Month: October 2023
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Day 36 – Home sweet home
It’s home time! After 5 weeks of yee-hawing, y’all-ing, and tipping some bloke or blokette 20% of the bill just for carrying a plate, we’re back in the land of drop bears and vegemite! And speed cameras apparently – we literally drove through more speed detection devices on the way home from the airport than…
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Day 33 – A quick flight back to Los Angeles to check out a pier and overpay for a hotel without air conditioning
• With the puppy show done and dusted, the ribbons handed out, the photos taken, and the puppies all making their way home, today was fly out day for us too. After great success at jamming all our stuff within the specified dimensions and weight limit of our domestic luggage allowance, it was off to…
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Day 32 – Playing hooky from the dog show so I could hoon around Dallas in a golf cart checking out crime scenes
• Today was another big schedule of dog showing, so in the interests of supporting the exhibitors I quickly and selflessly left the show to allow more room for spectators. One of my very few faults is that my body is too frail to support the size of my giant heart. • Now that I’d…
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Day 31 – High stakes auctioning and 15″ showing at the Beagle National
• Today was dog show day, so minimal photos once again. I did quite enjoy breakfast, because it had waffles. In the shape of Texas. It’s this sort of attention to detail that I really enjoy. • The whole show was held inside a convention centre, which means air conditioning. I can definitely see the…
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Day 30 – Stolen numberplates and our first full day of Beagle National
• Today was hire car return day, so to make the best use of the last hour or two of automotive freedom I ducked off to Starbucks to collect some bad coffees. When I wandered back out to the car, pumpkin spice cold brew in hand, I noticed our hire car looked a little naked.…
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Day 29 – Gardening in the Dallas Arboretum, and our first glimpse of the 2023 US Beagle National
• After committing to a non refundable ticket to the Dallas Arboretum, we awoke to a beautiful gloomy day with a forecast of rain. Doh! • Unperturbed (well, slightly turbed) we headed off. The place was actually a pain in the butt to get in to for people who didn’t read the instructions (guilty). There’s…
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Day 28 – Returning to Dallas via the bowie knife in Bowie named after a guy called Bowie
• After the dizzying highs of the Eiffel Tower (with a cowboy hat), and the giant shovel, and the duck pond, I was prepared for a mundane day of return travel to Dallas in preparation for the dog show which was kind of the original point in coming to the US. • On the drive…
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Day 27 – Paris with a cowboy hat, the worlds smallest skycraper, a giant shovel… it’s non-stop excitement in Witchita Falls
• Today, we decided to add some French to our holiday with a quick stop at Paris to see the Eiffel Tower. So off we headed to Paris, Texas. I’m pretty sure it’s basically the same thing. • Another quick beagle pat and we were on our way. Practicing our Oui Ouis and our bonjours,…
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Day 26 – Dallas Aquarium, Texas high school football, and finally some beagles!
• The day began with a quick trip up the highway to see what’s cracking in Dallas. Like everywhere thus far, flyovers and concrete highways dominate. And water towers, gotta have water towers. • The activity for the day was the Dallas World Aquarium, a multistory zoo which has this incredible layout made up of…
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Day 25 – Off to Waco for a Dr Pepper pilgrimage and Fixer Upper Silobration
• After waking up and hunting through the bedding for our tiny pillows, it was time for an actually very nice hotel breakfast and then on the road because we had a very important date with the best museum on the trip – the Dr Pepper museum! • Prior to the museum, an executive decision…
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Day 24 – The Houston Space Centre, and a pillow insult in Waco
• Another early start, because today was space centre day! Breakfast was fruit loops because I was excited like a little kid so had breakfast to match. Then I continued the cosplay by needing to go wee as soon as we left the hotel, and complaining to nearby adults that Erin was making faces at…
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Day 23 – Baton Rouge breakfast, lunch with gators, and we’ve landed in Houston
• Despite the luxury and comfort provided by our room full of pillows, we opted for an early start because we had the better part of 6 hours of driving to do. This hotel didn’t provide breakfast anyway (current rating: 5 pillows, 0 bagels), so we figured we’d pull in somewhere once the sun came…
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Day 22 – An air boat ride in the bayous of Louisiana, and French quarter scammers in New Orleans
• After a luxuriant 5 pillow sleep, it was time for an air boat ride amongst the bayous of Louisiana. A quick look at the forecast of the day suggested tshirt and shorts would be appropriate. This was a lie. • We left the city, and headed further out into the marsh to where the…
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Day 21 – A jazz cruise in New Orleans
• After waking up at dickety-dick o’clock by the air conditioner rumbling like a Harley (including unnecessary throttle blips), we figured there was no point going back to sleep anyway because we felt so gross on the 3rd world standard linen. In the optimistic hope that we avoid an incurable skin condition, we showered several…
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Day 20 – Terrorist llamas, Rock & Soul in Memphis, and Elvis’ house sure sucks
• After an early night brought on by some unknown illness, a few choice drugs from the local US distributor (definitely legal I am assured by the pharmacist from Craigslist who met me in the carpark for a cash only sale) had me back to full functionality and ready to carry on being a tourist!…
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Day 19 – A pocket knife museum, Nashville’s Country Music Hall Of Fame, and illness strikes
One of the many thousands of people I’ve walked past who have been coughing, spluttering, and sneezing without covering their mouth have managed to stick a germ in me and I’m crook as. Fingers crossed it’s a 24 hour thing, cause we’ve got more travel to do yet! This update is gonna be short, cause…
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Day 18 – The Cincinnati Zoo, a factory for cheesecakes, and wtf is with the pharmaceuticals adverts?
• Leaving the hotel on the northern side of Cincinnati, we headed towards the city and visited the Cincinnati Zoo. Erin was a huge fan. They had a couple of elephants, some manatee (oh the huge manatee!), some hippos, various forms of monkeys, and a little train that I wasn’t allowed to go on. They…
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Day 17 – COSI in Columbus, and Hooters in Cincinnati
• We left Washington, PA and headed further west towards Cincinnati, OH. Due to the way the state borders are drawn, this means we went from Pennsylvania, to West Virginia, to Ohio in the space of an hour or so. We’re practically in Europe at this point, crossing borders every 5 minutes. • On the…