Please sir, I want s'mores!!

Sorry for the delay guys, I had no signal at our Pennsylvania camp on Wednesday, and yesterday was just far too busy! We have had such an incredible two days. We fell quite easily into our departure ritual of tents packed up and bags out by the trailer by 7am, breakfast until 7:30, group effort to pack the trailer, and off by 8am. 

Our first stop in quaint little Pennsylvania was the Gettysburg Battlefield and the various fields around it. I think the thing that moved me the most was the military cemetery. It was just an endless expanse of small white perfectly placed headstones, hundreds of which are unmarked because they couldn't identify all the soldiers. An interesting fact about Gettysburg - the bodies of the soldiers lay around in the battlefields for four months before the cemetery was built and they were finally buried. As we drove through Pennsylvania, I kept my eyes peeled for bears and Amish peoples, but saw no bears, and only one (very liberal) Amish couple. I say liberal because they left (much to my disappointment) in a car, instead of a horse cart. Boo. 

Our camp site in Pennsylvania was GORGEOUS. Lush, green and right on the edge of a beautiful lake. A far cry from the power line and highway we camped next to in DC. We pitched our tents looking out over the lake, then spent the afternoon drinking beers and tossing around a football, which I'm starting to get the hang of :) and in the evening we got our big surprise from Anita... A genuine American barbecue at her parents' house!! It was so fantastic. They are lovely people and have a beautiful little house nestled at the base of a forest, with panoramic views all around. They have the cutest little puppy. She's an Australian red healer and she kept us entertained for hours. Her name is Spiffy :) We also played a game called ladderball, which involves six sets of golf balls. You have a thin rope about 30cm long, with a golf ball attached to each end (so essentially, for lack of a better way to describe it, you have golf ball nun-chucks) and each team gets three of these. One member of each team stands at opposite ends of the playing area, behind a broad "ladder" with three rungs. You then toss the balls across to the ladder on the other side and try to get them to hang on the ladder. Top rung is three points, middle is two, bottom is one, first team to 21 wins. So much fun! We ate the most amazing burgers - without doubt the best meal I've had since I arrived - and then they made a huge fire that we sat around (I felt like I was home) and then we made s'mores! There are no words except yum yum yum yum yum! Their marshmallows are funny shaped though. Towards the end of the evening, her sister and her sister's boyfriend arrived. They may as well have been aliens for the similarities between them and Anita and her parents who are so humble and cultured and simply lovely.

It was our first encounter with genuine redneck Americans. We weren't actually sure what to do! I'm not kidding. Most of us just stopped talking and sat and listened, silently dying inside from laughter because it was just such an unexpected cliche to encounter. Unfortunately not a good reflection of the American education system and way of life - they thought England was in France, Australia was in America and that the Beatles were American because they had the Beatles on their iPod so they had to be American. At this point the Pommies in our group discreetly walked away from the fire to laugh themselves silly. Despite their "America is the world" attitude, they were nice people. I also FINALLY tasted beef jerky. It is NOTHING like biltong. If I had to describe it, I would say it tastes like hard, dry, smoked pork. Biltong is way better!!!! :)

The next day, off we went to Niagara Falls! Probably the stop we all looked forward to most. It didn't disappoint :) Niagara Falls is actually made up of three separate waterfalls. The first we saw was the Horseshoe Falls - the one in all the movies :) it is mind blowing to see the size of these falls. For your interest: 2500 liters of water falls over the edge EVERY SECOND! There is a constant cloud of spray hanging around in front of the Falls. The Horseshoe Falls is the one that is shared between America and Canada, the other two are on the American side. They are the American Falls and the Bridal Veil. We then went on the Maid of the Mist boat (the one in Bruce Almighty, for those who have seen it) right under the mist coming off the Falls... Got slightly damp :) but what we did next was just awesome. We did the Cave of the Winds tour. Basically, you pay lots of moola to walk up the rocks right under the Bridal Veil and get completely drenched. And it is worth every penny!!! The strength of that water is unbelievable. You can't stand still when it is pounding you. It felt like standing in a mini hurricane. That was the most amazing experience I've had in America so far!

After our soaking, we headed out to watch a high school baseball game and dry off in the breeze. The home team won, after three extra innings for each team! Apparently it's a big deal :) finally, we headed to camp and within minutes, our tents were all set up and we were cooking supper (real tacos!). So yummy. After supper, we headed back to Niagara Falls and saw them all lit up and colourful. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, while most of the group headed into Canada to get the better view (the Horseshoe Falls face the Canadian river bank) some of us had to stay on the American side because our work visas would be invalid if we left the country. But luckily it was the young cool group from the back of the bus (Jake, Simon, Hannah and me) so we had loads of fun by ourselves :) 

Today is our road trip day. We are making the long trek from Niagara Falls to Berkshire, so we are armed with wifi in the van (ten points America!) and a fairly reasonable playlist, and we're off! Still getting used to the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing! It feels so weird! Sam and Jordy are looking for Yankees tickets (baseball) for us for the game on Wednesday. Having an absolute blast guys! Hope you're enjoying my stories :) 

See you tomorrow in Boston! 

Stay classy c",)