Got a bit of a backlog on the blogs but will try and remember everything we have crammed into the last few days.

After Washington we headed to Chicago on our first lengthy train journey which we survived - YEY and we're still on speaking terms! Upon arrival we hunted out the hostel as we were in desperate need of a shower. Hostel was the Hilton of all hostels with amazing looking reception staff and the shared area of all shared areas complete with baby grand piano. After the much needed shower we headed downtown to the shops for our first dose of retail therapy - Katy spent a small fortune and I suprisingly was very well behaved! this was followed by our first bottle of wine which was very nice. The next day we attempted to get to grips with yet another time change and then headed for our first non McDonalds meal followed by a trip to possibly the last zoo we will ever visit because it was so cruel! Everyone else was cooing over the animals whilst we were muttering about the state of the welfare of the animals. On the way back to the hostel we stopped for another bottle of vino since the previous nights bottle was not enough. We rooted ourselves in the shared room to take advantage of the free BBq and while we were there we found ourselves a new friend, Maria, who we were sharing a room with. Over a bottle of wine we swapped stories of travel and listened to people tinkle (badly) on the piano. Katy was itching to have a go but thankfully spared our ears!

Meeting Maria had consequences for New orleans when she introduced us to Claire (Oxford graduate, multi lingual, lawyer, about to volunteer to help people on death row in Texas - obviously our kind of person!) Claire was heading to New Orleans aswell and was going to be staying in the same hostel so we shared a cab to the station, got some food and knuckled down for the long journey ahead. The train journey was an interesting one, as well as some different scenery - cotton fields, the Mississippi, houses left from Katrina, Katy also, once again attracted a particular kind of company in the form of the strangest train man alive who after several late night visits offered her a seat in his own personal carriage - for a chat and of course she could sleep there with him if she liked! She did decline but i know it was a tough decision!

As if the excitement of the train journey was not enough there was more to come when on arrival at the station in New Orleans, we met Sarah. Sarah who could definitelty rival the train man for oddness! She was also staying in our Hostel so the four of us headed off in the 'big green van' to our digs for the night. Katy is requesting the fact that I mention the fact that it was about 200 degrees in New Orleans that afternoon and any make up for that night would be sweating right off! We got ready for our 1 night out in New Orleans to which Sarah and Claire were now tagging along to and so the bonding process began... Here we learnt that Sarah was a gun toting, knife (of the ceramic version) weilding, ex peace corps, future marine, who throughout the night stuck dollar bills into the many (female) strippers that adorn Bourbon street (who knew!) Aside from the karaoke bars Sarah and Claire had some very deep discussions on life, love and politics. we just wanted to get drunk and I have never felt quite so out of my depth in one meals worth of conversation! Who knew Americans couldn't go into Cuba!! Not me or Katy thats for sure! After a couple of giant alcoholic slush drinks and much wandering we headed back to the hostel. It was at this point that things started to go even more wrong when Katy spotted an univited guest in our room in the form of a giant, scuttling, disgusting cockroach, which resulted in me having a breakdown of epic proportions whilst Katy kept very calm and surveyed the room with a torch declaring that she'd found more and more of the horrible creatures. All in all it was a very interesting night which culminated in us both sleeping wrapped very tightly in a sleeping bag and me sleeping with one eye open ready to see something attempting to crawl over my face. New Orleans done.