After only two days together we sadly had to part company again since the two ladies were driving back to the West coast whereas I would drive towards the Grand Canyon and further. So anyway, I enjoyed a week driving and hiking through Nevada, Arizona and Utah and soaked in the marvels of some of the finest national parks this huge country has to offer. Hiking just a tiny small part of the Grand Canyon's mind blowing vastness that has been carved into Mother Earth's skin during millions of years by the Colorado river, chasing the energy vortexes at Sedona with its magical Bell Rock, passing by the famous Horseshoe bend and then climbing down the tunnels of Antelope Canyon that were made as if some giant magic being had grinded them out of the sandstone with a huge fine sandpaper over the millenniums, strolling around the stone pillars at Bryce Canyon that again looked like coming from a different world, and finally diving into the cool & green canyons at Zion national park that once more had a completely new vibe which I just loved. It was a great week among these wonders of nature, and even though it was kind of high season with a lot of American families and all the kids holiday camps on their way, I never felt bothered but enjoyed admiring God's creation together with them.
After I nearly crashed my rental car early morning on the way to Las Vegas airport (lucky me you find out quite easily that something's wrong when four lanes of traffic approach you all of a sudden and the guy behind you honks like a lunatic) I safely flew to New Orleans, the city of blues & jazz. I had a great stay in NOLA at my Airbnb hosts place Jason and also his neighbor's cat Mr. Grey took good care of me :-) Just shortly after I got there I went to the next bar Dos Jefes Uptown Cigar Bar where people smoked thick fat cigars and an excellent band played some jazz at its best. A day later I strolled along Frenchman Street where bands played their sets in the dozens of bars and even on the street there was music everywhere.
And last but not least, I was so lucky to see Seether & 3 Doors Down at Champions Square and once more I considered myself to be a lucky dumbass judging by the way I got into this concert. Why? Well, first of all I only learned about them playing something like two days before the concert took place (and I really love their music, it's been playing from my iPhone many times during the last months of travel). Then when I got to the concert venue I would have been able to buy some tickets but they maybe were somewhere in the far back row but then again security wouldn't let me in the concert area anyway since my daypack was far too big for them. So what do I do now? Ok, I went to the next hotel and of course it was the luxurious Hyatt Regency and the guy at the reception actually was not allowed to accept my daypack for putting it into the storage room since I was not a guest, but after looking a few times to the left and the right to check if no one else was watching he did it anyway. Thanks a bunch mate! Returning to the concert area there was this other guy then who was selling an extra ticket he had because his wife was just sick and couldn't come. And of course he gave it to me for much less money than he paid and then it was a front stage ticket so I could see the bands from something like 20 feet away! Ha, I couldn't believe it, that was so cool! The music was great and even the one hour thunderstorm break was entertaining (it was an open air concert and all of a sudden there was rain & lightning so for safety reasons they had to suspend the concert for a little while) because during this break a young girl, Kim was her name, chatted me up since she saw the 'Om' sign on my 'Why not bar' tshirt. In her facebook profile she even named herself 'Om' so she basically was just interested in all sorts of spiritual stuff however she had no big idea so far how to pursue her spiritual path and so I told her a bit of my story, of my trip around the world, of the people I've met on my way (for instance Craig whom I've met in that backpackers in Wellington when I was pretty much lost), of my stay in the Buddhist monastery in Nelson, of the books I read on my journey so far and lots of other stuff. I have no idea if what I told her was any inspiring or not, but I just felt like this time I could pass on something to somebody that I was gratefully given at an earlier point on my own way. And overall I felt that sometimes karma just works even within a short period of time, also the story with that concert ticket, I remember myself giving away a ticket for the Paolo Nutini show in Auckland to a girl who was sad that she had to leave her friends who were going to that sold out concert, so I just gave my spare one to her for half of the price and she was very happy about it :-) It definitely was an evening which I was very grateful for.
What I also liked about New Orleans was the fact, that I found all sorts of people are coming together for having fun, no matter if they were black or white, whatever their beliefs were or wherever they may have come from. That was something I haven't seen in other parts of the country, on the contrary, most of the time you find life and culture happening along very distinct lines that separate one world from the other. That's by the way something very peculiar about the USA in general: whenever you arrive in a city, first thing your host or some other person will tell you is where to go and where not to, and often it's just the next block where people and the vibes change drastically. Of course once more I have to point out that I only experience life here on the very surface, I'm only scratching it a tiny little bit, people who actually live here for a longer time may not share my perception. And at the risk of just contradicting myself again I have to say that staying in New Orleans for four days was just enough, I never felt a hundred percent comfortable as there were too many different energies fighting for the same space and I therefore was happy to move on again (sorry, I can't described it more clearly ;-).
Following the call of music I got myself a rental car again in Pensacola (hey, I eventually could attend a baseball game there too :-) and drove up North towards Nashville passing through Alabama and Tennessee. On my way up I had short encounters with the US version of the Apartheid in Birmingham, some big rockets and the space shuttle in Huntsville and with Mr. Jack Daniels in Lynchburg.
Nashville itself was again filled with bands and music history. On my first night out I found that nice little bar where a couple of very talented people would present their songs. I especially fell in love with the voice of Alicia Michilli, whose performance just blew me away. Apparently, and I only found out later, she's also making her way through the shows of America's got Talent right now, I hope she's gonna make it to the top.
The next days I visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, the famous Studio B where Elvis recorded most of his best selling songs and where he trashed some furniture and kicked someones gun with a Karate kick so the gun broke a hole in his guitarists instrument, and saw a few more talented musicians at the legendary Bluebird Cafe. I nearly started my own music career in this town but then decided to move on despite the promise of fame and tons of money ;-) Oh yeah, and Nashville was kind of also the first place where I struggled quite some to get settled in my accommodation, my Airbnb host just forgot about me coming on that very day, she was in Australia and mixed up the dates, but after like 5 hours of trying to reach her and calls with Airbnb I finally managed to get into the house and found my room. I already saw myself sleeping in my car or ending up in some crappy and expensive hotel, which of course I would have survived, but anyway, I preferred to stay at the place I planned to.
Passing through Atlanta and paying a short visit at CNN's and Coca Cola's I landed in the forest, more exactly in the forest hostel near Brunswick, Georgia. Justin from New Orleans kind of sent me there so I finally stayed for three nights, enjoyed some hippie life with good people and even joined a sweat lodge, which was my first so far. And it was a good experience too, also somehow funny since the rain coming in nearly blew out the big fire in front of the sweat lodge and the water flowing into lodge made it heat up dramatically so we had to run out and jump into the lake on our second session. So it all was a little improvised but Pops, the sweat lodge chief guided us through to whole adventure with calmness and an abundance of good intentions. The hostel itself was built almost the day I was born so it's been around for quite a while and Tom the founder together with a bunch of good friends and other beautiful souls put a lot of good energy in this place. And sleeping in a treehouse and having a shower in the morning surround by trees is just a very unique experience. Even so, what I once more discovered about myself is that it usually takes a long long time for me to relax and let go in a new group with new people so often by the time I kind of actually touched ground in the group it's already time to leave again. Hmm, I reckon there's still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to this, even after this year in which I hoped to definitely change this trait.
As a last station in the US I now landed in Miami, where I stay with a lovely couple originally from Venezuela and Colombia, Liz & Dave. That's the cool thing about Airbnb, it's as if you're moving from one share flat to the next, and even tough it's not the same of course, it still feels a little bit like it. So I have my last few days here, checked out Miami beach, drove down to the Florida Keys to Key West where Cuba is only a mere 90 miles away. I had time here to sort out my photos, write my blog, do my laundry and get ready for my next and maybe last big adventure, Peru. And I'm really looking forward to it, a different culture again, different people & food, and I'm looking forward to my Intrepid travel group that I'm going to join the day after tomorrow. So goodbye USA, I'm also a little glad that I leave, since I feel if I stay much longer I definitely become a real American, driving to the next food stop by car, eating burgers all the time and generally living not the healthiest way - I guess I put on at least 10 kg's during my two months here, oh gosh :-)
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