Visiting New Orleans

Our visit to New Orleans

After our visit to wet visit in Mississippi, we took our housecar and drove to New Orleans. New Orleans is a beautiful city near the Mississippi river. It is a pretty warm city with hot, humid summers and mild winters. We arrived in New Orleans early in the morning and drove to a restaurant named Antoine’s. Antoine’s is a classical restaurant located in the French quarter of New Orleans. The restaurant serves Louisiana Creole cuisine which is mixed French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, African and Asian cuisine. When we got into the restaurant, we ordered a nice breakfast called Grits and grillades which is made of egg and bacon and sometimes is pork, beef and vegetables added to it. With the breakfast we drank coffee.

Antoine’s restaurant was founded in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore and had been owned by his family ever since then. The restaurant is known for that it have been visited by prominent presidents and by Pope John Paul II.

Some of Antoine’s restaurant was destroyed after the Hurricane Katrina disaster but was later repaired.

When we went out of the restaurant, we decided that this wasn't the city for us and we just felt that we wanted to go to Miami instead of hanging around here. So we simply went to Miami.

Picture of the resturant

goodbye from us to you

dallas cowboys cheerleaders! :D

DALLAS TEXAS

After a rather quick, nice and fun time in New Mexico, meeting a bear and everything, we are now going to the ”cowboy state” of Texas! We were really excited to see some cowboys on our way to the city of Dallas, but I guess you don’t just see them by the road because we didn’t see any at all L.

After have been driving through Texas for a few hours we haven’t seen anything special, just desert and some small villages along the way. As far as we have seen this state looks like nothing exciting at all. On top of this boring-looking state our GPS had no battery time left when we were about an hour from Dallas. So we drove past the big city of Dallas (don’t ask how…) and ended up in Arlington just outside Dallas. We didn’t knew where we were so we stopped at a 7eleven and asked for directions to central Dallas. The man told us that Dallas was straight west from here, he also told us that if we wanted to see the famous Dallas Cowboys, the football team of Dallas, we didn’t need to go to Dallas since they had their Arena here in Arlington. We asked him when the next game is and where the arena is so we can drive there and buy some tickets. The game was in two days so we had plenty of time to find a place to park our car over the nights, take a good look on downtown Dallas and maybe just rest some. We decided to not go to central Dallas today so we drove around in Arlington in search for a nice place to stay over the night. It didn’t look bright for us so we stopped at a local supermarket and bought some food before continuing our search. It felt like days when we drove around in Arlington constantly looking for a place to park the goddamn car. We found one after what felt like an eternity.

The next day we decided to leave our perfect spot and go to central Dallas! Hugo wanted to go to the Elm Street because this was the place former president John F. Kennedy was murdered 1963. We quickly found this really big street in the middle of Dallas. Hugo kind of convinced us to go to the Sixth Floor Museum just nearby the street at the Dealey Plaza. It’s a museum about the JFK murder in -63. The museum didn’t have any guided tours but they had personal you could ask if you wondered anything special. I can tell you that this is truly a place to visit if you are going to Dallas because there is so much knowledge in here not just about the assassination itself but about JFK himself and other things, but mainly about JFK.

So after an informative and entertaining time at the museum it was time for lunch. We didn’t have anything special just some premade sandwiches and we bought ourselves a drink each. We still didn’t know what to do this afternoon so we decided to go back to the car and maybe drive out in the desert and camp for the night. So that night we slept beneath the stars out in the open (inside the car). We got to see a really nice view of Dallas at night from there.

The next day it was back to business! We read in the local newspaper there was going to be a Wind Festival today at the Trinity River, this is free and made by the city of Dallas. We didn’t know what to expect so we went there and it was a kite festival. There were some really cool kites and a lot of families with their children there. It was a really great time because you always had a great time talking to the Americans or just watching some off the spectacular show kites, it was really nice food there aswell!

The next day we got up early cause it was a Sunday game and it started 3.15 pm so we had to make our way to the stadium and find a parking spot for the car. Linus told us that Dallas Cowboys are the second most valuable sports franchise in the world, valued at about 1.5 billion dollars. Only Manchester United is worth more at 1.8 billion dollars. Dallas Cowboys also have a very famous cheerleaders squad called none the less than Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders :P We found out that they had some like fitness/training videos on youtube.com that you could take a look at and get some nice training the cheerleading way! The cheerleading squads all around USA often perform at charity events and not only the footballgames of their team. They are popular and respected in USA and we kind of thought and began to wonder why we don’t have any kind of cheerleading back home in Sweden.

Oh, well. Maybe we will in a near future or maybe we don’t.

Over and out from the guys in Dallas.

the show in Vegas!!!

Some tricks we got to see at the show, we forgot about them back then :( but here they come!

New Mexico CITY / STATE 3

After a nice and expensive time in Las Vegas we decided that it was time to head for New Mexico. We wanted to see some sights since we hadn´t done that yet. So we went to some aztec ruins in the north of New Mexico. After we had crossed the border to New Mexico we drove a little wrong and came in to a little road were we saw one of the coolest things in our lives. We saw a real black bear!!! It just walked infront of our car and we were very amazed!!! It walked over the road and then it disappeared in the forest. We even got some pictures and googled the bear and found out that the black bear is the state animal of New Mexico.

Picture of the very cool black bear 

After our very cool animal adventure we turned our car around and headed back to the aztec ruins, this time we even found the right way. The ruins wasn´t as cool as we expected but it was interesting anyway :) Our guide was named Jane and she told us that the ruins was very old. Apparently the last aztec leader had been killed by the Spanish in year 1525 and the peoples cities began to fall apart.

Since the ruins wasn´t so interesting we decided to move on towards Alberquerque. When we were driving towards Albuquerque we began to plan what to do and we checked if there was anything special about Albuquerque. So that when we arrived we would know just where to go. When we arrived to Albuquerque the clock was about 8pm and we parked outside the Alberquerque BioPark so that we would be the first people there in the morning. When we parked and had taken a shower we went out to find a nice restaurant. Because of the nice rumors that we heard about a restaurant called desert fish we asked some peoples on the street for the way and we arrived only a few minutes later. On the restaurant we ate a seafood salad, the dish sounded so disgusting so we just had to try it. It turned out to taste really good though and it was a nice dish of crab meat, grilled prawns, scallops, grilled onion on a bed of salad. After the dinner we went straight home and went to bed. 

The tasty salad 

The next morning we had set the clock at 8am and we ate some breakfast and went to the BioPark. The biopark was divided in four parts: Aquarium, Botanic Garden, Zoo and Tingley beach. We visited every one of them. In the aquarium it was 285 000 gallons of ocean water and it had a so called “eel tunnel”. In the aquarium it was a lot of sharks swimming beside colorful reef fishes, eels and seaturtles. Next on the list was the Botanic Garden whit a lot of beautiful plants. The garden was like an oasis in the desert, just a quiet and nice place to sit and think about stuff and relax in. However we didn´t had time to relax because we were already on our way to the awesome zoo. The zoo was founded in 1927 and contains more than 250 different species of exotic and native animals. So we began to walk through the zoo and we saw among others zebras, jaguars, elephants, polar bears and hippos. When we had walked through the zoo Farnam checked on his gps and we had been walking for 2,25 miles just in the zoo! The Tingley Beach was actually where we got our food that day; we fished it up several fishes from the central pound. We also rented a pedal boat for a while. After the visit on the BioPark we were so tired so we just cooked our fishes, ate them and went to bed.

Some pictures from the bio park

The next day we took the world’s longest tramway in the world (Sandia Peak tramway) to the Betty’s Bath and Day spa. At the spa we just took it easy and relaxed, we swam a little and talked whit some other American peoples at the spa. We even got an interview whit one of them, a nice old American lady. She was born in Texas in 1930 and had moved to Albuquerque at the age of ten and had lived there since then. At the age of 16 she had got pregnant and wasn´t allowed making an abort so she had her fist son at the age of 17. She said that she liked USA and everything whit it especially the taxes. I asked her what she thought about Sweden and she answered that she didn´t even know anything about it except that the car brand Volvo was Swedish. Then I asked her what she thought about when I said Europe and she said quoting: “Fashion, taxes, wealth and small peoples.” I laughed at her and looked around in the room; everyone had some extra weight if I can put it that way except two young ladies.

After the spa we went to our little house car and right now we are packing our stuff because we´re going to freaking TEEEEEEEXAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSS!!!

over and out form Linus, Hugge and Farnam ;)

AMAZING THIS IS, I TELL YOU! CITY / STATE 2

Las Vegas 

After another few days in Los Angeles we set the alarm to quite early to next day since we are going to Vegas (!) and the drive there takes about 4 and a half hour. Which is not very far away, it’s from Gothenburg to Malmö so not very far at all if you compare to the enormous country of the USA. 

So we wake up, eat breakfast and start our 4 hour drive to viva Las Vegas! When we see the typical sign “Welcome to Las Vegas” we get some flashbacks to movies where you have seen that sign quite a lot. We didn’t really knew what we should do first in the biggest party city of them all so we decided since the clock was about 1pm when we got there that it’s time for lunch! We thought that since we are in Vegas after all we can afford to spend some money here in the casinos and restaurants but we won’t stay in any hotel here because it just costs too much for us. Farnam says he wants to eat at some restaurant in the MGM Grand because he recognizes this hotel from Rocky IV and we don´t have anywhere else were we wanted to eat so we tried to find the MGM Grand. Since we arrived at the western part of Vegas we were quite far away from the big hotels and casinos so we had to ask for directions to get onto the Strip as the big boulevard is called where the big hotels are located. We did kind of fast realize that the closer to the middle in Vegas you came the more luxurious it became. We really got stung by all these hotels and ads and all this glamour that the Strip offers. It’s quite amazing to see the whole world in miniature in just one place, we saw the Eiffel tower, pyramids and the tower in Seattle in miniature of course. 

When we arrived to the Strip we quickly looked for the big hotel of MGM Grand.

Since it is quite a huge place we asked a security guard for directions to the restaurant and then he asked "which one?" and we all got confused and didn’t know which one we wanted to go to. He kind of understood our confusion and quickly asked us if we would like to eat at a typical American diner place, and of course would we like to do that. When he showed us the way to the restaurant inside the hotel which felt like the hotel was as big as Gothenburg we quickly realized there was no chance at all we would make our way out of here by ourselves. So we ordered some fries, ribs and hamburgers and pancakes for dessert. 

Since the clock was only 4 pm when we finished our meal we decided to take a tour around the city to see some more of it. On our way out of the hotel, guided by another security guard, Hugge noticed a poster of this magician David Copperfield and he asked the guard if he performed here at MGM Grand and the guard said that he performed tonight at 9 pm and that we could get some tickets in the reception if we wanted to see the show. After he showed us the way to the entrance we bought tickets to see David Copperfield. 

At the moment we step out of the hotel we can see a store that sells city tours so we run over there and ask them what kind of city tours they got. The woman behind the desk kindly explained for us that they have bus tours that starts every hour and at the night they have this really awesome helicopter flight over Las Vegas. So today after the show we are going on a helicopter flight over this beautiful city of Vegas. Until 9 pm we decided to just chill in our car and maybe sleep for a few hours until the big show tonight. 

We drove to the outskirts of Vegas and stopped by at a Supermarket, bought some food and headed to a gas station to refuel the car and just stay there until tonight. 

The day after we all felt really **** good after yesterday. The show was great and the flight was even better. It was a wonderful day with amazing entertainment! The show was exiting and you got blown away of how he did it at the same time as you tried your hardest to figure the tricks out. The flight over Vegas was incredible, I don’t think anyone of us has seen anything like this ever before. Such a remarkable show of lightning and just amazing things! The fountains are just super awesome and you can really see why this is a place you have to visit before you die. But at the same time we realized that this must cost a enormous amount of money but you also get how much money they make here each day with all these casinos, tours and restaurants. As our fellow Jar Jar Binks would have said, "dis isa amaz city" or as we say: THIS IS A AMAZING CITY! 

After a few more days of gambling and just having fun we headed towards our next stop, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

over and out from Hugo, Farnam and L to the inus, Linus :D

Day three and last day in L.A

Three days after we arrived in Los Angeles, Farnam, Hugo and Linus went to Beverly. We ate a nice breakfast in our house car, made of bacon and eggs and we drank coke. After we had eaten our breakfast, it was time to go to Beverly Hills.

When arriving in Beverly Hills, we went through some nice neighborhoods which were populated by rich people. Many famous people like David and Victoria Beckham, Tom Cruise, Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani lives in Beverly Hills. There are about 35 thousand people who live in Beverly Hills.

The most beautiful thing with Beverly Hills is that most of the street, especially those in the neighborhoods are lined with palm trees.

After going through and visiting some neighborhoods, it was time to visit Franklin Canyon Park located in northwest of Beverly Hills. Franklin Canyon Park is a public park with a big lake called Franklin Canyon Pond.

When we visited the park, we ate our lunch at 2 pm. We bought hamburgers from McDonald’s in Beverly Hills. After lunch we went to the Lake and drank some coffee.

When we sat and drank our coffee, some birds came and ate our bread which we had brought from Sweden.

After sitting beside the lake for about three hours, it was time to go home. We drove from Beverly Hills with our housecar back to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles we drove around the streets and visited many neighborhoods. It was very fun to see how Los Angeles looked like, since it was our dream to visit it when we were small.

Housecarrenting and hamburgerdinner aka Day 1 in LA (STATE / CITY 1)

 Today we finally packed our final things and took the flight to California. We arived to the Los Angeles airport at 1pm and after a little bit trouble finding the exit we finally breathed american air.

Picture of the Los Angeles airport taken from the cab

The first thing we noticed was how cold it was, we thuoght it would be like 20 degrees but it only was 9... After a few seconds on the street Linus suddenly shouted ''taxi!!'' and we took a cab to the housecar renting place. It only took few seconds for us to get the housecar since we had been clever enought to pre-book. The housecar was very small but I guess you get what you pay for :(.

Our housecar was very small and compact

We were very tired after the long flight so after we got the housecar we bought some food at the closest SUpermarket and made a nice hamburger dinner in the tiny kitchen. After the dinner we drove up to the top of a parking house and parked our car there beacuse we wanted to go for a little walk around the city. We didn't go for a very long time before we decided to go back and almost instantly fell asleep inside the car.

over and out from Farnam, Hugge and L to the inus, Linus.

CHICKEN BUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET aka Day 2 in LA

After the rough night in the parkinghouse we ate a really late breakfast. When we stepped out of the car Hugge noticed all these garbage around our car which all came from the party last night. That will be a party we will never forget, after we parked our car at the top of the parkinghouse we all fell asleep but Hugge heard some really loud music and woke us up. The first floor had suddenly changed into a underground club with alot of people, loud music and drugs. We got dragged onto the dancefloor and the party started. We don't know when we got to bed, all we know is that we woke up inside our car. But, as our plan says we were going to see the Hollywood sign today and visit the hall of fame.

So we packed our stuff together and started driving towards the big sign. We quickly realised we couldn't make it all the way to the sign so we stopped as close as we could get and walked a bit up a nearby cliff to take some nice pictures of us and the sign.

So here we are in Hollywood at the big old sign. Top is Linus and bottom is Hugge.

After we took some very nice pictures of us and the sign we decided it was time for lunch. We didn't really feel for anything big so we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken. We got really struck by the huge chickenbuckets they sold. We all thought the same thing, "I want one of those". We shared one and headed towards the walk of fame.

The walk of fame, located in Hollywood, which is a long street with a lot of stars. Each star is representing a person, either a real person or a character. But they all have been in Hollywood. We met some really nice people walking along the walk of fame. One of these were the Stormtrooper! Everyday he walks the walk of fame and lets people take pictures of him and them. He says he really like this "job" since he don't get that much money from it. It's more of a hobby he tells us.

We ate dinner at a local pub and after that we just parked our car at the nearest parking lot and just chilled until we decided to go to bed.

over and out from Linus, Hugge and F to the arnam, Farnam.

the plan

So, the first of April we three guys are going to travel to USA and do a road trip through the whole country. From Los Angeles in the west to Miami and New York in the east. 


In Los Angeles we are going to rent a housecar from a Swedish webpage that we found, they charge us 2581 dollars for the entire month of April. We can drop it off at Miami and then rent a boat in Miami and go by boat all the way to New York. We planned to stop at several cities along the way as we travel through the states towards Florida and Miami. We are gonna visit Las Vegas in Nevada, then drive through Arizona to Albuquerque in New Mexico, followed up by Dallas and Houston in Texas. In the state of Mississippi we don't have anything more planned than stop by at the mighty Mississippi-river. We thought about taking a day or two in the city of New Orleans in Louisiana then drive through Alabama towards our final "car-destination", Miami. 


We don't really need to make any Hotel-reservations since we are going to travel in a housecar. About food we are not going to take anything with us apart from something we may want the first few days and the rest of the trip we are going to buy our food at either supermarkets or at different restaurants along the road. We are thinking that a resonable budget for each person as "foodmoney" will be about 1600 USD which is about 10000 SKR. In pocket money we are thinking that we all bring as much as we think we will spend individually buy maybe about 1000 USD. 


Gasoline is another thing that costs money and since we will be driving quite a heavy car we think that we should bring quite alot of money to buy gasoline with. The average gasolineprice in USA is about 3.5 USD / gallon and 1 gallon is about 3.8 litres, if you compare the price in USA to óur price in Sweden the gasoline actually is a bit lower in USA than here in Sweden. So maybe 2000-2500 USD on gas is a resonably budget. 


Since the states we are going to visit usually are quite warm and not very cold we won't bring any winter clothes but more summer stuff, especially bathing shorts (!) and of course a camera so we can upload pictures of us during the trip.


To sum our budget up we are going to spend about 5000 USD each which is about 33000 SKR. 

Our trip on a map

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