FAMILY DINING = NO BEER

Pennsylvania. Dutch Country. And home of family dining. We found it a bit tricky getting food AND beer in the same location until we stumbled across a little mexican place that was happy to serve us cervezas with our enchiladas and nachos. The next day we skipped to the far more agreeable state of Ohio. We passed through some amazing places. Our favourite, Cincinatti. Home town of the Afghan Wigs, they naturally provided the 'volume-to-11' soundtrack that accompanied our wide-screen-windscreen visual. Drive over a bridge and you're in Kentucky. A little over half an hour later and you're in the backwoods passing riverside trailer homes. Feels a million miles from the industrialised big city we just left. The next major metropolis we hit was Louisville, home of the Louisville Slugger - either official bat of major league baseball since 1884 or Muhammed Ali. It's a city we fear may well be on it's way to genericville. The downtown area has some hold outs but so much has been sanitised and cleansed of character. We went in search of an old time diner but came away empty stomached. So drove on to Indiana. There we were initiated into the White Castle. A place that serves eensy little burgers that you purchase by the sackload. Not quite up to American Serving Suggestion sizes yet, we opted to forgo the sack, which worked out just fine. We made the most of the last hours of daylight in New Albany, a town with some beautiful buildings in the downtown area, but with the wave of a developer's wad that could all change, and sure enough a new complex is under construction on the waterfront. We're now in Evansville, staying at a hotel that gives you free beer when you check in. Indiana rules.