Swimming with Sharks

I’ve missed out on a lot of blogging, so this is a long one, but it really sums up my time so far so stick with it if you can!

In Miami I was enthralled by America. Amazed by the customer service and loving the heat and lifestyle, but the more we have travelled on, the more I have, instead of being captivated by America, felt that America is being held captive. I refer to the sharks of commercialism that circle Americans everywhere they go.

Now I’m not for a moment suggesting that America is the poor helpless victim of corporations, quite the opposite. They love it! They love tackiness, they love commercialism and they will flock in their thousands to pay and see it. Now I don’t want to be thought of as hypocritical as I know I have travelled here at reasonable personal expense to see just such a thing as corporate America, but I find it sad the extent to which America has let this commercial stranglehold reach its world.

In places like Disney and Universal Studios, the commercialism and advertising were all very apparent, but that’s what you expect and in fact, it’s brilliant! I loved it. I loved the theming, the way that nothing was out of place and that everything was there intentionally to make the place magical and had been designed to transport you to new worlds and make you feel like you really were somewhere else. It’s something us Brits just don’t do as well, but also something that we don’t crave like the yanks do. I think partly because we have real castles and real preserved old towns so we don’t feel the need to visit fibreglass ones!

As we entered and exited the Great Smoky Mountains national park (without a doubt one of the most amazingly naturally beautiful places I have ever visited and probably that exists in the world), America decides it needs to put huge streets of neon lights and amusements. We passed signs for Dollywood, for all the fast food chains you can imagine, and not just one of each of these “restaurants” but about five of each in a few mile stretch. It was like America knew it wouldn’t be allowed these places in the national park so it had to get it out of it’s system, or at least get a good dose before it entered the oh so boring “Natural area”!

I predicted as we were driving along that after a few miles it would stop abruptly and there would be darkness, and sure enough that’s what happened. I’m not psychic, this is just how things happen in America. Along all the highways, there is nothing and then suddenly at an intersection, or sometimes for what appears to be no reason at all your are hit by sign after sign, always the same, wendys taco bell, dennys, mcdonalds, burger king, kfc, long john silvers, baskin robbins and then back to nothing again.

The same commercialism is in the cities as well, here America can really go to town! (in every sense of the expression!). The cities are full of these places, neatly dispersed with parks and some nice streets. But as with Disney in cities I can let things pass. But what staggers me is how Americans treat commercialism. We went to the World of Coca Cola in Atlanta. Now being a fan of this particular beverage I was very excited! ‘A factory tour!’ I thought. ‘A chance to see where this wonderful drink originated and how it comes to be!’, but I was sorely disappointed. All they did was try and sell me Coca Cola and the other associated products made by Coca Cola. It saddened me. But the Americans lapped it up! They chanted in unison with the tour guide that the best time to enjoy a Coca Cola was, of course: “Any time!” and then applauded themselves for giving the “correct” answer! It beggars belief.

Across the grass from Coca Cola was the Georgia Aquarium and my word capitalism and commercialism won me back! We saw Beluga whales in a giant tank, a Manta ray the size of a car doing back flips, and the most incredible thing I have ever seen: not one, but four whale sharks swimming in the largest tank I have ever seen. Georgia Aquarium is the worlds largest, and after seeing an animal that I have been amazed by a great deal of my life, from an angle I never thought would be possible I was bringing out my commercialism flag and flying it high. The same applied in Typhoon Lagoon a Disney water park where I lived out an ambition of swimming with real sharks and rays. It was incredible and I loved it. But there is always that niggling feeling that you’d rather be experiencing these things in the wild, in their natural environment, and that is where America and I seem to think differently.

My faith in America was restored at the Jack Daniels distillery tour. We got a real family feel about the place, had a free tour from a sweet old Tennessee lady named Bettie, with a wicked sense of humour, and finished up having free lemonade, freshly squeezed and served with ice!

There are a lot of sharks in America. Some just out to make money and eat you, but swimming with some will give you the experience of a lifetime! Swimming with Sharks is never going to be ideal, but when they’re called Bettie and speak with a sweet southern drawl, they can’t be all that bad!

Positively Glowing

So.. many days in and not many blog entries. Many apologies but America is amazing and i've barely had time to stop and think, let alone write. I have written some stuff to upload but that will have to come out of sequence for now i'll just get on with writing about today:

Today was another early start to head to the theme parks and drop Neil Helen and James at Disney Hollywood Studios. Neil was feeling pretty bad and seems to be going down with what i;ve been suffering with the past few days but am now recovering from. Neil met his contact Mr X as usual to get his free Disney passes! Jammy wotsit! But envious i was not, as i knew that Melissa and I were heading back to the world famous Ron Jons surf shop and cocoa beach Fl. but this time with Rob (The latest arival to the tour) in tow!

Now Ron Jons is amazing. The biggest surf shop i have ever seen and am probably ever likely to see and open 24hrs a day! But that is not what excited me about todays excursion, for i had already been to Ron Jons on our way from Miami to Orlando. No today what excited me was surfing itself!

I've long been a fan of surfing. The style, the sport, the clothing and everything about it! but had never been myself. In this respect i have always been rather annoyed with myself and felt like just a little bit of a fraud wearing surf gear, but today those days would be over.

Rob had been surfing a few times before and so said he would show mw the ropes. I was so excited. We arrived in cocoa beach after an 1hr30min drive at about 11am and the weather was scorching. The sun blazing down and the sand unbearably hot on the soles of your feet. We set Rob loose in the shop and an hour or so later we excited with a happier Rob and many purchases so onto thr rental shop!

We got a couple of boards and headed out onto cocoa's golden sands, skipping on the hot sand as we went. We laid down on the shorte and ran through some basics, then it was straight out. The surf was 3-4ft which was great for learning. I paddled out with Rob, diving over and through incoming waves with notions of glory and visions of Kelly Slater ripping it up on these very beaches. We watch the surf roll in and picked a wave. Turn, paddle, Paddle, PADDLE as hard as i could, then pop up to squatting and a few seconds later into the water. The standing up wasn't the tricky part for me it was catching the waves. (From skateboarding and mountain boarding my balance is pretty good, even if i do say so myself!)

Turn, paddle out, try again.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting.

Seen the wave i want, over the first, then turn, paddle paddle paddle as hard as i can. The wave begins to lift me up and i pop up and commit, this time the wave doesn't pass me by but begins to break behind me, i ride down the wave, i concentrate hard to keep my balance as i race towards the shore! Exhileration! Just as i feel i'm about to slow down and come off another surge catches the board and i continue on! through a gap and people in the shallows and finally to a slow stop in the shallows! I did it i caught my first wave an what a place to do it! Surfin USA!

After all the excitement i managed to catch a few more and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I also caught the sun a great deal and am working up a nice tan. It's safe to say that after today i was positively glowing, in every semse of the word!

This is it

In under one weeks time, myself and four close friends will be on a plane journeying to foreign lands and places unknown. None of us have been to America before so it is safe to say that this will be a journey of discovery and one where we will, I’m sure, learn and experience a lot.

So, what’s the plan?

It’s simple really. On paper at least! On August 3rd we will fly into Miami and on September 9th we will fly back home out of san Francisco. Between these two dates almost anything could happen. I think our plan is best summed up in the response I often find myself giving when people ask “where abouts in America are you going?”

“Everywhere!”

In Miami we will pick up our home and transportation for the 39 days of travel, a 32ft RV (recreational vehicle), and we have an outline itinery. The plan is to drive up the east coast of America via the Appalachian mountains, right up to Boston, Massachusetts, then across to Yellowstone national park via Chicago, then down to Vegas, across to LA and finally up to San Francisco. Over 6000miles of travel, over four days of journey time, about 25 states and many cities and stops on the way.

So that’s the idea, that’s the plan and that’s what we hope we can do.

In reality we only know two things; that this will be an incredible adventure and that there’s no turning back now.

This is it!