So, here we are at the end of stage 1 of our travels. We fly back overnight tomorrow, 12th, and should get home later on 13th. The last stop has been Chicago from where we are typing this. Chicago is possibly the US city/area we have liked the most. The competition with NYC means you…

Finishing off our time in Memphis we went to The Grand Ole Opry. That was an experience! For those of you that are uninitiated, it is the longest running radio show in the US (maybe the world?) that was hosted at the most famous building in Nashville, The Ryman Auditorium, for a very long time…

Welcome to the latest edition of Gem and Si somewhere in the world on some day or other at some time or other 😄. Memphis was an odd place. Apparently, from being a vibrant hub the city had a massive decline in the 80s and 90s, and in part that is still visible. There has…

We spent some of our second day in New Orleans by visiting one of the Levees that breached in 2005. There is an abandoned house that has been left as a “museum” where you can see how high the water got on the walls. Frankly, standing by the house with the Levee towering over it…

Tampa proved to be a nice place. The river walk was pleasant, as city river walks go, and we saw Dolphins and a small shark in the river 🐟. Ybor city, which is a forerunner to Little Havana in Miami, is high on the list of what you are supposed to go and see in…

So, Key West…..it is without question one of America’s “playgrounds”. If you wander you can find older parts of the town (the island is one town) and you can see what it used to be – nice tropical gardens, clapboard houses and even the odd cobbled street. However, it has been taken over as a…

For those avid readers amongst you, apologies it has been a week since we last posted! So…… We stayed at our first true motel when we reached Titusville, interestingly named Best Western Space Shuttle Inn (and no it is not shaped like a Space Shuttle before anybody asks)! Basic and clean with a good restaurant…

After a very informative tour of Charlotte Speedway we headed to Atlanta and to see Don. We tried to visit another inexplicable large thing but shock….it wasn’t there anymore. Rude! So, we gave up on that and continued, but don’t worry those of you who only read this for the silly Americana, more to follow…

We finished off in Washington DC by visiting the Capitol building and then walking down to the Reflecting Pool, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington monument. Sadly the Orange King has decided the reflecting pool needs to be painted blue! After 103 years of being a notable piece of architecture in DC, admired and maintained…

Travelling to Philadelphia we went through/entered the next states in our “tour” of the USA, New Jersey and Pennsylvania (states number 4 and 5). We detoured, as we do, to the “singing rocks”. An area of naturally occurring rocks in the forest that, when hit with something hard 🔨, ring like metal. Very odd! We…