We’ve now made it all the way down to New Orleans after three days on the road since Atlantic Beach (although we did stop to do some rafting in the Nantahala River…). Tonight we’re staying at the Holiday Inn in New Orleans, where we enjoy valet parking, have access to both a pool and a hotel bar — but first and foremost look forward to experiencing ‘the most unique city in America’.
Btw: Louisiana is the 11th state we’ve visited – with New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi being the first ten.
A short stop at a bbq shack in the middle of the smokey mountains triggered a chain of events culminating in us navigating a level 3 rapid unsupervised. The original plan had been to head as far west as possible when Simen’s stomach started to rumble and we settled down for cheeseburgers at a not strictly licensed food vendor. As we were settling into our meals we were approached by a native who was keen on sending us down the river the next day. Apparently we had stumbled upon a rafting mecca of sorts.
If we had felt a bit uneasy about being approached by our rather insistant new friend things didn’t get better when we check into our “Hitchcock” style motel after nearly getting mauled by a black bear en route (true story). Soon our fascination with the fireflies became more prevalent than our worry about axe murderers and we got a decent night’s sleep.
Despite our lack of guide and any form of instruction we handled the rapids like the true professionals the Road Trip ’09 crew are. The river will never see such awesomness again.
We’re now back on the road again after four amazing days in Atlantic Beach, NC — where we visited Brittany, Ena and Rose. Together we lived the good life with delicious food, cold beer at the beach and a visit to a deserted island. The mood was easy, the alcohol was flowing freely and when we visited the beach again at 3 AM the group took a more liberal approach to swimwear.
Six slightly overconfident Norwegian guys challenged a varied (including an 8 year old and two girls) American gang to a game of football. We took the lead 1-0 but the final score is not that relevant.
Things picked up again when we set out to experience American nightlife the last night at the Atlantic Beach Club. Our first meeting with American style dancing proved to be a bit of a shock for us Europeans used to actually having to move our bodies while dancing. While we were preoccupied by the strip pole two oversized amazon warriors took to the floor with their standard uniform of bikinis and loud mouths.
A big thanks to our eager and accommodating taxi driver Randy who was not overly concerned about rules and regulations for passenger transport.
Our final gratitude goes to the three lovely girls who took so good care of six loud Norwegians and their varying whims. You are welcome to join us in Norway any time!
