Sin City, light.

Drive to AC

After a day to purify our spiritual being with some nature, it was time to go to the tackiest place on the east coast. The place where Trump loves too show off his Miss America, retired people go to double their pensions and bachlor(ettes) goes to party one last time before they get married.

Welcome to Atlantic City!

You don't really need to leave the casino resort (two days of movement)

You could already from the hotel booking see that this is a weekend town. Hotel on friday was $150, saturday $310, and sunday a nice $49. After enjoying the 5 hour drive from Culpeper through Baltimore (Without being shot) we closed in on the Tropicana. After getting lost in parking garages trying to self park for the first time on this trip, we changed our minds and vent for Valet again, and finding out that it costed the same, and only retards would consider self park.

We cheked in and got a room on the "45th" floor (strange considering that the building only has 32 stories, but who's counting?).

After having some issues with bathroom door, and lack of wifi and in room telephone, we were moved to another room down the hallway.

Down at the casino floor we started light this Friday with some 1 cent slots. This was entertaining for 10 minutes, but when you win 2000 credits, and after the excitement understands that its just $20, you kinda try to find something better to do.

So when we were tired of this, we showered, had dinner at the Mexican restaurant, had some good beer in a bar with 101 beers on bottles and 50 on tap, and partied into the small hours of the night.

On Saturday we slept in, enjoying that we didn't have to change hotels again, and woke up around noon, only to discover via the temperature you can put on your snaps that the weather apparently was nice. We crawled out of  bed and discovered a clear blue Jersey sky and decided that we had to get out and get some sun. But first we had to see Giggs' debut as manager, and have breakfast in the pub.

When the game was settled at half time, we decided to go out to enjoy the world famous boardwalk. Here we found plenty of bachelor(ette) parties getting quite loud already. Feeling that we were lagging behind, we got us some ice cream, before we joined them in the consumption of alcohol.

Back at the casino we discovered that blackjack was easy money, so we played that a lot, and then we went out again.

Sunday started with a mighty hangover for my part, and also a loss for Liverpool which made my day even worse. I was pretty much incapacitated until 6pm. We did however have breakfast at this joint on the boardwalk, and it was not very impressive. It wasn't even cheap. No idea why we actually decided to eat there.

After this I went back to the room to sleep and gather some strenght, while Sindre did what he does best, beat the house in Blackjack. I joined him for dinner, and then for some blackjack as well. It was interesting to see how the average age of the casino doubled from Saturday to Sunday when all the bachelor(ette)parties left, and all the retired people came in for the cheap hotel rooms.

 We both ended up with well over $100 in profit each. Sunday night was calm, and we went to bed around midnight.

Cleansing of the soul

Safety first

Finally an opportunity to get out in nature again, in good weather. Since the weather was poor in Great Smoky, the only outdoorsy stuff we had done was the kayaking in Melbourne. But now the time had come to hike the (in)famous Old Rag Mountain. We were quite nervous due to the fact that you have to watch a safety video online to get access to the maps from the National park service.

Despite this, we decided to give it a go. We woke up at 7, got breakfast at the hotel, and set off around 8, and arrived at the trail head at 9. The temerature was a brisk 6-7 degrees, so Sindre with his lack of wool shirt, and his $1 pants from the dollar store, was feeling quite cold. We were both quite negative, and wondering what the hell we were doing.

Some climbing was required

But as the day went on, the sun got higher, and the climb steeper, we both got nice and warm, and had to change into shorts and t-shirts to keep cool. The hike was not at all as scary as the National Park Service and other sites described it, but just a nice hike, with some decent scrambling. We got to the top in two hours, passing two groups on the way up.

And some caves passed throug

The views was great, and you appreciate them way more when you have hiked to see them, compared to just driving to a viewpoint in a car.

Route and map

The hike down was tedious and boring as they usually tend to be, but we met some horses, saw a deer and enjoyed the sun.

And rocks crawled under

Mountain Goat

Safely down we both agreed that 14 km was just about enough for two people out of training, and drove back to Culpeper. Here we got food at an Italian restaurant with an average age of 80, and relaxed in bed.

But the weather was nice

Summitselfie

Boulderjumping

And the views decent

Was nice below the bushline as well

Breaking of the fellowship

Tuesday was Stians last day on this trip. We slept in, had amazing crepes for breakfast and allowed Stian to do some shopping. At 2 pm it was about time to go to Reagan national airport. We said quick goodbyes and watched him dissappear into terminal A.

Sindre and I decided to stay another day in DC, but the hotel we were at was very expensive this day, so we relocated to the Washington Hilton. After checking in, we walked down the street to Maggie's to watch the semi final in Champions League. This was boring as usual when Chelsea plays away from home

Then we got drunk. Again.

On Wednesday morning we headed downtown to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment. It contained a good and interesting collection of the history of the mentioned topics. We spent a couple of hours here before we took the metro back to Maggie's for the game between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. After being bored with watching a game without commentary a decision was made to get the car and get on our way to Culpeper, Virginia, in peak rush hour. A short 90 min drive turned in to well over two hours on heavily congested motorways around the capital.

We nonetheless arrived safe and sound in Culpeper and took a walk to get supplies for next days hike, and also a good dinner at a Hibachi restaurant. The chef was entertaining, and skilled in his juggling with knifes and spatulas.

There is pretty much nothing that was photographed these days that are suitable for public posting.

Where we went

Sightseeing Monday

US Chamer of Commerce

Stians last full day in these United States were to be used strolling around in a bright and sunny Washington DC looking at some of the famous buildings.

They like their columns

While looking for guided tours at the White House we found out that it was the easter egg roll today, and decided to go down for a look, but there was nothing for us without tickets to see, so we headed up the national mall which is really long. We walked up to the Capitol, took some pictures, then down to the Smithsonian Indian Museum to use the toilet, and then on down to the World War II memorial, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and Korean War memorial.

After all this walking, we decided to get some beer and food, so we got a cab and headed up to Dupont Circle. Here we found a nice Italian restaurant with a large selection of craft beers which we enjoyed very much. The evening was spent in a game-bar playing ping-pong, shuffleboard and hoops.

I have to say i was surprised by the vast amount of homeless people here. Way more than any other city we visited.

Fighting the horse

US Capitol bathed in sun

National Mall from the Capitol

Plenty of rubbish in the pond

Rear of the Capitol

Still something left of the cherry blossom

Abe, the man

Reflecting pool

Craft beers

Our Route

Sunday Night Rush Hour

Our route

After a long night, the alarm was on at 0645 for the Norwich - Liverpool game. We found a pub that was open at this hour, surprisingly enough owned by a Norwegian.

The game was very nerve-wrecking to watch, but once again we came out on top, the margins are really on our side at the moment.

After this we went back to bed, and slept until 1230, enjoying the late check out that Westin has on Sunday.

Dinner at Chili's

We got on the road around 1pm, had brunch at Chilis and really got going a bit after 2pm. A bit late, because we had a 400 miles (650 km) stretch of road going to Washington DC. The drive itself was quite hard, due to the hangover, so we had to change drivers approximately every hour not to fall asleep behind the wheel. Closing in on DC we met massive traffic, and probably used an hour longer than a traffic free drive would be.


We checked into our hotel just before 10pm, went for a walk to the White House, and got a sad supper at McDonalds in lack of better options on a sunday night.

White house at night

Smoky Saturday

Tennessee can be quite nice

Sorry for being late on my posts, but we have been busy/in lack of internet.

So, over to last weekend. Saturday was spent getting from Robinsville to Charlotte, and sunday from Charlotte to Washington DC.

Squirrels

Due too the dry county we were staying in, and early night, we woke up at 7 after 10-ish hours of sleep. Still tired though. We had breakfast at McDonalds, and I can not for the world understand how anybody has breakfast here. It was horrible.

After a nauseating breakfast we drove over the mountains to the west, on a road called the "Tail of the Dragon", a famous stretch of road among motorcyclists. On at least 5 of the curves there were photographers taking pictures the drivers could order online later.






Arriving on the other side, we turned northeast towards Gatlinburg and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our initial plan was to go for a hike, but after using more time than planned going to Gatlinburg, and hitting weekend NP-traffic there, we found out that the only thing we had time for was the Observation tower at Clingmans Dome. The weather was also edgy, so a hike would probably turn quite wet.

Old fashing map reading

Happy with the short walk we got back in the car and headed for Charlotte. A quite long drive as well, but we felt we needed to spend the Saturday in a city of decent size to enjoy some proper nightlife. The drive there was quite challenging due to a continuous torrential downpour with very low visibility, but we got there safely.

Upside down house in Dollywood

We had dinner at "the best soul food restaurant" in Charlotte, but it was not very impressive, but we filled our stomachs anyhows.

Entering the most visited NP in America

Panorama from Clingmans Dome

Our route

Dry county friday

Breakfast at Chick-fil-A

We sat of from Atlanta tired from last night, and headed for North Georgia Premium Outlet to do some shopping. Due to the late departure, we only had about two hours to shop, which wasn't enough to cover this massive site. Despite this, we still managed to get something done. I got two pair of shoes, some pants and socks.

After this we drove to Tellico Plains where Cherohala Skyway started. We had a great drive over the mountain and enjoyed some nice views. A great change from the extremely flat Florida. The trees were very colorful at the lower altitudes, but when we got higher you could see that it would take a couple of more weeks before it got warm enough for the trees to get their leafs. The highest point on this crossing was almost 1600 meters above sea level.

More challenging roads today

On the other side of the mountains, we ended up in Robbinsville, a tiny town in a dry county. This place was extremely stereotypical of the rural south. Since there was nothing to do, we went to bed at 10 pm and got ready for our 7am wake up call. It was extremely nice with a sober night! 

Almost autumn colors 

Welcome to North Carolina

Todays movements

Driving Donnerstag

The miles are starting to stack up

 Welcome thursday. The day we leave the warm and sunny hand of Florida to try out greener pastures further north. Our first stage in our long way to Washington was a drive to Atlanta, Georgia. A a 700+ km drive.

The drive was quite uneventful, mostly just cruise control on the I-75.

In Atlanta we got dinner at Tin Lizzy's. Good mexican food. And then we tried out the nightlife, which turned out to be quite lame for a thursday. Especially considering the fact that that there is several millions living in the area. We managed, despite the lack of a big crowd to stay out late.

Plenty of this view on the I-75

Our drive

Atlanta skyline

Whacky Wednesday

KSC Rocket display

Eirik was supposed to wake us up at 9, as he had to get up to have a phone interview with Norway. He decided on the opposite though, to have the interview in his room, and not wake us up.

This meant that we slept until 1030am. When we did wake up, packing started for our ride to Kennedy Space Center, 90 minutes delayed.

The ride up took a long hour, and we arrived around 1pm and set of. After Eiriks recommendation, we headed straight to the guided bus tour around the facility, and ended up at the Apollo exhibition with a full size Saturn V rocket. Big stuff. The center had a lot to do, but because of our late departure, and need to get to Orlando in time for the NBA game.

Fake astronaut

We departed a bit over 4 after a quick visit to the space shuttle exhibition and headed to Orlando. After an uneventful game, check in was performed at DoubleTree by Hilton, beers were consumed and the shuttle taken to the Amway Center for the final game of the regular NBA season between Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers. This game was sadly not important to any of the teams, because Pacers had already won their conference, and Magic had no chance to get to the playoffs.

Our seats were high up by the roof, and we soon decided that we deserved some of the empty seats down closer to the court. After the first period we snuck ourself into the lower stands, and captured a couple of $200+ seats. These gave us a good view of the rest of the game.

Basketball itself (as most other american sports) are not my cup of tea in the end. The crowd is mostly quiet when they play, and just get loud when they have a chance to get free stuff or get on the big screen during the breaks. People don't even clap when points are scored, unless its a three-pointer or a big dunk.

Hangar where Saturn V was assembled

After the game we had dinner, decided not to get drunk again, and headed back to the hotel, preparing for a long drive the next day to Atlanta

Pad where Saturn V was launched

Command center for Apollo 8

Saturn V

External fuel tanks for the Space Shuttle

Atlantis space shuttle

Our route