A year after my first trip, the itch came back, and this time it pulled me toward the eastern side of the States. Suntrek again, camping van again, but the trek leader this time was American. The route ran from Miami all the way up the East Coast to New York City, with stops in Key West, Orlando, Savannah, Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, Washington, and Philadelphia. I set off on my own from Munich by way of New York down to Miami, into what the staff swore was the cheapest hotel in all of Miami Beach.
Miami and Key West
I spent my first few days in Miami on my own, taking a few day trips before the group came together. The run down to Key West was an experience right off the bat. It took three and a half hours to get there, and the whole way looked like the Caribbean. At the end of Duval Street I sat down with a guy from Hamburg in a little restaurant, squeezed the mustard bottle a bit too hard, and the whole thing exploded right in my face. Much to the delight of the other diners. A few minutes later the young waitress brought me a fresh T-shirt, since my shirt was covered in mustard too. This is America, I thought. Back home in Germany I would have gotten nothing at all.
The trek begins
In Ft. Lauderdale I finally met my group, led by a trek leader from California, with people from Germany, Australia, and England. The trek itself started back down in Key West, right on the water. At night it was so hot in the tent that I could barely sleep, and the others didn't roll back in from partying on Duval Street until half past three. On the way back up to Ft. Lauderdale we took an airboat ride through the Everglades, loud but fantastic, just like in the movies, and we even spotted alligators and turtles.
Orlando and the Kennedy Space Center
In Orlando we split up for the Universal Studios. On the Nickelodeon tour we even got lucky and caught the taping of a game show. Ghostbusters and Alfred Hitchcock were part of it, and the 3D scene with the birds flying straight at us was something I'd never seen before. The Magic Kingdom turned out to be more of a letdown, basically the same as Disneyland in California, just a bit bigger. When I got back that evening, almost all the tents were flooded, and a French Suntrek group spontaneously invited us over for dinner.
I had been hugely looking forward to the Kennedy Space Center. The IMAX film Blue Planet was terrific, and the shots of Earth from space impressed me the most. The bus tour, on the other hand, dragged on for two hours, and just when it got interesting, we weren't allowed to get off. By the end almost everyone on the bus had fallen asleep, myself included.
Savannah, Atlanta, and the South
In St. Augustine we strolled through the old town the Spanish had built. On the way to Savannah it rained so hard that our trek leader simply booked a motel, and we spent the evening in front of the TV. In Atlanta we visited the Martin Luther King museum and the Coca-Cola museum, where you could taste every flavor in the world for free at the fountains. In the evening at Stone Mountain we watched the laser show, where the entire mountain becomes the screen. A touch too patriotic maybe, but the best laser show I have ever seen.
Memphis, Nashville, and the cave
In Memphis the road led us to Graceland, Elvis's estate. After the tour through the house and the car collection, we all agreed the man simply had too much money. In Nashville, the home of country music, we watched a water and laser show in the enormous Opryland Hotel. At Mammoth Cave, the largest cave in the world, every tour was sold out except one, but at the end they cut the lights, total darkness, and that was impressive.
Washington and a summer full of history
By way of a bourbon distillery and a tiny Civil War museum, whose elderly owner told the story in a way that every one of us could follow, we pushed on toward the capital. In Washington we visited the Capitol, the free Air and Space Museum, and saw the White House from a distance. That evening at the campground I met Jessey, an American girl, at a video machine. We hit it off right away, but her parents were strict and kept a constant eye on her. When it was time to say goodbye, she gave me a kiss.
Philadelphia and arriving in New York
In Philadelphia we saw the Liberty Bell, the Franklin House, and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. After all that history on this trek I'd honestly had my fill, but I stayed with the group.
Then, finally, the Big Apple. My first impression of New York, as we rolled in right in the middle of rush hour, was a gigantic traffic jam made up entirely of taxis. The next day we took the baffling subway down to Wall Street and up the World Trade Center, where we had a fantastic view over Manhattan. In the evening we wandered along Broadway at night. The following day I set off on my own twenty-mile march through Manhattan, from the Empire State Building past Times Square and Macy's all the way to Central Park, which on that Sunday was full of street dancers and musicians. The NBC studio tour was the most interesting part of the day. When they asked where we were from, I called out Germany, and everyone smiled. By the end my feet hurt so badly that I spent the whole evening in front of the TV. Saying goodbye to John, my trek leader, and to the others was hard. Sometimes you just know you'll probably never see each other again.