Hey,

We arrived in Nashville airport where nick had arranged to meet us, I started to get waves of excitement as we were waiting to collect our bags. Then I saw him in the distance looking for us so I pretended that I didn't see him...... acted cool.......played hard to get haha, in the mean time Lou was making me nervous by saying "oooo what you going to do when you meet.... are you going for the hand shake, hug or just a friendly hi"....oh no what if I go for the hug and he goes for the hand shake...all this was going through my mind.......but I obviously opted for the hug what can I say I'm a hugger!!

As we drove back to the house we did the usual.......point out things we recognise...ooo..Mcdonalds, ooo Wendys, ooo Walmart.As we pulled up to nicks house I was taken back on how nice everything was. He had a proper grown ups house.As we entered the house Erica had Champaign ready and had even took the time to buy a Rod Stewart LP....things could surely not get better than this then nick announced were having steaks for tea........sweeet!!

That night was great we unpacked settled down and sat in the garden all night as Nick cooked up the man food while Erica prepared the asparagus, salad and not forgetting those frozen margaritas....brilliant recipe for an excellent night.

The next day we saw the hangover 2 and on the night we went to the local Mexicans which was literally a 5 minute walk away and it was great, so cheap and home to the infamous mango margarita plus...... free nachos is always a winner.

Memorial day was coming up and it's a big day in the US where people can remember the people who have fought for their country...........I think! We spent the day down at Erica's mum's community neighbourhood pool, it was an absolutely scorching day and the secadas were out in force, secadas are huge flies that live underground and they surface every thirteen years so we felt privileged that they came out to see us. Nick had to work unfortunately but we still had a great time eating free cookies, sunbathing and swimming the odd length in the pool to cool off, best memorial day ever!!

The next day me and Erica were talking and she suggested we make a potato gun well it doesn't take much for me to jump on an idea, all I had to do was convince nick, that should be easy because he loves little projects like this............next thing we know were in the hardware store buying all the materials. I just watched a video on you tube and I soon got the gist of things, it took 20 minutes to put together and 1 hour to decorate. Haha To be fair it did look boring without some sponsors so we stripped every cereal box, cat food tin, fizzy pop bottle, tin can and went to work and 1 hour later it was a work of genius. We were under strict instructions to wait 24hours before shooting it to allow the solvent glue to set, however we were both impatient and broke the rule...............we got a potato (whole) shoved it down the barrel opened the gas chamber filled it full of aerosol shut the cap and ignited it...........and what happened next, we did not expect!!!!!!!!!!!! The gun let off a huge BOOOM that echoed around the street as the potato shot out the gun at about 100 miles per hour and totally obliterated against the brick wall, there was no potato to be found it just burst into a million pieces upon contact............I got scared so ran inside with the cats while Lou and Nick were just laughing outside. That thing we have just created was lethal...........I could shoot down bloody planes with that thing. Erica came in from work and I knew she was impressed she couldn't believe that we had actually accomplished it, from an idea to an actual working potato canon........overnight!! Your welcome! That day I also got my hair cut at 'great clips' they butchered my long curly locks and gave me a Hill Billy hair cut!

We have been travelling for 8 months at this point and sometimes you need a rest and it was great to just relax, we didn't really have any plans we were just here to see Nick and Erica and one of the best days and most productive days we had was one where we just pottered about the house. We fixed the garage door, dug some holes in the garden and planted some plants and then the removal men came and changed the sofa over and they must of thought me and nick were a right pair haha ..............I was chasing the chiwoya about shouting.............. Lucy!!! Lucy!!In a high pitched voice while Nick had hold of the cats and we had just came back from shopping for plants.......... waiting for 'OUR' sofa to be delivered haha and Louise was nowhere to be seen............it didn't look good!!

That night we went into downtown Nashville and had some dinner and went to a great piano bar where there was two pianists competing with each other and we decided to ask for a request so Lou was contemplating going up but she was a bit hesitant.............she walked all the way up to the front and straight past the piano's and bottled it but she just lurked in the background which looked even more stupid haha the guy would be playing the piano and you would see Lou's head pop up over his shoulder every now and then as she thought about handing him her request haha Erica went over to offer support and she finally did it........as the guy was in the middle of a song! good job he was talented enough to talk and play at the same time. After 15 minutes we heard "could Louise please come to the stage" Wooooo!! Wooooo!! She sat next to the pianist as she swayed to 'here comes the sun'doo doo doo dooo' (beatles) I could see the guy was trying to muscle in on my bird but its alright me and nick would sort him out later. Haha.................great night!!

The next day nick had managed to get the time off so we could all go to Erica dads house in north Carolina for the weekend so we couldn't wait, in the morning me and Lou made use of the fancy steamer and went to town on steam cleaning the wood floor while Lou had the fancy Dyson with the ball. If there is anyway to get me to do house work then I think I need some fancy house cleaning toys like these, but its little things like this that you never get the chance to do when your travelling but it was good just to do normal stuff like this......its weird!We set off for North Carolina and arrived late at night........... we were well impressed with the house, it was situated on top of a hill overlooking the mountains with loads of land around. It was dark so we couldn't see the views but we were excited to wake up in the morning and take a look. The house itself was huge and it was a great little surprise for us because we weren't expecting to come to North Carolina......we'll just add it to our list haha!!!

The next day we got up and the views did not disappoint there was just hazy mountains surrounding us everywhere.............but lets get down to business......we were here for one thing and one thing only ..............SLIP AND SLIDE!!!!! OH YEAH!!!............Nick had a plan of buying big vinyl sheets totalling 40ft adding soap and water and we have our own water slide............I was all for it but slightly sceptical. We had everything for the perfect day......we had the slip and slide built and ready to go, we had music, we had margaritas, we had sun, we had potatoes and a canon........Perfect!! what more could you ask for. The slip and slide was 40 ft down hill........the hose pipe added water and we had the added fun of a inflatable lilo.............not to mention Erica's nana's night gowns haha hours and hours of fun!!We did fire the potato gun into the mountains just to see how far it would actually go and the sound was even louder as it echoed in the mountains as it exploded into the forest.........BOOOOOM, boooom, boom ........hope nobody was walking their dog !!!

The day after we went white water rafting which was great, we did lots of rock bumps which were exactly how they sound........... a big rock jutting out of the water, we would paddle straight for it and hold on for dear life there would be paddles flying everywhere. This wasto prepare us for the end rapids which we were dreading haha Erica was the only one who had the guts to jump in the water, all of us were tightly locked into the boat especially Nick haha Great day out though and we finished it off with a nice Chinese.

Our trip to Nashville was drawing to a close but not before we had the good old tradition of smores. We finished off our time in Nashville by eating at the little Mexicans on the corner and drinking mango margaritas, we went back to the house where we sat outside and made the good old traditional smores which were melted marshmellows, melted chocolate all put together between two gram crackers. Great finish to a great visit!

We truly had a great time, on our last day we said out goodbye's to Nigel and Trev (the cats) and not forgetting Lucy who we had grown to love......the most excitable dog I have ever known haha you even have to stroke her outside because she wee's with excitement. Thank you Nick and Erica, you were great hosts and made us feel so welcome we really appreciate it and it was great to see you's both!Hope to see's you's soon.

Love Adam and Louise xxxx