The last and final days of our journey...

Our days here in New York has moved past us in a flash. There is so incredibly much to see here, and we only had four days. I still think, that from what we have managed to do with our time here we have managed to get a sense of what New York have to offer. We have used our time on Manhattan, and have been to the Empire State Building, several museums, a fair amount of restaurants and of course a lot of miles just walking around. Personally I liked Soho, Greenwich Village and Time Square, witch is all very interesting parts of town. From the gigantic buildings with huge advertisements lighting the streets, to the small narrow streets of the Village with small interesting stores and small wonderful restaurants.

Today is the last day of our "voyage", and we are setting our sails for Norway. (As Martin pointed out just now, "our last check-out") By tomorrow around noon, we will be back in Oslo.

Finally we would like to thank everyone who has followed us on our blog here, and especially those of you that given us feedback. A special thanks to Eva-Lotte, Arild and Arne, that has been very active on that part, we appreciated that very much.

And we also hope that there actually has been some english speaking people that have been reading this after we started writing in english.
Anyways; this blog will be used for later reference(like a diary) for the three of us in the future(and maybe when we get old and start to forget...)
America is a easy place to travel , especially by car, because everyone has this "laidback" attitude combined with being outgoing.
We all think that Grand Canyon, the desert in general(with Death Valley as the peak) and New York are highlights but everything has been a cool experience.
Peace!

// Lars, Erik & Martin

Want to have a look at Time Square right now?

Click the link below to see Manhattan in realtime:

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/

Day 28 - New York city, Manhattan and yellow cab's

We slept away half the day, but it was worth it. The day had been used to get orientated about what we want to see the next days. Because it was raining today, Martin went to the Museum of Natural History. Since me and Erik had just been to the one in Washington, we decided take a cab down to Time Square. We wandered around the streets just looking at buildings and people, checking out different stores and landmarks. We passed through Grand Central Terminal and visited Data Vision, a huge electronics store. I even found myself a turntable (platespiller), with perfect quality and price. I am still not sure how I will get it with me to Norway. We met up with Martin in the evening for dinner in a Mediterranean restaurant, where he could tell us that the museum was crowded and noisy. Martin went out to a stand-up place tonight, Erik went to the closest gym, and I had a beer in the tub and let my feet rest for tomorrow. Going to bed early tonight for a full day of fun tomorrow.

// Lars

Day 27 - Atlantic City - New York and traffic

We did not feel bad leaving Atlantic City just after one night. On a early monday morning, Atlantic City looked worn down by a invasion of gamblers in the weekend. The only people left where the gamblers that never left, the casino employees and homeless people. One of the homeless guys there got our three camping chairs that we used while waiting for the space shuttle that never launched.

We burned directly out without breakfast and did not stop until we were miles north of Atlantic City. After a stop at Fridays for a huge brunch, Starbucks (again) and "Target" (a gigantic convenience store) we were finally on our way to the roadtrip's final destination.

With only two hours of driving, the roads through Newark and into New York were rapidly increasing in size. At the most, we experienced 8 lanes in each direction. Thats 16 lane roads! witch is pretty insane compared to norwegian roads. As the junctions and intersections came closer and closer to each other even our GPS had trouble following the phase of the New York rush traffic. Even though we missed a couple of exits, we finally saw the New York skyline. I don't really know about the other guys, but that really brushed up some feelings inside me as it was our final destination. It was the end of over 6000 miles of road we have put behind us. All the incredible scenic routes and all the different landscapes we have experienced on our trip trough America.

Hotel Newton is located on Broadway, downtown Manhattan. A small, but classy hotel with an amazing location. After

check in we went for a walk in the neighborhood to get some dinner. The evening was spent in a movie theater showin

"Brüno", a crazy followup on the legendary "Borat" movie. Tomorrow, and the following day's, we will try to soak up as much of NY as possible

We all look forward to spend some days here before our return to Norway, as a kind of finale.

A load of brand new photo´s is now available at the following adress:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66819215@N00/sets/72157620496507557/

(Also, all photos have now been organized by the date taken, so according to the blog, you should be able to figure out where the pictures where taken)

//Lars

Sorry, no new pictures today...

The internet upload speed here is poor and unstable.

//Lars

Day 26 - Washington DC to Atlantic City

Up early ,as usual, and we had breakfast at the hotel. We really don´t mind but i think we were the only white people staying in that hotel. Just an observation.

We started our day at the museum of Crime and Punishment which actually was kinda fun. A summary; history of crime, statistics, artifacts from (among others) Al Capone ++. A little bit strange but fun. Next stop was the American Gallery of Art which is a huuuuge gallery which contains art from every corner of the world from the early 1800s until late 1900s. The building itself was a work of art and an experience to be in. We also went to the Museum of Science which is now heavily focused on climate change causes and effects. A few interesting videos and interactive things to play with. Cool. (trivia: the Science museum is run by a guy names Johan Johansen which is norwegian).

Dinner.

After food we went separate ways; Lars and Erik went to the Museum of Natural History and i went to check out a district called Dupont Cirlce which was a cool little community with people playing chess in the park and combined coffee shops and bookstores. You get the picture.

We later meet up at the Natural History Museum. Which Lars can say more about since i just "ran" thru it in 5 minutes and watched a video about sea currents(which were very interesting). I´m now giving Lars the MacBook. Thank you and good night.

//Martin

01:30...Yep, Martini has filled out the day pretty good. The Museum of Natural History was incredible. Amazing exhibitions of everything from fossils to African history to minerals and insects. We could easily have used two days in there. By the way; at The National Museum of Art we only found time to investigate the west building. The east building was just as big and holds art from modern times. It is obvious that we did not have enough time in DC, but we had to get going to be in New York by monday. So we head out towards NY to find a place to sleep a few hours outside "the big apple". Our choice fell upon Atlantic City. The weekend traffic out of Atlantic City was extreme. We already knew it was a gambling town, but downtown was not good. Homeless people and garbage were very present in the streets. We decided to stay at Crown Inn, a classic American style hotel. If you were part of a Hollywood movie, this is the place you would hide out from the cops. On our way into the motel we even had the pleasure of meeting a drugged up, drunk rapper (he was actually pretty cool). Atlantic City rocks! BRING IT ON!!

//Lars

Day 25 - Franklin to Washington DC

Nice drive to Washington after breakfast at the local cafè ,which was a little twin peaks´ish.

A somewhat scenic drive thru the Shenandoah valley and the park by the same name and went thru yet another small town called Strasburg. A lot of german sounding names on the american countryside in general.

Our arrival in D.C ended up at the Channel Inn down at the marina and walking distance to all the "must-see" places in D.C.

In about 45 minutes we had seen it all. D.C was packed with people(aka. tourists) who also wanted to see the same places as we did.

The security was extremely tight with cops literally on every corner. We asked someone if there is something special going on and they said that it´s like this all the time in D.C. At least after 9/11. No wonder when you pack FBI, IMF, The White House, Congress, Pentagon, a lot of different memorials from many different wars, The National Treasury (norwegian: Sentralbanken) in not so many square miles. This place got a lot of symbolic vaue.

Later we ended up in a nice italian restaurant in a district called Foggy Bottom (kinda strange name). Good food.

//Martin

Day 24 - Charleston to Franklin, West Virginia

Sorry folks, for letting you down the last days. No internet in Franklin and lack of time in Washington DC made us fall behind on posts in our blog. But Martin has kept on writing, so here is the update for the last three days;

//Lars

After a banana/chocolate chip cake and coffee at starbucks we started to drive towards Washington D.C. This was going to be the worst food day on the trip.

As the hours and miles flew by ,as they do when you´r driving in 70-75 mph on the highway, we got hungry and stopped at McDonalds.

So far this had not been very healthy.

For lunch/dinner we stopped in a small place which we don´t know the name of and had some pizza.

The waitress asked us; "we´re y´all from?". We replied: "Norway". The waitress:"Ahh..swedish!". Enough said.

After another 50 miles or something we stopped at a grocery store and got cokes, onion rings, beef jerky, cheddar dip, more beef jerky, slim jim, snickers, slim jim sausage and cheese combo.

Most of this "food" was bought by Lars just to test it which means eat it while Erik records it. Nice.

When we arrived Virginia the landscape changed almost instantly to hills and valleys covered in trees + a lot of vineyards all over.

We also saw fireflies(?) and a lot of deers alongside on the huge fields we drove by.

When it got dark and started raining the mood suddenly switched on us.

The beautiful landscape, farms and old houses started to look more and more like the ones in the horror movies. It didn´t help that we started talking about movies like that.

We could see about 10 feet in front of the car and there was forest on both sides off the road...scary.

We arrived in Franklin around 22:15 and some helpful people at the gas station called someone they knew with the only motel in town and got us a room. Thanks.

Tomorrow we will go for a sightseeing here in West-Virginia and then go to Washington D.C.

Good night.

// Martin

Day 23 - Charleston

Today we went separate ways to explore Charleston.
Lars and myself walked thru the central neighbourhood down to the bay.
All the houses around here are beautiful and look like the ones you see in the movies from the colonial times; that´s because these houses are from the colonial times.
Talked to a guy who lives there and he told me that Charleston is created by British, French, Irish, Jamacian and Netherlandish(?) people who immigrated in the 1800s.
The town is full of small restaurant, wineries and galleries.
Lars went to the confederate museum and learned something about the history of America.
I went to a winery to taste and buy wine.
Erik has been to the gym(!) and had a massage today. Nice.
We meet at starbucks in the hotel lobby and went for dinner in the same italian restaurant as yesterday. Great food and wine.
Tonight a thunderstorm went over Charleston and we went to the top floor in the parking garage to take photos. We got soaked!
Tomorrow we are heading further north along the coast(maybe; it´s not planned yet) towards Washington and New York.
Local time is 11:24 at night and Lars just went out (it has just stopped raining) to take some photos. Cool.

// Martin

Day 22 - Daytona to Charleston, the nice town

Day 22. We started out in the morning by walking across the street to the beach. We could not really leave Daytona Beach without seeing the actual beach. Great beach by the way, but we had to get going. Our goal for the day was the city of Charleston, a town barely marked at our map. Charleston was only picket from the convenient driving distance, none of us had heard of the town before. On the way we had a stop a small airplane-graveyard. A detour Martin discovered by coincidence brought us into a wildlife area on a small lonely gravel road. Alone in a beautiful forest with scattered green ponds, we saw wild alligators, armadillos, deer, birds of all kind and color and a lot of mosquitos. We arrived Charleston located at the coast nearly 200 miles north of Daytona in the afternoon. Finding all cheap motels too far outside town, we set our GPS on downtown Charleston. When we got there we saw this old, stylish, beautiful hotel with men in suits holding the door open for people walking in and out. To expensive for us we all thought, but there in no damage in asking for a price. 109$ divided at the three of us a night. We booked a room for one night. Only me and Martin was hungry, so we went to find some food. There was a lot of restaurants to choose from, but we came over this really nice italian one. The food was incredible tasty, and the wine was just as good as the food. For anyone going to Charleston in the future, check out Il Cortile Delre! (193-A King Street). On our way back to the hotel we managed to get lost believe it or not. That was the best thing that could happen! This city is like noting we've ever seen before. You will have a hard time finding a ugly house or building in downtown Charleston. Even the back alleys was beautiful, narrow with threes and genuine gas lanterns! Stay tuned for pictures on flickr.com.

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66819215@N00/

By the way: Guess one time what took off from Cape Canaveral today?

Yep! That right! :- /

Want to see a video of that? Go here: 3-2-1, Liftoff!

//Lars

Day 21 - Travellers Inn, Datona Beach and thunder

The 21. day was spent in Daytona beach. And with our luck the last days, it was bound to rain and thunder at our day in Daytona. The beach here is loong and wide. They actually have a 10mph speed limit for cars at the beach. But spending time at the beach in rain, thunder and lightning is not very tempting. After an extremely heavy brunch, with "pulled-pork bbq plate", we head out to the Daytona International Speedway and got a tour of the track and the surrounding facilities. They can house over 110 000! race fans on race days. We also got to see the pit stops and "Victory Lane", where the winners of the races pops their champagne. Later on we went to a go cart track located close by. Here they also had a good arcade hall. Erik found a punchingball-machine, measuring your punch and gives you a score from how hard you hit it. When he got the high-score of the day, a lot of people started to get interested in the punchingball-machine. Erik beat that high-score three times that day but had to finally see himself beaten. Go cart was fun, but the carts was really slow and tuned down. I was really close to getting thrown off the track after tempering with the govenor? (forgasser), the thing that makes the cart go faster. The language barrier put me back on track luckily. The day had passed after that, and we had not even seen the beach at Daytona.

//Lars

Want to learn more about the current shuttle mission?

Follow this adress:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts127/

to learn more about the STS127 mission to bring parts for the International Space Station.

Day 20 - JFK Space Center, shuttle launch, Daytona Beach

Today, we decided to make another try at the space shuttle launch at John F. Kennedy Space Center, visitor complex this time. At least we had something to see while waiting for the launch result. Even though the odds were against us with 60% for "no go" we took the tour and hoped for lift off. The tour was interesting, and the feeling of being right where so much history has been written was very special. Amongst what we got to see was the actual Saturn/Apollo mission control room, where amongst others, Apollo 11 (the very first moonlanding mission) was administered from. We also got to see "the clean room" for the international space station, the actual place where parts and modules for the ISS is checked and tested before being sent into space. So, waiting in the "rocket garden" for the launch, the weather still was a concern. We saw on a big screen the astronauts going into the shuttle, getting ready with all procedures needed upon launch. With a second day to see and hear all the work put into launch preparations made me realize that someone else but us (thousands of spectators) really wanted a takeoff today too. The astronauts sits strapped in for two hours before every launch attempt. A few clouds was lurking around, and some of them brought us some rain but passed quickly. With 30 min to go until 10 min countdown a huge weather system built up to the south of us slowly crawling towards us. Then, as yesterday, a "red" (means no lift off. All stations must be ready before launch can begin) came from weather center. Right after that, a "red" from field mill (station measuring electricity in the air) concluded today´s launch attempt with a "no go" from mission control. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE ANTICLIMAX! Well, well, maybe next time we are in the area around launch day. (Ha ha ha, sigh) In another life maybe. With difficult to hide our disappointment, we drove straight to Daytona Beach. After a short hour drive, we went to Longhorn Steakhouse in Daytona and got the trip's best dinner. A small comfort. Now we will sleep for a day after getting two days, with almost 11 hours of waiting for nothing.

Peace out!

// Lars

Day 19 - Miami to Cape Canaveral and Endeavour launch!

Last night we found out that there would be a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral; the Endeavour STS-127. A live rocket launch, how cool is that?!
We started out from Miami around 09:00 in the morning so we would be there in time to get a nice spot in the space view park which is approx 12 miles from the launch pad. That´s a pubic park which means we didn´t need tickets for kennedy space center which apparently is "sold out in matter of minutes" we have been told.
We did a nonstop drive to Titusville ,were the park is, and got "front row" seats. The weather was warm and the sky was clear. We had water, coke, subways, empty memory cards and full batteries. Perfect. We also had to wait 5 hours. The hours went by and after a while the communication between the rocket and control center was broadcasted in the park as they went thru many procedures to check everything. This launch has been postponed 3 times before due to bad weather. But today there were not a cloud in sight. Or?
As 07:13:45 (yes, they time the launch down to the second) was getting closer the park was getting packed. Around 07:00 you couldn´t get out of there because there were people everywhere.
At the same time we , and the NASA weather people, began to notice some very very dark clouds which came from west.
Soon after the speaker voice began talking about a security zone of 25 nautical miles which MUST be free of thunderclouds if the shuttle is to get a go! from the tower.
We waited some more. There was more thunder and the clouds got darker.
We had waited for 5 hours and the thunder clouds gathered around kennedy space center ca. 25 minutes before the scheduled launch. We couldn´t believe it!
3 minutes before the scheduled launch the voice came back over the pa system and said that the launch was cancelled and they will try again tomorrow.
It began to rain soon after.
Now we are at Best Western hotel in a small town a little north of Titusville were we checked the weather as we might try again tomorrow. The weather for the next week is thunderclouds all over this region. A spokes person for NASA was in the news tonight saying that there is a 40% chance that they will launch tomorrow. Good luck, we will watch in on TV!

Day 18 - Exploring Miami

This morning we woke up to a note on the frontdoor:"I´ll be back around 10:30 with bagels etc. for breakfast". American hospitality at play.

After eating several bagels and several cups of coffee we headed out.

Today Lars and Erik went to ,what Lars later called "bonsai heaven", a garden center to get some equipment for Lars´s bonsai tree. At this place they had trees which were over 100 years old and had been taken care of by several generations of bonsai greenkeepers. Lars found what he wanted plus some extra so the trip was a success.

I went to check our Miami´s museum and ended up at Lowe Art Gallery at University of Miami campus were they showed photographs from Arnold Newman and another exhibition which showed the history of printmaking in photography. They both were great.

When i went back to downtown Miami i took the free tram around in the city. This tram was approx. 10 meters above the ground and went thru several buildings, up and down. Like a small and slow rollercoaster. I also accidentally ,and suddenly, found myself in a neighborhood in which i wouldn´t want to be at night. It was ok though.

We hooked up later and went to eat down at at bay.

When we got back we found out that there is a spaceship launch tomorrow night at kennedy space center on cape canaveral. This lauch was scheduled for tonight but got posponed because a lightning hit the shuttle right before launch. Lucky for us! We are leaving tomorrow morning and will watch the thing from a distance since the tickets to the visitors center is ,of course, sold out. It will be cool anyways!

Day 17 - Orlando to Miami

Up at 07:00, had breakfast at the hotel and we headed south to Miami.

On our way to Miami we drove past Okeechobee lake and a small community which economy seemed to be based on prisons. We passed at least two large prisons with high walls and a lot of barbed wire. We drove thru one of the neighborhoods and that was our first meeting with severe poverty. It did not look good. It sure was a high contrast to Fort Lauderdale to which we arrived after driving straight ,without moving the steering wheel that is, for about 40 miles. The longestt stretch until now.

In Fort Lauderdale we stayed for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. This cafè was decorated like a rainforest with models of elephant, monkeys etc which every 10 minutes made sounds and the lights blinking to simulate thunderstorms. The waitress called herself "your safari guide" when she greeted us at the table. America likes concepts.

In Miami we are living with some friends of Lars and Erik´s family; Trond & Joan.

They got a great house by one of Miami´s canals, with a outside pool and direct access to a boat from the garden.

After leaving our luggage in the guest house we went out to get some snacks and beers and did what most americans our age does; "just hangin´out".

Day 15 & 16, New Orleans - Pensacola - Orlando

Day 15:

We left New Orleans around 9am in the morning. Traffic was good, and we tried to keep as close to the shore as possible. The start was really boring, with a lot of forest, fields and bridges crossing several bays and creeks. Even though we mostly drove on small roads (wich use to be a good thing), the drive was not that interesting at all. We drove in and out of Alabama a couple of times without really noticing. We got really surprised though when we arrived the state of Florida. Somehow we pictured the state border even further east, but Florida actually stretches pretty far west along the Mexico Gulf.

Arriving the town of Pensacola in the afternoon, tired of boring roads, we went out to get some dinner. What struck us was how few people was out in the street. Later on we found out that there were loads of people on "The Fish House", a local pub by the shore. I seemed like the whole town was in that very same place. Going to bed early in Budget Inn, we went to sleep with a baseball bat beside the bed for insurance. Our place tonight was not placed in the best part of the sleepy little town of Pensacola.

Day 16:

Woke up at 06:45 this morning. Back on the road by 07:30. Another breakfast at Subway with coffee. We suddenly started seeing this white beaches, and the brown water of the Mexico Gulf suddenly turned azure-blue and palms started popping up everywhere! All the boring landscape we had seen the day before was all forgotten as we now entered paradise. As the temperature raised through the day, we stopped at one of the wonderful beaches for a refreshing bath in the Mexico gulf. Martin got sunburned on his shoulders, Erik in his face and I got burned behind my knees. In Panama City we made a short stop at one of the antique shops on the search for an old wooden tabletop radio (It's a long story). There we was introduced to another customer, that happened to be a journalist from the local newspaper. She wanted to put a short story on us in the paper, and took our picture. Deadline monday for that story. We all look forward to see how that turns out!

Another wonderful dinner at Hooters in Tallahassee (don't underestimate their food) we continued our journey towards Jacksonville. That was our original goal, but after discussing a bit in the car, we decided to head towards Miami. The thing is that when you drive on interstate roads in the US, you cover a lot of milage in a short period of time. So, tonight we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of Orlando FL, and in a hotel across the road of Universal Studios. So that might be one of the things to experience tomorrow.

So this is today's drive:

A brief layout of the route so far

Day 13 & 14 - From Texas City to N`awlins and Bourbon Street

We went on the road again on day 13 from Texas City towards New Orleans (pronounced by many local people as N`awlins).

Not much to see along the way on this stretch even though we tried to keep on the smaller roads.

The climate is changing.

From dry,hot(!), flat desert to a damper ,and still hot, climate. The highway into New Orleans was a cool place to drive. It goes thru a "rainforest". Tall trees on all sides hanging over the road and water passing under the road which is built on pillars down in the swamp.

Last night we went out to check out the French Quarter and Bourbon street.

Bourbon street is one crazy place. You got everything from strip clubs, to family restaurants, jazz & blues clubs, hot dog stands, t-shirts, beer (a lot of beer) +++. For norwegian readers this can be compared to what we call "syden". Only concentrated down to one street.

The rest of the French quarter is different and filled with many nice restaurants, coffe places, hotels, antique shopes and cool looking apartment buildings which easily could have been in Cuba.

After dinner we spent the night in various clubs and bars were we listened to jazz and drank beer.

When people liked what they heard in the jazz clubs it was expressed by spontaneous clapping and "Yeah!"´s. Being a norwegian and then ,by culture, a more reserved kinda guy it was a cool experience to be in those clubs. A lot of characters.

Today we have just been checking out more downtown, eating and relaxing and tomorrow we will be heading east.

In miles i´ll say we are approx halfway and we have 18 days before out flight leaves New York and approx 16 days before we should be there.

Nice to know that there are a few regular readers that checks up on us!

Will be writing more tomorrow.

Day 12 - Austin to Gelvaston(was the plan...)

After a celebrating the american national day with good food, drink, fireworks and entertainment we headed south in Texas(a place several people we should drive around and not thru).

After getting tired of driving with cruize control and with nothing to see or do along the freeway, we decided to take off the freeway and use the smaller roads thru several smaller cities.

The first place we came to was a very small town ,with a lot of german and swiss street names,

were we walked around and checking it out.

I went into a place called The Stone Cellar which turned out to be a great wine place were i tasted several good wines (Lars driving at this point) and bought a couple of them.

Next stop Smithville.

Smithville is a typical small american town with a small towncenter full of antique stores(that´s not so typical though).

Many movies have been recorded in this town several local people told us; Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Sean Penn had just been there and finished a movie which will be out during 2009.

We meet some ,more, great american people in this town which sent us away with homebaked cookies and "stay safe!".

By the way; what most people ,at least those who know were Norway are, is that it is small, cold, rich and far away. Today a guy asked me if Norway STILL is a part of the USSR. The USSR? No dude.

The climate has changed. Here in Texas the humidity is crazy. You are instantly covered in water if you step outside. Hot!

We were supposed to end up in Gelvaston but instead we ended up in Texas City so tomorrow we we´ll take a trip to the Gelvaston "island" and the head towards New Orleans.

I haven´t taken soo many pictures yet but here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/39709083@N05/) you can fine some off them.

// Martin

Day 11, Dallas - Austin and 4. july

Left Dallas this morning heading for Austin TX. Not a long drive, so we arrived pretty early in the afternoon. The heat down here in Texas is insane. Luckily we got a bit of wind this evening, and temperature is expected to go a bit down the next few days. We welcome that very much, because our norwegian bodies is not used to this warm, humid weather. Today an older woman asked if we were from New York. I guess they talk funny there. Later in the day, a guy living in Austin asked me if I was from Austin. I'll simply take that as a compliment. We went down to 6th street in Austin for a meal and look around. There was a lot of people out in the streets, a great experience. Later on, all of them was gathered down by the river for the fireworks. I would estimate over 100 000 people had shown up on the bridges and the riverbed. And what a show! Half an hour of fireworks, starting out small but got really intense at the end. A great day! Martin checked out a standup show after the fireworks, while Erik and me went back to the hotel to rest out after another extremely hot day.

// Lars

Day 10 - A long drive from Albuqurque to Dallas

Started out from Albuqurque around 11:00 PM after trying to find a office where Toby(a guy we meet at Kelly´s the night before) left us tickets for the tram to a nearby mountain. We never found it.

Starting out on out way to Dallas we planned on driving for "a while" and then find a motel.

As the hours flew we figured Dallas wasn´t to far away so we sat a new destination on the gps, stopped for coffee and loaded Stevie Wonder in the cd player.

Around 05:30 AM in the morning we checked in at Americas Best Value Inn (which btw have become our favorite motel). It took a little longer than expected. :)

Around 01:00 PM we had breakfast and a huuuuuuge mall nearby.

This has been a kinda slow day with nothing much happening except shopping at the mall and we saw a movie("Public Enemies" which was OK).

Lars and Erik bought shoes ++ and i bought a Michael Jackson Thriller album and Demitri Martin (check him out on youtube).

Tomorrow (the 4th of July) are we going to spend in Austin, Texas, which several people have told us is a city with great nightlife and music scene. Looking forward to experiencing it.

// Martin

Day 9, Winslow - Luca and some miles to Albuquerque

After a fat breakfast in drive on by-town Winslow we hit the road again. This was a day of driving, approx 340miles in 6 hours with a couple of small braks. One in the sleepy little village Luca right beside I 40 before Albuquerque, a very old-looking village only partly inhabited. The west part of New Mexico was a very scenic drive, with it's vast open landscape, with petrified wood scattered around. We arrived our destination in the afternoon around 16:30pm. By dinner at Kelly's (or Kelly's Diner that some may know it) we met with Toby Atencio that who wondered what kind of language we spoke. We started talking, and he offered us free tickets for the tram-ride to the mountain. Really looking forward to that.

Ad to our followers; really big fun to read your comments. Nice to get feedbacks from home and friends.

Day 8 - Hoover dam(n!) and Grand Canyon

30 minutes from the Las Vegas strip we drove over the huge Hoover Dam which produces electricity and stores water for the region. A cool thing to see.

Next stop Grand Canyon caverns.

The caverns were spectacular and we even learned something.

On our way to Grand Canyon we got the first rain on this trip and it was actually very nice and cooling.

We came to Grand Canyon right before sunset and used a good hour on photography and relaxing.

We have seen some great nature in Norway, but the Grand Canyon is truly amazing.

In the sunset the structure in the red mountains was a great view. We even meet a bulgarian guy who took a backflip on the edge on a cliff!

After some time we went further east and ended up in Winslow where i´m writing this.

Tomorrow we will go to Albuquerque/Santa Fe.