Although we've found that it's hard to get to some national parks in the USA, such as Yosemite and Death Valley, it was thankfully much easier to get to Niagara Falls on the Greyhound, with the falls being only a two hour journey from Toronto. What better excuse, then, to sample another country and get another passport stamp to add to the collection. First we had to tear ourselves away from Chicago, which left us wishing that we had planned to spend a week there...

We'd been looking forward to visiting Chicago ever since trekking into the mountains at Chiang Mai all those months ago, when a pair of eager Chicagoans had raved about the place. "There's so much to see, a great atmosphere and lots of music festivals," they told us, and that's exactly what we found. We found Steve very easily, waiting in the lobby of the UBS Tower where he works. It was maybe his still very broad Essex accent that gave him away. We we...

After a fantastic couple of days in New Orleans, we briefly contemplated spending another night in our amazing boutique hotel in the French Quarter, in order to sample some more Jambalaya and Jazz. But this would've meant missing out Tennessee altogether. A trip to Nashville won the day, however, as we realised that it would then be a 24 hour bus journey, the next day, to get to Chicago from the party city of New Orleans if we were to stay on schedule and meet ...

We were unsure of what to expect from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as our guidebook hadn't painted a very positive picture and advised spending a little extra to ensure a decent hotel in a safe area. This turned out to be sound advice as, although there wasn't any notable 'devastation', our hotel turned out to be fantastic with its own living room and one of the most comfortable beds we've ever known, which was an added advantage after anoth...

We'd originally planned to go to the capital of Texas, Austin, but we soon found out that half the population of El Paso had turned up to the station far in advance of the customary hour before departure, no doubt in order to sample the world famous music scene, and had taken all the nightbus tickets. Rather than spend another night in the Mexican border town of El Paso, Dallas was the next best place to sample the heart of the Lone Star state, so we jumped on t...