Setting off at 18 with no money to travel around the USA for 3 months doesn't look all that hardcore these days, but we felt pretty hardcore :-)
I started writing this diary right after I came up with the idea of taking a trip to America. Nowadays everybody and his dog has been there, but before the revolution it was about as likely as a trip to the Moon. In 1994 it was still a pretty decent adventure, especially like this, blindly, without any uncles, agencies, travel companies or money, two 18-year-old greenhorns...
Jirka Svoboda
Starý, Air Hich, Zelenky – Hajského St. 2/9 (flat), ticket for 169 USD Stand-by
America – 65,-- Jirka Svoboda
Zel. – Haj. – Airhitch office, info: 5-day period for them, you call on Wednesday, by next Wednesday they have the dates (Frankfurt, Stuttgart, possibly Amsterdam), 169 $ final price, on the basis of the blue paper they issue the ticket at the airport. Same thing on the way back. More than 14 days before departure you can cancel the flight free of charge, after that there's a fee (10 USD). The embassy accepts a back ticket, immigr. – officer. Invitation letter a problem – the weight of the signature. A day? before departure you have to call the headquarters in Paris.
morning – embassy, notes:
cars – automatics, gas = trouble
- max speed 55-65 m. p. h.
NY – Seattle 2841 miles = 4500 km
Seattle – San Franc. – 800 miles = 1280 km
NY – Wash. – 283 miles = 450 km
ISIC – provides up to $1000 in accidend and illness insurance
AAA – American Automobile Association
copies of documents, cheques, insurance, international driving licence
we're minors, we can't rent a car or do car transport – ATC – auto – transpor –companied (best chance coast to coast or Miami – NY)
911 – emergency call
insurance for the USA, 3 months, 65$ at 1950 CZK, 3 days before departure is enough
cancelling the policy, money back in 3 days
international driving licence, valid for a year, CZK 50,--
Martin bought the tickets – 10,000 for both of us
Info at the embassy – a new passport is needed, one is enough for the visa, 8 – 11 a.m. until Friday (Mon, Tue, Wed – public holidays)
New passport, application 8.30, passport 17.00
Visa – application 8.30, visa 16.00
Fri – fake departure, pretending we'd hitchhike to Frankfurt, goodbye with D., tears, off to Prague, bought train tickets to Frankfurt (1521 + 6 CZK platform fee). Back to Ústí, a dismal weekend.
16.30 departure for Prague
19.00 at Martin's
20.50 train leaves for Frankfurt
Arrival in Frankfurt around 6:00, 20 min. delay, S-Bahn to the airport, looking for the counter, tickets around 9.00, a wash in the toilets, for 1.80 DM a call to Radka (economics – accepted), met Žaneta, check-in and boarding. The plane backed out and at 11.30 it zipped up into the air. After 8 hours of a boring flight (apart from chatting with Ž) we landed in Baltimore. Passport control no problem, a while wandering around the airport, wheedled some addresses out of people, the trip from the airport into town (2 USD) by bus and train. Wandering around the city, bought a roll (2 USD), Peter picked us up, showed us the hostel. Accommodation, shower, sleep (10 USD) Mullberry str.
In the morning in the hostel kitchen a discussion about how close the sea is with our roommate Jeff the First, then he invited us for a drive around the city (Oldsmobile 2.8), a visit to Henry`s Harbor, a film, then a drive to the port. It was terribly hot and at the traffic lights Jeff was cooling his right foot on the air-conditioning vent and raving about how great it was. When the light went green, I wanted to help him out, so I stepped on the gas for him so he could keep cooling that foot. Oddly enough it threw him off quite a bit and he was getting over it for ages. (Roughly as long as Martin was laughing about it...) Then we cheekily climbed aboard a huge ship, had a good look around the whole thing, and outside we then met an old sea dog who showed us the whole thing all over again (29,000 GRT), took us to his cabin for coffee and a biscuit, a chat with the first officer Jeff II., a tour of the engine room (70,000 horsepower, two jet! engines from a Boeing 747), he invited us to a party tonight and to lunch on the ship tomorrow, Jeff Minarik, Baltimore, tel: 444-5092. A photo by the ship, Jeff I. will send it to us in Prague, then looking for a supermarket, shopping for 2 USD. Then a visit to the Rail – Road museum, 3 USD (insane steam engines). From the conversation with Jeff it turned out he has work for us (fixing up a wooden house), he gave us his address and phone number.
After a shower at the hostel, a walk to the supermarket, shopping for 7 USD (spaghetti and ketchup straight away for dinner). Phone call to Jeff II., he's not home, 2x 0.25 USD. Shower, a chat with Jan the Pole and an Austrian.
When we woke up, we decided to find the accommodation recommended by J. Svoboda, which should be free. We found Central Street on the map and set off on foot. In the awful heat we walked into a horrific black neighbourhood, we were appalled by the hostel and got the hell out of there. We headed towards the port, because Jeff II. had invited us on board for lunch. On the way we came across a post office, so we decided to call home. When I went to get change, the woman at the window asked me for a favour, whether I could stick a stamp on a letter. At first I didn't get it, then I spotted a guy with a camera. They wanted to make a TV star out of me. I took advantage of the situation, wrote our home address on the envelope and stuck two stamps on it. They even thanked me and I took the envelope with me. We didn't get through home. From the post office we carried on to the port. After an exhausting walk in the heat we dragged ourselves there, it was about 14.00, lunch on the ship was until 12.30. We waited for Jeff, he was out at that moment. He turned up around 14.30, said he had work, but invited us for a beer at about 17.30. So there we were, exhausted, hungry and boiled alive, with 3 hours to kill and the hostel terribly far away. So we went to cool off in Fort McHenry, had a drink and watched the film about the battle of Baltimore twice (same as yesterday). Then we asked some old guy to give us a lift to the supermarket. We bought food and bananas and tinned pineapple for 3.40 USD. Then we went to the port and watched the film again. At about 17.25 we went to wait for Jeff in front of the gate. When he hadn't shown up by 17.50, we gave it one more try at the ship, but we were already giving up. At about 18.00 Jeff turned up together with his mate Look. We got into the cars and raced off to the pub. We got Czech beer and food and had a chat with a clever barman. Then we drove to Jeff's place, and on the way Jeff offered us work (painting the inside of his house). At his place he took us into the garage and showed us his convertible Buick, 4.4 l V8 from 1967. We gave it a bit of a run, took a look at the house for his mate – professor Donn. When we got back, Jeff's girl – Rose (the boss) – was waiting for him. Very nice and pretty. We went with her for dinner to a great Taiwanese restaurant. Then we slept at Jeff's.
In the morning Jeff's mate (some guy from New York) dropped us off in front of the hostel. From the hostel we went to the bank, Martin cashed a cheque and scrounged some paper for a letter. I scrounged some paper for a letter. I scrounged a second one. We filled them up, I needed another one. Then we sent the letter at the post office. We wanted to call home, at the post office they recommended some hostel. When we found one, we asked the black guy at reception to arrange a reverse-charge call to Europe with the operator. Martin told his mum we're fine and off we went. We were looking for a supermarket, one black guy told us to fuck off. At the supermarket we bought food for 1.5 USD. Then we got a taxi. The dumb black guy didn't know where Fort McHenry was, so we navigated him using the map (4 USD). We waited for Jeff and off we went to West Virginia for a swim (about 200 km). Jeff showed us his houses, twice we ran into the professor and his cats in the houses he'd built out of scrap wood. They looked great. We had dinner at the prof.'s, had a great swim in the lake. Jeff and Look were drunk, Jeff wanted me to drive, Look didn't. In the end Jeff drove. We got to Jeff's place at about 2.30 in the morning.
Rose was supposed to call in the morning, we were going on a trip with her to Washington D.C. At about half past seven Jeff called, he was pretty unpleasant and knew nothing about a trip to D.C. At about 12.00 Rose arrived and we went to have a look at the Science centre in town. Entry 8.50 USD, one ….. 1.5 USD. Rose was very nice and at the port she took a photo of us with a submarine, saying she'd send the picture to our parents so they'd know how well she's looking after us. The Science centre was lame, the only good things were the film about the Titanic on a huge screen and the planetarium. From there we went to the hostel, paid 10 USD for Tuesday, picked up our stuff and drove to Jeff's. We hung around the house chatting for about 2 hours, drinking beer. At about 19.00 Jeff came home from work and it turned out he hadn't called at all in the morning, it must have been his mate. He thought Martin was Jeff. Big laugh. Then Jeff and Rose had a bit of an argument, so Martin and I took off and went for a walk. Jeff gave us the keys to the house, showed us where everything is and what we'd be doing. Together we called Jeff I. and found out there's no work at his place. On our walk we passed a basketball court, a few young people shouted at us asking if we wanted to play. So we did. It was dark, so mostly we just chatted. There were a few girls there and one friendly, decent Palestinian guy. After a while we went home, Jeff was already at Rose's, so we scoffed the breaded chicken and went to bed.
16 July 1994
Washing rooms, windows, scraping off varnish. Start 9.00, finish 19.00, lunch break hamburger, coke, American football. 1 wiped 2 windows, painted two rooms. Nothing important. 10 h per 7 USD. At night a call to Dana.
Work from 10.30 to 18.30. Painted 3 x doors, hallway, laundry room, 2 windows. Jeff only turned up in the afternoon, we were home alone all day. Jeff finally filled the fridge. Spaghetti for lunch, burgers for dinner. Nancy came to visit, a tall blonde, a friend of Rose's.
18 July 1994
Another load of work, from 10.00 to 17.00. In the evening we fixed up the bikes and went to have a look around the neighbourhood. We found a used car lot, terrible prices. (an old Escort 1500 USD etc.) On the way back a horrific thunderstorm.
Dana called in the morning.
At about 9.15 Rose arrived and we set off for Washington. We parked at the last metro station. A ticket to the centre 2$, we landed at the Central metro station. First we found the Washington Monument, then we had a look at the Lincoln Memorial with his statue. Then, on the way to the Capitol, we popped into the Botanical Garden. Before that we had lunch at the Flight restaurant in the Space Museum building (5.50 USD). Then we looked around the Space Museum – planes from WWII to the present, Apollo 16, the one Armstrong went to the Moon with, and other technical curiosities. Then we finally got to the Capitol, we had a look at the first senators and their parliament and then, on the way to the White House, we ran into a black guy banging on various containers like drums. Next to it was the air-conditioned old post office (Old Post Office), so we went in, bought postcards and an elephant, 1.5 USD, 3 USD. We were sitting on the steps waiting for Rose, but a cop mercilessly kicked us off them.
After surviving another shock from going from air-conditioning to the street, we crawled to the White House, it was closed off behind bars and cops. Then we found the metro and for the very same trip back we paid 2.5 USD (rush hour).
In the evening the professor arrived with the cats.
Start at 10.30, terrible heat, 1 room and the corridor to the cellar. Washed 3 rooms. Meatloaf and potatoes for lunch. Finish at 19.00 = 8h !! In the evening soup, watermelon. The professor dragged in some broad, we sleep upstairs with the AC anyway.
21 July
Work all day, Jeff didn't show up at all. 6h!!
22 July
No paint, we can't work. At about 11.00 Jeff called saying there's some in the cellar and that we should paint his study. We found the paint, it was terribly thin and for outdoor use. We painted the study (4h). Since there was nothing left to eat, I rode to the shop for bread, spaghetti and fruit, for about 1.7 USD. The professor wrote a letter for us to DI Tennessee asking them to send us the application conditions. We took it to the post office today together with the postcards from W.D.C. (1.9 USD). In the afternoon we rode the bikes around, checking out the classifieds papers and cars. All of them expensive. In the evening Jeff and Rose came and we drove to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Martin had a horrific turkey, drowned in salty! chocolate. He left hungry. I had a great Monterey steak.
23/7
In the morning Jeff took us for breakfast to a restaurant (a breakfast place). The waitress, an awful woman, nearly ate me alive when I didn't understand something. After breakfast (at 11:30) we drove over to Jeff's Harley buddy Mike. It looked like we'd get a Golf I automatic, a real rocket, then it fell through. So we went to buy a paper, to a newsstand run by a guy who's already shot three black guys when they tried to rob his shop. Then we stopped by some other friends with a big dog. At home we went through the paper and found a few interesting ads (85' Mazda 626 – 1200, Honda Prelude '81 – 550, Golf II – 2000, etc.) Escort '90 – 2350.
We drove about half an hour to the other end of Baltimore for the Prelude. It was a terrible wreck, so we drove back. On the way we came across an Escort "FOR SALE", so we stopped. It was an '86 in great shape, for 1300. After a test drive we said we'd be in touch. On the way home we stopped at the "Metro" supermarket. I've never seen anything that big. An area of about 150 x 150 m, nothing but grub. We loaded up on Jeff's recommendations, some stuff we didn't even know. When the cart was overflowing, we went to refuel ourselves – right in the middle of the store they were selling hot pizza and drinks. Then we went to pay for it, it came to 100 USD, Jeff paying, of course. We crammed it all into the car and off home. Once we'd filled the fridge, we started looking for another car. Nobody picked up about the M626, so we tried calling about the Escort '90. It was fine, so we set off there (after Jeff's shower). When we found it, some gypsies and black guys came running at us saying it was theirs. The Escort looked great, so we took a test drive. It drove pretty decently, so we started haggling over the price. The gypsy looked tough, but in the end he came down to 1800. Then we spent a while looking for someone who'd cash our cheques (it was Saturday), we drove one of Jeff's colleagues to get dope, but we didn't get the money. So Jeff lent us 100 for the deposit, the black guys wrote us a contract on a scrap of paper and off we went. We were pretty shit-scared whether the Escort would hold out till Monday. So we got home, warmed up chicken for Rose and drove over to her place for dinner. At night, after a geographical-historical debate, Jeff dropped us home and went back to Rose. We dropped like the dead.
24/7
We got up at 9 in the morning, from half past nine till 3 p.m. Jeff painted the kitchen, we did the bedroom. At three Jeff decided we'd take a break and we went to the pub. We sat outside, the sun was absolutely blazing, we hadn't eaten since morning and by 7 p.m. the three of us had knocked back 20 beers (me about 4). Then we finally begged Jeff to take us somewhere for food. He took us to a Greek restaurant for great Greek food – Gyros. Then we (Jeff) bought a big pizza and went back with it to the pub. Together with the barman and one chatterbox we scoffed it in the kitchen (the place was already closed) and then finally! We headed home. We still slogged away in the flat for another 2.5 hours. In the end I crashed completely, my head was pounding like a chopped-off thumb.
25/7
In the morning, around 9:00, I called Rose to drive us over for the Escort. I couldn't get a word out, but in the end we agreed she'd come before eleven. So we decided we'd ride the bikes to the bank to change the cheques. We found one nearby, the guard threw us and the bikes out of the bank, but said he'd keep an eye on them. Inside they changed 700 for Martin no problem, they told me they'd only change 200 for me. I talked them up to 600, but I needed 1200. So we went looking for another bank. It was over three hills (and nine rivers) about 3 km away. No problem and no questions, they changed the rest for me. The trouble was it was 10:30. So we hammered it home, I thought I'd give up the ghost. Soaked in sweat we arrived home, Rose wasn't there. We thought she'd gone looking for us, she's always worried about us. We called her at home, she was there and came right away. We went to pay for the Escort, 1800 (600 Martin, 200 I owed him, 100 given back to Jeff, 900 me).
Then we drove to a gas station (10$ for a full tank). Ford Escort, year 1990, 1.9l EFI engine, catalytic converter, power steering, air conditioning, automatic seatbelts, electric mirrors, new tyres, 101,581 miles on the clock. Everything well kept, undamaged, rev counter, radio, trunk release from the driver's seat, pale blue metallic, absolutely healthy.
From the gas station we drove to Jeff's ship and then home. We wrote letters to our sweethearts and went to the post office. In front of the house we realised with horror that we'd clocked up 17 miles. Then we worked for a while. (5h). In the evening we vacuumed the Escort. The professor brought a car full of fruit and vegetables, so we stuffed our faces. After today we've earned 392 USD.
26/7
All day terrible work and raiding the professor's fruit store. (nectarines, peaches, grapes, Canadian blueberries, peppers, etc.) Work – 10 h.
27/7
Work (8h), in the evening fixing the convertible's ignition switch, charging the battery and off on a trip. Driving an eight-litre American automatic convertible is a real experience!! – Danuška called in the morning.
28/7
We got up late, in the morning we still went over to Ford (an engine tune-up would be 53 $, filling the air conditioning 130 $, fixing the hole in the air conditioning 80 $). We didn't have anything done. Then work, 4h. After work I put the convertible's ignition switch back the way it was and we set off for a drive again. In the evening Jeff came and yelled at us, why are we taking the Escort to a garage when he can fix the AC for us on the ship. Then Jeff went off to dinner with Rose and we set off in the convertible again. When we got back, Jeff was already home, he wasn't the least bit surprised by our trip, everything cool.
29/7
In the morning we drove to the ship, we found it pretty easily (we'd forgotten the map). I drove straight onto the deck, for a while we filled the AC with freon, it still didn't work. Then we went for a snack with the sailors, the captain invited us to lunch. Then we got to know a mafioso cook from Philadelphia who can get you a licence plate. The deck had turned into a car repair shop, four cars being fixed at once. Then we went for lunch, after lunch we stared at a video for a bit, then we went to fill the AC again, it finally started working. Happy, we set off on the way back, trying to buy a US road atlas. No luck. 1$ for the tunnel. We wrote letters with a picture 1.8 $ + 1.4 $ for stamps, and took them to the post office. 66 miles driven since the start. We bought bread, 1$. Then we watched American TV and felt terribly clever. I fixed the display lighting on the car radio, 1$ bulb (8 p.m.).
30/7/1994
Jeff called in the morning saying we should mow the grass, we tried to get his mowers running, pretty much without success. Then Jeff came, started both of them no problem and then we mowed the garden. Somewhere in between I finished the last unpainted wall (1 h). Then Jeff went off somewhere and Look (a buddy), who happened to be sleeping here, needed a ride to the ship. So we got in the Escort and took him there. I missed the highway exit, so we took a bit of a detour. Look paid us ????, bought drinks and offered us 5 $ for gas. Poor Jeff meanwhile was waiting without keys on the steps of his own house. Once we'd fixed one of the mowers for him, he forgave us. To finish off we spruced up his hedge (part of it), he did the rest himself. In the evening, around 10, we set off for the pub. After the pizza at noon we had our second meal, roast pork ribs and about 6 beers, one shot and two peach mixes (water, peach juice, about 2 dl, twice), a rock band was playing there, Jeff bought us a CD. We got home around 2:30 (in the convertible).
31/7/1994
In the morning (around noon, really) I got up, I was pretty okay, Martin felt a bit rough. I started preparing chicken schnitzels, but Jeff turned up with Rose saying we're going out to eat. We set off in the convertible somewhere out of town, at times we were doing about 150 km/h, it was about 30 miles away. We had a good ham and cheese (Jeff left about 5 dollars as a tip). We took a look at the reservoir with drinking water for Baltimore, on the way back we got properly soaked. Now we're sitting here with nothing to do, in the evening we're off to a huge party on the ship, we're curious about the crabs and the snobs. The professor's kittens have gone missing, the old one is about to give birth. Rose has been ironing curtains all day and moaning about how she hates it. And the poor thing doesn't even know yet that we're not taking her to the ship.
Programme subject to change!
It came out of Jeff that the ship was leaving at one o'clock and we sure as hell didn't make that. We just bummed around all afternoon, expecting to go for crabs with Jeff and Rose. But Jeff got stuck into fixing the bathroom, he finished at half past nine and by then it was too late. So we ate something at home and went to bed.
1/8/1994
In the morning we started doing the floor in the cellar, finished around 1 p.m. We were bored for a while, then we set off to find somewhere to swim. On the way we stopped at the bank, they were only open till 2 p.m. We found a lake, it wasn't fit for swimming. We just drove around for a while, then we went home.
2/8/1994
Jeff came in the morning, around 7:00, we drove to the ship, had breakfast, then Junion loaded us into our car and we set off for Philadelphia for the licence plates. Junion (Jeff's colleague) knew a way to register a car quickly and cheaply and get plates. We got to Philadelphia after about two hours, tolls on the way about 3 $ /?. In a terrible Hispanic-black neighbourhood we paid 45 $ /? to Junion's grandpa for the inspection stickers, then we drove to some office for the plate = registration – 110 $ /?. Junion stuck the inspection stickers on for us, dropped in on his mum at the hospital (meanwhile we had a hot dog – 1$, the vendor knew some Czechs, he knew about the split!).
Then Junion showed us Independence Hall in the centre of Philadelphia and the "Liberty Bell" in the same place. The guide talked about Havel, that he'd been there too. Then we headed back. Junion drove terribly and worse, he'd ram it into first while moving, kept riding the clutch, all three of us were crying (the car, me and Martin). On the highway he got 90 mph out of the Escort, the speedo only goes to 85 (about 140 km/h), the Escort didn't protest. Junion paid the tolls, it was 1.25 $. The tunnel was on us, 1$ /?. We got to the ship around 3 p.m. and had lunch. Jeff showed us the cabin, a two-room flat with a bathroom, we had another look at the engines. (Both the diesel generators and the jet engines are started with compressed air.) In the engine control room I nicked a nut as a souvenir. When we'd seen enough, it was time for dinner. I've never in my life seen such a big steak. A half-kilo slab of meat cut with a circular saw and about three roast potatoes were plenty. We also nicked a few cookies and some fruit for the road and headed home. We got a bit lost, then we waited a while for Jeff (we'd forgotten our keys). Shortly after Jeff the professor arrived, he brought blueberries and a bottle of scotch. There was a letter for me from the missus in the post. It really got me down (nothing but blubbering!), but then Jeff and I killed that scotch by midnight, went over the state of the world (black vs. white, yellow vs. white), said goodnight to Rose on the phone and went to bed after midnight. I tried calling home, no luck. Jeff paid us 228$ each, and gave us a cheque for the rest (350 $ each).
3/8/1994
We got up late, after breakfast we picked up the professor, went to the bank in town and then drove to the ship for lunch. Rose was there, she was awfully surprised at what we were still doing here. After lunch we said goodbye (for the second time already), drove the professor home and went to sort out AAA. AAA membership gets you a tow in case of a breakdown in the USA, they give you maps and guidebooks for free and some other perks. We paid 51 $, I'm the member. We grabbed maps of almost all the US states, about 30 guidebooks, it was about 10 kg, it would have cost at least 100 $. We chucked it all in the car and set off for West Virginia to visit the professor's house. We got there pretty smoothly in about 2 hours, found the keys to the house, had something to eat. The professor had a pile of "interesting magazines" there, so we weren't bored. Around half past seven Jeff arrived, we went to the lake for a swim, had a chat, Jeff cooked us dinner and then headed back. (He confided in us that he wants to break up with Rose.) Once he left, we went to bed.
4.8.1994
We got up in the morning, had a proper breakfast, packed the backpack and set off on a hike. We took Sleepy Hollow, a forest road running through the reserve. We covered about 10 km on it and found out that America would be the ruin of our mushroom pickers (in the first 20 m of the trail we saw enough boletes to fill a basket, and it was like that the whole way). American blueberries are the same and mostly weren't ripe. We went back the same way so we wouldn't get lost. When we happily found Prof. Chalupa, we took the car and went for a swim in a lake. Great clean water in the middle of the woods. The whole lake belongs to some family, so we could only swim there thanks to the professor. Suitably soaked, we went back to the house, ate something and went to sleep.
5.8.1994
In the morning it was pouring, we waited until about noon to see what would happen, then we packed up, stuffed a whole bag with food from the prof's supplies and then we set off. We tried to find one little town Jeff had told us about. In vain. It was late, so we headed home. On the way I pulled a digital clock out of a wrecked Taurus at a junkyard. We got to Jeff's around three thirty.
We waited for Jeff until eight, did laundry and lazed around. When Jeff arrived, it came out that he hadn't talked to Rose yet about the trip to the beach in New Jersey (he wanted to leave her at home) and that he still had to talk to her. He called her that we were going to Caffeé Tatoo (a pub where they have Czech beer). We jumped in the convertible and drove to Nancy's (a great long-legged blonde friend of Jeff's), because it was her birthday. Jeff gave us a wrapped necklace, as if we had a present for her. When we then gave it to her, she went crazy, kept hugging and kissing us. When she was digging for where we got it, we said it was a secret, so its origin wouldn't come out. When we'd hugged enough, we went to pick up Rose, saying we'd meet again at Caffeé Tatoo. (Nancy had her sister visiting, it looked like an interesting evening.)
We met Rose on the way, and when she saw us in the car she didn't look too thrilled. (We had already said goodbye to her twice, after all.) So we went to the Caffeé, Nancy came after us in a while, got into a fight with the pub owner's wife and unfortunately went somewhere else where they wouldn't let us in. The mood stiffened a bit, but after a few beers Jeff and I got along great. Around one we called it a night, drove to Rose's, Jeff handed us the convertible there and we were off to his place. Driving such a big car after a few beers is quite fun… We lay down in peace, wondering what tomorrow would bring.
6.8.1994
We got up around eight, Martin called Rose's place, Jeff said they'd be at ours in a moment. When that moment had lasted two and a half hours, I called again and woke them both up again. Jeff said we should come pick him up in the convertible. We brought him home, he started packing and meanwhile we took pictures of the house and the convertible. Then I drove him to the bank and to the gas station. To my surprise he decided to drive to New Jersey (about 300 km) in the convertible (1967 model!). Then we picked up Rose, stopped at McDonald's and at the gas station (for the Escort) and headed north. Jeff paid all the highway tolls, and we arrived at his sister's on the coast (after getting a bit lost) around half past one. We went for a swim first in the bay (about 50 m) and then in the ocean (about 10 km). We had a great time rolling in the waves of the Atlantic, it was already pretty cold, then we froze even more in the convertible on the way back and thawed out under the shower. We were looking forward to Jeff taking us to a huge wild party somewhere nearby (he'd been raving about it since Tuesday), except it was already 9 o'clock and "nearby" meant two hours by car. So we set off to the local luxury Italian restaurant. They parked our cars for us and showed us inside. Then came about five or six different courses, including cake, fresh strawberries and cognac. Martin had some sea monsters, I didn't risk it and had veal. We stayed there until about midnight. After we got back we all got up and went to have a look at the beach. Jeff and I were messing around like idiots (he's a teenager anyway, and he's 36), we climbed trees and roofs, we wanted to throw the women into the sea and generally acted up. Around half past three we finally lay down. (By the way, it just occurred to me, I drove the whole way from Baltimore, Jeff was doing up to 75 mph at times (about 140 km/h) and weaving like mad between the cars. I quite enjoyed following him, because we can't afford it on our own and driving 300 km at 55 mph in one lane is pretty boring.)
Sunday 7.8.1994
We got up pretty late, then waited until about 1 o'clock to see what would happen. Jeff and his dad promised us yesterday that they'd take us out to sea in a boat and we'd try water skiing. Today they were more sober (Jeff was still asleep) and sent us to the beach, saying the boat was on its way and they didn't know when it would arrive. So we went to the beach on our own, there were people everywhere like … and on top of that they wanted $5 just to get on the sand. We walked a bit, got into an argument with a cop at one of the beaches and drove back. The boat still hadn't arrived, so we ate them out a little, chatted about our trip, carefully marked out the route, took all the maps out of the car! and left them in the room. Then we went to the beach again, because from half past five it's free. Again we had a proper fight with the waves, found some shells and came back frozen. Before I thawed out in the shower, everyone was in a terrible hurry, saying we were leaving. Jeff and Rose went home, we continued west to Jeff's dad's house. After a long, drawn-out goodbye (Jeff gave us $100 for Harley T-shirts for him), longer than back home, we finally set off. There was a jam on the highway, so we arrived around eleven. I called Danuška (after midnight) and we went to crash.
8.8. 1994
In the morning grandpa (Jeff's dad, a great guy, even though he's rich) took us in the Lexus (a souped-up luxury car) to New York. We parked at a park-and-ride in the suburbs and a bus took us downtown. There we grabbed a cab and the order was clear. Empire State Building. We queued for tickets, went up, photographed New York from above and climbed back down. We found a subway station and rode down to the harbour (on the way I bought postcards for $1). We found Wall Street, discovered they only let people into the stock exchange at two, so we ate and set off for the Statue of Liberty (film for $8.25 on the way). At the harbour we stood in line for boat tickets for an hour, then waited half an hour for the boat (meanwhile some black guys – acrobats – put on a show). From the boat there was a great view of both Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, we took a whole series of photos. In front of the Statue of Liberty we stood in an hour-long queue, and inside we found out that it wasn't the queue up to the head but only to the pedestal, so we cheekily squeezed into the other queue. When after half an hour we'd made it 20 steps up the queue and there were 354 of them, we gave up, went out onto the first terrace, took pictures of the statue and hurried down. Down below we picked out some souvenirs, waited for the boat and went back to New York. We walked over to the World Trade Center, went into one of the Twin Towers, stood in line, took the elevator to the 107th floor, the escalator to the 109th and there we were on the highest roof in New York. It was a great experience, seeing New York like matchboxes. On the 107th floor we picked out some postcards and rode back down. Downstairs we found the subway and set off to see Broadway after dark. It was like out of an American movie. Huge neon ads flashing, everything lit up, streams of honking cars and everything open. We went into one famous restaurant and each had about 2x 15 dkg of smoked ham (that's the thickness) (beef) between two slices of bread. It was excellent, but I wouldn't want to pay for it. Just by the way, grandpa paid for everything from morning on and it cost him about $150 (nothing to him). Then we walked around Broadway some more (Madonna, wouldn't you know it, wasn't there) and took a cab to the bus, the bus to the parking lot and the car home. (I bought a sweatshirt, $10.) We'd all had just about enough, but we agreed that tomorrow we have to go again and catch the rest.
9.8.1994
In the morning we were deciding whether to take the bus or the Lexus again. In the end we went by car. Bus downtown, then the subway to Wall Street. We queued for the tour of the stock exchange and watched from above how things run there. They didn't want to let me in because I had tear gas spray in my pocket. In return I then photographed the exchange despite their ban.
Then we had lunch right on Wall Street. After that we walked to the New York harbour. There was a ship from 1915 there, so we climbed aboard. It was one of the last and biggest sailing ships. From the ship we went to a little shop in the harbour where they had all sorts of stuff from the sea. I bought a T-shirt ($5) and nice cut-open shells for the women ($4). Then we watched a performance by a street fire-eater and a magician. Right next door there was a three-storey market hall, so Jeff senior dragged us in there. They had live crabs, vintage Mercedes convertibles, Porsches, Cadillacs, and they sold about half-kilo ice creams there. Grandpa bought them for us, he finished his right away and we struggled with ours for about half an hour. When we finally got rid of it, we found the subway and rode to Central Park. We were on the subway for about half an hour (awful), then we came out and there was a terrible bum lying on the street. I had to photograph him, luckily he was asleep. That's the other face of New York. In front of Central Park there were lots of horse-drawn carriages, grandpa rushed right over to ask how much it costs. The driver spun him that it's only $24, so we jumped in and had our picture taken. Then it turned out it costs $34 and it's a 25-minute ride through Central Park. Grandpa waved it off and off we went. We had a look at Central Park (an ordinary forest with roads running through it, black and white girls rollerblading there). When paying we added $10/2 for grandpa. At the end we walked around the area a bit more (Radio City, NBC television, etc.). Our feet were killing us, only grandpa was still spry (67 years old). In the end we had about 10 pieces of breaded chicken in one restaurant and drove home (cab, bus, car). In the evening we talked on the phone with Rose and Jeff. They told us off for calling them, our adoptive parents, so late. So we promised them we'd write often.
10.8.1994
In the morning we had our things washed, we drove to AAA for new maps, did some work in the garden, drove grandpa's wife to work in the Lexus, and grandpa had my shoe fixed at the cobbler's. We came back home, finished everything in the garden (grass, hedge, some wood) as a payback for New York. Then we set off in the Lexus on another trip. Grandpa showed us the surrounding mountains, the lake where he had a boat, the house where he grew up and a perfect little château with a garden the size of a barn, where Jeff junior had sent us. At the end we stopped at a boat rental where they rented jet skis (a motorbike on water) for just $20 an hour. We wanted to try it, but it was already 6 o'clock and at 6:30 we were supposed to be at Jeff's older sister's place somewhere nearby. We drove there, each got about 1.5 dcl of beer, tried out all of her son's electric toys, got a few addresses of her acquaintances and then we hurried home for dinner. We got pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs, washed it down with ice cream and cookies. We tried to pack everything up, because tomorrow our adventure was supposed to begin.
11.8.1994
We got up in the morning after 7, had breakfast and got some food for the road. Then we said a terribly long goodbye, the old folks led us out of town (Pompton Lake City, about 10,000 people, petrol 10 $) onto the motorway and we were off, hammering it towards Niagara. We did 420 miles and got to Niagara around half past six in the evening. In America everything is signposted terribly badly, so we kept thinking we were lost. In fact we were basically going the right way. Every now and then they wanted a fee from us, for the motorway, for a bridge, for crossing between different US states (usually the tour guides paid). So we weren't surprised when at Niagara they wanted 75 c for a bridge. We paid without a word and then we couldn't believe our eyes. First I saw a tiny little sign saying Welcome to Canada, then we drove across the bridge and saw the falls in the distance. Then there was a queue of cars and in a booth they wanted our passports. Of course we had no visa, so there we were on Canadian soil!! We parked and went to sort out some papers at customs. There a clerk (a young, pretty, nice girl) officially confirmed that she was expelling us from Canada and we were already heading back across the bridge. On the American side they wanted our passports again and were terribly surprised about what we'd been doing in Canada. Once they let us through, we went to find somewhere to park. They threw us out of a hotel car park, so we left it on the street by a restaurant shaped like a turtle. We set off on foot to have a look at the falls. We walked round all the islands above the falls, went right up above the falls and were totally thrilled to be here. We had a chat with some Slovaks from a tour group and then hunger drove us back to the car. We had a whole pizza for 8$, then we found a car park on one of the islands (right by the water). We left the car there and went to look at the falls in the dark. At exactly 9.00 they switched on the floodlights, so we took a few shots and the wind soaked us nicely with spray from the falls. Then we went on the bridge to Canada again. We stopped just before the Canadian customs and looked at the floodlit falls. Then we wanted to go back, but I was missing the paper in my passport about the length of stay, which is a pretty big screw-up. The customs officers were terribly nice, issued me a new one and on top of that (without suspecting a thing) extended my stay by a month (until February). Released, we walked back to the car and settled down for our first night in it. We slept well, but only till about midnight. The cops turned up, asked us terribly politely to move, because the island closes for the night. They explained the way to another car park and drove off. We woke up a bit and set about moving. After about five minutes of confused wandering around the island we met the cops again, this time in a one-way street (they were going the right way). They put the lights on us and pulled us over. We expected trouble, but wrong guess. The cop asked us if we were lost and said he'd take us to the car park then. We got there and the car park was closed. The cop got out of the car and apologised terribly that he hadn't known. Then we found another one ourselves and spent the rest of the night there.
12.8.1994
In the morning we had another look at Niagara from all sides and walked out onto the bridge again. Then we bought petrol, something to eat and postcards (1$). We found out that seeing Niagara from a helicopter would cost 35 $ a head. Then we found the post office (1.4$). Around 1 o'clock we were already pushing west again. At about 6 in the evening we got to Cleveland, had a look at the centre (nothing but skyscrapers, streets dead straight, boring). Then we set off again, heading for Chicago. We drove until 2 in the morning and ended up just short of Michigan.
13.8.1994
In the morning we took over the toilets at a rest stop, washed ourselves and did our laundry. All clean, we got to Chicago about 10.00. We parked by the baseball stadium and took the subway into the centre (1.75 $). We wandered around the centre (it was raining), went into various shops and looked for a bank. In one of the shops I bought a watch. In New York 45$, here 39$, but we talked him down to 30 $. Then we didn't know what to do, so we just bought bananas (1.50$) from a vendor who could sing "Když máš v chalupě orchestrion…". In the subway they didn't want to take our twenty, so we went to get change. A black guy – a bum – offered us a subway token for just 1$, so we took it. We found the car no problem and set off to look for the "Museum of science and industry" at the other end of Chicago. We got there late (it was about 4 in the afternoon), except in Chicago it's an hour earlier. So we went in (5$) and crawled all over everything (a WWII submarine, an F 14 fighter simulator that tilted us about like crazy and loads of nonsense for Americans). At six we set off, found an open supermarket by the motorway, bought something to eat (4.20$), petrol (10$) and had a meal. Then we drove west again, no problem, until half past one in the morning. We found a nice campground and parked on the grass at the entrance. I made my bed in the grass, Martin in the car.
14.8.1994
In the morning at 6 the dew fell and the cold woke me up. I jumped into the car and we moved a few miles on to the next rest stop to warm up. We slept there until about 10. Then we washed again and carried on. We drove all day, once we missed a turn-off so we took a detour on side roads (something like our first-class roads, with motorway speeds). We saw nice farms, nature, and visited the pretty little town of Winterset. Martin bought a T-shirt and used a 100$ cheque for it, which got us some cash again, since we'd run out. Then we found our route again and burned on. The motorway is terribly boring, so we found some entertainment. At one rest stop by the pumps (8.25 $) some pretty American girl kept hanging around us, and we later caught up with her on the motorway. We drove alongside them the whole time (she was in the car with her parents) and on top of that we laughed at her. She laughed too and after a while she started a conversation with us using paper. The conversation lasted us about 100 miles, then we said goodbye. We wanted to see Sioux Falls (the Sioux waterfalls), and after about an hour of driving around town we found out that's just the name of the town and there are no falls there. There was nothing interesting, so we did some shopping (10.70$) and drove on. We stopped at about 10, thirty miles from Mitchell. We slept in the car.
15.8.1994
In the morning we drove to Mitchell and found the Corn Palace. It's a building made entirely of corn, they've been building it every year since 1892. Then we went to a prehistoric Indian village, where for 2$ they showed us a few bones, a clay hut similar to the Indian ones, and finally a bare meadow where the village supposedly stood. Luckily at least they had a very pretty guide. The Indian village used to be by a lake, so we drove round to the other side and had a proper swim. Clean as the word of God, we set off again.
After a few miles there was a signposted Indian reservation, so we swung off there. We didn't find any Indian reservation (there probably wasn't one), but instead, in the middle of nowhere (visibility about 100 miles, nothing anywhere), we saw a huge car park full of cars and a big building. There was a no entry under 21 sign, we went in anyway and couldn't believe our own eyes. A huge casino on about 2000 m2 (roulette, Black Jack, slot machines) and everything staffed by Indians. Those hundreds of people who were there must have come from terribly far away. We didn't spend anything, went back to the motorway and pushed on.
After a while (about 100 miles) there were signs to some gorgeous caves. We turned off again, drove about 30 miles along a first-class road that suddenly, without warning, turned into a dirt track. We got to some farm and asked the way to Crystal Cave. They looked at us like we were nuts and showed us on the map where the caves are. It was about 200 miles to the west. On that motorway it was signposted a bit in advance.
So we got to Rapid City, the centre of the Black Hills, and stopped for some food. A guy on a Harley Davidson pulled up just then, so we got talking to him. Jeff had told us that near Rapid City, in a little town called Sturgis, the Harley people would be having a rally. This guy told us we'd missed the boat, because it had ended yesterday. There'd been 160,000 bikes (in words: one hundred and sixty thousand) and it lasted a week. We wept that we'd come too late, chatted with him a bit more and pushed on again. We found Crystal Cave, only it was already closed, so we looked for somewhere to sleep. It was in the middle of beautiful forests, you could sleep anywhere, only we needed somewhere to leave the car. We asked one guy who had a house there, but he threw us out big time. We drove to a house just next door, the guy there was also a bit unpleasant at first, but when we told him who we were and where we were from, he melted. He invited us to dinner, we had a shower and slept in his garden.
16.8.1994
In the morning we drove over to Crystal Cave, forked out 6.50 $ and had a look at a pretty small cave and a pretty nice guide. Then we walked through the forest, where there was another replica of an Indian village. We left the cave determined not to crawl into any more. We headed for Mount Rushmore, which is the heads of Roosevelt, Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington carved into the rock. On the way we came across a gorgeous lake straight out of The Treasure of the Silver Lake, so we stopped there. We climbed down the rock to water as clear as glass and sat there so long that we got an irresistible urge to go for a swim. We didn't feel like climbing back up for our swimming trunks, so we went in just as we were. It was a laugh, because in America that's against the law (just like drinking on the street, drinking in the car, smoking on the street, changing clothes outside etc., freedom just as it should be). Suitably chilled through from the lake, we ate and set off on towards the presidents. There's almost a motorway running past them, beautiful surroundings, forests, rocks, valleys. That was a pleasant change, for the last three days we'd been driving through nothing but prairie, which was also beautiful but a bit monotonous. Sometimes you could see sandstone rocks, hills like on a golf course (round) or endless steppe. But now we were in the forest, we had a good look at the presidents, bought postcards and continued to the next monument – the Crazy Horse Monument. I don't remember the way, because I was asleep. We got there and they wanted 12 $ from us, so we turned around. You could see the horse carved into the rock, it was pretty lame, see photo. So we went to another local attraction, the gold mine in Lead. On the way we stopped at a local junk shop, as big as a car dealership, where they had everything and nothing. We got to Lead around five, walked to the mine and found out we were too late again. The first free tour of the old mine was only in the morning. We walked around the little town, saw the current gold mine (a huge quarry) and on the way back we found a shop with cheap food (dented tins, crushed boxes and the like). We bought a whole trolley of tins, compotes and biscuits (15.5 $), they gave us a huge box for it and we carried it to the car. They also had Kodak colour positive films for 0.50$. We moved on to another little town – Deadwood, which is a famous gamblers' den, we ate something, had a look at the casino and carried on west again. On the way to the motorway, still up in the hills, we got hit by an enormous cloudburst, and then on the motorway there was a fantastic rainbow. We photographed it like mad, it was probably the biggest rainbow I've ever seen. On the prairie it's a good few hundred miles from horizon to horizon. At about 10 in the evening we found a place to sleep at a rest stop and slept outside. We took 13$ of petrol and bought a litre of oil for 2$.
17.8.1994
In the morning we rolled into Gillette, a little western-style town (low wooden shacks, a wide dusty street, nothing but bars and gambling joints). We bought a bulb for the headlight ($11) and at the supermarket we stocked up on loads of discounted fruit (apples, pears, peaches, carrots) and something to eat, $16.60 in total. Fully loaded, we set off again, heading for Yellowstone Park. We drove through a boring desert and revelled in the air-conditioned car. After about 100 mi we spotted a great lake off to starboard. Before we made up our minds to go for a swim, we'd passed the exit off the highway. So we took the next one and got back on a horrible dirt track. It was worth it. Crystal-clear water, surprisingly icy (in the middle of the desert, between a couple of hills). We stayed there almost three hours, swam several times, ate and got a bit of a tan. Now and then a car would pass by and everybody waved at us. People here are incredibly friendly in general. When we'd splashed about enough, we carried on. After a while (about 100 mi) we reached the mountains. We climbed a terrible hill on a winding road, at the top we looked out from a viewpoint into terrifying distances and then we started descending again. It was about 15 miles of a 10% descent, halfway down we had to stop and cool the brakes. Then we made it down happily and reached the town of Cody. (William F. Cody = Buffalo Bill.) We found a Wild West museum there, forked out $4 and stayed until 9 in the evening. Then we found a place to sleep outside town in the desert and snored away till morning.
18.8.1994
In the morning we found out we'd been sleeping among cacti, luckily not on them. We jumped in the car, found a suitable pub to wash in and went back to the museum. The tickets were valid today too, so we hung around there until noon. When we'd had Indians and cowboys up to our teeth, we set off to find a post office so we could write to our sweethearts. We ate and finally headed off to reach Yellowstone Park at last. We got there, paid $10 for the car and after a few miles of dug-up road we finally saw the wonder. Yellow-white muddy fields laced with wooden walkways, everything bubbling, steam escaping somewhere and water boiling somewhere else and above all a horrible stink everywhere. We set off along one of the walkways and came to one of the geysers just in time as it erupted. In a few seconds the muddy little pool turned into a roaring fountain about two metres across, boiling water shooting up about ten metres, in short KŘIŽÍK'S FOUNTAIN CAN GO HOME. The funny part was when it sprayed a few people a moment later, and it wasn't us! When we'd had enough of the eruptions, we went to have a look at the local Grand Canyon. It was nice and colourful, hard to describe. Then we drove around the park a bit more and since something was crunching in one wheel, we found a place to sleep. We wanted to leave the repair for the morning, so we ate and went to bed. We slept in the car, because the local radio was warning about bears looking for food. At half past ten in the evening the local cops turned up and escorted us out of the park (about 30 mi). We slept the rest of the night there.
19.8.1994
In the morning we drove back into the park, checked out a few mud pits and bubbling pools and then carried on, this time south. The second, smaller park – Grand Teton N.P. – we just drove through, it was all forest. (Somewhat less dried out than the ones in Yellowstone.) In the afternoon we reached Jackson Hole, which is a classic little American West town surrounded by hills. We hung around a while, took a walk, flirted with some girls and then drove on towards Salt Lake City, this time south. At one junction we didn't notice the signs and went a different way, a bit of a detour. In some little town (probably Kemmerson) we got gas ($11.75) and then we started looking for a place to sleep. I was driving through the night desert, really giving it the beans (the speedo couldn't keep up, it only goes to 140 km/h) and suddenly the road was full of deer. Somehow I slalomed through them, a bit further on we stopped because our lights were rubbish. We adjusted them a bit, drove on and set up camp there. At about one in the morning a cop woke us up in a shocking way, poked around a bit about who we were and what we were doing here, then got friendly and wished us good night.
20.8.1994
At eight in the morning another one came, woke us up with no mercy, saying it was a dangerous place to sleep, and drove off again. So we got up, packed up our bits and pieces and went looking for water. A bit further on there was a little town, we found a McDonald's, washed and did some laundry in the bog at "Maccy D's". When they came to throw us out, we went to the car for money and exceptionally had breakfast at their place ($2.10).
It was crap, I'm never eating that again. Then we drove on, discussing the injustice of America. (You can't rollerblade around town, you can't go into a shop without a T-shirt, you can't sleep outside, you can't drink until 21, you can't smoke or drink outdoors.)
On the way to Salt Lake City we again had a discussion with a car full of girls, they were making sexual gestures at us (totally openly), but then they turned off. In Salt L.C. we parked downtown at a gas station and walked into the centre. We came across a nice pseudo-Gothic church, so we went in. It was pleasantly cool inside, so we sat there and suddenly something started happening. We stayed and all of a sudden – who's this coming in – and it's a bride! We witnessed a real American church wedding. It went on for about two hours, then we congratulated the newlyweds, chatted with the bride, the groom invited us to their place in Toronto and then we cleared off. We found the AAA in town, got a guide for Utah and went to look at the local Capitol. (A pretty stoned girl showed us the way.) We stayed there a while, ate in the park, then bought something to eat ($4.75) and set off again.
We stopped at the salt lake (Salt Lake) and then at the salt flats. We were eating and one curious American sat down with us. He was pretty pleasant, we chatted and he said he was going to the next town to a casino. When he saw what we were eating (cornflakes and milk) he invited us there for dinner. On the way to the casino we stopped at a gas station to get some water. There were showers there, so we dived straight in and had a proper wash. We waited for someone to come and charge us, but apparently it was free. Then we drove into the little town to search the casinos and find our host. From ten o'clock we combed through the four huge local casinos and only at a quarter to twelve did we find his wife. She said her husband was over there, so we went there, didn't find him and meanwhile she disappeared too. Until a quarter to one we dragged ourselves around the slot machines looking for them. Nothing. So we went back, pretty pissed off, to the gas station with the showers and slept in the car.
21.8.1994
We didn't get up until eleven, had another shower, nasty cornflakes with milk for breakfast and drove on into town. Since there's nothing in Wendover except casinos, we went into one again. We gawped around for a while and then, what do our eyes see, our host and his wife! It came out that they'd been there all night and lost about $700. The whole time they were talking to us they didn't take their eyes off the machines and kept playing like mad. They were total addicts. We didn't even mention the meal and preferred to clear off. Ahead of us was a 400-mile drive across the desert, which we'd wanted to do at night. Unfortunately we couldn't wait until evening, so we went straight away. It was about 100 miles to the next little town, where we found a supermarket (Sunday afternoon, a tiny town in the desert, two supermarkets open). We bought food ($4.50), had a third car key made ($2) and taped it into the fuel cap. We found out we had no power-steering fluid, so we bought some ($3.80).
The next stop wasn't until 100 miles before Reno, at a rest area by the highway. It said there that around 1840, over the next 50 miles, 1000 mules, 1000 horses and 943 people died of thirst. Just a cruel desert. We crossed it in an hour and a half, and we were almost cold the whole time (our pale blue Sršáň has great air conditioning, you see). Something started rattling in the left front wheel, nothing's overheating, so we're not bothered. About 30 miles before Reno we were overtaking some girl in a van, so we waved at her again and kept driving alongside her. She was laughing her head off, after a while she woke up a guy sleeping in the back and we started up a discussion via paper again. We drove with them all the way to Reno, introduced ourselves there, chatted a bit and then went our own way. We again spent about two hours in a casino-hotel, until our ears were ringing from it, but there was nothing else here. Reno is supposedly a little Las Vegas. Above the casino there was a hotel, so we rode around in the lift and on the 24th floor we scoffed somebody's fruit that was waiting outside their door. There wasn't much of it, but we had a laugh. We slept in the car by some park.
22.8.1994
We got up around ten, the sun was blazing. Around noon we drove downtown to have a look at the city. Again there was nothing but casinos full of addicts, plus nowhere to park, so we drove on.
We had food at Taco Bell for $2.20 and chased three girls in a car for a bit. We decided to head a bit north again and have a look at Oregon. On the way we came across the pretty Eagle Lake, so we stopped there to eat. We had a watermelon we'd bought, so we stuffed our faces. (Shopping – $3.75.) So we drove on north and there was a turnoff to Lava Beds National Monument (lava beds), so we floored it that way. In the middle of the wilderness there was a gas station and a hunters' pub. We stopped there and asked for directions. It was pretty nice there, we decided to come back for the night. A boy of about six was running around, he spoke brilliantly and was terribly chatty. He showed us his aeroplane made from an old engine and we had a chat in general. Then we drove to the lava, but we missed the turnoff and ended up somewhere completely different. There were great mountains of broken lava there too, so we took some photos. The lava is like building blocks in places, like glass in others. It was called the Glass Mountains (glass mountains). After dark we went back to the hunters' pub, sat there a while, Martin phoned home. Inside I copied down the saying on the previous page (This is not a real life! Had it been real life, it would come with instructions.) One of the local hunters told us where to sleep in the bush, we signed the guest book and cleared off again. We phoned Jeff, he's apparently split up with Rose. He was pretty crushed, even though he wouldn't admit it.
23.8.1994
In the morning we finally found Lava Beds, washed at the police station, washed the Escort too and drove into the park without paying (-$5). There were great huge deep caves there, open to the public. We crawled through them properly, at the bottom there was ice, darkness and cold. The batteries in our flashlight ran out, so we left the park again. We reached some little town and bought batteries ($3.30). Then we were heading west and again we saw an interesting turnoff to Fort Klamath (Klamath fort). We turned off and after 50 miles we found out it's an ordinary village. It felt silly to turn back, so we carried on north to Crater Lake National Park (crater lake). We got there, had a look, took photos and ate something. Then we found a place to sleep and slept partly outside, from 4 o'clock in the car.
24.8.1994
We got up at 10 after 3 hours of sleep. Thousands of litres of drinking water a second were flowing past us in a channel, but there was no way of getting to it. We drove a bit further to a lake, washed there and had a swim. Then we just bummed around all day heading west, in Medford we bought food ($6.80), in Phoenix peaches ($1) and we checked out the T-shirts at the Harley Davidson Dealer, as Jeff had asked us to. Then we blasted southwest again. In one little town we saw a scrapyard, so we stopped to ask how much a window for an Escort would cost. (Ours is cracked, you see.) They got $50 out of us! and told us to take it out ourselves. Before they closed we managed to break three, and there weren't any more. We argued with them to give us our money back. They told us to come back in the morning. We found a place to sleep and waited to see what would happen.
25.8.1994
In the morning we got up determined to squeeze our money back out of him. I turn the key to get going and – nothing. Battery totally dead. Probably some short. We pushed Sršáň out onto the road and he fired up straight away. At the scrapyard we killed the time till noon waiting for the owner, then we left Jeff's address there, saying he's a lawyer and they should send him the money. Basically we said goodbye to $50. Then we drove all day, bought $3 worth of food and some gas. We drove along a perfect, insanely twisty road and in the evening we saw the Pacific for the first time in our lives. We carried on a bit further south along the sea, then we called it a day and slept on the coast in the car.
26.8.1994
In the morning we washed up, looked at the sea from the rocks and then we wanted to get going. And what does Sršáň say? – nothing. Battery at zero. We pushed him up a horrible hill, pushed him on the flat and downhill – Sršáň nothing. Totally worn out we parked him at a crossroads, opened the hood and started flagging people down. Everybody stopped, but nobody had jumper cables. After a few minutes we stopped a classic hippie in a round-nosed VW Transporter, he looked like Lennon and said „I will charge you“ (I'll give you a charge). He pulled out the cables, we started Sršáň up and rolled on. On the way to Frisco we wanted to take „Route 1“ along the sea, but we missed the junction and drove through the interior. We drove through a sequoia forest, trees thousands of years old. One of them had a house inside it, 300 years ago it burned out inside and there's a solid room in there, about 5x5 m and 3 high. The tree was still alive. After that there was nothing interesting except expensive gas ($3.5/gal.) and vineyards. We got to Frisco around noon (shopping $6), crossed the Golden Gate for $3 and called a friend of Jeff's dad. He gave us the address and we found him pretty easily by asking people. (we even got a map). Bones (the friend) has a house on a hill on the edge of Frisco. On the way up to it there are great roads, up – down, 100% gradient. Sršáň had his work cut out, but he managed it. We made no fuss about the introductions, we chucked our rags straight into the washing machine, ourselves into the shower, and made dinner. Bones lives alone, doesn't cook, eats at McDonald's, so we cooked ourselves. We made meatloaf and rice, except Bones didn't have normal salt, so it was pretty gross. There was American football on TV, a friend of Bones came over and we had quite a chat. Already the third case since we've been here of a guy whose wife cleaned out the apartment completely, left him a chair and a table and ran off with another guy. He was pretty happy without her. We watched TV till about 11, among other things there was an interview with M. Navratilova. I already understood pretty much everything, which is nice. We slept clean, in a normal bed, and we slept pretty well.
27.8.1994
We got up about 9, at half past ten Bones' two daughters arrived (both about 45), saying they'd take us for a drive around San Francisco. First Bones took us a bit down into town (Mitsubishi Colt 1978), we bought 4l of oil for Sršáň and a new filter ($10). Then we went with just the daughters. (Golf I.) for the drive. We went down to the harbour, we saw the Golden Gate, Fort Point underneath it (an old fortress), we walked across the bridge (for free!) and the daughters took a few Polaroid photos of us. Then they drove us around the city some more, through the park, until we got hungry. So we went to a Czech pub. We were looking forward to pork with dumplings and sauerkraut, bread and beer. The bread and beer were pretty decent (the bread stank a bit and the beer was old – once upon a time Pilsner), but there was no pork-dumplings-sauerkraut at all. On the menu they had hamburgers, some sea critters, tiger fingers, but nothing Czech. We ordered some chicken, it was pretty good. The women had something potatoey, which turned out to be a potato pancake, but horribly loaded with all sorts of stuff. We were worried about how the paying would go, but they pulled out a VISA card and that was the end of our worries. For 4 meals and 4 beers it came to $51, which would have pretty much wiped us out. After the meal we climbed up the lookout tower above the city, drove through the „E55“ district and found a Harley dealer. We bought Jeff his first T-shirt, it cost 20 bucks ($). In the shop we dressed up in every possible bit of Harley gear and took photos. They had radio-controlled cars there, so we had a play. Then the daughters dropped us off home. We changed and got stuck into Sršáň. We changed his oil and filter. We froze quite a bit doing it, because it's cold here with the wind off the ocean and our work outfit was shorts and a tank top. Then Bones called Jeff's dad to say we're here and we're fine. We had a bit of a talk with him too, he said he'd call Jeff to tell him we're here. Then we watched TV again. (Bones is pretty addicted to it. Besides the TV he's also got three cats and a nice little garden behind the house).
The plastic bag with the leftover oil burst in the kitchen, it made quite a mess on the floor. Old Bones got pretty pissed off, it looked like he'd throw us out. We cleaned it all up, apologized, but he still looked pretty unfriendly. We preferred to retreat to our room, wrote letters and went to sleep.
28.8.1994
In the morning Bones looked a lot friendlier, we asked for the vacuum cleaner for Sršáň. He lent it to us without a fuss and even pulled out the hose and a brush to wash Sršáň on the outside. We washed him and cleaned him out, he was positively gleaming, and then we did the same with Bones' Colt. He was pleased and thanked us nicely. The atmosphere improved a lot. For lunch we cooked spaghetti, we offered some to the old man, he declined with thanks. At two one of the daughters came and took us for a drive again, this time in Sršáň. He'd just been polished up, so he didn't embarrass us. We drove all over the city, went down to the ocean to the beach, to the park, to a house full of old arcade machines etc. At the lookout above S.F. I bought another sweatshirt – $10. The whole time we had a pretty good chat without any major problems with English. Surprisingly we clocked up about 50 miles around S.F. In the evening the daughter cooked pork and potato salad for dinner, she wanted to buy us Czech beer but mixed it up and bought German. The pork was good, but not salty enough, because Bones didn't have any salt. After dinner we also explained to them how it was back home under the commies and how it is now. After dark we went to check out the San Francisco laser show in the harbour. It was almost more embarrassing than the one at the disco in Teplice, but on the other hand we saw seals. There were loads of them and they were roaring like crazy. Then we drove the daughter home and got back to Bones' place pretty much without trouble. We know San Francisco quite well by now. We swapped addresses with the daughter, she gave us the address of a friend in Los Angeles, we'll definitely stop by there.
29.8.1994
In the morning we found the post office in Sršáň, sent our letters ($2.7). Then we found the main post office and figured out how it works with „poste restante“. They sent us to the „General Delivery“ office, where they told us we had no letters there. Maybe in Los Angeles. Then we cheekily walked into the building of the local law school, shamelessly claiming to the cop at the entrance that we're students and forgot our cards. We took the elevator somewhere and it just happened that there was a library full of official records of precedent cases from 1868 to today. We pretended we understood it all perfectly and looked around for girls. When we got bored of it, we headed home again.
We parked Sršáň in front of the house, ate something and set off by metro to the student centre in Oakland. For $1.85 we got somewhere and walked the rest of the way. We wandered around among the school buildings and laughed at them for having to go to school already. Towards evening we bought a pizza ($2), a ticket back ($1.85) and peaches ($1). We got back after dark. Ten minutes before us the daughter had left with her friend from Los Angeles. She left us a number and address, saying we should stop by at her place. We chatted with Bones a bit more and went to sleep.
30.8.1994
In the morning Bones woke us at half past 7, saying he wanted to be out at eight. We packed up quickly, then he led us to the road out to L.A. and we said goodbye there. We drove to Los Angeles on road no. 1, which is carved into the cliffs pretty high above the sea, along the coast. We got to L.A. pretty smoothly towards evening. We drove into the centre and called Europa. (That's already the fifth degree of acquaintance starting with Jeff). When she told us she lives right in Hollywood, we had to drive about 30 miles back. While we were asking people for directions we were parked badly. A cop came along, we pounced on him straight away to ask for directions. He gave us great directions and meanwhile everyone who'd been parked badly drove off. Us too.
We found the house after dark, they gave us a nice welcome. Europa showed us the house inside. It was three floors, about fifteen rooms and an insane mess everywhere. (and even bigger!) Everywhere there were piles of stuff (rags, dishes, tapes, tiles, CDs, cement etc.) Apparently she bought it (the house) dirt cheap recently for $200000. It was a total ruin so this is how she's rebuilding it.
She herself is a belly dancer, we saw her on video, it's unbelievable. Besides that she works as a bartender in a rock club, where she took us in the evening. There were two bouncers at the door, they jumped on us right away saying we weren't 21. Europa told them we were with her, so they let us in. We were there till about midnight, then we went home. Martin went to sleep, (we slept on the floor in sleeping bags) I went off with a friend of Europa's to visit someone. It was close by, we went in Sršáň. Two people lived there, a guy and a girl, both some kind of artists. They'd recently put out a CD at their own expense, so I got two. We were there till about 4 in the morning, we just shot the breeze and ate something now and then. At four I got bored of it, so I went to sleep.
31.8.1994
I got up about eleven, we found the main post office in L.A., it was about 40 miles. Martin had 4 letters from his wife there, I had one. The weather was horrible, killer heat, and both of us felt pretty rough. Then we called New York (Europa told us we couldn't do it from her place), because we needed to postpone our departure date. They told us we were calling too late and the fine is $50. So, nicely pissed off, we sat down and sent it to them by letter. On top of that I found out that for the trip from Europe to America I'd used the return ticket and the original one was left over. I still don't know how I'll get home. Plus I misunderstood one sentence in a letter and it looked like a real screw-up.
Costs: phone NY – $3.45/2
Letter NY - $51/2
Shopping – $2/2
Melon – $1/2
Just a textbook „LOUSY“ day. We sat in front of the post office like drowned rats and didn't even feel like moving. In the end we pulled ourselves together and went to have a look at Beverly Hills, it was close by. On the way we went through an intersection on amber and hit the door of some impatient guy who set off too early. It didn't look too bad, so we preferred to drive off. A bit further on we stopped to check the damage. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Sršáň. Martin was shaking all over, so I drove from then on. We found Beverly Hills, drove around there a bit, took photos with palm trees and had a look at some proper mansions. When we got bored of that too, we went back to Hollywood. We took photos of the sign on the hill and wanted to drive up there, but we didn't manage it. So we went home. We had a good chat with two Slovaks who were working on Europa's house. (Pavel and Vladimír, brothers, emigrated in 1981). Before that they'd lived 7 years in Prague, so they spoke Czech-Slovak-English. When they left, we played Europa's show on video. It was really unbelievable what you can do with your belly. For dinner we had some old eggs, it looked like salmonella, but we had nothing else. Europa came back around ten, so we discussed her art a bit more and went to sleep. I called home and called Jeff.
1.9.1994
In the morning we ate, took some photos, said goodbye and split. We still drove up to the Hollywood studios, but there was nothing to see there, so we left L.A. We were in such a hurry to run away from that bad luck that we idiots forgot to take a swim in the Pacific. We were heading east now, which isn't as much of an adventure as going west, but at least we're getting closer to home. We headed straight for Death Valley, the lowest and hottest place in the USA. We took some stupid road through the mountains, now and then it turned into a dirt track. We overheated Sršáň, so we had to stop, luckily in the shade, so it was only 50 degrees there. In a while he'd cooled down, so we set off again, happy as can be that we've got air conditioning. We blasted through Death Valley at 75-85 mph, the limit was 55, but there was no way. After dark we got to some gas station already outside Death Valley, we felt pretty rough, so we just stayed there. We slept in the car.
2.9.1994
In the morning we swapped Sršáň's rear wheels around, the left rear was worn down in a totally crazy way, it had steps on it. We'll see whether it's the tyre or the car. Then we drove on towards Las Vegas. We got there, found the AAA office, grabbed maps of all the US states and a map of Las Vegas. Then we found a Harley Davidson shop and bought Jeff a T-shirt ($26). Then we headed back to the centre to have a look at the casinos and on the way we spotted a brilliant water park with huge tube slides and chutes. We stopped there right away, put the car in some hotel's garage (pretty pricey) and went to see how much it cost. Admission was $19, over the fence free. Once we were inside, nobody could touch us. They had about a 15-metre tower there, with two spaghetti-like twisted tube slides coming off it, one chute (89° incline) and one chute with a catapult. It was all pretty terrifying, but we survived it and in the end we loved it. They also had one tube slide you rode on an inner tube, a few more twisty chutes and a big chute (89°) for bobs with a long water run-out. We messed about there for about 5 hours altogether, until they closed it. Soaked and starving we found a supermarket and bought food ($3).
Then it was dark, so we drove to Casino Centre. As an advert for one hotel there's a huge wannabe island with waterfalls and palm trees. (Treasure Island) We parked on the third floor of the garages and went to take a look. It was nice and besides that we got a massive pile of catalogues of local call-girls (hookers) from the street hawkers. There were photos of them in there and hardly any of them were dressed. The cheapest would come to about $100. Loaded down with magazines we walked into one casino, done up in the style of ancient Rome (Caesars Palace). They had streets there, a fountain, shops, a blue sky, staff dressed like Greeks (the women not so much), and the whole thing was pretty enormous. We wandered around there for about 2 hours, I lost $1.5, didn't win a thing. I must be lucky in love then.
Around 11 we stocked up on water and got out of town. We hammered through the night to just short of the Grand Canyon, we slept in the car.
3.9.1994
In the morning we were woken up by the brutally blazing sun. We crawled out, stuffed ourselves with a huge load of pears growing there, ate something and drove on to the Grand Canyon. We shelled out $10 for the two of us for admission. We ate while staring down, then we found a better spot with a better view. An American got chatting with us there, quite a nice guy and clever. We swapped addresses. We sat on a rock looking at the breathtaking canyon, then a local guide came along and told us about the history of the canyon. She spoke pretty nicely, but it was as if she was telling it to children. Probably for Americans. Once we'd had our fill of the view, we carried on to Bryce Canyon, which people told us was better. (By the way, there were loads of bloody krauts everywhere here and all the Americans thought we were ones too. That irritated (pissed) us off quite a bit.)
We got to Bryce Canyon in the evening, paid $5 for the two of us and $0.25 for a guide (a paper one). We just caught the sunset over the canyon and it was pretty chilly there. We drove out of the park again and found a place to sleep. We parked it in front of the local church (a small log cabin) and slept outside.
4.9.1994
At about half past midnight a huge dew fell on us, so we jumped into Sršáň and cranked up the heat. Around eight in the morning cars started arriving for morning mass, which of course couldn't wake us up. We woke up just as everybody was leaving. At the gas station we bought two hot dogs for $1.06. They were pretty disgusting. We went back to Bryce Canyon one more time and walked among the rocks at the bottom. (about 6 miles up and down). Pretty worn out, we drove on to one more viewpoint. With the feeling that we'd soaked up enough of Bryce Canyon, we set off looking for something to eat. Because it was a holiday (the big Labor Day weekend), everything was closed. Only after about a hundred miles did we buy bread and beans ($2.10). For lunch we'd bought eight pieces of breaded chicken at another gas station earlier for a mere $2.50 for the two of us. It had been fried yesterday, today just warmed up on the grill. While we were eating it, some girl's car died at the intersection. We pushed it to the gas station for her, she thanked us a lot. Then we just drove and drove, heading for Denver. We drove until night, there were terrible hills there, even Sršáň had to go in third. We parked it up around 1 in the morning, we slept in the car at a rest area.
5.9.1994
In the morning we reached Denver, we were hungry with nothing to eat. First we found a self-service shop with fruit, scoffed some of theirs and bought bananas for $0.75. Then we found a supermarket (enormous again) and did a big shop (loads of tinned fish) for $10. We bought a grilled chicken and polished it off right away. In a good mood we carried on to the centre. It was the Labor Day celebrations, so there were cars everywhere. We parked at some McDonald's __(note 17.6.2011 - it was a Burger King and back then we swore we'd never buy anything from them for the rest of our lives. I've kept that up to this day!)__ and made fun of the sign saying that non-customers' cars would be towed. Then we had a look at the pedestrian zone, a park full of people celebrating, the local capitol and the shops. Then we came back and what do we see? Nothing. Non-customers' cars had been towed. So we called the advertised number and then for a taxi ($0.75). We got there by taxi ($8.20), paid $100 and Sršáň was free again. We weren't much in a laughing mood, $110 is food for both of us for 20 days. We got out of Denver really fast, we didn't even manage to buy Jeff a T-shirt.
Since we've had quite enough of this place, we blasted off towards Dallas, about 400 miles, we finished at half past two in the morning, local time. (+1hr) We parked by the CBS television station and slept outside on nice grass.
6.9.1994
In the morning they chased us off, saying you can't camp there, we moved on to a transformer station and slept it off in the car. Around ten we set off to Amarillo, a smaller town on the 297. We bought Jeff a T-shirt, sent postcards home. Around two we got going and carried on towards Dallas. We stopped once at a Mexican pub (we nicked some spices for the tinned fish there) and once at a rest area. We were looking for a suitable place to wash and shower. Nothing. We called Jeff, he wasn't home, so we tried Rose. She was glad, we had a good chat. In the evening we found a place to sleep, a cop came along right away asking what we were doing there. When he found out who we were, he was super friendly again and so we had a chat and he promised us they'd keep an eye on us during the night. We slept in the car.
7.9.1994
We got up exceptionally at eight (to an alarm) and reached Dallas around ten. After getting a bit lost on a ten-level multi-level highway interchange, we made it to the centre. We parked Sršáň, this time in a paid car park ($1.50) and had a look around the centre. The guidebook mentioned a John F. Kennedy museum, so we found it with some effort. It was this old shabby building, it was called The Sixth Floor ($2). In the end it turned out it's the building Kennedy's killer shot from. Kennedy became president in 1961, in 1963 he was riding in a convertible limousine with his wife and suddenly three shots and his wife was sitting next to a corpse. They raced to the hospital, but it was too late. They caught the killer in Dallas that same day and when they were taking him to prison, somebody shot him. The killer was called Harvey Oswald and he was some kind of communist, he looked pretty feeble-minded. (They've got it all on film there, including the assassination.) During the investigation they found out that the fourth shot (which missed) must have been fired by somebody else, straight from the street. They never found him.
The whole museum was pretty interesting, it was all on the sixth floor, where the killer shot from. It used to be some kind of book warehouse. When we were so hungry we couldn't see straight, we went down and ate at the nearest pizzeria ($1.6). Then we found Sršáň, drove about 20 miles to the other end of Dallas and bought Jeff a T-shirt. Then we also bought some food ($6) and petrol. In the evening we got to just short of Shreveport. We slept in the car. Snickers – $1.06.
8.9.1994
In the morning we got to the centre, it was boring, like all of them in America. (Nothing but skyscrapers.) We asked where the post office was, it was about 15 miles, so we didn't go. In the guidebook we found that there's a nice art museum here, so we looked for it. That was also about 15 miles from the centre, down a really tucked-away little street. Admission was free. We went in, they took our cameras off us and let us inside. In a pretty enormous two-storey house full of paintings and sculptures we were totally alone! Eight cops were guarding us, they had nothing to do, so they kept following us around. It was hilarious, having such a big museum and eight guards all to yourself. Shame you weren't allowed to take photos there, there were brilliant paintings (e.g. the Himalayas, 4x3m, indistinguishable from a poster). We spent about 2 hours there, then we just got on the highway. By evening we'd got to just outside New Orleans, we slept in the car park in front of the "Volunteer Fire Department" building! A terrible storm, 10 lightning bolts a minute.
9.9.1994
In downtown New Orleans we found the post office, we didn't have any postcards, so we bought stamps ($0.8). Then we drove through the centre and parked in the French Quarter. Finally something a bit European. Low brick houses, narrow streets. We walked around on foot, bought postcards ($1) and looked at various little shops. When we saw a policewoman putting tickets under windscreen wipers, we quickly found Sršáň again and looked at the rest of the quarter from the car. Then we drove to the port and accidentally drove onto the ferry ramp. We asked, it was free, so we took the ferry across the Mississippi. On the boat some black guys got chatting with us, they were pretty decent. We drove around on the other side of the river, found the on-ramp for the bridge, paid the toll ($1 for the two of us) and crossed back. We returned to the French Quarter and stopped at the market. They had loads of all kinds of junk there, we didn't buy anything. We also drove down to the port and looked at the paddle steamers. We wanted to take a ride, it was pretty expensive, it took 2 hours. But parking would have cost more than the boat, so we went back for Sršáň and hightailed it out of town. In the suburbs we found a supermarket, bought food ($1.6). Then we remembered the T-shirt for Jeff, we asked a black guy and following his directions found the place where the Harley Davidson was supposed to be. We drove around there for about half an hour, kept asking and couldn't find anything. Then we walked into one shop and a pretty good-looking black woman told us with a smile that Harley had moved out recently. It was late already, so we gave up. It's quite a bummer, because we've still got money left for one more T-shirt and now we've got nowhere to buy it. So we carried on towards Florida, around eleven we parked it up at a rest area (they're pretty nice here, finally green grass). We slept in the car again.
10.9.1994
The sun woke us up, we got up and set off towards Florida – Jacksonville. We tried to get hold of Jeff through a friend in Florida. No luck. We drove through swamps, about 2 x 20 miles of the highway were built on pillars, I've never driven across such a long bridge before. We saw the ocean around noon. We had a proper swim, the water was wonderfully warm, a few people on the beach, free parking. We were all salty, found a freshwater shower and fixed that. We asked people and found the Ragtime bar, where Jeff's friend Morin is supposed to work. Unfortunately, she was on holiday just then. We drove to a supermarket, scoffed something and bought something (7.70$). Then we went to the sea again and joined a few volleyball players on the beach. We played two against three and thrashed them. Then we swam in the sea again and cheekily slipped into a freshwater pool with a hot jacuzzi, so we had a good time too. We called Rose and found out that Jeff is leaving for Puerto Rico and then to the war in Haiti. That didn't exactly cheer us up. Then we went swimming again and just before we turned into prunes (it was already dark) we got out and went to the cinema (for free). We slept in the car in the parking lot.
11.9.1994
The cheeky sun woke us again at ten, we went to cool off in the sea. Then we splashed around in the pool for ages, it clouded over, waves came, so back to the sea. Around two I called home. The operator gave me a bit of a telling off for not teaching my parents English. In the end they managed. When we got back from the pool to the beach, we found out that the tide had flooded our blanket. Martin's camera was on it with a whole film inside. Both are screwed… Not nice. We went to the shop again for something to eat (2$). The cinema only starts showing at 4, so we waited about half an hour. We slipped in about ten minutes after the start, they were showing a great film. (Tom Hanks alias Forrest Gump). We really liked it. (Being in Florida at the cinema, for free and on top of that a nice film, no wonder we liked it). After the film we had a little nap in the car and went into the cinema again, for the film Corrina, Corrina about a black nanny. When it ended, the American audience nearly killed us with their looks, because we were laughing during the "touching" scenes. We drove to the sea to find a place to sleep. On the way we stopped at a phone and talked to Rose.
12.9.1994
We slept on the grass under palm trees, but at one in the morning they started watering the lawn! We saved what we could and finished our sleep in the car. In the morning we still had a good time with the waves and the hotel pool, then we bought something to eat (4.50$) (12 breaded chicken legs for three dollars). Then we found the highway north and headed towards Baltimore. Towards evening we reached Charleston. There was a nasty beach there, so we didn't even swim. We ate from our supplies, at the supermarket we just scoffed some fruit. We slept in the weeds by the beach.
hč. Tue. – 13.9.
In the morning we called a jet ski rental, they wanted 45$ an hour. So we went to have a look at Patriots Point instead. For 9$ we crawled all over the aircraft carrier Yorktown II, the submarine Clamagore and the destroyer Laffey. It was pretty interesting, but terribly tiring. I bought a Sprite (0.75$). Around noon we'd had enough, so we carried on. We still wanted to have a swim in the Atlantic, so we drove to Myrtle Beach. In town we came across a track for little go-karts, I couldn't resist and for 6$ I did two laps. It was pretty good. Then we got to the beach, swam in the sea and in the pool in front of a hotel, ate, cleaned out the supermarket and set off on the last stretch, to Baltimore. After midnight we called it a day at a rest area, we slept in the car.
14.9.1994
In the morning we set off with a single goal – home! (For now just to Baltimore). On the way we ate something, bought something (1$).
The first thing we did after arriving in Baltimore was to drive to the harbour to see if the ship was really gone. Unfortunately – it was. All that was left of it was a decent chunk of sea. We reminisced about the good old days when we used to clean out the ship's galley and remembered Fort McHenry, where we watched the documentary about the fort about 3 times while waiting for Jeff. We went to see it again, and finally I understood and got what it was about. Then we drove to Jeff's. We got to Jeff's around 4, Rose was still at work. We threw all the junk out of the car, there were two enormous piles of it. We'd never in our lives have crammed it back in. We left it in Jeff's garden and went to do the rounds of our acquaintances. We stopped at the tobacconist's, the guy who's already shot three black men when they tried to rob him. We bought a newspaper (0.40$). Then we went to Nancy's, she wasn't home. We dropped in at Caffe Tatoo, chatted with the barman. And for the first time we didn't have anything (without Jeff). Then we went back to Jeff's and waited for Rose. Around eight we drove to her place and of course she'd driven to Jeff's. When we finally found each other, the welcome was stormy. We cursed the government for sending Jeff to the war and went over our trip. For the first time in ages we slept in a proper bed. At night I talked to Danuška, she wouldn't hang up.
15.9.1994
In the morning we bought something and ate it (1.80$). Then we called the local paper and placed an ad. Then we called New York about the plane tickets, everything's fine. (I'm supposed to send them that stupid ticket of mine and they'll exchange it). Then we drove downtown and paid for the ad (21$). On the way back we wanted to buy a new windscreen for Sršáň. We knew about a scrapyard, so we drove there. We got off the highway one exit too early (50m) and then wandered 50 km looking for the way back. We came across another scrapyard, so we bought the window right away (76$). We took it home and started looking for someone to glue it in. One guy wanted 85$, we called elsewhere and agreed on 40$, on condition that we'd take the old window out ourselves. We got straight to it, in about an hour it was out (in pieces). We drove there and in a while the new one was in place. We bought hot dogs (0.90$) so they'd break a cheque for us. 4$ for the exchange. We drove Sršáň home and gave it a thorough clean outside and especially inside. Everything was gleaming, the last problem was the mileage on the dial. We needed 49 thousand on it, there was 112 thousand. We tried to wind it back with a drill, it would have taken about 300 hours. So we decided to take the dashboard apart. It was dark, so we left it.
Rose called that she had pizza for us and we should come over. We did that with pleasure and ate the whole pizza. Then we watched Clinton drivelling on TV about the war in Haiti. Then Jeff called, we were so excited we nearly tore the receiver out of Rose's hand. I asked Jeff why they couldn't wait another week. He said he'd talked to Clinton about it, but there was no talking him round. Apparently the sooner it starts, the sooner they'll let them go home. For now they're in New Jersey loading ammunition. Then they'll be waiting in Puerto Rico. As soon as it's over and Jeff gets back, he'll call us right away. Then Rose went to bed and we drove home. The professor was already there with his new 6 kittens. We chatted until half past 2 and drank Bacardi rum with ice.
16.9.1994
In the morning we went to the post office, I sent the ticket express to New York (11$) (I used the return ticket for the journey from Europe, so now they have to exchange it for me). Then we laboriously found AAA, we've already done about 100 miles just around Baltimore. We cleaned them out of all the maps of the US states, one set for the professor. They gawked like crows. From there we got lost again on the way home (thinking we know Baltimore, we keep driving from memory). I got started on taking the dashboard apart. It was about 35 screws and 2.5 hours of hard work. The Americans have it well secured, but they're no match for me. I set it to 49,123 miles and thereby completed Sršáň's rejuvenation treatment. Now we just wait for the title to arrive from Philadelphia and off into the world with Sršáň. When I'd finished, we went for a test drive. At the Metro supermarket we stuffed ourselves properly and bought bread for 0.90$.
17.9.1994 Saturday
We finished the basement. We called Air-Hitch, they said we should send the old tickets and they'd send us new ones. In the end they arrived on time. We carried on cleaning out Metro and tried to sell Sršáň. We bought a phone with an answering machine, both the same. Martin bought himself a laptop for 1000 bucks, I bought tapes for 5. The title still didn't come, we sent an express letter for 10$/2 and still nothing. We talked to Mike about him writing us a bill of sale for Sršáň and he advised us to go and pick the title up ourselves. After the conversation with Mike, Rose thought we were some kind of criminals or something. She told Mike so straight away. She thought that if she didn't speak in that "proper English" of hers, we wouldn't understand her. The moment she hung up we set her straight. She had a face like a sour ass.
18.9.1994 Sunday
The next day we set off to Philadelphia for the title. We got there around 10 p.m., which wasn't pleasant at all in that black-Hispanic neighbourhood. Luckily it turned out fine and we got home safely, title and all.
Since we still couldn't manage to sell Sršáň, we started looking for transport to Europe. In the end we found something for 524$. Unfortunately we didn't manage to sort out the paperwork, we were supposed to fly on Sunday and Rose had just left to see Jeff. So we went to see the barman at Caffé Tatoo and he told us he'd gladly take care of it for us. We gave him 550$ for expenses and power of attorney.
On Sunday we packed, locked up the house, had a few beers at Caffé Tatoo, said goodbye and (idiots that we are) let a black guy and a drunk, disgusting kraut drive us to the airport for 15$. We waited until departure and left the USA without any hassle. We were sorry, of course, but we were dying to get home.
The boring flight went smoothly, the only fun was the stopover in Iceland. For five minutes outside we even got a stamp in our passports.
19.9.1994 Monday - Luxembourg
We landed in Luxembourg on Mon. at 10:00. For a long time we couldn't catch a ride, we only got moving around noon. We puttered along a few kilometres at a time in loads of cars. (a young kid in an Audi, he spoke better English than us, a fussy fool with an Opel Kadett who went about 50km out of his way for us at midnight, a queer in a Vectra, a young guy in an Astra 1.8, Slovenians in a Tipo and a Golf).
20.9.1994
Around four in the morning we called it a day about 80km from the border, I called home. Until 7 we slept in the train station waiting room, then we pushed on. (a young guy in a Mercedes, a Czech in an old Škoda whose Ford Probe had been stolen).
We crossed the border around 11:00. Just past the border a guy in a truck heading for Damascus picked us up. He dropped us off all the way in Prague.
