The first afternoon after getting ourselves sorted with a Festival program we headed off to check out Old Town. Really beautiful cobblestoned streets lined with majestic old buildings greeted us but unfortunately these beautiful buildings were mainly filled with souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants and cafes.

This dog was actually lying in a shop window

After a short rest we headed back to the Festival and spent the night eating baguettes and dip while listening to some pretty spectacular musicians. We capped off the night with a soft serve from McDonalds as it was still roasting even though it was 11.00pm. Did you know cones in Montreal now cost $1.40?! What happened to 30 cent cones?! Pfft.

The following day we headed back to the Festival and spent a few hours cooling off in the air-conditioned bliss of a mall. I really do like summer but I think this was the fourth or fifth heat wave that we have been in and my body had just about had enough.

There were thousands of people out for the final night of the Festival particularly as the night was kicked off with Mardi Gras! There was a great atmosphere about the place and my highlight band of the night was Trombone Shorty, who came out from New Orleans. They were a really great brass band that had probably about twenty thousand people on their feet dancing. So fun!!

We soon found an information centre and after the incredibly helpful staff filled us in on the highlights of Quebec and Montreal we took off through the rolling hills. That is until we had to fill up with petrol and discovered it cost us $30 extra per tank in Canada than it had in the US! We had forgotten how expensive Canada is. Should have filled up on the US side of the border. Doh!

On reaching Quebec City we got ourselves orientated and cashed up with Canadian moolah and headed to explore the city. Like most cities, the most interesting and picturesque area was Old Town and we spent most of our three days in this area.

I LOVED Quebec. It has become my absolutely favourite city that we have visited. France has always been the ultimate place I want to visit (and live if at all possible for a year or two) and Quebec was such an eye opening experience. We tried to learn some French before we arrived but we are both hopeless at that sort of thing without a structured program and someone correcting our pronunciation! We so wished we had learnt more once we were there though. We both felt so ignorant, rude and “typical” tourists but the locals we spoke with really did appreciate our very poor efforts and took pity on us and spoke English.

The majority of locals we spoke with were actually born, raised and schooled in France but due to the political instability and the direction the country is going in, a lot of French are moving to the Quebec province. This I think has created quite a lot of animosity towards Canada and there seems to be a growing “Liberate Quebec” movement. They are so incredibly proud of their heritage and language. The French have a reputation of haughtiness and rudeness but I really grew to respect that as their way of preserving their language and culture. The world is becoming so globalised with chains and strip malls everywhere, so it was great to see a group of people wanting to preserve something so precious and unique.

While at the information centre they told us about three free shows that were on the nights we were going to be in Quebec, and as they were free we of course decided to check them out. The first night we went to a Cirque du Soleil show that was preformed outdoors under a crisscross of overpasses. It was mind bowing. The performance happened all around us and went for over an hour. Pretty awesome for a free show! It was performed with absolute professionalism and was totally captivating. Quebecians sure know how to put on shows properly!

The following night after a day of wandering through old buildings, military forts and gorging ourselves on strawberries and chocolate croissants from the local market, we headed to the port to watch an image and laser lights show that is projected onto silos across the water (The Image Mill). It told the story of the history of Quebec and was a really fascinating experience. It is in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest show of its kind (over 600m wide and 30m tall), and it was definitely impressive enough to claim that honour!

Just a small section of the show from across the water

The last day in Quebec we spent wandering through art galleries and were lucky enough to stumble into the art gallery of Alain Lacaze. We were already planning on buying one of his pieces from his agent in the more touristy “art street’, but while visiting his gallery he took us into his work shop and showed us how intricate and skilful the process is in creating his pieces. It was a really interesting experience, and when speaking with his agent later on that day we learnt that Alain hardly ever shows anyone his workspace. I guess he must have liked the Aussie accent!

That night we went to a concert held in front of the parliament buildings, which was a celebration of all things French. There was a huge four-tiered stage that held an orchestra, the main group of about 15 singers in the very middle and then a huge choir filling in the gaps. It was absolutely amazing. They sang traditional French songs, and although we couldn’t understand what was said or sung, it still gave me shivers! The Quebecians do not do things by halves, that’s for sure!

For the last song, which everyone seemed to know the words to, they got everyone to get up and dance. Quebecians can’t dance. It was hilarious! But they were all so uninhibited and enthusiastic that Aidan and I joined in with a lot of jumping up and down and pretending we knew the words. It was tons of fun and such a great ending to such a beautiful and interesting city. Quebec, I am coming back!

We spent the following morning exploring Harvard Square and the surrounding streets. It is so quaint but solemn all at the same time. Even though it is summer break there were still intellectuals sitting in cafes, discussing very deep and significant things I’m sure, and academics marching around on important missions.

The Widener Library houses 57 miles of bookshelves and 3 million volumes - kind of impressive

The grounds of Harvard are stunning. It is actually quite an imposing environment. You can almost feel the pressure in the air that the students must be constantly under, There seems to be a great weight of history and expectation of success and it gave us an insight into why Harvard graduates have doors open for them left, right and centre. Oh, and seven US presidents including Obama, graduated from Harvard. Not too shabby a record I say!

We spent the afternoon in Boston itself, which is full of great old buildings and cute cobblestoned streets. It is quite a distinctive little city and I’m sure there are more than a few hidden gems around the place if you had the time to explore or knew some locals for the inside word.

Swan Boats in the Boston Common public garden

An actual wine cellar spotted while walking the streets of Boston

Obviously, there is so much to see and do, so to start ourselves off we hit the streets and wandered down through Wall Street, past Ground Zero and caught the Staten Island Ferry to cruise past the Statue of Liberty. It was pretty amazing to see all these things in real life. New York definitely has a certain energy about it that is unique to this city and I guess it is what makes it such an iconic place.

An unusual shot of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry

We stopped at a water front bar for a refreshing drink, had lunch in Little Italy, wandered through Chinatown (I got a Guess watch for $12.00 – totally genuine J ) and watched an outdoor soccer game while eating soft serves from an ice cream truck. Ahh, the simple pleasures in life!

We ended the day by going to this great little bar that had some live music and made friends with Neil, a struggling comedian. Unfortunately I was suffering from a major case of heat exhaustion, which didn’t mix well with the couple of frozen margaritas I had and it all ended in a bit of a mess for me. Aidan looked after me however and got me home to Buzz for a much needed lie down – he missed out on seeing the band he was really eager for though, sorry babe!!

We got off to a slow start the next morning, as I was still in a bit of a delicate state, and headed to Times Square for some people watching. We spent the day wandering through downtown Manhattan, checking out Central Park, the very sexy looking Apple store, the cute little side streets, Rockefeller Plaza, Grand Central Station and topped off the day by going to see Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre. It was our first theatre experience and we loved it!! We scored last minute tickets at a reduced rate for the second row just left of the centre of the stage and got up close and personal with the actors. I think I even got some spittle on me! Charming.

Locals playing Bocce, they put my skills to shame

Grand Central Station - very grand indeed

And there were cops standing just around the corner

Although we loved New York and there is still so so much to explore we decided that it will have to wait until we can do it properly i.e. stay in a hotel and have some money to burn! We have discovered that cities are just really difficult to truly enjoy when living in a camper. There is no respite from heat, we usually have to park far away from the central areas and we always feel a bit crusty as proper showers are few and far between. However, New York is definitely high on our priority list for another visit in the not too distant future!

We were pretty hyper on the way in and instantly searched out the landmarks portrayed in the opening credits. It has all changed but it was still so very super fun to find the Penn & Paper building (no longer called that sadly) and figure out where everything was filmed from. It is probably the most tragic and cliché thing we have done so far but as Jim, Pam, Michael and the rest of the Dunder Mifflin crew have all been a part of our life for the last few years, how could we not visit their home town?! (never mind that it is all filmed in LA – totally not the point!)

A very special purchase - a Dwight bobble head

Nice of them to put a concert on for us when we arrived, complete with fireworks

Also on the plus side we found a really decent coffee shop! Bonus! We spent a fair few hours there sipping on lattes and escaping the heat box that is Buzz at the moment. The heat is really starting to get to us as we really have had no relief from it for nearly a month and we are both starting to feel really drained. Who’s idea was it to go road tripping in the middle of summer in a camper with no air conditioning?! Crazy kids.

We polished those ones off

Downtown Grafton - A cute small american town

It was really interesting to see another side of Aidan whilst we were there. Summer camp was a pivotal time for Aidan; I guess I see it as a time in his life of “finding himself” and I really enjoyed watching him interact with the people who were around him at that time. I also got to hear lots of stories about Aidan that I hadn’t heard before, and they all call him “Aussie”. So cute!

On Friday night we all headed out to a paddock where there were a bunch of circus folk with side show rides and the like, but the drawcard for us was a country cover band playing in the big tent. It was a total hick fest and I totally loved it! I never thought I would say this, but country music is not too shabby! With classic lines like “she thinks my tractor’s sexy”, how can you not start tapping your foot to that?! I had a blast having a dance with the girls and I even got a Keith Urban song dedicated to me just for being an Aussie!! (I had no idea what the song was, but I went along with it).

We spent the rest of the weekend eating bagels, having a beer or two, playing Frisbee golf and horse shoe throwing (both of which I was extremely bad at), walking along the beach next to Lake Michigan and other such shenanigans. I also had a very good milkshake – chocolate cake batter. Pretty awesome I must say! I think I should open a milkshake/ice cream parlour.

Our next stop in Wisconsin was Aidan’s old camp. It is on a lake about 2 ½ hours from Milwaukee, and it was so beautiful! Aidan caught up with the grounds manager and his son, who was also a leader at camp when Aidan was there, and they let us spend the night on the campgrounds parked next to the water. Pretty sweet spot I must say! It bought back heaps of memories for Aidan and I got the grand tour of where this story and that story took place. He got up to some shenanigans back in the day, that’s for sure!

Tuttle Lake - Camp Indian Sands

Being here brought back so many good memories

Ever since I can remember, Aidan has talked about taking me to Noahs Ark Water Park, the biggest water park in the US and so that became our next destination. So so so much fun although I think I nearly had a heart attack from fright on one of the rides. I’m a scaredy cat when it comes to heights and going down them backwards!

We also indulged in some touristy pursuits and played mini golf. To up the ante, for each hole the winner got a minute of massage and either of us could raise the stakes on any particular hole, so the pressure was on. Unfortunately I lost. Aidan ended up with 21 minutes of massage and I only got a paltry 11 minutes. My short game needs some work.

It was to our great excitement that we discovered there was a drive in theatre in the area! We headed out early and got a super possie for our double feature of Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia for $8.00 each! Bargain central! Hamburgers, buttered popcorn and a drive in theatre – I was content

We were getting pretty excited at this point

Buzz was getting pretty excited too by now

We also spent a couple of days camping out next to a lake, going for hikes and generally maxing relaxing!

Breakie time!

That's one massive dandelion thingy

A small treat anyone?

Jen looking out the window with a tornado looming, so eerie. Lucky for us it past us by.

Old Route 66 - One lane highway

So the story goes that they didn't have enough money to build two lanes. Besides this whole automobile thing wouldn't take off!

We passed through Kansas briefly before crossing the border into Missouri. Three states in one day - impressed much?! We discovered that just outside of a small town called Carthage there is a drive in theatre still in operation!!! Probably the coolest thing ever. Except that they only show movies on the weekend and it was currently only Tuesday. There are some drawbacks to not pre-planning our trip and this was one of them. After a milkshake (chocolate chip cookie dough – good, but not great) at a cute diner/deli combo we headed onwards for some more rolling hills and nostalgic sights.

On arriving in St. Louis after a loooonnnggg driving day we headed to Riddles Penultimate Café & Wine Bar for some impressive folk music and a beer or two. Super end to a really long day!

The following morning we headed to the Art Museum to take in some more contemporary art and then wandered on down to the waterfront to check out the famous Arch. It is huge! I was most impressed to discover that it was designed and built before the advent of computer technology (1963-1965) as a monument to the progress of man. Smart little chookens those designers. Love the good old days of pre-technology!

Random shot while waiting for the train into St Louis

There's a cable car running up each side of the arch with a viewing platform at the top

The oldest gas station on Route 66

An abandoned and overgrown section of the old road

The town of Dwight - In honour of Dwight Schrute from 'The Office'

Old Route 66 on the way to Oklahoma City

Craving some good espresso, Aidan and I did a bit of browsing and discovered Coffee Slingers in Oklahoma City had a pretty good online reputation, therefore making this our first stop when we arrived.

Coffee!

So that Aidan and I still have things to talk about even though we spend 24/7 together we do things such as critique places we visit. Coffee Slingers went something like this….

They were only running a Bolivian/Rawandan Blend, and although it was great to have espresso again it was the most sweet tasting espresso I have ever had. I would almost say you could describe it as sticky. (Is that the right word coffee gurus? I think I need to attend some cupping events to expand my knowledge and repertoire to better critique my coffee encounters!). Aidan and I were also slightly unsettled by the décor and use of space in the café. A good café needs cohesiveness. It needs ambiance. It needs functionality. After a rather detailed discussion about how we would change it, Aidan and I headed out with a strange sweetness lingering in our mouths to find an art museum.

We arrived at the doors and looked in amazement at the huge glass sculpture that hung down three or four stories, and then got all excited for the rest of the museum. That is until we read the sign on the door that said “Mondays – Closed”. Not happy!! We seem to keep striking out with places been closed on Mondays. While we were on Vancouver Island we desperately needed to get some internet access so we could call Tasweigia in relation to renting out our house and time was of the essence. Could we find one shop, café or library that was open? No. All closed on Mondays. Not happy with this closed on Mondays trend North America!!

Moving on from my rant, and from the closed Museum, Aidan and I headed to Bricktown – a reasonably newly renovated neighbourhood of cafes, bars and restaurants all located on a mile long stretch of canal. After some wandering and a spot of lunch we decided to hit the road and cover some miles, as the day was overcast and slightly cooler than previous days.

Bridge crossing over to Bricktown

There are some really great stretches of the old road in this area and it is really enjoyable to drive along, past rolling paddocks, old farmhouses with rocking chairs out the front and the typical farmer with blue overalls and white tee shirt mowing his lawn. It sounds clichéd because of all the movies that portray these types of scenes, but the great thing is that the movies are reflecting real life in middle America. I am loving this experience!

This one's for Kelly

Buzz trying not to break the old bridge

A much needed refreshment

Clinton was the next town on our route and we spent most of the day hanging out in a local park under the shady trees, reading and mucking around while we waited for it to cool down so we could drive. We did however also visit a Route 66 museum, which was actually quite informative and definitely gave us a new respect for how definitive Route 66 is in America’s history.

Jen stuck in an old school phone booth

Once the temperature had dropped slightly we jumped in the car for a couple of hours towards Oklahoma City, stopping off in El Reno for a quick bite to eat at Johnnie’s Grill, a Route 66 institution and great handmade burgers with tons of onion that tasted like we were at an Aussie bbq. Ahh bliss.

Our first stop in Texas was at a small town called Adrian aka “Midway Point”. We’ve made it halfway along Route 66! 1139 miles down, 1139 miles to go. We celebrated at the aptly named “Midpoint Café” with some chocolate pie but had to scoff it down as we had crossed a state line and it was now an hour later so the café was closing. Darn it!

We followed the mother road towards Amarillo, stopping just short at Cadillac Ranch to check out the Cadillacs sticking up out of the earth. It’s on private property but you can wander in and have a snoop at any time. The Cadillacs are also a popular spot for some graffiti work; there were probably eight or so people tagging just while we were there (yes, it is allowed). They are also used on occasion as backdrops for music videos, fashion shoots and the like. Have a squiz at some pics…

The Cadallics as they once were

The Cadillacs today

In Amarillo we spent the day on the Route 66 strip checking out the numerous and surprisingly huge antique stores while trying to keep out of the glaring 45 degree sun. I’m actually starting to acclimatise to the hot weather, but I’m not quite that acclimatised just yet! After a milkshake that paled in comparison to “the most awesome milkshake in the world”© (see Albuquerque post) – it really is very hard not to compare – we headed off to Elk City, Oklahoma.

The leaning water tower