"Never be afraid to be on your own, do things on your own, travel on your own, sometimes they make the best experiences" 

Before I start I would like to say that I am not affiliated with Trek America, all views/opinions are my own and I just want to share my experience with you all and hopefully give you an insight into what my trip involved if you are looking to do one yourself, which I would definitely recommend!

** I would also like to add that if I state any activities that I took part in, I will be going into more detail with these in a future post. 

Sunday 2nd June 2019 

We were heading for Nashville, Tennessee today and we set off around 9:30 am. Today's lunch stop was at the Parthenon which is a full scale replica of the one in Athens. It was such a lovely sunny day. Once we arrived in Nashville we got to our hostel and all got checked in then headed to our rooms, we were so excited as of us girls got to share one room and it was going to be our first proper night out. As it was still in the afternoon we all headed out to have a wander on broadway. I loved it! All the little bars playing live music, souvenir shops, all the cowboy boot shops, I couldn't wait to have a look in. I really wanted a pair of boots but they were a bit on the pricey side, so I didn't bother. We then went back to the hostel to get ready for the evening! Tonight we had a dinner reservation at ACME restaurant, I had a burger and a frozen Rose drink, we ate dinner on the roof top it was a lovely place and the food was great! Afterwards we all went to go do line dancing at the Wild Horse Saloon, I mean who doesn't go line dancing when they are in Nashville, right? I was so excited for this! The first session was at 8:30pm it was so much fun and just a laugh with the group. After that session had finished we headed out on the street to find some bars. We went into Kid Rocks, there was live music and the place was packed, it was such a good atmosphere. 



Monday 3rd June 2019 

Today's destination was Memphis! Our first stop was a Walmart and it was my groups turn to cook so me, Jemma and Courtney decided we were going to be making Chilli for the group. We grabbed all the ingredients we needed and some extra snacks for ourselves and met everyone else at the tills with their items. We went back in the van and played Elvis songs along the way! Once arrived at the campsite we set up everything for the night. I also noticed that the lanes were all name after Elvis's songs which I thought was pretty cool.  Graceland was another optional paid activity and a few of us headed over to the main entrance to buy our tickets. We bought the Elvis Experience tickets with the added planes section. I feel that if you go to Memphis, Graceland is a thing you want go and see and experience, I'm really glad I decided to do this as I found it really interesting to see all of his stuff and his house etc. After the tour had finished we had the short walk back to camp and it was time to get dinner ready. Ok so our Chilli didn't really go how we expected it to haha, the rice ended up being mushy but never mind the group still ate it, although a few wouldn't let us forget about it as it was a running joke for the rest of the trip. After dinner a few decided to stay at camp and me and the others went with Joel to Downtown Memphis, where we stopped to take photos outside Sun Studio and walked onto Beale Street. 





Tuesday 4th June 2019

It was an early start this day as we were in the van and ready to set off for 7am, we are making our way to New Orleans. During this van journey we had a bit of a karaoke session and were all singing Let It Go. We arrived our hotel and got ready for the evening on Bourbon Street. Joel made dinner reservations for us at Oceana Grill and I chose to have the chicken alfredo pasta, it was beautiful! Afterwards we separated off into smaller groups and headed out for the night. We tried out New Orleans famous Hand Grenade and Hurricane drinks, we then finished the night in the one of the oldest bars, Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop bar. Then we all headed back to the hotel for some sleep! 



Wednesday 5th June 2019 

So nice to wake up in a hotel room and have your own bathroom, this is what I have been missing due to camping. We got ready for the day and headed out as this was our free day in New Orleans. Our morning started off with walk down to Café Du Monde to get those famous beignets followed by a walk down to the river front and then onto Jackson Square. We visited Louis Armstrong park and then decided to get tickets to go into the museum of death, which I must say was very weird but slightly interesting. We were getting a bit peckish so decided to head back to Oceana Grill for lunch, I opted for pancakes and syrup! We had another walk around Bourbon Street and went into little gift shops as I was collecting pins from each place I had been to. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon and chilled our for a bit, Isaac came to mine and Rach's room, a few of the others were getting ready to go out for the evening be we decided to have a relaxing one in our room and ordered McDonalds to our room. 



Thursday 6th June 2019 

Our first stop of this day was another Walmart, we just loved Walmart, we could spend hours in there! Our activity for the day which we all chose to do was the Honey Island Swamp Tour, so cool to see alligators that close to us! We are staying at a KOA campsite in Lafeyette. Once the tents were set up me, Rach, Jemma and Courtney decided to hire out a pedalo on the lake, it was so funny, as we couldn't steer it and was rather hard to pedal but we had a laugh. For dinner this evening we were having burgers and then s'mores, yum! It was so hot this evening and I noticed there were a few frogs about (which I hate) so I went to bed for the evening, although I didn't really sleep much due to the heat as it was so hot in the tents, although I should have gone with a few others into the laundry room where they decided to sleep for the night as it was much cooler in there! 



Friday 7th June 2019

Another early morning! We woke up around 5:45am and got the trailer and van ready for us to set off on the road again. We are going to Austin, Texas! Our first stop was Buck-ees which is a huge gas station well known in Texas, it sold so much stuff from home stuff to a few clothes sections to food & drink. We made a stop off at the 'Greetings from Austin' painted wall to take a group photo. For our time in Austin we were staying at the Super 8, we checked in and got ready for the evening. We all met up and headed out for food, we were having dinner at a BBQ place called Stubbs. The food was delicious, I had the beef brisket, pulled pork that came with fries and onion rings and we had some cocktails. After dinner we walked to Rainey Street which was full of bars, so we had a few drinks there and then headed to 6th Street for some more drinks. 



Saturday 8th June 2019 

Once ready we headed out for breakfast at a food van named Paperboy I chose to have buttered toast with jam, it was such a sweet taste. Then it was time to get a taxi to Lexington as I was going skydiving!! A few decided to go to Barton Springs to sunbathe and the rest decided to come and watch/support me. The skydive was amazing (Like I have mentioned above I will go into more detail with this in a future post) although it was a nightmare trying to get a taxi back into Austin as we were just over an hour away. I think about 5 ubers cancelled on us and we couldn't even get a local taxi firm to come and pick us up so we were literally stranded in the middle of no where, but it was so funny and such an experience together as we all took photos sat in the middle of the road. Eventually we managed to get a taxi back to Austin and got ready for the evening. We ordered pizza to one of the rooms then headed back out to South Congress bridge as Joel wanted us to see the bats fly out when the sun sets. We waited a while and nothing happened so we just decided to head off back to 6th Street to find Voodoo Doughnuts. We grabbed our doughnuts then decided to head back for an early night. 


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