First week in the USA

We arrived midnight on Sunday 24th February after travelling for nearly 24 hours from Auckland, NZ. There was some fun on the way at the airports. We had to sprint from US Customs in Los Angeles to get to the domestic terminal to get to Charlotte, North Carolina. We had to carry our luggage (10 full bags weighing around 22 kgs each) trying to cross the roads with our bags getting tipped over onto the road. The aircraft carrier cancelled our flight from Charlotte to South Carolina so we had to sprint again to another terminal in Charlotte to be put on standby for a later flight. We got on and finally arrived in SC!

We stayed with Jessica and Josh with their two kids, Caroline and Alex. We had such a good time with them and they looked after us with true southern hospitality. In fact, we even thought about forgetting the RV trip in the US and staying there for instead!

The next few days were spent sorting out the RV (fifth wheeler) and truck. The RV and truck was suggested by Kyle Fullwood who we met in the USA in September when we were at Budds Creek, Maryland. Kyle is a God send as he has provided lots of advice and support to get us over here.

Back to the vehicles. The RV is nearly 40 feet long & weighs dry at just under 12,000 LBS. Its a big daddy. The truck is a F250 6L V8 diesel turbo. This thing has got some torque like nothing you will ever see or hear about in a pick up truck in NZ. Chris Cordez, the previous owner installed 5,000 LB airbags in the rear plus a "bully dog" (more power and torque). Chris gave us the run down on how to operate the RV which was great. Lots of notes taken.

We stayed the first night in the RV on a plantation on Friday night. Thanks to Ken and Donna (friends of Kyle) for experiencing further southern hospitality. No bears or aligators so that was good. We finally got moving Saturday morning aiming for Nashville, Tennessee. We slept in and then couldn't sort out the brakes on the RV so we ended up leaving at around 10am.

We nearly got to Columbia when the truck made a loud noise and loss of power. We pulled over. Chris looked under the truck and noticed a hole in the manifold. We had just subscribed to a roadside assistance program which was initially most frustrating. That is, you phone a call center located somewhere else in the USA. The first lady said they couldn't help us as we were not registered as members. After insisting they help (receipt on hand) and a further five conversations later, a tow truck was organised. He turned up five hours later.

The roadside assistance had organised to tow us further away to a RV park and truck dealer. The tow truck driver ended up speaking to the operator at roadside assistance. After a few minutes she hung up on him. He towed us to his workshop, put a plug in the truck manifold (plus gave us a spare) and recommended a good place for us to stay the night at a nearby RV park. Thank you so much to Dave for getting us back on the road, a really nice guy (and Jennifer his wife as Dave the tow truck driver was late getting home). If you ever get broken down in Columbia you have to use this guy. PS. Dave mentioned the problem was the bolt had come out of the manifold hence the problem.

Sunday morning we left Columbia (South Carolina), travelled through Atlanta (Georgia) and hit (sweet home) Alabama. We stayed out in the boondocks east of Birmingham.

On Monday morning we went to Birmingham as we wanted to go to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (http://www.bcri.org/index.html). On arrival, the place was closed as it is closed on a Monday. Great. After mentioning this to the receptionist (Gliss) and crossing the road to the park, a gentleman came over and introduced himself (Ahmad Ward). He works at the Institute. He mentioned Gliss had called him and our situation and he gave us a tour of the place and talked us through it all. This was the best situation for us as the carpark was empty and we could ask Ahmad lots of questions. Thank you Ahmad for your southern hospitality. You Kiwis should have a look at the BCRI website. The treatment of African Americans was unbelievable (words cannot express the sadness). BCRI is located across the road from where four young girls were killed in a bomb attack at a church. Birmingham was also the place you may have seen photos of in the past of firemen hosing down African Americans with high pressure water and releasing police dogs onto young African American people.

We are still in Alabama at a place called Mobile (bottom of the state). We got here around 6pm. There is a tornado warning at the moment. Some people passed by our RV and said if it comes through to get out of the RV and head straight for the ditch nearly. Don't do anything else but that as the tornado will easily pick up the truck and trailer and you are safer in the low ditch. They are currently watching the tornado on the TV. This southern hospitality is really blowing us away.