Daytona Beach, Florida

Day Forty-Two

We arrived in Daytona Beach early afternoon, most people needing to take it slow after the chaos that was Miami. Daytona Beach is famous because of the compact sand which cars are able to drive on easily. Which lead to early car racing along the beach. I spent most of the afternoon chilling on the balcony watching the cars drive by on the beach. It was a bit of an unusual view!

We then went and had dinner as a group before heading out to see The Avengers: Age of Ultron. It was fantastic! After the contiki movie session, we had a quite night relaxing and socialising.

Miami, Florida

Day Forty

Today was a much shorter drive day, as we made our way to Miami by lunchtime. We had lunch at an open market right by the shore before getting back on the coach. The tour manager then gave us a brief city tour, showing us the main attractions and celebrity homes. We finally made it to the hotel where we had to quickly shower and get dressed for dinner and the party cruise.

The party cruise was an absolute blast! We had great fun dancing to music and seeing the city by night. Once the cruise was over, we headed out to some local clubs which were unfortunately packed due to a famous wrestling match going on. We finished the night at a Burger joint close to the hotel. Delicious.

Day Forty-One

Today was a bit of a slow start as many of us were defeated by the party cruise the night before. Kate, Leeza and myself made it to the beach at around midday where we played in the water, and relaxed in the sun. It was bliss.

Those of us not too defeated by Miami headed out once again for a night on the town. Our first stop was a local pub with a pool table and nice vibe. Once we started getting restless we headed out to a local Salsa Club, Mangos. It was pretty cool, the waitresses wore next to nothing, there was Latin music playing and staff putting on live performances. So of course we ended up in a side room where they were playing modern music!

Orlando, Florida

Day Thirty-Eight

Today was a long drive day from Panama City Beach to Orlando. We left PCB early and arrived in Orlando in time for dinner. Once we were settled into the hotel a bunch of us headed to a Sports bar "Wild Wings" for buffalo wings and beers. it was a very relaxed but long day.

Day Thirty-Nine

While most people were out and about at either Universal Studios or Disney World, I had the day to myself. I had an amazing sleep in, got out of bed in time for lunch then went to explore the tourist shops. So. Much. Disney. Merchandise.

I spent the afternoon relaxing by the poolside, hanging out with the other contikiers who had not gone to an amusement park. Once the sun set, people started returning home from their day of leisure and a big group of us decided to go out for dinner. We ended up at a buffet style restaurant just down the road from the hotel. It was a great day!

Panama City Beach, Florida

Day Thirty-Seven

After leaving New Orleans bright and early, we had another long bus day ahead of us. Our first stop of the day was at the USS Alabama, a naval warship. We also saw army tanks, planes and missiles. The stop was pretty interesting, many of us posing with the displays and bleeding the gift shop dry.

We finally made it to Panama City Beach, the sun was shining and the beach beckoned. Had an amazing afternoon playing ball games on the sand, soaking up the sun and going for a quick dip in the ocean. It was a perfect day to unwind and relax after the full on stretch of partying and activities.

We had dinner that night at the Hofbrau House where we were entertained by an American in lederhosen. After dinner we quickly grabbed some ice-cream from a local store before heading back to the beach for some late night drinks.

New Orleans, Louisiana

Day Thirty-Five

Today was a long drive day. We stopped in Jackson, Mississippi for lunch before getting back on the coach and making our way to New Orleans, Louisiana. Once we arrived in town we had a city accredited tour guide talk to us about the history of New Orleans as well as some of the main attractions. We then headed out to dinner in the French Quarter before heading onto Bourbon Street for some night-life. I tried the famous cocktails the Hurricane and the Hand Grenade. Highly recommended.

Day Thirty-Six

This morning was an early start as we had to get to the Bayou for our Air Boat Swamp Tour. It was so much fun and so loud! We had to wear ear muffs as we zoomed through the old logging canals and kept an eye out for gators.

Every now and theatre Air Boat driver would stop, pull out his trusty bag of marshmallows and throw a few into the water. Gators love marshmallows. It was so much fun.

After my busy morning playing with gators, we headed to the Louisiana School of Cooking where we had a demonstration. We ate Crab and Corn Bisque, Chicken Etouffe and Pralines. Delicious.

Kate, Leeza, Brooke and myself then headed to the famous Cafe du Mode for a coffee and beignets. Amazing.

That evening we headed to the Mardi Gras World where they make the floats and some of the costumes. We had a tour of the warehouse, looking at floats from previous years as well as floats in construction Before we had arts and crafts hour. We all got to glitter and feather our own masks in a Mardi Gras style. It was so much fun.

Dallas, Texas and Memphis, Tennessee

Day Thirty-One

After a long drive through Texas from Amarillo, we finally arrived in Dallas. Before heading to the hotel, we did a quick city tour in the coach and saw some of the historic sights as well as a few places that may have been hard to get to by foot. We got a brief history lesson on JFK, saw the grassy knoll and we're warned off the crazies with conspiracy theories who liked to hang out there.

Our next stop on the tour was this art piece found in Dallas of a cowboy and his cattle drive. It was a pretty spectacular concept and took up the majority of space in the park. We took a group photo here too, which was pretty cute.

Another thing we drove by on our tour of Dallas was this giant eyeball. Not going to lie, it was pretty creepy! All of the blood vessels were painted in.


After our bus ride we headed to the hotel to get dressed before we headed out to dinner and then a Line Dancing bar. The bar was absolutely crazy, there was a circular track in the middle of this huge building for people to dance, a mechanical bull, pool tables and cowboys everywhere.

Day Thirty-Two

I headed to the Sixth Floor museum with a bunch of contikiers early the next morning. The museum was very interesting, detailing JFK's rise to power, his presidency and assassination. They have also recreated what the windows he was shot from would have looked like back in the day.

This is the view Lee Harvey Oswald would have had from the window. The museum also detailed his assassination and rebutted all of the popular conspiracy theories. It was rather interesting.

My next stop in Dallas was a guided tour of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. It was huge. They television in the middle of the stadium has 2 elevators inside of it for maintenance crews. We also saw the players locker room and the cheerleaders locker room as well as the press conference room.

After the tour our next stop was The historic town of Fort Worth where we grabbed a plate of Texan BBQ for dinner before heading to...

The Rodeo!! It was so cool! They had people of all ages competing in all sorts of events from bull riding to horseback agility races.

Day Thirty-Three

Today we started our long journey from Dallas, Texas to Memphis, Tennessee. The first stop on our journey was to Texarkana, which is a town sitting on the state lines between Texas and Arkansas. There used to be a railway here which is how the town originated. Another big historic thing that occurred here are the Texarkana Midnight Murders.

Next stop was to Little Rock, Alabama which is a historically significant town because the Little Rock High School was the first white high school that had to open its doors to 9 selected African American students. This marked the next big step in integration. 

Once we arrived in Memphis, we headed out to a Canadian themed restaurant for dinner. Two girls on tour, Kate and Vanessa, attempted to complete a burget challenge. After dinner, we headed out to Beale Street to experience Memphis night-life.

Day Thirty-Four

We spent the morning going through Graceland, Elvis Presley's home. It was quite interesting to look at in terms of a historical home and some of the stories told about his like we're actually quite sad.

This is a picture of his 'trophy room', which also includes some of his later costumes and videos of his performances.

I then walked through his car museum,  which had the majority of cars that he ever owned in his life. Even cars that he had sold have been rebought and restored to how they would have looked when Elvis owned them.

Our next stop was to the Motel were Martin Luther King Jnr. was assassinated. They have turned the inside of the motel into a civil rights museum which we unfortunately did not have the time to go into.

Kate, Leeza, Leigh and myself then went and bought some fried chicken, coleslaw and fries to eat along the bank of the Mississippi River. It was a really fun, relaxing way to spend our afternoon.

At 4 o'clock we made our way to the Peabody Hotel where the ducks are escorted from the fountain in the lobby to their private suite via elevator everyday. It was hilarious to watch as these ducks were escorted down red carpet by the Duck Master.

We had a quite dinner at a local restaurant later that evening before heading back to Beale Street.

Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico and Amarillo, Texas

Day Thirty

We started off the morning with hot air balloon rides at sunset. It was absolutely amazing, one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. We also got to spy on people's homes, which was super fun! As New Mexico is in a desert, most people didn't have lush gardens but rather really interesting rock formations. It was kind of cool!

Unfortunately, the wind wast 100% right for our journey. We ended up crash landing on the edge of a sports field. The bottom of the basket got damaged when we hit the curb of the road.

After our very exciting morning, we hopped back into the coach and set off for Santa Fe. It was such a cute town, we had lunch in the park in the centre of town. A street vendor was selling delicious spicy wraps and lemonade. After lunch, we strolled past all of the native American street shops that had set up on the side walk.

After our lunch stop we were back on the bus, heading to our final destination. The Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo. It wasn't cool, the motel area was set up like a wild western set.



After we had settled in, we headed over to the restaurant for some delicious grain fed steak. Two boys on tour Dirk and Jarryd took on the Big Texan 72oz Steak Challenge. So. Much. Steak.