Around The World In 80 Waves

Big shout out to my sister on her birthday:

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Sarah

Happy birthday to you!

Bradley Wiggans I am not, but Steve lends me a bike which I take for a trek down to the shore after finally sorting thing with Vodafone. I am out on it for two and a half hours looking to see if there is any surf on the Atlantic coast. The entire seaforont from Sandy Hook to Sea Bright has been absolutely trashed by Hurricane Sandy. The place in the picture is a leisure complex called driftwood which is just about all it is good for. However many other buildings have been completely wiped off the map and turned to splinters.

Every business is closed so there is no chance of hiring a board. There is a wave here and it looks ok until you realise that it is indeed a seagull in the foreground, so the inability to lay my hands on a board isn’t an issue. I take my shoes and socks off and have a quick paddle so that I have at least got wet in the Atlantic on this trip.

I am staying for a few days in Red Bank, New Jersey with Lisa, Steve, Max and Grace only by virtue of the fact that Lisa used to be the owner of one of the other flats in my block in London. Having exchanged little more than hellos on the way to and from work over a decade ago I am shown unbelievable kindness and welcomed into their beautiful home. I am fed and watered for free, as well as being taken out for drinks and introduced to John and Rick some local surfers. What a wonderful time.

I can’t thanks them enough for the time spent here, which allows me to catch up on myself and see a bit more of America which isn’t on the Tourist trail. Beautiful people.

See all the cities I missed in my drunken stupor on the way into the Capital

• Baltimore
• Philadelphia
• Newark
• Trenton

Vodafone are rubbish. Phone still not right! May just give up on trying to amend my voicemail message on the UK number. It would be easier and far more entertaining to throw $5 bills out of a cab window as it takes me accross town.

Have gone to the T-Mobile shop off Times Square and bought myself a SIM card to use for the next couple of months. If you want to get hold of me give me a ring or send a text to +1-646-236-1407

Is not the first thing I look for on a menu, but after four days in the states I am craving vitamins. I’m joined on my table in the hostel by a group of Greenpeace staff in town for training on settling up regional fundraising centres. They have been catered for and kindly offer me the spare food. Piles of carrots, salad, rice and a healthy helping of tofu curry later I feel like a new man. Vegetable Rights and Peas!

It isn’t widely known that Barack Obama is a surfer. He likes to catch a few waves whenever he goes back to see his family in Hawaii. I consider asking him if there is any chance of converting Iran into an indoor heated wave pool once he has finished with it, but don’t think he would be up for it so let it go.

Washington’s National Cathedral was only finished in the 1980s. At the tail end of construction a competition was held to design some gargoyles. One of the winning suggestions was to use Darth Vader’s head so they carved it out of limestone and installed it. Another space connection there is the piece of moon rock built into one of the stained glass windows.

http://www.nationalcathedral.org/about/darthVader.shtml

There are an awful lot of war memorials in DC. I check out the national shrine of Arlington National Cemetery.

If the effects of the night before hadn’t worn off already, visiting was certainly a sobering experience. The scale of the place is staggering and there are at least 25 additional residents every day. Tombstones as far the eye can see with a few major memorials such as the graves of JFK and his brother Bobby dotted in amongst them. I see five funerals with full military honours while I am there.

There is a letter from Mikhail Kalashnikov proudly displayed at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier which seems a little odd because his handiwork is probably responsible for half of those laid to rest in Arlington.

By chance I stumble across the grave of the great Joe Louis former heavyweight champion of the world known as The Brown Bomber.

Later by the Lincoln Memorial where you will find the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial I think about how many lives were lost trying to conquer both countries, when I am just breezing through both later on my travels.

I am still not sober when we pull in to Union Station, and for some reason nobody wanted the seat next to me on the trip. Cab to the hostel to dump my bags and then enjoy being chauffeured around the US capitol by a tour company with narration to save me any effort at all.

• Ford Theatre (where Abraham Lincoln was shot)
• Pentagon
• Capitol Buildings
• Supreme Court
• FBI Headquarters
• Department of Treasury
• All the Smithsonian Museums (gutted not to have enough time to be able to hold a piece of Moon rock exhibited in the Air and Space museum.)
• Library of Congress
• Jefferson Memorial
• Lincoln Memorial
• Washington Monument
• Site of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan
• Embassy District (frightening half the passengers with a Wooo-Hooo at the British Embassy)
• Georgetown