The Wahlfahrt Mobile wheels have stopped turning...

... 100 Days the road have finally come to an end, on the day America chooses its direction for the next four years.




Obviously as a non US citizen, I couldn't par take in the process of deciding which man is fit for the job as the leader of the free world... However my Travel buddy, Andreas is... So naturally he cast his vote...




I must say its been one hell of a journey of almost 15,000 miles across the 'greatest country in the world'*
There's been ups and downs, rain and sun, early mornings and late nights, beer and coffee, Romney and Obama, endless roads and state lines. But I've enjoyed it all, it's been an adventure which is just what I needed...
Earlier in the year before this trip had come to fruition, I was going stir crazy in my job and feeling like I needed a break. Thankfully I got the chance to do something I've always dreamed off, traveling.. I'd always thought I'd see Asia first.. But in some ways I feel like seeing America has really opened my eyes to the world in ways Asia might not have..




I'll be going back to Great Britain soon, and returning to the daily grind.. I'm sure there will be post-traveling blues, but I'm also feeling happy about being back in London.. And who knows, hopefully I'll be posting on this blog again, from another far flung location..
For now, I'm in California and watching the news coverage of the 2012 Elections.. Like most Europeans, I feel more aligned to the Democratic style of governance... But I have a better understanding now why people here align themselves to the various parties.. But the really outstanding memory will be that of how many people across the country feel fed up with both parties.. It really will be interesting to see how people vote today and what direction they feel is right for America..




Sadly my MacBook hard drive has gone kaput, so there will be a delay on posting all the pictures from the trip to Flickr... Check my instagram for my daily snippets of where and what I saw along the way..
Inoperable to get it fixed once back in the UK, I will ensure I publicise when they go up!
Thanks for reading,
Ady
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Santa Monica,United States

I've Come Full Circle.. Well, Not Quite..

New York, New York. So good they named it twice...

so for those of you that have been following this from the beginning might be thinking "Oh, he's back in NYC. The trip must be over".

Well. You'd be wrong. we are merely just over half way. You see the original plan was to begin here and head west like the settlers of old did those many years ago.

However due to difficulties getting an RV/campervan sorted on the east coast, we ended up starting it there.

So i've been lucky in that i've had two opportunities to visit this wonderful city now. As we were driving in back on Tuesday afternoon i had been thinking to myself.

Will i still be as excited about this city like i was when i first touched down in the states and began my adventure? would the other cities i have visited outshine this metropolis?

The answer: No.
Not. One. Bit.

This city is just one of a kind. Its probably the only US city i can honestly say that holds its own on an International stage. Theres so much going on, so much diversity, so many people. I had always thought the phrase "the city that never sleeps" was an exaggeration. Its really not. Getting on the Subway at 3am, and getting a seat isn't always a safe bet.

I've been asked many times these last few days a fairly similar slew of questions now:

Favourite City: see my top 10 post for this...

Favourite Food Dish: again see the top 10.. although NYC has not let me down yet with its food offerings

What's surprised you the most: many of my previous false convictions of Americans have been completely eroded and i understand the american culture far more now. 

Where are you going next: this always seems to differ from day to day, hour to hour...

How did you find 'the south': three words: Bar-Be-Que

Do you hate each other yet: lolz. No, we've been getting on just find... Laundromat antics always help lighten a dull mood. 

Looking back on the last two months, it really has been quite the adventure. i've really not written down as many of the stories and things we've been upto as i had planned to do.. but hopefully i can recall them all from my head before two many brain cells are desecrated on the next drinking session.

This is most likely to be the last day i spend here in NYC, and i'd like to perhaps go down and visit the famous Coney Island and see whats cracking there.. i've been slack lately with my fickr uploads and as we speak i'm only just uploading Baltimore.

I also need to get myself some business cards printed with details of my blog, instagram, twitter, etc so that i can direct more people to what we're doing.

If you are reading this and you dont know me personally or even if you do, please visit our website and although in german you can also follow us on FB and Twitter for more info and updates on the Political side of this trip.

Brooklyn Bridge. Gateway to Manhattan.

No Gym. No Tan. But boy, did we kick the arse out of the Laundry.

Jersey Shore. Home to many things.

But now it's shall ever be synonymous with Laundry. Well for me anyway.

You see, we arrived here without realising the season was now over. So that meant, No Fist Pumping, no debating whether girls are DTF... The only viable option was for some GTL...

However, the G's all seem to be shut, the T's didn't really appeal to us either.. So that left L.

We kicked the S**t out of the L. Almost literally at one point.




So here is Andreas, posing outside our chosen Laundromat... That place was deserted, so that left us with only one option... Get up to as much mischief as possible...

As you can see, SOMEBODY. Needed to wash all his clothes as he had no clean ones left... Hence the 'naked cowboy' you see here.

When I get a chance, Flickr will eventually have an albumen dedicated to today's tomfoolery.
I think it will raise a smile. It had me in tears today, just being behind the lens.


In other news: Next Stop NYC.... Via Philly again..... To retrieve my lost glasses from the gym...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:New Jersey Ave,Wildwood Crest,United States

Lucky You! Lucky Me!

Another Sunday morning, another church service. I'm still a non believer in this whole religion thing, but it's providing some form of routine to the journey.

We arrived in Washington D.C on Friday, and spent Saturday recovering from the night before.

The plan today is to sightsee around the City on bike (kindly lent to us by Matt & Trang).

The pastor this morning said this quote, which I rather liked...

"as I kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. I then realised that God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike, and prayed for forgiveness." - Al Capone

It's a Methodist church we're at this morning so no crazy Mega Church antics today..

In other news, I've finally come down with a cold... Just like clockwork.. My body just can't seem to handle the start of Autumn..hopefully with enough green tea, multi-vitamins and tissues I'll get over it in a few days..

Well that's all for now.. I'm going to make a better effort of blogging on the fly from my iPhone from now on out..

Thanks for reading.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Church St NW,Washington,United States

We're on a political journey..

I haven't really mentioned all that much about the main sort of purpose of my trip in my blog.. mainly because i'm mainly here as the photographer/ Tourist.. so i've left the politcial anaylsis to my fellow traveler Andreas whose writing his own blog... www.wahlfahrt2012.de

however.. i might start posting things about the run up to the election that either amuse me, or i just think are rather interesting.. 

Obama 2012 Literally Buys Literally...

Have a quick read of this article from the great master bloggers at Gizmodo..

i thought it was funny.

anyway.. off to go jump in an waterlogged abandoned quarry. 

Ciao for Now.

The bits in-between..

So i kind of skipped ahead slightly when i posted last about the Mega Church we visited.. So heres the story from the Grand Canyon to Carlsbad Caverns.

Right then, so we left the Canyon early in the morning on the sunday to drive to Phoneix (again to get to a 'mega church') the drive was fairly straight forward.. i was asleep for most of it as it was an early start..

we got to Phoenix ahead of time, and then proceeded to rely on the old satnav to find us some breakfast... this resulted in many loops around the same roads, a visit into a Mexican place, only to leave straight away.. a couple more loops around the block, before giving up and relying on the hospitality of the church to provide us something to eat. they didn't.

As per usual we received a warm welcome to the church..  and found some seats. this particular place was no where near the same size as Saddleback (or The Potters House). There was a little 'meet and greet' part near the beginning of the service, where we got talking to this elderly couple in front of us who took great interest in the fact we were from Europe.

Anyway to cut a long story short, they offered to take us for lunch to hear more about our experiences in Germany & The UK as Maryanne had lived in both countries for a short while. We were truly grateful for the wonderful kindness and hospitality they showed us and for paying for lunch!

Another pit stop in a nearby starbucks before we left for Tucson. The Drive to Tucson was certainly a long one.. and one that greeted us at our destination with yet another storm.

We had found an RV park online that was only $19 a night, which included free wifi, pool, laundry, showers, 30/50amp hookup, and a fruit tree. We had a lime tree.

We basically used the time in Tucson for some R&R and for laundry and showers. The town it's self didnt have a great deal to offer.. upon visiting one afternoon almost everything has closed for the day.

Two nights was all we spent here in the end.. one of which we spent in the Jacuzzi drinking beer in the middle of a thunder storm... needless to say it was an interesting experience.. 

After a morning in the court house, watching the Trail of Jared Lee Loughner we finally left Tuscon and headed for New Mexico. 

New Mexico greeted us with storms on the drive in, but then as we got closer to Las Cruces the weather was more settled.

Another night spent in a Walmart Carpark as we arrived too late to check into a RV park. The following day we decided to check out a local Farmers Market. Lots of small stalls there selling all sorts of food, jewelry, plants, coffee, paintings and more!

After several long and indepth conversations with several stall holders we treated our selfs to a great Mexican style street food lunch.. 

The afternoon was spent in the old part of the town in Old Messila. This part of town is where Billy the Kid was tried and hung. A stroll around the town spending time talking to the local shop owners and also some visitors proved interesting. 

we ended up talking to these two old guys from Texas for a good hour or so, about life in america, politics, their time in Germany and everything in between.. Interesting views on their current government and president. 

Right, so i'm going to leave it here on this post.. i'll talk about the next stop in New Mexico in the next post.

thanks for reading!

Adrian

The Trip so Far...

I'm going to start this blog post of by saying, that for more up to date progress of what im doing, check out my google map here as its quicker for me to write little tid bits about what ive been up to and show the route we took on there.

So last time i wrote i had stopped off in Slab City... well i can tell you know, we're far, far from there!

After leaving the slabs, we headed for the desert mirage, otherwise known as Las Vegas! however we took a rather long detour via the Joshua Tree National Park..

(Clicking the Picture should take you to my Flickr feed for more pics)

spent an hour or two at  most stopping every now and then in the park for a few pictures.. then carried on our merry way on the Vegas.

As we drove into vegas a rather large thunder storm erupted in front of us, but luckily it was still a good way off and wasn't over vegas in the end.

we spent around a day and half in Vegas in the end.. having got a cheap deal on a hotel off the strip.. but the heat was intense. so most of the day was spent either in the pool, in the room, or in a starbucks!

the evening we went out for a walk down the strip to see what was going on.. my overal impression of Vegas was a rather seedy, dirty, tourist hot spot kind of city.. i'd maybe go back for a day or two to see more of the shows they put on.. but i didnt fancy losing lots of money there which will be sorely needed further along on the trip.

We left Vegas in the afternoon and drove down to Hoover dam, getting there just before closing.. but still to late to see the museum.

i wanted to get some pictures to show the sheer size of this structure, but even this doesn't really do it justice.. you have to see it for yourself.. and to think they built it in 4 years in 1934!

leaving the Dam in the late evening we set the SatNav to the Grand Canyon and carried on driving..


as we're getting close (we had set the destination to the skywalk... big mistake) the lovely paved road, stopped. "Rough Road" "14 Miles" said the sign.. rough was an understatement.

we were luckly to get more than 10 mph along that road, any faster and i'd be in a neck brace...

i should also add, it was around this point that yet again, lightning began to make its self evident in the distance.. as cool as it looked, neither of us thought that it could possibly be heading our way...

we finally got to a point where the road was paved again! (i nearly got out and kissed it, had it not been for the fact the lighting seemed to be getting closer). We drove toward the skywalk, hoping to be able to park there for the night and be the first on it in the morning. Thats when the rain started. its also when we saw flashing lights coming towards us.

"Turn Around!, the Skywalks Closed"

"Can we not drive down there and camp for the night?!"

"No. Follow me, and i'll show you where you can camp"

"OK."

we were back at the start of the paved road, end of the dirt road. but we'd driven back out of the storm. so we thought.

I managed to get a few pictures of the lighting before the rain reached us.

this picture only gives a very small glimpse into what we witnessed that night... after a few beers, wide eyes, and distaster theories later, we ended up calling it a night and going to bed.

The next day Andreas decided to go for a jog from where we were down to the Skywalk. thinking it was only 5 miles or so (according to the satnav... which we're sure is lying to us on a daily basis).

i stayed in bed.. however after what felt like hours, i decided i best get up and drive down the road to see where he'd got to.. a mile or so down the road i found him. Turns out now it was more like 9 miles one way... he'd spoken with people at the Skywalk.. a few things of Note: 1) it was $60 a person (rip off) 2) didn't look that good anyway. 3) he'd never have run that distance had he known it was 9 miles 4) according to a park ranger, that was the worst storm he'd seen in his lifetime.

We packed up, and made our way to the Grand Canyon Village, which was a long drive East.

we took a route via a section of the old Route 66. had lunch at a Native America Restaurant (the food was distinctly american.) and made it to the canyon ($25 later) just before sunset... oh not before old Gavin (The satnav voice that we blame for mis-direction) took us via some crazy dirt road again.. which somebody, decided to drive along as if we we're in a rally car... )

anway.. the view was breath taking..

We stayed in the visitor car park that night, and even ventured out at night to see the canyon, with the hope of a clear sky and no more, to try some more star trail pictures. sadly it was neither clear, or no moon, and was also rather cold, so after one test shot of a ten minute exposure (which came out rubbish) we retreated back to the van.

i'm going to end it here for now.. as i write this, i'm in New Mexico, but i'll save the next post for the journey south in Arizona and then on to New Mexico. Havent got the pics up on flickr yet either so you'll just have to wait!

Thanks for reading..

Ady

Day 98 - Laguna to Slab City

Well, i'm a few days late in writing this.. being on the road alot lately, and lack of wifi and power has its limitations..

So when i last wrote here, we were in Laguna Beach... it sure was nice there, being next to the pacific.. well, that was the last i'll see of the ocean for some time..

We set off with a destination in mind, called Slab City.. i wont go into to much detail about the place.. you can go here for that..

Having arrived just before dusk.. and were greeted initially by Salvation Mountain. And what a sight that is.

As we pulled up, there was an old guy named Earl there who we started talking to, who then introduced us to Adam. Adam had been given the task of helping to maintain the Mountain by 'The Trust'. The mountain is the work of Leonard Knight, who sadly isnt living in the Slabs anymore due to Alzheimer's disease. 

Still, we were shown round the mountain by Adam, who also explained how it was built and some of the ideas behind the work.

We were invited to set up camp right next to the mountain for the night, rather than venture into the Slabs as it was now dark.

A tin of soup and a few cold beers later, it was time for bed. However not before a spot of photography of course!

The next day we tried out the 'shower' which is essentially just a concrete manhole with a water supply tapped off from a nearby hot spring. The water wasn't cold, nor hot.. and was very refreshing in the morning heat.

Some pancakes and ice cold water later we then took a trip into the slabs to see if we could find some people to talk to and see what live was like 'off the grid'. We came across the Slab City skate park.. but couldnt find the local artist said to be behind some of the graffiti work inside the old swimming pool.

we ended up talking to an elderly gentleman by the name 'Red' and his friend (didn't catch her name). He knew a good story or two.. so much so that in my morning haze i had forgotten to put suncream on and ended up geting a nice pair of red shoulders...

we finally said our goodbyes and then hit the road again... this time bound for Vegas.. the SatNav saying it would be 340odd mile, was somewhat daunting..

i'll talk some more about that trip in the next post.

thanks for reading.

Ady