ingredients. The photos inside the cave didn't turn out particularly well though.

Home of The King

After briefly stopping at the Grand Ole Opry, we drove another 3 hours to Memphis, Tennessee - home of Elvis Presley and Gracelands, which was our first stop.

In front of Gracelands

We got to tour through his house, better known as Gracelands. Although you are not allowed in his upstairs bedroom, or upstairs at all out of respect, he had some cool rooms and they were all decorated 'out there'. There was the Jungle Room, where green shag pile carpet lined the walls, floor and ceiling, and the TV room, which was bright yellow and blue.

The lounge room with stained glass with peacocks on them. The piano is one of 3 in the house.

The entertainment room

The Jungle room - all the wild animal sculptures are from Hawaii. Notice the green shag pile carpet?!

You saw all this awards he had won over the years, along with a huge collection of costumes and outfits.

Elvis' favourite car - a pink Cadillac

Ryan with another car

Some of the many costumes

We got to look at his private jets (custom made with 24c gold seat belts, beds, bars, etc) and also got a few photos of Heartbreak Hotel.

That's Heartbreak Hotel in the background

Before checking in to our hotel, we visited Sun Studios, where some very famous artists have recorded their records, including Elvis' very first record, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis.

We also saw the world's 3rd largest pyramid, which is an entertainment venue in Memphis.










The outskirts of Memphis are very very seedy, and we were starting to wonder where all the action was, until we reached Beale Street, the most famous street in Memphis. Here we had our photos taken with an Elvis statue near the Orpheum and walked the Musical Walk of Fame. Beale street was fantastic. Like Nashville, the street was lined with heaps of bars and pubs, however blues and soul music was coming from every street corner and bar. Of course we sampled some bars while walking around the street, taking it all in. There were thousands of people all filling the entire street. We had dinner at a nice restaurant and there was a funky blues band playing. For dinner we had gumbo (Southern soup), spicy Memphis wings (and they were very spicy!), alligator and some mushroom poppers. Yummo!

Us with the Elvis statue

You cant visit the South with out trying their Mint Julep drink. So, on the way home we stopped at a bar (and ran in to Elvis!) and sampled one. It's made from Bourbon, lemonade and fresh mint. It was terrible!

Ryan with his big ass beer!

Kristy and Elvis - in case you were wondering Kristy is licking his nipple

This is Beale street - the tall building is only like the face of the building, the back of it has been demolished and is now a beer garden. This building used to be an old brothel!

These are only some of our photos - we have so many more, but cant put them all up!

Country Music Capital
After our Bourbon Trail trip, we drove another 3 hours south to Nashville Tennessee - the worlds country music capital. We went to the Parthenon - a real life size replica of the building in Greece. We then went for a drive through town stopping at the State Capitol Building which overlooks Bicentennial Mall.

The Parthenon

We dropped our car at the hotel, and walked in to town where all the action was happening. Nashville is awesome! There is live country music blasting from every bar and saloon (yes saloon!), and there are stacks of bars lining the streets! There were people in cowboy boots and hats, souvenir shops and more bars!! We spent the afternoon walking around the streets, stopping in at bars and souvenir shops along the way. Our final destination was the Wildhorse Saloon. We drank beer and cocktails while watching people learning how to line dance, and ate some more good 'ol Southern food. Ryan had about 2 kilos of meat for dinner, including ribs, beef and pulled pork - a Southern favourite. Their bathrooms were really cool too - they had the people in there that help you wash your hands! Of course you are supposed to tip them for their assistance.

Some shops and bars in downtown Nashville

A boot shop

Every one down south eats biscuits and gravy for brekkie. Its like a salty scone, with a gravy with bits of sausage in it. This is Ryan trying one.

The next morning, we drove to the Grand Ole Opry - a famous performance house.

Down South Y'all

This weekend we spent the Memorial Day Long Weekend down in Kentucky and Tennessee. We didn't stop once the whole weekend and we had an absolute blast! The Southern states are awesome and so is the food.

Friday afternoon we drove 7 hours and spent the night in Louisville, Kentucky. After checking in, we found Joe's Crab Shack - a restaurant by the river. The restaurant was nice and we had our first sampling of Southern food - a craw fish (like mini lobsters) stew with rice. It was nice, but spicy. We were enjoying our meal when all of a sudden the room went dark and a disco ball lit up the room. The entire staff jumped up on any vacant seat they could find and started doing the Macerina - that was an interesting sight to see!

We spent the rest of the night walking around the river front and down town Louisville.

There was a funny chicken park in Louisville

Sun setting on the river in Louisville

The next morning we went to the worlds most famous horse racing track - Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby is held. We were lucky enough to score a free tour through the grounds by a staff member! Apparently on Derby day the track fits in up to 150,000 people!

Us with a statue of the first ever Kentucky Derby winner and his horse


Churchill Down race track

We then went to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Here we got to see the world famous baseball bats in production and even got a mini slugger ourselves!

Show us your slugger! Ryan with his Louisville Slugger

Kristy in front of the 120 foot Louisville Slugger

Next up we followed the Bourbon Trail through central Kentucky, where 90% of the worlds bourbon is made. The trail takes you to bourbon companies such as Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, Makers Mark and some other ones. Since we were restricted for time, we went to Jim Beam followed by a smaller distillery called Heavens Hill.

At Jim Beam, we watched a video on how bourbon is made, saw the 9 story sheds the aged the bourbon in and got to tour the property that the Beams owned and lived on. Finally we got to sample one of their bourbons. Not our favourite drink.

Ryan with a statue of Booker Noe, Jim Beams grandson who now runs the distillery

This is one of the 9 story buildings the the bourbon is distilled in. There is black mould growing all over the building, which is just from the air, but it makes the buildings look super cool

A Reasonably Relaxing Weekend

Well, to some extent our weekend was some what relaxing, although we did manage to squeeze in a 4 hour return drive on Saturday and a 6 hour (return) drive in on Sunday.

Friday afternoon we had a few drinks at a bar with Ryan's boss and some of his work mates - not sure what the occasion was, just an excuse to have a few drinks! We sampled some traditional American appetisers - mushroom poppers and jalapeno & cheese poppers - all battered and deep fried, then dipped in ranch dressing!

After ducking home for dinner (and a quick skateboard around the estate), we headed over to Luis' (from Ryan's work) house for a few more drinks, before heading to a bar down town.

Saturday morning we hit the local golf course, with Tarun and Luis for 9 holes - wasn't that a sight to see! Considering Ryan has only played a handful of games in his lifetime, and Kristy has never ever played. We didn't even bother to keep score, although Ryan had a really good second round, getting the ball in the hole after 4 shots, and not all Kristy's hits were air swings - in fact the ball even went reasonable distances when she hit it!

In our golf buggy - we almost rolled it a couple of times!

Kristy with a hunk of grass dug up from her golf swing

Ryan lining up a shot

After golf, it was back to our place for a barbie. The BBQ we used had no hot plate though, only a grill like element, which made it really hard to cook on!

The 4 of us then drove 2hrs North to Buffalo for the afternoon, where Luis was to give us a guided tour. We started off with a coffee in an area like Beaumont Street, then had a look at the neo-Gothic post office building, a bank with a dome made out of 14,000 24 carat gold leafs, the building where the 'Buffalo Wing' originated, as well as a local bar! There were Buffalo Sabres (ice hockey) fans everywhere - the ice hockey grand final (in Buffalo) had just finished. Buffalo lost.

The bank with a 24 carat gold dome

Ryan, Tarun and Luis in Buffalo

The old neo-Gothic post office building

We then drove a bit further in town for dinner at a yummy Thai/Vietnamese restaurant.

Sunday morning we drove 3 hours East to Northern Central Pennsylvania (PA) to the PA Grand Canyon. We stopped for lunch in a quiet little gas lantern lit town not far from the canyon at an old school diner. We each ordered a roast chicken meal. What we got instead was chicken and mashed potato absolutely smothered in a white gravy sauce, with a side bowl of mixed veggies floating in butter! Sounds nice doest it?

The PA Grand Canyon is behind us. Ryan is becoming a master at taking our own photos!

Another shot of the Canyon

We then drove around the canyon - it was pretty, nothing like the Grand Canyon in Arizona though! This canyon was like a big valley with a river running through the middle, and is covered in trees.