I’m no angel where food is concerned. My  friend Julie laughs about one joint family holiday where she may have found me hiding in a room scoffing down a whole bag of starburst snakes. I may have defensively covered the bag, not to hide, but to make sure she didn’t try to have any. Like a fox terrier dog, don’t touch my food peoples. In … Continue reading Are you eating too much America?

Nashville, Tennessee has many names. Athens of the South, Cashville, Nashvegas, The Protestant Vatican, The Buckle of the Bible Belt, Music City.  Music City seemed to dominate today. I didn’t love Music City.  To be fair, I think we arrived at the wrong time. Nashville has a big football game here this weekend. The Philadelphia Eagles and the Tennessee Titans.  Now, I’m not saying all … Continue reading Nashville

‘In the spring of 1968, African-American sanitation workers protested under the banner ‘I Am A Man’ demanding recognition as human beings and equitable treatment. Fifty years later, children are standing up for their rights under the banner ‘I Am A Child’. In June 2018, a photo shoot took place on the steps of the Immigration and Customs Enforcements building in New York City with children … Continue reading The Lorraine Motel, Memphis – Dr Martin Luther King Jnr

“Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn’t been an Elvis there wouldn’t have been the Beatles.” John Lennon Today I reconnected with my first love. Not Ken Priest from St. Arnaud. I was 3 years old. That didn’t count. Elvis Aaron Presley My childhood memories are Saturday nights watching one of the 31 movies he made. Sometimes I watched them twice. Actually … Continue reading Memphis, Tennessee, Elvis and Graceland

St. Louis, Missouri. We weren’t going to stop there but MOD booked us a room on one of our numerous Starbucks diversions. We go to Starbucks for the free wifi as you would know. Of course.  It meant we could take a little break and wander the town for a few hours, having arrived about 4pm. With a population of approximately 310,000, the city was … Continue reading St. Louis

72 degrees Fahrenheit. About 21 degrees Celsius. How do you beat that? Perfect weather. Wisconsin. Or should I say Wizcansen. MOD tells me deer hunting country, and in his day there were 600,000 deer killed each year. I’m becoming so anti-killing anything, I’m not sure I can cope. It’s a very different culture here in the USA.  The roads in Minnesota seemed to be often concrete, … Continue reading Janesville, Wisconsin

The false eyelashes have left the building. Well mostly. There might be one long one on the right which sort of looks weird. Can’t quite match one super long eyelash using mascara. Hopefully people have been distracted by the falling out process. They usually end up on my nose. I can tell when they are there by people’s reactions. Sort of horror, sort of pity, … Continue reading Bayport, Minnesota

Oh My Lord! Look what I found! Oh joy!👏😄 MOD of course, was thrilled. Beyond words (NOT). Hmmmmm Fun fact – an inch of rain, depending on the climatic conditions, produces a foot of snow. MOD is so wisdomatic. He imparted this little known-to-me fact as we travelled towards Bayport, Minnesota, on our first day of rain in the USA. Cross over the Red River … Continue reading It’s raining in Minnesota

By my reckoning, in Australia, when you see a snake, it’s never good. Yesterday, on the way to Fargo, where MOD grew up, we stopped at Fort Ransom. The Fort without a Fort. Thought we would go for a short hike. And there my friends, was where a snake decided to slither past me on the track. I jumped three foot into the air, grabbed … Continue reading Fargo

Finally found that Grizzly MOD was looking for! In the Bismarck Zoo….. Bismarck was founded by European Americans in 1872 on the east bank of the Missouri River.  Originally named “Edwinton” after a man named Edwin L. Johnson, a supporter of the transcontinental railroad, it was changed after a year to Bismarck in honor of Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, in an effort to … Continue reading Bismarck