Charleston, SC..Savannah, GA and Orlando, FL!

Another good day and here we are in Orlando, Florida! We got up early this morning so we could see a bit of Charleston, the guide books say its a great place to wander around. We managed to get some cool photos and the obligatory fridge magnet before 9 am. The road to Savannah was clear and we arrived around half 11. Dubbed the best looking place in America..its hard to argue with that I guess. Down to business and some more cool photos and fridge magnet action ensued. There are no tall buildings and it really has a southern feeling to the place, plus it was mega hot. Definitely a thumbs up for these 2 towns. We left Savannah at around 1pm, knowing we had a pretty hardcore drive through the afternoon. We managed to stay clear of the cops...but not the rain. Torrential downpours in late afternoon/early evening seem like the norm at the moment.

Were here chilling in the Holiday Inn, Orlando. Right next to Sea world and pretty close to all the parks. Saturday we're hittin Universal Studios and the neighbouring theme park, hopefully we can manage to stay dry! Right, absolutely goosed so off to bed. In a bit!

Virginia Beach - North Carolina - Charleston, SC

Hey hey...safe to say today has been the hardcore driving day we thought it would be!! We reckon we've drove about 480 miles in total in what has been an incident-packed day!! Ha, we quickly checked out downtown Virginia Beach this morning before leaving...seemed like an ace place but we knew we had to be hitting the road, bit of a shame but we always knew we'd be in a bit of a rush to get down to Orlando for friday.

We then got to state number 7 of the trip, North Carolina...where we decided we didn't really like the route the Sat Nav was taking us on (all the way in to the 95 South)....so armed with nothing but an old road atlas & our sense of direction we decided to attempt it ourselves!! This worked perfectly as it turns out, however a certain Michael Alderman - my co-traveller, was clearly in too much of a hurry when he got pulled over by the North Carolina PD, thats right...for speeding!! I have to say we've noticed a big culture change as we've moved south today...poorer looking places and even poorer accents, so we didn't really understand much the cop said, but I think it centred around the fact he could throw Alderman into prison, that he should throw Alderman into prison, but he wasn't going to. And that Alderman shouldn't speed again. So there you have it kids, if ever in North Carolina, learn from Michael's mistakes...!!

We got going again at a more moderate pace & quickly checked out Wilmington, North Carolina as we wanted a driving break, before hitting the road again & heading into South Carolina (state number 8!!), where we were hit by an awesome storm;

We did manage to survive this though, and eventually made it to Charleston around 8.45pm. We're going to try check it out early in the morning as we have another big driving day tomorrow, only the 380 miles or so we reckon, next stop after Charleston will be Savannah and state number 9 (Georgia), before we get our asses down to Orlando, Florida...where we have a hotel booked for 4 nights :-)

Delaware to Virginia Beach, VA

Alright folks! Well we've made it to Virginia Beach, VA...and i'm pleased to annouce we are staying the night in the finest hotel in town.... The Econo Lodge.

Today we hit the shops in Delaware for a few hours around lunch time, after our first lie-in of the trip. Even so we were away earlier than i usually get to work... The drive was cool, we had our first taste of rural America, fields of corn and big red barns...unfortunately no twisters or flying cows/tractors. Anyway...i've never seen do many shops its a good job we have no women to slow us down! We both got a few nice t shirts and shorts at tax free outlet prices :)

This afternoon we had a fairly long drive South, although it pales in comparison to Thursday and Friday when we have to cover 790 miles!! We hit a bit of bad weather about 4pm, we were hoping for a big storm but all we got was a few drops of rain! We also drove over the biggest bridge i've ever seen, it was pretty awesome. Its about 450 miles from here to our next stop in Charlston, SC. Then 340 miles until we reach our destination in Florida, but thats a surprise for you readers next time ;) We have covered 720 miles so far, and we're set to double that over the next 2 days, its a good job we have a nice set of wheels and gas prices are low! Can't wait for the rental company to find out their car has depreciated in value by about 80%

Right, thats all for now. Please call again :)

Washington, DC

We visited Washington DC today, which was pretty cool!! We got up really early for the half hour drive there from Annapolis, MD, but still managed to hit some bad traffic as we got near the city, which was a bit shitty to drive around, especially as there didn't seem to be anywhere in the city to park!! We eventually just parked the Tiburon GT V6 on a shady side road somewhere where there was limited 1-hour parking...

About 4 hours later we returned to find no ticket or clamp, and the car unmoved, so it was definitely a worthwhile gamble!! We just had a walk round DC really, saw the US Capitol, Washington Monument & White House, and a museum or two, but the 'museum scene' isn't really us so we did one back to Maryland just after lunch time, which only took about 20 mins.

Tonights been cool though, we drove in to downtown Annapolis seen as we're leaving tomorrow & had a good look around, seems like a cool place...definitely lots of money around!! Anyway, up to about 400 miles travelled now & travelling East to the state of Delaware tomorrow, and working our way South down it & onto Virginia Beach, where we're hopefully going to find a hotel to crash in for the night....

Philadelphia, PA & Annapolis, MD.

Well another day on the road & states number 3 and 4 of the trip have been chalked up. We left Atlantic City early & headed to Philadelphia - which was awesome, so much nicer than either of us was expecting....especially as our only motivation for going really was to run up the Rocky steps...!! We also went to see the Liberty Bell & just had a good look around before leaving lunch time!!

An uneventful but sizeable drive to Annapolis, Maryland via Baltimore was then completed - I was pretty happy to see the 'Welcome To Maryland' sign, as this is the 1st state of the trip I hadnt previously been to! We're in a pretty awesome hotel here for 2 nights now - we've had a quiet night tonight as we're up v.early in the morning to hit Washington DC for the day, before heading back to Annapolis for the night, and then we're planning on driving down through Delaware on Wednesday & getting our asses to Virginia Beach.

We reckon we've driven just over 300 miles in total at the mo, only another 8000 or so to go kids....!!

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Well here we are (finally) in state number 2! After much hassle with the rental car, including being told to head to brooklyn and get a money order from a grocery store, the rest was fairly straight forward...

The original plan was to get a standard size saloon, however the rental rep correctly assumed we would be better suited to 2 door GT V6 black sports car for no extra charge :)

The drive from NYC through New Jersey and into Atlantic City was so uneventful I wont bore u with details, but its good that we found it so easy to adapt to the different driving conditions. We left NYC at 11-15 and checked into our hotel, the aptly named 'ECONO LODGE', by 2-30!!

Thanks for reading folks, were off for a bite to eat at hooters and a few sneaky bets n roulette!

NYC, New York

Well after getting on the plane in Gatwick & getting down the runway, some other plane had to make an emergency landing so the whole runway got closed down. So we had to sit there for a good 2 hours before we took off, so 10 hours sat on the plane wasn't fun!! But oh well...

....We made it to New York!! We got to the hotel, met up with the Clarks, headed to Central Park for a bit of a walk, then went down to Times Sqaure & ate at the 'Bubba Gump' shrimp company, which is based on Forrest Gump. Then today (saturday), we both got up at 7.30 and went for a hardcore run around Central Park...However when we finished we realised we weren't at the bottom where we started, but at they very top of Central Park - just the 50 or so blocks away!!

Ha, then we went to the Empire State, also got dragged round a few shops by Kristen on 5th Avenue & then hit the American Museum Of National History...basically the museum from the movie Night At The Museum...No Ricky Gervais though unfortunately!! I also almost got kicked out of Toys R' US tonight...there was a Barbie house but the top level was all blocked off, so I accidently moved the barrier & headed upstairs for a photo - before security arrived to escort me from there!! Ha, obviously I got the photo though!!

So we get the car in the morning in the middle of Manhattan, and plan to drive to Atlantic City, New Jersey to stay for sunday night. Having lost a much-anticipated coin toss this afternoon, I have the honour of driving the trecherous streets of Manhattan, so you never know, we might not even leave New York....!!

Gatwick Are We....

Just a quick note - sat in Gatwick airport rather bored, although the gate for our flight opens in about 10 minutes so should be away soon enough.

We're due to get in to New York for 2.30 local time, so by the time we get through immigration after Alderman's "Random" cavity search we should hopefully be at the hotel before nightfall. Then we have friday and saturday to live it up in NYC, before picking up the car in Manhattan & hitting the open roads early sunday morning!

Oh Dear.....

3 days to go...

Well it's Monday July 20th and we have just 3 full days now before our flight on friday morning, leaving from Gatwick to JFK New York...

I'd love to say preparations have long since been sorted out but that just wouldn't be us - although we have now got a rental car booked, for the right dates and from the right place!! Hopefully it won't be a three-wheeler...

We should roughly visit 35 states, Washington DC & Canada. We will definitely aim to get lost where possible - probably somewhere in the Long Beach - Inglewood - Compton traingle, but we'll be fine as we'll just crank up some D R E. I will also do my upmost to get married whilst in Vegas...whilst Mitch Aldermano will no doubt be losing a tooth & waking up with a tiger. We can only hope to bump into Alan in the 'real' Caesars Palace...

So yeah, we'll do our best to keep this thing updated on our way round the States - we'll be much better than Geo & Cory anyway!!

Get it in ya!!