So we arrive in Durango, quick turn around and we were back on the bus in the rain and head off for dinner. Dinner was lovely and actually pretty healthy, I've never been so excited in my life to eat vegetables, my body is protesting about the amount of crap I've been eating, coupled with the huge amount of booze that has been consumed since the start of the tour. I thought the kiwi experience was the party bus, that was nothing, this has been on a whole new level. Now I know why they stick an age limit on it at 35, because quite frankly anyone that has a body over 35 yrs old would not stand a chance of surviving the 26 nights of boozing. Im 9 nights in and feel broken and may need a body transplant at this rate when I get back!! I have to say though, everyone else is pretty wrecked too, even some of the youngsters, so I'm not doing too badly, as I started writing this we're on the way to Amerillo and to say i am feeling a little fragile would be possibly be a small understatement. The travelling mantra picked up in NZ when deciding on my not small tattoo of 'go hard or go home' is in full swing - god help me, my liver and wallet!

So having demolished said healthy dinner, all 50 odd of us descend on a little bar called Moes, for beer pong, a live band and not forgetting the grand final of aussie rules footy. It would be fair to say it was an epic night out, possibly more mad than Vegas as the drinks were at sensible prices. Beer Pong was hilarious, the band were great, the beer and shots went down far too well and unfortunately Sydney didn't win the final. I cabbed it back leaving a full pint (normally unheard of) but a good job I did. Tomorrow morning is white water rafting, that'll be interesting. The alarm goes off, I hauled myself out of bed just managed to just about pack all my stuff, attempted to have breakfast, that wasn't happening and boarded the bus looking a little pale, along with everyone else. The bus looked like a scene from a zombie film, 90% of the bus were a mess, so much so bags were handed out the most wounded of the bus bods - not me on this occasion. We arrive at the rafting place, get all our gear and get on another bus to go the river. To aid hangover recovery people just dived straight into the freezing water, and it was freezing!! We set off on our rafts, luckily the white water was not that big, not sure I could have coped with too much bumpy water in my delicate state, 2 of the girls didn't cope so well. Next minute they are hanging off the side of their raft depositing last nights cocktails - we decided not to go for a swim there lol. I did feel for them, not fun when you feel that rough. No doubt there will be more casualties (as I update this I can confirm that yes there has been, all will remain anonymous, not me by the way) along the course of the trip. We all (well nearly all) were starting to recover slightly. We left Durango to make our way to the place I had no idea how to pronounce……..Albuquerque. Thankfully the bus journey wasn't too long to get to Albuquerque, only 4ish hours, not totally sure I spent most of the bus journey asleep. We arrive at the Best Western, we were told there was not much to do here other than laundry and that it was a good opportunity to catch up on some sleep, so what did we do, yeah, the complete opposite. I did do laundry so I did listen to 50% of the advice, unfortunately the hotel put on karaoke for us………..cue still being in the bar with the hardcore few left at the end of the night singing Bohemian Rhapsody, Red Solo Cup (this is now stuck in my head 24/7, I'll treat you all to a rendition when Im back if you're really lucky……its great) and our day song Counting Stars. Most of the group had heeded the advice, they were going hot air ballooning at 6:20am, I wasn't, so I had a lie in which I think was why I stayed up. bad bad move. I had the worst night sleep ever, and there was massive fight outside (nothing to do with our group), 5 police cars and a fire truck turned up and then two of the girls from our group heard gunshots at 3am outside. Yeah, glad we leave today, get the bus!!!! We board the bus today to head to Amerillio, no doubt we will have the Peter Kay song today…….but no we didn't as no one had it :( On route we stop off at Santa Fe, a very cool little town with loads of little shops, arty stuff and a cathedral. We set off for a little explore and a well needed coffee and food. Back off on the bus and straight through to Amerillo, but not before stopping at the cadillac place. So, in the middle of a field there are approx 10 cadillacs buried hood first into the ground. These are all covered in graffiti, you are also allowed to add your own bit of graffiti to these too which was pretty cool. From here it was a short hop to our hotel, we arrive, the place is great, all cowboy themed, you'll see from the pics. Quick turnaround and its out to dinner at the Big Texan steak place. This is where 8 of the group, have signed up for the 72oz steak challenge! They have an hour to munch through the biggest steak I've ever seen, jacket potato, salad and roll. Sod that, it was enormous! They all did really well, precautionary bins were next to a couple of the lads who were beginning to hurt a bit. 50ish mins in one of them finished! And then the second with 8 seconds to spare. Impressive! It was also Stephs birthday, we got in a beer tower to celebrate, but later discovered Steph didn't like beer - sorry steph - good effort though girl! The bar was brilliant, live music and a maze outside, then we found the juke box……….cue dancing and load singing and lots of beer……again. A very good night, but I have a horrible feeling tomorrow is going to be a struggle……..again. Yep, as I suspected, rough again. 50ish people and their hangovers board the bus, today we are Dallas bound. We head to the restaurant that does a 4500 calorie mac and cheese. So naturally I go for this nice healthy option, to keep up the healthy eating I have so far done since I arrived in the states 8 weeks (can't believe I have been here this long already - good job i did get that visa in the end!!). The picture (when evntually uploaded) might suggest i ate the lot, but I could only do half. Having left restaurant carrying a pasta baby we went next door to Gators, for you guessed it more karaoke!! For someone that never did karaoke other than as part of a group at the Chequers on boxing day, I now love it, I am absolutely shocking, but its a good laugh, and I haven't been booed off…….yet! I suspect there could be a first on the horizon in the not too distant future. So, the deal at Gators is that they do stupidly strong alcoholic slush drinks. Luckily for me they were all fruit based, so unless i wanted a trip to hospital because of my fruit allergy i had my excuse to stay well clear, (although to be honest i think if i had had these i would have ended up in hospital anyway, and not because of the fruit thing) I stuck with my US friend Bud Light for the night. The Kareoke numbers were being belted out by the group, it started out with a boy band number, we then had all sorts of stuff, everyone was great. A few beers in, in my wisdom I thought it would be an amazing idea to put my name down, my normal song of choice, an oasis classic had already been taken, so rather than go for another 'we all know the words' oasis song. I decided that I would attempt Rappers Delight, by Sugar Hill Gang, because its a really easy song……hmmmmmm 7minutes of rapping with little gaps to breathe in. I think the kareoke man took pity on me and shortened it to 3.5mins. I think it could have been a lot worse, but it was not amazing by any stretch of the imagination. I will try and post the video to give you all a laugh! All Kareoked out…..taxi! The next day we set off to the JFK museum. Yesterday we had walked down to the place where JFK had been assassinated, marked by a cross in the road. We had an audio tour of the museum which was very good, it was really interesting and very well presented, a great museum. Having spent a couple of hours here we went in search of food. Then it was back to the hotel for a shower, its so hot and humid in Texas. Then it was back on the bus, next stop the AT&T stadium, home of the NFL Cowboys. This place was huge, we had a couple of hours tours, go to go in the locker rooms, on the pitch, which i was really surprised was actually just astroturf! They have a few different pitches that they lay. It also has the worlds biggest suspended video wall. It was a good trip, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if i wasn't so bloody tired, I think its all beginning to catch up with me. Soooooo looking forward to my bed tonight, but a bit concerned I might sleep through my alarms and miss the bus…………….we know from experience it does not wait! From the stadium we made our way to Fort Worth. Now at this point i should say, Dallas wasn't what i had expected in Texas, not really sure what i thought it would be like, but it was just like any other city, with the obvious things that stand it out from others. I suppose what i mean is i hadn't expected the skyscrapers and typical city skyline etc. Now this is what I expected Texas to be like, Fort Worth ,a real life cowboy town. We had dinner here and a quiet (yes, i did say quiet believe or not) beer in the white elephant for a couple of hours, then it was back on the bus and straight back to the hotel and an earlyish night. Tomorrow we leave from Memphis…..bbbiiiggggg travel day….. Oh and I hit the 9 month mark for my trip on the 28th Sept!!!! Can you believe it, you lucky lot get stuck with me again in less than 3 months :) !!!! And the other thing, I had the most overwhelming craving for a proper mug of tea yesterday……..my mission for today come hell or high water is that I procure said illusive amazing cup of tea…..the only problem being we are on the bus all day……and big mugs of tea mean needing to pee a lot and we have not many stops today………….hmmmmmmm take it easy much love Lou (i feel about 45 at the moment) wood xxxx