Goodbye!

Sorry about the rather 'cliffhanger'-style ending to the last entry - have to blame LAX for that one.

Our last day consisted mainly of packing - Adam took a long time to stuff all the 'toot' he'd accumulated on the journey - there was rather a lot. After we checked out of the hotel we headed back to the Grove again, and had a great meal in Cheesecake Factory, where the portions were utterly huge. We went to the cinema again to watch Will Ferrell in Step Brothers, which lightened our mood somewhat before our flight home, and then started the drive to LAX.

This was when our journey in the USA came to an end, and when we said goodbye to our trusted and well-loved friend on this journey - the awesome Mustang that had been with us since day 1. It had been a brilliant car to us, and looked after us so well along the 6000 miles that we completed across country.

Thanks to all those that have been following the blog during our adventure. Who knows, there may be another one in the pipeline.



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Now playing: Foo Fighters - Home
via FoxyTunes

The Last City

It wasn't the first time this trip that we had come to Los Angeles, but it would certainly be the last, as we prepared for the last couple of days stay in the US of A.

After stopping off in Fresno (not much to tell about that place) the previous night after our jaunt into Yosemite, we began the last substantial drive of our road trip. It was bog-standard Interstate fair, and there wasn't much to engage us about the scenery, instead we focused on getting to the City of Angles, and finding a coffee house with free wi-fi so that we could find ourselves the last hotel of our trip, for the final two nights.

We found said coffee house, and had a quick cuppa with a certain Mr Adam Rogers who popped along to send his regards, and we found ourselves a small cheapy hotel called Westside Rentals in Hollywood. After checking in we headed off around movie-central, walking down Hollywood Blvd. where we sampled the many stars littered along the sidewalk, with many a famous name from yesteryear, and present day. Along we went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where we found the whole street cordened off, and a bright red carpet rolled out in-front of the iconic cinema, awaiting the VIPs for the X-Files movie premiere later that day. By this time we were pretty hungry, but luckily we found a great little place in the shopping precinct next door called The Dip, which did excellent lamb sandwiches with gravy for dipping. We enjoyed them muchly!




After our little snack we made the journey in the car to Century City, to do a spot of shopping, and to get ourselves out of the heat for a bit. However, the place did only one thing to impress us, which ended up being the DeLorean parked next our Mustang, but aside from that it was pretty dull, and so we headed back to the hotel to decipher what to do next. The 6 mile journey back took us about 45 minutes due to traffic, but did give us the chance to venture through Beverley Hills once more this trip, which is always entertaining enough.

That night we headed out to The Grove which was everything that Century City wasn't. A stunning place, with interesting shops, good restaurants (we tried the French Steakhouse), a rather nice looking outside area with water features, and even it's own little tram service. Would highly recommend anyone visiting LA to pop along and enjoy this little place. Afterwards we went along to St Nick's Pub and Grill to meet one of Adam's old school friends, Kerry, who is working out here. After a quick Corona with her, we arranged to meet up the following morning to have breakfast near to where she resides.

The next morning we did just that, and popped along for breakfast, and I was surprised to find the berry fruit bowl I ordered from the menu ended up arriving at the table with a mountain of whipped cream on top. I thought I was being healthy too! Adam thought it very funny as he munched on his weird combination of french croissant and omelette.

We said our farewells to the girl Adam hadn't seen since GCSE Physics class, and on her recommendation headed around 60 miles south to Orange County, and Laguna Beach. The weather was glorious, as was the beach itself, and we spent our last full afternoon of the holiday either topping up the tan (me) or snorkeling for sea-shells, getting hit by massive waves, and nearly being decapitated by a small boy on a surfboard (Adam). It was a great beach, and like many places on this trip, is a good location to visit.

The journey back to Hollywood was not a pleasant one, and took us over two hours due the traffic (again!), but once we were back, we weren't going to sit still for long, and we headed up through Griffiths Park, along little windy mountain-side roads up to the Observatory sitting atop Mount Hollywood. This really does give great views of the city, and we alos got to take a peek through the telescope at the star Vega, which was kinda small, white and blurry, but interesting all the same. The long and short of it is that if you want to see great views of LA, and the Hollywood sign, then this is the spot for you.



We made it back down the mountain, and headed out for the last evening meal of the trip, finding a place called Lucky Devils, where we were the lucky ones and enjoyed some of the best burgers we'd had all trip, together with a decent pint of English Ale! All in all a good foody finish to our meal times in America.

And so, the penultimate day of our journey is at an end. There is little more to blog on than us dropping off the car, heading into LAX, and maybe if we're lucky, catching just one more movie at the cinema before we go. So you'd think we'd stop blogging now right? Nope. Stay tuned for more!!!



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Now playing: Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
via FoxyTunes

Park Life

As we approach the end of our month-long drive around the USA, there was one more fabulous scenic drive to complete - around Yosemite National Park. And if it is to be our last experience of the great roads in the USA, then it left us with quite the parting gift.

After departing from San Francisco Bay, we headed East for the first and only time on this trip, and as soon as we were a few miles inland we started to feel the warmth that we'd been missing in 'The City' suddenly envelope us again for the first time since last week. The heat and sunshine had been sorely missed. Down came the roof of the car once more, and we soaked up the rays in the faint hope of garnering a tan before we arrive back in England on the weekend.

Approaching the National Park some 180 miles away, Adam and I spotted a huge plume of smoke rising up on the horizon, and we feared that perhaps some of the Californian Wildfires had spread in Yosemite too, and that we wouldn't get to enter yet another park. Thankfully this wasn't the case, and as we entered the forest area, we were greeted with some wonderful views and vistas, and a road that perhaps stood as one of the very best that we'd covered in all the near 6,000 miles that we've achieved on this trip.

We edged round huge skyscraper-high rock-faces and stared down into the valley to our right, all the time feeling that this was a place rivalled perhaps only by the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley in all that we'd seen so far. The twisty road took us down into the valley and to Yosemite Village, where we sampled the not-so-great visitor centre, and the hugely busy village store. But despite the village not being all that great, the drive back out the valley was just as enthralling as the drive in, and the added bonus was that we exited the park on the other side of the valley, so we got a whole new range of views and more twisty roads to experience.


All in all, Yosemite certainly left a lasting impression on me, as being a place of amazing natural beauty, and a place that I would love to visit again. The day ended with us pulling into a motel in Fresno, and contemplating our last big drive the next day - to Los Angeles - the City of Angels - where we will sprout wings, and start the long flight home.




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Now playing: Blur - Parklife
via FoxyTunes

Bay City Rollers

After the glorious Highway 1 trip expectations were high as we approached San Francisco. Not San Fran and definately not Frisco, but regardless of pet names 'The City' was spectacular. The traffic was pretty heavy but we ploughed on until we saw ludicrous hills and tram tracks.

Upon reaching our hotel it turned out that our good friends at Travelocity had took it upon themselves to cancel our booking AGAIN whilst we were 'en route' to the said pre-booked and confirmed hotel. Joel and I were, I want to say, slightly annoyed. So I'll leave it at that. Fortunately we still managed to get a room at America's Best Value Inn which had a nice little bar called Cassidy's right next to us. After settling all three of us into the reasonable sized room, we ventured out up 7th and on to Market St where we boarded a half-tram-half-bus up to the wharf district to find the world famous Pier 39. It was bigger than Brighton Pier it turned out.

We found a left-handed store (see left), various seafood outlets and an opportunity to buy some extra layers because it was pretty nippy out. Trying to find somewhere to eat was another matter however as once again we had timed our arrival perfectly, with dinner. Luckily a slightly 'upper class' restaurant had kept the tourists at bay so we decided it was a perfect time to splash some cash and eat like kings. Having a couple of drinks around town we caught a cab back to the hotel as my bag full of souvenir crapola was getting a bit heavy.
We all changed into our swanky clothes (it was night five for the party shirt and still smelling great) and caught a cab back into town. We saw an advert being shot involving a Ferrarri, which was nice for somebody. The nightlife was lively but not for us, after a hard drive we really wanted a quiet drink and a nice chat so after wandering around looking for a suitable bar we decided to head back to the little bar, Cassidy's, right next to the hotel.

Many drinks and a few poorly played pool games later we downed some tequila and met a nice british chap called Dylan and went out for a long walk in the search of a supposed after party the barmaid had told us about down on 2nd street. After walking around the streets of San Francisco until 03:20 and not finding the place we decided to call it a night and went back to America's Best Value Inn on Hallam St.

The next day Adam left us to head back to L.A. by train and we... well, we didn't get up early let's put it that way. After catching X-Men on HBO we ventured out and find Mel's Drive In Diner, decked out from head to toe in homage to George Lucas' American Graffiti. After Joel finished his gigantic chilli dog (Ha! I knew I could convert him) we headed to the cin... Movie theatre to see the new Batman film The Dark Knight. I don't need to even start about how good it is, just go see it. Afterwards we felt we needed another movie, as drinking was not an option. We opted to see Wall-E which we would both highly recommend. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside now.

After our hard-core movie day we thought the final day really should revolve around the tourist kinda thing. We got on a proper tram his time and got off early, because we weren't paying attention. Because of this however we found the Fog City Diner on the way to Pier 39 and had a great meal before heading off to buy some tickets for a tour of the bay on one of the many ferries. Curiously there were Sea Lions basking on their own private jetties, genius!

We headed out past Alcatraz and out into the bay towards the Golden Gate Bridge, which is coloured; International Orange, we learned. Looked like Dulux Rust Red 0173a4 to me, but I digress.

The bridge was huge and was a real treat to see up close as we did a quick about turn and headed back past Alcatraz again and in the direction of the Bay Bridge and back to port where we had an urge to see The Incredible Hulk, not because we're slowly turning into lazy movie going yanks. Mainly because it was another film we hadn't seen and we were quite tired after all the walking.

Leaving the next day we left the hotel and headed for Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. It was a shame that everyone else wanted to drive down the iconic road too, or we may have gone a little faster than 5 mph. Then again, those corners were pretty freaky, so maybe not.

After a quick stop for gas we were headed out of the city and towards the fabulous vistas of Yosemite National Park.


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Now playing: Frank Sinatra - (I Left My Heart) In San Francisco
via FoxyTunes

Number One

Leaving our little break in San Diego behind, we headed back toward Los Angeles to pick up Adam Rogers, and the three of us planned to head up to San Francisco using the infamous Highway 1 - one of the most celebrated drives in the USA.

We rose early in our hotel near Ocean Beach, and jumped in the car for the day's driving ahead. It took us a couple of hours to get back up to LA, where we met Adam R. outside the apartmant he and Karlyn had been staying in over the last week or so. The drive up Highway can take the best part of eight to ten hours depending on traffic, so we made the decision to do the journey in two parts, finding somewhere to stay on route up the coastline.

We hit the traffic almost immediatly as we left Santa Monica, and feared that it would ruin the drive up, but thankfully it cleared after a few miles through Malibu, and the roads started to open up a little, all the while giving us a handsome view of the incredibly blue Pacific Ocean to our left. The only problem came when we had the roof down, and Adam had to deal with the rather windy nature of the back seat in the Mustang.

It was around 5pm when we made it into the small town of Pismo Beach, which is roughly about halfway along Highway 1. We came across a rather nice beach, and felt it could be quite good here. It didn't turn out that way. Checking in to the last available motel room we could find, we set about finding a restaurant for some dinner, and was recommended 'Fins' just outside of town. Quite why we were recommended we don't know, because it wasn't very good - in particular the Fish Taco that Mr Rogers was served.


We headed into town and went in Harry's Bar for some live music, pool and beers. Neither of these things raised our opinions of the town, and we headed back for a good night's sleep, before the rest of the epic journey up Highway 1 the next day.

As expected the views and vistas that the road offered us the next day were quite stunning. Not even the cloud and fog managed to dampen our opinions of the road, although the American drivers who have little experience of corners, let alone an ultra twisty road like the one we were on, did their level best to spoil things by creeping round bends at around 5mph. We stopped up where we could to enjoy the stunning features around us.

The only dissapointment was the closure of the Big Sur National Park, due the recent Californian wildfires that have ravaged much of Northern Cali in recent weeks. This was the most fun part of the drive, and despite this setback, the Bixby Bridge just north of the park raised our spirits again.

In short the highway is a beauty to behold, and I would recommend anyone staying in California to experience this wonderful drive. Of course there is one thing that is mandatory for the journey - a convertible, although warn anyone sitting in the back just how windy it can be!



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Now playing: The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road
via FoxyTunes

The Beach Boys, underwater fun and very few pictures.

Leaving El Patio on Ventura Bl. just after 10:00 we headed south towards our first little beach holiday in San Diego.

A bit more long haul flat country driving as we crawled out of L.A. was our next treat as we ate up the mere 120 or so miles to sunny San Diego. The traffic didn't let up for long and only 18 miles from S.D. we were crawling along a nice sweeping piece of freeway. Just to make it particularly pleasant instead of the road arcing off invitingly for miles ahead of you, it was full of cars. We both thought of home and the joys of the M25.

Upon arriving in San Diego at the Bay Inn (not so near the bay) it turned out that our travel nemesis Travelocity (a hotel booking system we have been using) had, for reasons unknown, cancelled our reservation! After some polite words with the receptionist Joel convinced them that we were quite clearly in the right. The British Empire would not be pleased if we couldn't have our pre-booked room. It all turned out peachy and we headed to the beach to see what all the fuss was about. Ocean Beach was beautiful and after finding some free parking we had a tan-tastic time buying some beach mats and putting them to good use.

After a quick swim to relax back at the hotel, we headed out to Hooters on Mission Beach so Joel could get some more of their fine chicken wings in Buffalo sauce he has taken a fancy to. We asked several times for the recipe, so it will straight into the kitchen when we get home to try and replicate it. We cruised back the hotel so we could catch some more of Tru TV which has become a bit of an addiction as of late. (It's not reality... It's actuality!)

The next day the plan was simple; get up - go to beach.

Breakfast done in a nice little coffee shop with free Wifi where I had a cup of English Breakfast tea (which was not so good). We overheard a local type talking about a farmers market and decided to investigate further. We bought some fruity produce and I bought a snorkel kit and another cap, because 3 isn't enough. After which I asked where was best to go snokelling and was directed to La Jolla beach (pronounced 'La Hoya'). Which is an ecological reserve a few miles down the road. Upon entering the cool water and a few feet from the shore I was greeted with a huge multitude of rainbow coloured fish. There were literally thousands of the colourful critters some as small as your little finger to ones bigger than my head and all within touching distance. They were, not surprisingly, ridiculously hard to catch and I soon gave up and just enjoyed swimming amongst them. Diving down near the rocky coves to get a better look at some of the more shy ones covered in irridescent blues and reds. It was truly magical and I am looking forward to getting in another swim before we head back to L.A. We have too much left to see there still! Sadly no pictures as my camera isn't waterproof.

That night we popped into a local Outback Steakhouse, as our experience had been nothing but good. Our luck had ran out however as we were given a professional ignoring by possibly the slowest and unobservant server on the planet. Needless to say, for once we didn't feel the need to tip and headed back to the hotel. I popped out that evening to a bar about a block down from the Bay Inn. Where I sank a few Coronas and chatted to some locals, not so local as it turned out most were Aussie's out for a birthday and rest were from the east coast. It was Karaoke that night so I put my name down as 'British Guy' and sang Fire and Rain by James Taylor followed after a few more beers by Take it Easy by the Eagles. I don't know whether I did either justice but most of the people seemed to clap a fair bit and buy me a couple more beers, so all in all a nice cheap night.

The next morning we left at around 08:30 as Joel took us back towards L.A. where we were to pick up Adam Rogers for a trip to San Francisco. I had a little sleep in the car, nice.



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Now playing: The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
via FoxyTunes

Famous people, and old friends

We spent just a couple of days in LA before we headed off for a relaxing slump on a beach further south, but in that time we visited Hollywoodland, and bumped into some old friends from Forest Row of all places!!

Waking up in the hotel on Venice Beach, we had breakfast in a rather nice bistro facing out to the sands and the sea, and discussed our plans for the day ahead. In the end we thought we better do the ultra-touristy thing and head toward movie-land, and Universal Studios in particular. Now, just to give you the scale of LA and the surrounding area, it looked on a map as though it was a short 10 minute drive. In actual fact it was around 25 miles away, and through the traffic ended up taking us the best part of an hour. However once we got there, as it was a weekday, it wasn't as rammed with people as you would expect at this time of year.

We parked up in the Jurassic (car) Park(!?!) and headed into the Studios, where we found the entry prices to be pretty much in line with what you find for an amusement park back in Blighty - around $70 per head. In we went, and we headed right for the infamous studio tour in the bendy-tour-bus. This lasted around 40 mins or so, and took us passed sets and buildings where many a famous movie were made - but alas, no sign of anyone remotely recognisable, and only one small independent movie was being made on the lot on that day. All the little skits and set-ups around the journey, such as the Jaws appearance and the underground-train-crash and earthquake, are all things you've seen a hundred times on TV, and whilst quite amusing in the flesh, it wasn't the most hair-raising experience in the world (not that I have much hair these days!).

We spent the rest of the afternoon jumping on the occasional ride and show, such as Terminator 2 (old-school head-achey 3d effects), The Mummy Ride (good laugh, but only 90 seconds long!), and the Jurassic Park River Adventure (suprisingly fun, and very wet!). It was all pretty standard stuff, and we did enjoy ourselves, but being in our late-twenties, maybe we went there around 15 years too late.

We left the park and headed to our motel for the night, a rather sweet place called El Patio on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. While we organised our stay in the room, Adam checked his Facebook to discover that some friends from Forest Row - Adam Rogers and his ladyfriend Karlyn Culmer, where staying in LA, just 10 mins away from where we were. The fools have got this crazy idea about travelling from one side of the country to the other!! Whatever next eh?

Anyway, we grabbed a taxi to where they were staying, and was taken aback by the view they had from their window of the Hollywood Sign. We decided to go for dinner and drinks in a bar called Birds, an Alfred Hitchcock themed eatery. Downing pitchers of beer, and bottles of champagne, much fun was had, and it was good to at last socialise properly with someone on this trip, even it did take people we knew from back home to do it!

One of us even did a bit of star-spotting, as Mr Rogers headed to the shop along the way briefly, and joined the queue in the store right behind one Miss Christina Ricci. I suppose one of us had to do some star-spotting in Hollywood.

We said our goodbyes to the guys, and drunkenly called a cab to take us back to our hotel, but not before agreeing to meet up again for a trip up to San Francisco this weekend. At this rate, we may have to get them to write a blog-entry!

The next morning, hungover and tired, Adam and I made the easy decision to head to San Diego for a couple of day's rest lying on beach in the sun. I think after all that's happened over the last few weeks we deserve a bit of a break. Expect a rather empty sounding blog-entry soon!!!









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Now playing: Bros - When Will I Be Famous?
via FoxyTunes

California Dreamin'

We have done it! The big aim of the journey was to drive from the Atlantic Coast at Daytona Beach, Florida to the Pacific Coast at Santa Monica, California. Around 4,500 miles later, we're here.

We weren't completely sorry to say goodbye to Las Vegas, but it was good to be on the road again, although when we did stop for gas or to get a map out the trunk, the heat in the desert was pretty torrid. Thankfully the trip was relatively quick and easy, although we did stop at the California Route 66 Museum at Victorville, which was kind of ok, but not a patch on the Oklahoma version back in Clinton.

Into the Los Angeles area we sensed the end of the journey across country, and the start of our holiday in California. What we failed to realise is that Los Angeles is the size of Wales, and therefore we still had around 100 miles of driving to do before we got to the pier in Santa Monica, the traditional arrival destination for those using Route 66. On we ploughed..... into traffic. Lots of people on the way had warned us about this occuring in LA, but to be honest, the amount of cars on the road was not the problem. After all, we've driven into London in rush hour - now that's traffic!! However, the road behaviour of drivers in this city is, well.... scary. The speed in which people change lanes and directions is quite frightening at times, and there is the occasional sense that despite knowing that you are driving safely, others will simply ram their cars into yours for the hell of it.

Despite this, we carried on past the downtown skyline and toward the coastline we'd been waiting to see for the best part of three weeks. And there it was, coming off Santa Monica Blvd. The pier.... and the Pacific Ocean. Parking the car up in a nearby parking zone, we walked down toward the surf, knowing what we'd achieved, but not really realising how big this challenge had been. We checked into the Cadillac Hotel just along the way in Venice, and headed out for a celebratory meal. "Where?" I hear you ask. Why we did the very British thing of heading to a pub and grill called the Library Alehouse where they serve, among other things, IPA, and english stout. A very British way to celebrate the conquering of America. Adam would have preferred a nice cup of tea, but that still hasn't materialised. Ah well, there's always this trip along the coast of California. My bet is on San Francisco offering the best cuppa!


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Now playing: Led Zeppelin - Going to California
via FoxyTunes

Viva Las Vegas?

Staying in Flagstaff was quite nice, sure it was only one night but we got to play some pool and some fussball in the hotel after our drive back from the Grand Canyon and had another good nights sleep after a hard days drive.

Leaving at a respectable hour, just after 10:00. We got back on the road and headed for the legendary Las Vegas. On the way we noticed that Uncle Sam had thrown up another hindrance to our progress, the Grand Canyon caverns.

We took the tour, saw under the earth but even after our dissapointment at the Meremac caverns paled after the brief 'walk around some caves' which weren't even near the Grand Canyon. They only got the name through an affiliation with an air delivery service associated with previous owners. Again we felt gyped and dissapointed, but it was a welcome distraction from the incresing monotony of desert driving.
Who would have thought the landscape would be so barren?

Across the Mojave desert we drove and admired the heat haze as we gazed into it's glassy sky-like reflections in the hope of soda machine, some gasoline and a snack to keep us going for the 6 hour drive. As the road dipped and rose again we kept wondering what would be over the next peak in the two lane highway. It came as no surprise as it was again, just another 20 or so miles of straight road. After a calming drive through the Joshua Trees we started to rise up through the steep mountains. Ahead of us was a police checkpoint which proved no problem as we drove on through towards the Hoover Dam.

Since this was our first time out of the car for a while the heat of the desert hit us, much in the same way a sweaty tennis sock would offend you somewhat, the sheer heat was almost unbearable. A quick souvenir and photo session was all we could handle before it was back into the air conditioned glee of the car.

As we drove back down the winding roads we saw the Vegas Stratosphere and the strip skyline through the haze and went 'top-down' on the Mustang to cruise 'The Strip' because... Well, it would be rude not to. We found and checked into 'Bill's Gambling Hall and Saloon'. Our reasons for staying here were three-fold;

1) It was pretty reasonable room rates
2) It was right in the middle of the Strip
3) It had the most amusing name.

As I parked up Joel jumped out to check everything was OK with the booking and came back with a look on his face somewhere in between confusion, amusement and that face you pull when you smell something bad. To say the least upon parking the car and stepping out of the elevator with Joel it was clear this was one of the maddest places on Earth.

After a quick check in it was time to check out Las Vegas boulevard. More popularly known as 'The Strip'. From The Flamingo to the MGM Grand on one side across to Excaliber, Luxor and New York New York all the way past the Bellagio and up to Caesar's Palace and the Mirage.

We were absolutely taken aback by the scale of the place with its thousands upon thousands of slot machines, blackjack tables, Poker dens, Craps pits all linked together by a network of cleverly designed sidewalks, escalators, moving walkways and mexican immigrants giving out call-girl cards everywhere you looked.

That first night was the best we tried to take it all in and found our quiet village life ways unable to comprehend the maelstrom of sensory information being hurled at us. I seem to remember we found a few cheap drinks liberally scattered throughout the various casinos we visited, but after our little 'incident' in St Louis with the $1 Coronas we though we would take it a bit easy.

A nice meal was had in the Rainforest Cafe in the MGM Grand, if Joel looks preterbed it's because there was a peel of thunder and flashes of lightning as if a tropical storm was about to hit... inside the restaurant.

A few drinks and a long wander around was all we could handle the first day, after a few goes on video poker and slots we headed back to our chosen hotel.

After five or six days on the road it was nice to have a bit of a lie-in and we arose slack jawed and fuzzy teethed at about 11:00. We cursed our sorry margherita drinking behinds as we had missed the Craps instruction course at 10:30 that morning in the lobby of our hotel. That game shall forever remain a mystery to us.

Deciding we had better do something constructive with our day we ventured forth once more down The Strip and had a leisurely walk around Miracle Mile shopping mall. Not that we bought anything but it was welcome respite from the unforgiving desert heat. From there we found a kind of Sega World and were over the moon to find a Daytona racing game, Star Wars Pod Racer and our own personal old time favourite, Police Trainer. Afterwards it was clear the heat wasn't taking a holiday, even if we were and decided to avoid the midday madness by finding ourselves a nice cool cinema, or movie theatre if you like. So we caught Hellboy 2, grabbed a snack and
headed off for some more sight-seeing.

Spending remarkably little money it was not entirely clear to us what exactly we were doing here. Not being gamblers or particularly big drinkers (it is a driving holiday after all) it was becoming more evident that vegas offered very little in the way of entertainment outside the realm of thowing your money in chance's direction and seeing what cards fate dealt you. (Insert your own anology here). Oh, sure there was plenty of places to drink but we really did just want to unwind and have a quiet chat. It may sound unusual that in the most entertaining town on Earth there really wasn't a great deal of places to 'get away from it all'. I'm sure some swanky pants hotel further away had a health spa and a quiet roof dwelling poolside bar. To be honest i think we both just wanted to sit in a quiet pub somewhere green where it isn't too dang hot and there is a chance of getting a decent pint of ale, none of that lager pap. The Stand Up in Lindfield springs to mind.

Later that evening, when it was a bit cooler we headed up on Las Vegas' automated monorail to the far north of the strip and took a taxi to 'Old Las Vegas' and Fremont street, where Vegas all began. Under the giant covered way were the popular symbols of yesteryear, such as that giant cowboy character and the lady provocatively moving her leg up and down. The 'covered way' actually turned out to be the biggest video wall in the world... ever. It treated us to a free 7 minute show of fancy imagery and really shows what you can do with film crew, Adobe after effects and an unlimited budget. Did i mention the big-ass TV that you play it on, i did, ok.

Some quick munchies and Joel was a bit sleepy so he headed back for some well needed kip while I braved the heights of the Las Vegas Stratosphere, as you do. I was unsure I wanted to be thrown up and down on the Big Shot or go on Extreme (which drops you over the edge). So I opted for a go on Insanity, it seemed like the sensible choice. That merely hangs you over the edge in a tiny chair dangling from an over-sized claw and spins you round at 3G's.

The views were spectacular from the Stratosphere at night and Vegas really did 'light up like fairyland' as my mad northern Mother would say and it was quite a sight, but it was getting quite late so i headed back to the hotel after a few stops for photos en-route and was in bed and asleep lickity-split.


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Now playing: Kenny Rogers - The Gambler
via FoxyTunes

A Grand Day Out

Awaking in Holbrook we had a pretty good sleep, considering it was the cheapest hotel we had stayed in so far. After a few slices of toast (gotta watch our figures you know) we headed off west once again.

A few miles down the road was the small town of Winslow, Arizona and in keeping with the Eagles song I made sure I was 'standin' on the corner'. Sadly there was no girl in a flat-bed Ford slowing down to take a look at us, just some roadworkers. After buying more 66 crapola we were back on the road heading towards Meteor City and the nearby 'Meteor Crater'.


The self proclaimed 'best preserved meteor crater on Earth' was quite a site and was truly awesome in scale. 50,000 years ago a meteorite approximately 150 feet across impacted the site. As a result of the impact, the crater floor was 700 feet deep; it is now approximately 550. The crater is over 4,000 feet across and 2.4 miles in circumference. Needless to say it is difficult to show via just this picture the sheer size of it but believe us when we say, this was one big hole in the ground.

After seeing the crater we thought we had better move on and see another big hole in the planet, The Grand Canyon was our next stop. As we drove at a leisurely pace through the various national forests en route we were flanked by huge trees reaching up to the sky. What we weren't expecting was the scale of the Grand Canyon, but I get ahead of myself.

Before we had a chance to gaze upon the canyon itself we pulled into the Grand Canyon Airport, we were feeling quite homesick and I am still dying to get a decent cup of tea. We thought we should check out the flight situation. When it was clear they didn't actually fly internationally we thought we would find out what they could do for us. England and a cup of tea would have to wait. After all our driving it would be nice to get a bus tour or something, it turned out that a nice man named Kenny would take us by another mode of transportation over the Grand Canyon by helicopter!

Neither of us had been in a helicopter before so it seemed the perfect opportunity to quite literally live the high life and take to the skies. As soon as we were briefed, we boarded the EuroCopter ec130b4 and put on our headsets. We definately needed them as the noise of the rotor blades was deafening, as the video shows.

The view, to say the least was absolutely spectacular. Truly we had never seen anything of this phenomenal size and it made us think what the first travellers must have thought when they had crossed the great plains and forests of New Mexico and Arizona to be confronted with this:












After a 45 minute flight around a large section of the canyon it is still difficult to comprehend the size of it. While Meteor crater was immense the Grand Canyon defies explanation and put the behemoth meteor impact into perspective, like a dimple on a golfball.When we landed we thought it would be rude not to have a drive along the crater rim and get some shots before heading all the way back to Flagstaff and our classy Days Inn hotel. Another meal at the Outback Steakhouse was a brief, if overly filling meal and off to bed. Content in the knowledge that we had seen two major national landmarks today and felt we were ready for a few relaxing days in Las Vegas.

Neither of us knew what to expect... But that is another story.



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