Am now in LA so am updating the rest of the last few weeks!
Was actually sorry to leave New Orleans, spent 2 nights in the french quarter and had Gumbo (seafood dish that was very weird) and alligator sausage. Was a bit surreal as as I was eating there was a travel show about Scotland on the tv! I spent the last evening watching the sun go down over the Mississippi river and it was so beautiful. Went to the sealife centre as well and have some pretty amazing pictures of sharks, huge turtles and a white alligator. On the last night i stayed in the train station. They lock up the stations at night and you can only stay there if you have a valid ticket so it was pretty safe. I met an egyptian guy (first one) and he was from New Orleans and was telling me all about what they did during Hurricane Katrina, how him and his friend went out to get food for the children as they were all in one house. Someone before them had broken into a grocery store to get food so they went over there but his friend was breaking into jewlery shops etc and stealing things as it was total chaos and mayhem. He doesnt speak to that friend anymore as he said that stealing food for his children was one thing but not stealing watches etc at a time like that.In the station was also a guy from Kentucky and he was a farmer. His son ownes 100,000 acres of land with cattle and he is a proper cowboy!
The train that I got took 3 days and I met some amazing people in that time. The best experience was when I had a 6 hour stop over in a one horse town from 3am-9am. I met a guy from near the area who told me all about growing up in the days of segregation from blacks (he was white) and he told me that the black kids were bussed to the white schools and we talked non-stop for 6 hours and I got a real insight of what it was like to be growing up with that lifestyle. He told me though that in some areas the segregation still exists and there are 'white' and 'black' restaurants and they dont mix at all. Eventually got to Miami and it was very much a holiday resort full of beaches and beautiful people. The art deco was interesting to look at but apart from that all there was to do was sit on the beach.On point of note it is amazing how I STILL cant get my head around how big everything is. When i arrived at Miami train station i expected something the size of Manchester with a beach, however Miami is an area and there are around 4 diffferent cities or areas within that. It took me an hour to get 3 different buses to where I was going.After 2 days on the beach and sorting my new routing I flew to Los Angeles. LA is so huge I estimated it at about the size of the central belt when I flew over but I'm not exactly sure. The view over the Sierra Nevada was breathtaking, and it was so wonderful to see mountains again. I miss mountains so much when I'm not in Scotland. Just ask Eleanor when I'm in Brighton for a weekend I complain about how flat it is!Miami and LA feel so different from New Orleans in that you feel safe. I dont feel like i have to be constantly checking where I am and who is around me etc all the time. in LA people are laid back and in Miami as one guy from Miami told me, 'its Miami, anything goes'.I am not sure how long I will be in LA, I am flying from Sanfrancisco to Mexico City on the 13th of November (or sooner if my money runs out!) but until then I don't have any definite plans. I am going to Grand Canyon (hopefully) in October and am going to book the green tortoise to get to Yosemite in November.