Some Catch Up

OK, so we left Orlando a couple of days ago, and are about to leave Andrews for New York.  Because of the limited internet connectivity (and the fact that I have had no desire to sit and type on a computer when surrounded by such beauty), I am doing a quick catch up post, with some detail of what we have been up to in Andrews.

We have been staying with the pastoral family (Jeff and Donna Maynard) of Marble Springs Church (http://www.marblespringschurch.org/).  We have had a blast.  Rural America (North Carolina) is beyond description.  It is absolutely beautiful.  The mountain air, views and friendly people made for a wonderful stay (unfortunately short).  Day 1 was chilled, with us taking a slow drive around with Jeff and his son, Stephen.  Really pretty areas.

Day 2, we hit the slopes.  That's right.  We got here 4 days before the slopes were closed for spring.  There was only enough snow/ice on the main slopes to go down, with stopping being very difficult (think it is easier to stop when there is more snow on the ground than when it is just ice on top of sand).  Ms Pilepic tried ski'n and snowboarding (much more time was spent Ski'n).  It was a good day.  The snowboarding left both of us a little wet, as we were wearing jeans and not ski pants.

The boarders.  We look like pro's, don't we?	The ski ppls.

OK, the day after the ski trip, we got our goodies together and headed out for a long, but awesome drive with Jeff, Donna and Stephen.  We headed to Jeff's old house and his old "hood".  All I can say is that it was amazing.  Words cannot describe, so I am just including a bunch of pictures.

Anyhow, we are still having a ball of a time.  I am sure Vesna will type up some more details when we get to New York.  At the moment, she has been practicing with the worship group for the evening service.  It is a worship and prayer revival service, so there wont be any preaching. 

Anyhow, better be off. 

Brad and Ves

A little detail

Howdi Ya'll.  Greetings from North Carolina, the small town of Andrews.  Yip.  We are in Andrews.  Are still to pass on all the love etc, as I kinda forgot yesterday.  We had another interesting bus trip on Greyhound.  I am glad to say that that is the last trip we will be taking on the Hound. 

Anyhow, this quick blog is to fill you in on a little detail that might not have been included in the last blog.  Our Orlando visit consisted primarily of theme parks.  Going to so many parks was way tiring, and definitely not possible without good family support.  Yip, I said family as we have managed to "adopt" some American parents.  We were spoilt rotten, having lunches packed for us, being carted and carried all over the place and having some awesome suppers and table conversation. 

We spent Good Friday evening and Easter Sunday morning at church with Leon and Carol.  Their services were wonderful, with a choir supporting the worship and a full band including trumpet and electric guitar.  Vesna and I were both incredibly surprised to walk out of church on Sunday morning only to be greeted by a table full of books.  These books included Bibles, Children's Bibles and tons of other Christian literature.  The Price... $ 0.  UNBELIEVABLE, but, in the words of Ripley's, Believe it.  We took 6 Bibles (and these are not cheap looking ones), and 3 books.  2 of the Bibles are the best selling children's/young people's Bibles in the country.  Wow. 

Now when I said the Bibles were free, that was not entirely correct.  I had to purchase a new bag to re-distribute my clothes etc to enable us to keep our luggage under the maximum's, as the books added a good 20 pounds.

Well, as mentioned above, we are in the wonderful town of Andrews, with another family that is likely to become adoptive parents.  Jeff met us in a town called Murphy and took us straight to his church for a tour.  Things are different here.  The schools have sports matches on Friday's so there is no Friday youth programs.  Wednesday nights just happen to be the evening that there is a 30 minute youth worship session (full band with electric, acoustic, bass and drums) as well as a Bible study time.  The youth all split into male and female groups for these studies.  The worship was wonderful.  Elizabeth's (Jeff's youngest daughter) drumming has improved significantly, which is difficult to understand as it was so good when in SA already.  The band did an incredible job, considering that they had not practiced together in a long time, and did not even practice that evening.

From there, we headed to the Maynard family residence, a beautiful double story place in a valley with a front porch, big yard and the family cat and dog.  Really cool.  I am typing this at 12 noon, which is about 20 minutes after Vesna woke up.  Yip, we were tired and needed to sleep in (Vesna's ability to sleep late far surpasses that of mine!)

Our time here is likely to be filled with long walks, waterfalls, hopefully some ski'in and generally chilling around the country side.  It is going to be good.

Universal Studio's

Well, Universal Studios, theme park number 3.  Another totally different experience.  The wonder of Disney was not there, but the park layout, decorations and design were incredible.  We went to the park mainly to for the roller coasters (being the most roller coaster filled park that we could find in the area).  The rides Rocked.  Yes, Vesna insisted we do some of the kiddies rides, which worked out ok, as they prep'd us for the monster ride.  This must have been the most exciting roller coaster that I have been on.  Picture this, 2 rollercoasts starting at the same time, along side each other.  As you climb the first ramp before the ride starts, you shout battle chants to those on the other coaster.  You dip over the top of the coaster and you are off, on a coaster duel.  The two coasters weave in between one another, head straight for each other before diverting at the last minute, adrenaline flows thick, and screams... well, screams are a plenty.  Vesna, although a little nervous before the first ride, has learnt the art of the coaster rider.  That is, she relaxes completely, and does not scream (although she does seem to scream when the ride ends, and give a Woohoo).  Some pics are below.

The Disney Adventure

Well, this is a little backward, but our first day in Orlando was spent at downtown Disney, which is where all of the expensive Disney shops are located etc.  We lurked around there for the afternoon, and got some good pictures of Lego creatures, saw some nightclubs (closed as it was day time) -- PS I cannot believe that Disney has night clubs.  They are definitely expanding there market.

 

Day 2 was spent at Seaworld (see the post regarding Miami and Beyond).  Day 3 was Disney - Magic Kingdom.  We opted for the truly "Disney" park, filled with dreams and fantasy.  We were not disappointed.  The park was massive, with so much to see that a week in the park would probably be the best way to really experience everything.  We jumped on some rides and walked the park to death.  Vesna got her picture with Mickey (and in fact, so did I).  Again, the experience of Disney is that of wonder and amazement.  The amount of detail included in the rides and the amount of work that must have gone into the park is inconceivable.  Gardens are immaculate and amazingly, even after thousands and thousands of people pass through the park, there is no litter that can be seen.

If pictures speak 1000 words, then here are some pics to show a little of our view of Disney.

 

Disney has been ticked off the list.  What a cool day it was.

Miami and Beyond

OK, well, this blogging thing is proving to be more time consuming than initially anticipated.  Our busy travel schedule has not allowed for much time to blog.  From the Key West adventure, we drove to Miami.  The hostel there was really great.  There was a vibe there that was not at any of the other hostels.  Ves and I spent the evening relaxing (we went for a nice drive along South Beach, but could not muster up the energy to go out dancing).  The next day, we checked out of the hostel and returned the rental car.  The hostel staff were kind enough to allow us to leave our bags there, and come back in the evening for a shower before catching the Greyhound to Orlando.  We definitely needed the shower, as we spent the entire afternoon tanning and chilling on South Beach.  It was rad.

The Grehound trip to Orlando was definitely an experience and a half.  The staff at Greyhound in Miami must be amongst the most unfriendly people that I have ever met.  They did not listen to questions properly, would provide the incorrect information etc.  They shouted orders as if we were prisoners being transported around.  Greyhound would do well to send their staff on a people skills 101 course.  Anyhow, the bus adventure ended early in the morning, with our host family (we call them family as they are now our American adopted parents) fetching us at the bus stop. 

Orlando has been amazing.  We have gone theme park crazy, kicking it off with Seaworld where we watched every show, fed dolphins and spent ages with our hands in the dolphin pool waiting for the chance to touch the dolphins as they passed.  It was definitely an incredible experience, touching and feeding such a beautiful creature.  The other animals were incredible too, just showing how creative a God we serve.  Below are some shots from there.

OK, with all the above, Seaworld was an incredible experience.  It is not possible to describe the feeling of a dolphins skin, or the incredible performances that the animals put on.  Truly amazing.

Key West - The Adventure Begins

On Tuesday morning (18th), we headed out from a not so cold New York to Miami. It was a definite experience for me (Vesna) having to remove shoes at the security point along with the usual things such as coats, cell phones,etc. Birds flying around inside the terminal was an added point of interest. I bet it would have made greenpeace happy. Apparently the lady at the check in counter was the friendliest that Brad had ever encountered in the US.

Brad slept the whole way - two and a half hours or so - which was a good thing as the drive down to Key West was fairly long, especially considering problems we had at the cheap car rental company. Lets just say, you definitely get what you pay for. Seems that a lot of things work that way in the US of A. Our first car wouldn't start, and the second looked like it needed a valet desperately. But at least we had the chance to see what a PT Cruiser is like. We're not massive fans.

After a quick chow down at Burger King - very yummy burgers - we headed onto the 'overseas' highway 1. The sun was setting as we drove and there were some spectacular scenes.

Just the drive down to Key west was definitely worth it.

We found our hostel and it wasn't all that bad. In fact it had a stack of character. It felt like a real island hideaway. After dropping our stuff off, we took a walk to Duval street, the centre of town. The only way to describe it is to imagine you've stepped into the middle of an old fashioned pirate town, minus the pirates of course. In stead of pirates, there were vast numbers of drinkers around or alternatively, tourists just taking in the sights.

Brad planned that we would go out for supper when we got to Key West to have a belated celebration of our 1 year anniversary and my birthday. We found our way to a Mexican restaurant on the main street. We got there pretty late but their kitchen was still open. Brad ordered nacho's for starters. It was smothered in cheese and had what looked like a USA version of green pepper on it. Now Brad doesn't like green pepper but I do. So of course, yours truly had to eat a slice. Little did I realise that what I was actually putting in my mouth was none other than a slice of jalapeno chilli! Needless to say, my mouth was on fire. It was hot!!!!! Even the chilli sauce from Umtata wasn't as hot as that!

My boyfriend's reaction was very interesting. He had great pleasure laughing at me and taking photo's in the middle of all my suffering. In his defence though, he did let me finish his milkshake to ease the sting while putting his hand on my arm to pretend that he sympathised with me. [Brad's comment: ' The funny part was that Vesna was too proud (huh, too much of a lady i think) to spit the chilli out when first realising what it was and continued to chew and tried to swallow it.Due to the chilli, Vesna could barely eat her food - she only managed about half.]

We got up early the next day to go on our ultimate adventure with the Fury adventure group. I was worried there would be too many people on board, but it actually worked out well. There was a good vibe with that number of people on board, roughly 90 people.The trip included, a buffet breakfast, lunch, snacks, unlimited cooldrinks as well as, jetskiing, snorkelling, parasailing, water tampoline and kayaking. A six hour adventure. Unfortunately the weather was not great for what was planned although the sun was out in full force. There was a strong wind. which meant we went to the sponge reef rather than to the main 'barrier' reef.

The sea was a bit milky due to the wind conditions. It calmed down though toward the end of the day. When it came time to snorkel, I was the first person off the boat, but Brad was the brave one to dive down first to actually see anything. I followed him. It was pretty deep in places and both of us took a knock on the ears from the pressure. Some places were at least four meters deep if not five. There was a few colourful and big fish lurking at the bottom. We got away from the crowd which is why we actually saw fish.

After a very quick hour of snorkelling the catamaran headed for the adventure island. Brad was dead keen for the jet ski's and landing up in the wrong group was a good thing in the end because we got a longer ski ride. Brad is scary on a wet bike! Tight turns and lots of air! [Brad's comment: When I drove Vesna didn't almost fall off. When Vesna drove, I ended up on one leg, 80% of'f the jet ski.] Eventually we got to the parasailing. All i can say is WOW!! I got to go twice because another lady was going to go on her own. The view was incredible, absolutely breathtaking. I felt sorry for Brad and the other lady's ears. i just couldn't help screaming with sheer delight. [Brad's comment: The crew, seeing Vesna's bubbly personality on her first ride with the stranger, asked me if for our ride I wanted to get Vesna wet. My response was "Do whatever to make it as much fun as possible". They didn't let us down. There must have been three water touch downs and Vesna was drenched by the time we were pulled in. When they'd pulled us in half way, they suddenly let us out again for a mini second ride] It was good fun bopping around during the second ride. Looking down at the water when at full distance from the boat was the best. Somewhat freaky but totally amazing.

We couldn't get as any pictures as we wanted of us parasailing and jet skiing, but Brad is the master of self-portraits.

The first photo above shows the cat that we went on and the second shows what some of the sights were like from the boat.

As I write this, we are in the car on our way back to Miami. How much do we both wish we could have stayed another night. We anticipate Miami South beach tomorrow. Our hostel is literally on the beach. Brad is officially running out of joks, has no more clean long socks and is considering recycling shirts. Clearly we need to find somewhere to wash soon.

Today was definitely the highlight of the trip so far. [Brad comment: This is only the first day of doing toury things.

Today's log wouldn't be complete without telling you about our new pelican friend. I had to get a picture with him even after he pecked another tourist. Dad, this one's for you.

Computer's about to die, so over and out for now.