On Friday we landed on the moon. At least it looked like it. We visited the Badlands national Park and it was very cool.

There were many signs warning us of Rattlesnakes.

But we decided to camp anyway.

Yesterday we visited Milwaukee. We didn’t find Richie Cunningham but we did find Billy Bob. He is there with his band for the Harley 105th motorcycle party.

We visited the Harley museum and sat on some of their latest bikes:

We hired some push bikes and went for another cycle ride despite our sore rears.

This is Lake Michigan, you cant even see land on the other side.

And to top off the day we had the most disgusting meal ever. We went to an Italian restaurant that was recommended. I ordered the chicken and mushroom pasta cooked in a white wine and olive oil sauce. It sounded nice but I took one bike and promptly swapped my meal with Mike. It tasted like they had dumped a flagon of bad sherry in it. It was putrid. I could see Mike gagging on it too and he’s not fussy! I felt a bit bad about swapping but we have this unspoken rule that if I dont like my meal I can have his!

Anyway, he swapped his meal for spaghetti and meatballs and that was equally as crap. My (Mikes) risotto was ok but extremely sweet. I guess we just get spoilt for good Italian restaurants in England.

We decided to head North as Hurricane Fay was wreaking havoc on the south. Yesterday we visited Chicago, hired some bikes and cycled beside Lake Michigan.

Chicago is a cool city right on the edge of Lake Michigan.It’s not just a poxy small lake either, its huge. Its like being by the sea.

They have the roads underneath bridges and stuff, just like on the Blues Brothers. We got lost trying to leave Chicago as the sat nav didnt work under them.

Here are some photos:

We also visited Wrigley Field but we were too late for a tour so we just got a photo of the sign. Been there done that!

We arrived in Kentucky and our Sat Nav got us a bit lost trying to find Mikes sister Ro.

As we were looking for the correct house, we stopped to let a green pickup go past. But he just sat behind us. Weird we thought as he continued to follow us in our search for Ro.

We stopped again and this time Mike drove off the road for the guy in the green pickup to go past. He went past, then pulled into a driveway just ahead of us. We figured he must live there. So we continued on. He then pulled out of the driveway and continued to follow us. What a nutcase.

As we approached the crossroads, Mike pulled off the road completely and parked. And so did the green pickup. We didnt know what his problem was but it was a bit scary.

It was getting very weird by this stage so we crossed the road and pulled into the service station with plans to confront him if he followed us there.

As we pulled into the service station, Brother-in-law Larry spotted us and got out of the car to greet us. It was then that the green pickup finally pulled away and left us alone.

It was like being in one of those scary road trip movies where they pick on tourists.

We took a detour to Memphis to go and visit Elvis. We did a tour of Graceland, which was where Elvis used to live and it was really cool. Elvis had the place re-decorated in 1974 he has shagpile carpet on the ceiling and cool stuff like that.

Here are some piccys:

This is the jungle room with a waterfall and carpet on the ceiling

funky room which mirrors for the walls and ceiling, looks like a good design for Matts cellar I reckon.

We also had a look on his private planes.

dodgy people in the mirror

Today we drove through most of Arkansas (pronounced Arkansaw). I had my first encounter with a dry county. Dry means that they don’t sell any alcohol.

We kept on driving, keen to get this county behind us, and we somehow stumbled into another dry county. And this time it was too late as we had already booked accommodation!

I also had insisted on camping tonight and cooking our dinner and we somehow ended up in a suite with a Jacuzzi!

In America there is loads of choice and breakfast is a scary time for me. It goes something like this:

Me: I’ll have fried eggs and bacon please
Them: How would you like your eggs?
Me: well done please
Them: Sorry we don’t do well done
Me: um, not runny.
Them: blank stare
Me: cooked, not runny in the middle
Them: still staring blankly
Me: I dont want that yellow bit in the middle to be runny. Mike help me out here.
Mike: What is the choice?
Them: sunny side up, over easy, easy under, over well, over medium, over hard
Me: Its all too hard
Them: do you mean over hard?
Me: yep, sounds good
Them: What sort of toast?
Me: (oh dear, here we go again) what’s the choice?
Them: rye, sourdough, sweetdough, wholegrain, halfgrain, quartergrain, white, Brown, Red, Green, or Blue
Me: um, white please
Them: Drink?
Me: flat white please
Them: The choice is coffee or tea.
Me: hmmmm

Its all good fun.

Today we traversed some more of Kansas. We stopped in Hutchinson and went to the Cosmophere where they have some rockets, spy planes, spacesuits and Apollo 13 on display.

This history of the space race is interesting. The Russians were the first to launch fido into space. They had the first man in space. They had the first woman in space. During this time the US had a 39% success rate of firing their rockets into space (unmanned), and the next thing they are landing on the moon. Kinda makes the conspiracy theory seem quite feasible. That and the fact that JFK had to make his mark after failing to invade Cuba.

This, of course, is just the facts as we read them today.

We also did a detour to Wichita – “As Wichita falls… so falls Wichita Falls” but we couldnt find John, Billy Bob or the Falls.

Here are some piccys at the Cosmophere.

Rocket:

Spy Plane:

Cosmonaut gear:

Apollo 13 capsule: