Spent the last few days going around looking for a van to drive in, and found one that seems to be quite good. It’s a 1990 Ford Econoline E-150. It’s hardly a convertible with the wind in our hair, but it does have a few other features such as a television and VCR. Oh yeah, we’re driving in style, baby! It is definitely more upmarket than anything I was envisioning before we arrived, but the price difference between this vehicle and a piece of rubbish on wheels is not very much, so that’s why we spent a bit more. As per the Law of Frustrations, it was in the first yard we looked in, so we could have stopped as soon as we began.

We did find a rather sleazy dealer in one yard, but we’re not buying from him. He was all about getting us to sign to buy a car when we were still saying “well, the automatic transmission sounds awful”. Would we like to sign, predicated on the deal that they would fix it? Well, no, not really since it was more expensive still than another van we were looking at. Oh, well, would we like to sign anyway, since it was non-binding? Well, why would we sign if it was non-binding? What were we signing? Oh, nothing binding, we were told. We told him it was not a big deal then and there was no need to sign. As soon as he heard that, he was walking off and not interested in the slightest with dealing with us.

We took the van we’re interested in to a mechanic to look over it, which cost US$17.39 and there are a couple of things with the brakes that need to be taken care of, but they should not be too expensive, so it seems worth it. We managed to get the price of the van down from US$6,995 to US$5,000, and with all the extra charges, it comes to about US$5,500.

Getting insurance has been a nightmare here, since most companies do not accept the Aussie insurance details we have when dealing with them over the phone. If anyone reading this ever finds themselves in a similar situation, be sure to go into an office rather than trying over the phone. We rang AllState on the phone and they quoted us US$857, but when we went into the office, we went through it again and got it down to US$453. Mind you, that’s hardly cheap since that is only a 6 month policy. When you work out that I paid about AUD$400 for my car insurance last year, and this works out to about AUD$1800 per year, I could pay for four years insurance in Australia with the money a one year policy would cost me here.

Speaking of insurance, you have no idea how easy us Aussies have it with organising car insurance. We have the choice of 3rd party insurance, which covers the other person if you hit them or comprehensive, which covers everything. Here they have:

• Liability - mandatory in Louisiana, it protects someone if you hit them and cause damage to them and their car. Does not cover your car or you person, and is the equivalent of 3rd party in Australia.
• Uninsured Motorist - pays for damage to you and your vehicle if someone hits you and they do not have insurance, either because they are not following Louisiana law or because they come from a state where insurance is not mandatory.
• Collision - covers your vehicle if you hit someone.
• Comprehensive - covers your vehicle if someone breaks into it, or steals it, or a tree falls on it, or you back into a pole. Is not the same as comprehensive cover in Australia, where comprehensive covers everything covered under uninsured motorist, collision and comprehensive categories in the US.

Everything is, of course, very expensive, and complex to figure out. We walked into the All State office 15 minutes before it closed and ended up taking two and a half hours to sort it all out. It took so much effort to do a credit check on us since we have no bank accounts in Australia, no social security numbers, no credit history in the US and no identities, so far as the computer is concerned.

It makes things a bit annoying since we have to pay a higher rate since there is no way to prove we have excellent credit, so we get put into the “acceptable” credit category and pay slightly more. Still, the person we dealt with put in a real effort, so if you’re ever going to insure a car in Slidell, Louisiana, you might like to look up Mike Neely of AllState Insurance. A very helpful fellow, to the point where it was 8:15pm when we finished, and we walked out to find it raining, so he drove us back to Jenny’s house so we did not get wet.

Speaking of getting around, we’ve been worrying Angelus with the fact we’re happy to just walk down to the shops and around the neighbourhood. It’s only a two minute walk to the supermarket, but we get looked at like we’re crazy when we say we’re going to walk. The distance between the insurance office and the apartment is perhaps 800m (2400ft), and I had to go back to the apartment in the middle of the quote since we needed another piece of documentation. Angelus offered to drive me back around and shook his head sadly when I said I was fine to get back on foot.

Other things we’ve found out that are different in the US so far:

• a medium sized fast food meal in the US is a large size in Australia
• cheese can be put on any food to make it awful
• drinks here are enormously sized - a 32oz (950mls) is not considered large
• toilets still have too much water in them
• the host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in the US is nowhere near as annoying as the host of the same show in Australia, and he does not hold up the proceedings with the same time-stalling tactics, but really keeps the show moving fast
• there are about 1000 channels of cable television and there is nothing on when we watch it
• advertising on television is almost always either for a lawyer or for some form of prescription pill that will stop you urinating when you don’t want to, or make those nasty painful rashes in your groin disappear, or make you lose 400kgs of excess weight in 20 minutes or less

Finally, Diana does not like being on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road. I, on the other hand, seem to be taking the change not too badly, although I have already turned onto the left side of the road once already. Luckily there was no traffic about to hit us, so it was not a big deal. Bit embarrassing though.

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I realise there have been very few updates on the road over the past few days, but let’s just move on and try to put that behind us. I won’t be boring you all stupid with a bloody long email for each day, but instead will try to cover the last couple of weeks in one email. Yes, it might be long. Deal with it.

In the middle of the IGC in Brazil, there was a period of four days in the middle where there were no presentations. Instead of taking the official tours, Di and I hooked up with Stephen Hall (from the UK) and David Barker (a Kiwi now in the US) and we went to the Itatiaia National Park between Sao Paulo and Rio. The park is a small area of Atlantic rainforest (only 2% remaining in the world) and we hoped to see some wildlife while there. We saw a couple of different types of monkeys, as well as brilliant bright blue butterflies as large as our heads. We even saw a transparent butterfly, which was a horrible thing to try and photograph because there was nothing to focus on. On top of that, we saw a few toucans which were darker in colour than we expected. Nothing like Sam of Fruit Loop fame.

The congress ended, and we departed Brazil for the US. Had the exit row all the way back (after a few words to the American Airlines staff about how we’d hate to have to write up another bad report on our popular travel website…*grin*) and it was lovely. The seats in front of us were legally unable to recline due to FAA regulations (might block the aisle) so it was great. Landed in Dallas on top, then met up with Jenny in New Orleans. With bright pink hair, she made us very worried about people we’re likely to meet after knowing them only through the internet. Turned out to be a wig - phew!

Been staying with Jenny and her two roommates Jeff and Angelus over the last few days. Hopefully we’ll be moving on soon, not because we don’t like them, but because we’re sure they want their living room free of Aussies once more. Been having a blast here with the Mardi Gras - kicks butt over Aussie parades! For all the Melbournites, you have to come here at some time and do it. I mean, we have Moomba, but that is so dull and non-violent. Watching people fighting over beads is hilarious and a lot of fun to participate in. Yes, since Diana will probably tell you at some point anyway, I did smack some girl in the face with the back of my hand while diving through the crowd in pursuit of beads. I personally think the girl was mean for slapping my hand with her face, but either way, it stung my hand for several minutes, so her face must have been feeling it too.

We went to a parade in Slidell, as well as one in New Orleans, but did not bother to go in on the day of the big celebrations (Feb 27th). We decided we were paraded out, and collected enough beads to weigh down a small ship, so it was best to leave them for others. At the Slidell parade, it was considered a small one and not that good, but realistically, it was fantastic for us. Diana spent a large portion of the night gulping down a 32oz (950ml) strawberry daiquiri while I went with beers. Yes, in a real twist, not only have I drunk beer in Brazil, but I’ve found that Bud Light beer is quite tasty too. Not tasty enough to drink in preference to Coke, but it’s drinkable.

SPOTD at the Slidell parade was a drunken 15yo girl in front of us who deserved a good smack in the head for her behaviour that is typical of the “juvenile drunk” description. At one stage an older woman offered to punch her in the head but there was not such luck as it turned out. SPOTD at the New Orleans parade was Jeff who got drunk, had a hissy fit, and ran away with the car keys in his pocket, so we had to search the while city for him. Luckily there are very few people in the New Orleans area at Mardi Gras time - NOT! Took us almost three hours to find him.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
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