The Falls in Buffalo and the Toe-Tapping in Nashville

The hostel I had found myself in was awesome! It was decorated in a very funky yet informative way, so that you would be draw to something odd on the wall and come out of the experience knowing something new about the city of Buffalo. I had been placed in a 12 sleeper co-ed dorm which actually made no difference as most of the time you wouldn't find yourself in the room, and if you did, everyone pretty much kept to themselves.

When I finally woke up, I tore myself out of bed and headed to the lobby to officially check in. I then packed my backpack for the day and headed off to the bus station to catch the number 40 bus to Niagara falls! This journey had two intentions behind it: firstly to see the Falls, and secondly to cross the boarder to Canada, come back into the USA and switch from a work visa to a tourist visa. 

I arrived at the Niagara State Park and decided to get my visa sorted out first, before going and enjoying the view, so I missioned in pursuit of Canada! All business. I found a sign pointing left to the park and right to Canada, and I smiled at the idea that it was all so close! I went right and found the little unmanned gate; no one was stopping me from leaving the country and it was so easy to do so. I literally walked into Canada and allowed myself my first view of the falls from the bridge between the two countries.

It was breath taking. 

Absolutely beautiful.
Gorgeous.
Incredible.

I allowed myself some time to take in the view then headed back to America to sort out my visa. I didn't actually have a visa to enter Canada, so I walked back across the bridge and into the customs office, and was lucky enough to get an officer with a big smiling face who was happy to help me switch my status. I walked back into the US, officially a tourist, a little sad but excited for the journey ahead.
I entered Niagara State Park for a second time that day, and walked the place flat! I tried to get a closer look at the Falls, and managed to, but it was nothing like to magnificent view I had managed to snag from the bridge. I was pretty lucky in that way, and the reason being that the water comes from the American side so you can't truly see the full picture from the park, but you can get much closer to the water! I stood above the Falls and watched the tour boats take willing victims into the splash zone of the water, but what was really cool, is that the Canadians boats called "The Hornblower" were all blue, and the American boats called "The Maid of the Mist" were all in red.

I spent the next few days organizing my life, planning my trip, and sending stuff home that I no longer needed. I took some time to explore the town a bit, but mostly I found it to be somewhat boring and lacking in things to do. I was there for a total of 4 days and so, before I knew it, I was making my way to the bus station once again, this time headed to Nashville, Tennessee.

This trip was to take me 18 hours, and I found it to be filled with dodge stop points, sketchy pick ups of small parties and questionable morals, and busses filled with odd people. One guy I found myself sitting next to would not stop talking to me. Now it's late, I'm tired, Taken is playing on the TV screens and I would much rather be watching that than attempt to make small talk with this smelly guy who is talking under his breath and swallowing his words. I think he got the hint, as he said nothing more to me until, my favorite quote came from his lips: "Do I smell like marajuana?" 

Yes, yes he did. And in that moment everything made sense. 

At the next stop, I switched seats and attempted to get some sleep.

I finally arrived in Nashville and hopped into the car of a lovely lady named Tanja, who's family I would be staying with for the next 10 days.

The Cloete family was a South African family who moved to the USA 10 years ago. Marc and  Tanja owned both a successful company and a beautiful home, and had two sons: Cameron who was 16, and Logan who was 12 and my newest buddy. 

On the first day of my Tennessee adventure, I stayed at the house, soaking up the wifi, food, Netflix and hospitality. When Cameron and Logan came home, Cam had to go to work so Logan and I entered into an epic Pool and Table Tennis tournament, which I promptly won, to his surprise! I was treated to a home made dinner which was something I didn't know I missed as much as I did, until I had it again. 

The next day Logan and I headed downtown with Marc and Tanja as they had a stand at The Home Show. The event was perfectly placed for some exploring, and so we set off into the city, Logan showing me the way to the best spots on Broadway street. 

The "strip", so to speak, of Nashville, was pumping! Bars and restaurants were overflowing with football fans, who were awaiting the game that was to be played at the stadium at the end of the street later that day. We walked around the area, stopping in every crazy store along the way! The things you could find here were so wacky and wild, most cannot be mentioned in a blog post. I will say that you could get anything from Cowboy boots to boob shaped cups and everything in between! We found ourselves in some famous locations such as The Hard Rock Cafe and Margaritaville, and I'm some not so famous places, which were such fun to explore!  We stopped for some Ice Creme before heading back to the convention centre, and collecting all of the free candy we could get our hands on! We then went to dinner at Jason's Deli where Cameron had just started work, and terrorized him for awhile: such fun!

Over the next few day we had a few more adventures, like one day, Logan came home and we waited with baited breath for the mail to arrive. He had ordered an Eno, which is essentially a fancy camping hammock, that is all the rage over here at the moment. The truck finally pulled up and he ran out the front door, grabbed his package and ran back to the room I was in to open it. We then decided to take a walk through the area, up past all the houses, and into the forest that surrounded the area, to try out this new toy! 

We found a beautiful spot between two trees and set up the Eno, which proved to be a little tougher than expected. Once we got it up, though, it was worth the journey and the struggle as we then spent the next hour lying in it and relaxing, soaking up the surroundings. Another great day was when Logan taught me how to solve a Rubix Cube in 30 minutes! That became my new favorite pastime, solving it, and again, and again.

On one fine day, Marc took me out on his BMW motorbike, and we drove through the country side: it was beautiful. The wide open spaces, the rolling hills, the cotton fields, the magnificent houses, it all felt like something from a wonderful dream. We were gone about an hour and a half, and came home to a delicious dinner.

The next day was my favorite, and I will tell you why in two words: Jason Mraz. We went to see him perform at the Reimen Auditorium, which was so beautiful. It used to be an opera house so you can imagine the look and the acoustics in there were phenomenal! He gave a fantastic show, and nearly brought me to tears when he played "I won't give up". It was such a perfect end to this chapter of my trip.

The next morning I packed my stuff into the car, and Tanja drove me to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye to this family, I really liked them and they made me feel so at home. The next stop, however, was Las Vegas, and the excitement was starting to build... 

Florida to Philadelphia Road Trip

The road trip to Philadelphia was going to take 20 hours.
We piled into the car and prepared for the long journey ahead of us. We had pillows, blankets, iPods, a huge cooler box of food and drinks and the determination of 7 young travelers!
We drove and drove, crossing state line after state line, hours slowly dripping away as the kilometers disintegrated beneath our tires.

Sandra drove the entire day with Asad as her right hand man, and so the rest of us slept, only waking for food and bathroom breaks - which were frequent. Amir drove all night and it was my job to keep him sharp and awake. We kept ourselves busy by engaging in intellectual, in depth conversations until about 4am when my resolve faded and I was doing all I could to keep my own eyes open, let alone Amir's! My saving grace was Asad who woke up and claimed to not be able to sleep. He took over my post and I closed my eyes. I awoke about 7 minutes later to a torrential rain storm that made both seeing and driving impossible! We pulled over into a mall parking lot and attempted to wait the storm out.

We woke up the next morning when the sunlight flooded the car. We had just accidentally spent the night in a parking lot and we were now 8 hours behind schedule! We traded drivers and continued our mission to Philly! A few hours later, we pulled up to the largest outlet mall in the state! We all but ran out of the car and into the food hall where we all scoffed down huge delicious burgers. After lunch we all split up and scoured the mall for deals and steals! Amir and I tore it up and went to all the fancy shops first, defiantly underdressed and looking a little scruffy after sleeping in a car and not having had a shower in a long time. We found a few places to spend a bit of money and then met up with the family again. I had my last dinner with them at a cute little diner that served horrible food, after which we had another 3 hour drive until we truly parted ways.

They were going to drop me at my hostel in Buffalo, New York, and then cross the border into Canada and head home to Toronto. We followed the GPS off the interstate and to the address my hostel had given me. We ended up in the most sketchy neighborhood I had seen yet and saw no sign of the hostel. I called the front desk, after hours, and was relieved when someone answered! We were in the wrong zip code and had another 30 minute drive into downtown, both a blessing and a cure as I was so happy to not be sleeping where we were currently but frustrated and somewhat embarrassed that we had further to go. It was 2am and we were all exhausted!

We pulled up to the top of my street because, of course, it was closed to street traffic, and said my final goodbyes to everyone. It was sad saying bye to the brothers: Asad, Areef and Ateef, they were a lot of fun.
Amir walked me and all my bags to the lobby and we said our goodbyes with the promise of seeing each other soon back in SA!
I found my room card and linens left for me on the front counter, and slowly made my way up to my room, dropped my bags and fell into bed, finally. I was so grateful to the family for seeing me there safely, and to the hostel for allowing me such a late check in. There were many things that could have gone so wrong, and many people who could have turned their back on me, and none of them did. What a great feeling it was!

Walt Disney World!

I bussed down from North Carolina to Florida which was needed but a big mistake. The trip itself took 20 hours, 20 very long hours.
From NC I went to Greenville, South Carolina and had a 5 hour layover there. Now, Greenville is a nice place but the area I was in was sort of sub par and it was as hot as anything! I had time to kill so I ended up spending most of my time in Walmart and then went out to search for food. I then spent the remainder of my time at Zaxbys, which is basically really good KFC, and later walked back to the bus station. I absolutely looked like a homeless person: I was carrying my walmart bags and my backpack down the side of the main road, with my Nike track suit pants rolled up to my knees, sweating, aimlessly walking around and singing to myself under my breath to pass the time... No shame.
I then made my way down to Atlanta, Georgia where the bus station was located in the most dodge block I have ever seen. If I am not mistaken, there was a prison across the road. I had a 3 hour layover there but I was not going anywhere! I then headed through a few more towns and stops but they were all short lived, until I finally made to to Orlando at 4.45am.

I Facebook Messaged my Canadian friend Amir, who was picking me up, to let him know I had arrived but I saw that he hadn't been online for 9 hours, I began to worry... I knew his phone would only work on Wifi as he was as much a foreigner as I was, so I did my best to stay calm. I waited an hour and still no reply. I then Messaged a mutual friend of mine and his, who was thankfully awake at 6am on a Saturday, and asked him for Amir's parent's numbers as I had no way of getting hold of them and the number Amir had given me for his mother was incorrect! We finally got a hold of the numbers and I texted them both as it was still so early and I didn't want to be rude.
I was freaking out a bit at this point but luckily the station had wifi and I skyped my parents, asking for advice. Nothing like mom and dad! They calmed me down and set be back on track by reminding me that it was early, they had probably overslept, that I was safe, I had the hotel address and that I could probably get a cab there if push came to shove. I was not going to be stranded, which was my main concern. I hung up with my parents and there was still no reply from either of the texts so I decided to call the numbers. Of course, my phone is out of airtime.
I go over to a public phone and use the last of my coins to attempt to get hold of someone and, of course, the phone swallows the coins. I'm beginning to loose my cool.
I go up to a station security guard, almost in tears, tell him what has happened and ask if I could please use a phone to make a call. He was very sympathetic and took me to his office.

Both of the numbers rang through and I awkwardly left a message on each line, asking if someone was coming to pick me up. I then sat in the station with no answers for another hour until, finally, my phone rang! It was Amir's dad, I breathed a sigh of relief. He informed me that he wasn't with them, and that the family wasn't even in Florida yet but that he had called the hotel and informed them that I was coming so I could check in before the family. I was so grateful to have an answer and a plan moving forward! I thanked him profusely for his help and hopped into a cab.

I arrived at Vacation Village and it was beautiful! I went up to my hotel room and just relaxed! At this point it was 1pm and I hadn't slept in goodness knows how long! I took a well-deserved nap and an amazing shower when I woke up!
The family arrived at 6pm.
I was expecting Amir, his mom and his brother but had no idea that there were also the twins and another family with them! It was great! I was introduced to everyone and helped them all unpack the cars and get settled. Let me break this down:
There was Amir, the oldest brother at 19 and one of two people I had actually met before. There was Sandra, his mother, Asad his brother of 16 years old whom I had also met before in Canada, and the twins Ateef and Areef who were 13 and full of crazy antics! The adjoining room was filled with a grandmother, a mother, and 3 "kids" aged 23, 19 and 14. Basically it was a bunch of youngsters and 3 adults in 2 rooms for 5 days. We all headed out to Pizza Hut for a midnight dinner and then collapsed into bed.

The first part of our adventure began the next day at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom! It was great to be back and I surprised everyone, including myself, by having the park memorized from my trip there at 10 years old, and by knowing where everything was. It was great and everyone was very happy having me as their personal GPS. We had a fantastic day riding the classics such as Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Stitch's Great Escape, The Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Monster's Inc Laugh Floor!
The Laugh Floor was particularly fun, it's basically an animated, improvised stand up comedy show, and both Asad and I were featured in it! The highlight of the day was the incredible firework show that happens at Cinderella's Castle. It was a dream come true to see, as 10 year old Vicky could not say awake long enough to see it, and totally missed it.
During the day I had been texting Caroline saying that I wish she was with me, and before I knew it we had made a spontaneous plan for her to come join us!
She arrived the next "morning" at 2am and it was the best surprise ever! I could not believe that she bussed for 2 hours to see me! She had no classes for the next few days, just by chance, and her college in Gainesville was far closer than I realized, so it all worked perfectly.
We went upstairs and I introduced her to the gang!

The next morning I was in the best of moods, and we all headed out to Hollywood Studios! Again, I remembered most of the park but Hollywood Studios is not as ride orientated and more focused on entertainment. We headed straight for the Rock 'n' Roller coaster and the Tower of Terror! two of my favorite rides in the world. I recall my father bribing me with gifts to go on the Tower of Terror with him as a tot; it worked and I am still so happy that he managed to trick me! We ran around the park like 5 year olds, eating Micky Mouse Ice Creme and hitting rides like Star Wars Star Tours. We headed back to the hotel after dinner and the firework show and all hung out until bed time.

The next day, the family was heading down to Miami so Caroline and I made Mac 'n' Cheese for breakfast, then left for the Millennium Mall. We spent the day window shopping and went to lunch at Chick-fil-A. It was an amazing day somehow, so simple yet such fun. We went back to the hotel at about 10pm and watched movies till we fell asleep.

The family arrived back at 3am so we had a late start to the day, but headed to the Nike factory store which was right outside our hotel. I may have spent some money, maybe.
We then left for Epcot which is Disney's educational park. It features rides such as Spaceship Earth, Mission Space (which is a Spaceship simulator), and Test Track! It also features an around the world section which is basically a path that runs around a huge lake, that is divided into countries, each section being completely themed with shops, rides and restaurants. We took a trip around the world and decided to go home and have dinner there. We ended up have a spontaneous dance party, the parents in one room and all us youngsters in the other, it was such fun!

The next day was our last park-day and we spent it at The Animal Kingdom!
I was particularly pumped about this one as I had never been!
We walked straight to Africa, typical. Only I could go all the way to America, just to end up back in Africa!
It was really cool and very well done. There were shebeens everywhere and Kenyan music being performed on stage. We headed to the African Safari ride which was such fun. You get in a 4x4 truck, drive all across the "continent" and see real live animals. Its quite impressive! We saw Lion, Elephant, Giraffe, Zebra, Kudu, Flamingo and many more, more than you would ever see on a game drive!
It felt a little like inception: I was an African, in America, in Africa, with Americans and Canadians.
Then we walked over to Asia but on our way a huge storm came out of nowhere and we all scattered to get out of the rain. Thing is, we got separated and Caroline and I found ourselves seeking shelter in the line of the ride called Expedition Everest, which is an intense roller coaster up Mount Everest. We got to the front of the line and had our hearts broken when we were informed that the ride had been closed due to lightning, and that apparently, the storm had been seen past the Gulf of Mexico. We hung our heads and ran through the downpour to Dinosaur land USA for lunch. We ate our kiddies meals and waited for the rain to lighten up a bit, and when it did we ran back to Asia to see if Expedition Everest had opened up - it hadn't. We made our way over to Discovery Island, still in the rain, where we finally found the family and all went back to Dinosaur Land USA to find any ride still operating. We came across a miracle: dinosaur time travel was up and running, a kiddies ride but goodness was it amazing fun!
Last, but most certainly not least, we found the epic indoor ride that is "Dinosaur." You are in a 4x4 and on a team of scientists who are alive during the time of the dinosaurs. You have to drive around and find a certain Dino but as you are out there, a meteor shower hits! The adrenalin is intense and when the ride came to a close, we convinced the operators to let us go again!
We arrived back at the hotel, got changed and showered for our last dinner all together. We went to The Golden Coral which is an all you can eat buffet, and you know we ate that place to the ground. We went back to the hotel and passed out; we were all so full.
The next morning I got up early to take Caroline to the bus stop and said goodbye to my best friend again. I went back to the room, we packed the cars, went to breakfast then stared our road trip journey to Pennsylvania!

The Henderson County Young Leaders Program

The Henderson County Young Leadership Program is completely different to anything I have ever done. It is a leadership camp for kids in the county of Hendersonville who may not have the financial means to come to camp. They get to go as a reward for doing well in the program and it is a week long, Co-Ed camp that is sort of "renting out" Camp Ton-A-Wandah.

Because it is a completely different camp, we all had to report to Orientation the morning of the kid's arrival. It was so strange to walk into little Rec with half the staff being male counselors. In fact, it was surreal. The boys immediately brought a new energy to camp and the fun began! We played some get to know you games and then sat down with the camp coordinators to discuss the program. We learnt that the days were going to be structured a little differently, with two hours in the morning dedicated to leadership workshops and then four one-hour long activity periods. There was also a "word of the day" that was to be presented every morning and was to be aspired to each day. The entire concept was golden and I knew right away that this camp was going to be completely different to anything I had ever done.

Jourdan and I were Co-Cos again but with the addition of a third Musketeer: Candice. We were placed in Walnut cabin and had a group of eight 10 year olds. They were all such sweet girls who were all so excited to be at camp and all so grateful, polite, well mannered and well behaved. They answered everything with "yes ma'am" and it was so cute!

I was placed in charge of teaching these crazy kids karate and again the boys brought such an energy to the one hour classes, that we powered through everything at an extreme pace! I also taught kayaking with a guy named Ethan. He was great! He is a Harvard University graduate and had also been working at a camp all summer. He and I had fun trading camp games and ideas and he even came with the greatest kayaking adventure of the summer!

We organized with camp to get a huge box of candy. We then put all the kids in their kayaks and headed off on a lake wide, single file paddling trip. We then beached on a man made island close to shore and went on a little hike into the woods where we sat in a circle on the ground. We then brought out the Skittles and each person drew out two candies of differing colours. Each colour represented a question you had to answer about yourself. Things like "What is your biggest fear", "what is your fondest memory", "what is your most embarrassing moment" or "who is your hero". It was the most incredible game and the most incredible two classes. Those kids have so much depth and what made it even better is that we played in the pouring rain and it didn't break anyone's spirit, in fact it lifted everyone's! It's a memory I will have for the rest of my life.

The highlight of the week was the camp wide White Water Rafting trip! We all piled into busses and headed to Tennessee toward the mighty Pigeon river: a class 4 river rapid! We were assigned to boats with 4 campers, 1 counselor and 1 guide. Our guide was named Jordan and was great fun! He was only 20 years old and his and my humor were so alike that we kept scaring all the kids with our jokes. At one point, he and I pretended we were going to flip the boat, but he was so committed to playing along that he actually hung off the side of the raft and lifted one entire side off the water! High!
We were also allowed to hop out of the boat and swim at certain points, I wasn't going to get in the water but Jordan ran at me from the far end of the raft, grabbed me by the life jacket, forward flipped over me, and pulled me into the water! He then had to go rescue the boat and pull us all back in as he had essentially abandoned ship!
It was great fun and I think the kids enjoyed it as much as I did, at least I hope they did!

As the week came to a close it was a tearful goodbye yet again as all the kids climbed into their busses and waved goodbye. We then all went to lunch, received our payments and went our separate ways. This was the last goodbye and it weighed heavily on me.

A few of us were staying one last night. Caroline and I moved into the lodge and asked to use the camp van to go and get some food. We were told yes but we had to do a chore as "payment".
The lake at Ton-A-Wandah disappears underneath the dining hall. Coming off the dining hall and hanging over the lake are about 10 flower pots that have geranium flowers brimming out of them, our job was to water them and pull out all the dead ones. Now the only way to get to these plant pots is by canoe so off we went a-paddling!

The task was a lot harder than expected! We had to juggle between watering the plants, getting close enough to actually do this, not flooding the dinning hall and avoiding the massive spiderwebs and the spiders that lay in them, all the while trying not to tip the canoe! It probably took us 40 minutes to achieve the seemingly simple task and we were absolutely exhausted once we were through.

The next day was the day we had been dreading all summer long: the day we had to part ways. Caroline, Bizzy and I all packed up the car and headed to the airport. It was a sad trip and once we arrived, I walked Caroline in and helped her check her luggage. She was off to Florida, and I was staying one more night. I walked her to the boarding gates and stopped to hug her goodbye. It was the saddest hug I have ever felt but it was filled with so much hope and so much promise. We finally let go and she walked into the boarding zone and out of my sight.

We would see each other's again in two months.

The next day, Bizzy drove me to the station, and I hopped on a bus down to Florida to meet up with my Canadian friend Amir, whom I had met in Montreal at the Karate Commonwealth Tournament last year. His family was going to Walt Disney World and he invited me to tag along!