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?
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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
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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
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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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Now playing: Eagles - Take it Easy
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Monumental Achievements

Flicking through the map before we left Gallup, we noticed that we weren't a million miles away from one of America's most famous natural landmarks. We were in-fact around 220 miles away, but that didn't deter us from driving north toward the Arizona/Utah border, and visiting the rather fantastic Monument Valley, in the heart of the Navajo Reservation.

We arose early from our beds in El Rancho, and headed downtown to Aurelia's Diner, which we had found the previous day. Adam got himself off to a hearty start, with a Rib Eye Steak and two eggs for breakfast. I settled for a English Muffin with the works, and we fiddled with the cool jukebox on the table that blared out Elvis to us as we ate. We climbed into the car a little heavier than when we last got out, and dropped the roof down for the day's journey ahead of us.

The driving would be done away from the 4 & 6 lane Interstates to which we had become acustomed, and also quite unlike the poorly looked-after Route 66. In short, the journey through the Navajo reserve, which took us around three and a half hours, was quite simply one of the most stunning drives we've ever had the pleasure of taking.

As we crossed into Arizona from New Mexico, the landscape - true to form - changed yet again, with a huge forest lining the road for mile after mile. All of a sudden however, this abrubtly stopped, and the land opened up to massive views of desert plains, with strange shaped rock and mountain lining the horizon. Unlike previous days where this new view would perhaps remain constant, and therefore become repetitive, these views adapted and enhanced themselves, as the road wound through and over the massive countryside before us. All these wonderful sights, and we hadn't even reached the landmark toward which we were driving.


As we drove through the town of Kayenta in the north of Arizona, we came across Monument Valley Scenic Road, and realised that we were just 12 short miles away from both the Utah border, and Monument Valley itself. These 12 miles again presented us with some beautiful views from the comfort of our Mustang, but nothing could prepare us for the shear majesty of the rock formations awaiting us at the end, so engrained in the conscience of people around the world, thanks perhaps to John Ford's famous Westerns such as Stagecoach and The Searchers.

The famous 'Mittens' were of obvious appeal to us, having studied many photos of them before we left for the States over two weeks ago. Imagine our delight when we were able to see them 'in the flesh' and take our own images home with us. Unfortunately, the visitor centre nearby is currently going through an overhaul, and a hotel is being built in the adjoining plot of land, so some of the facilities were limited. However, if we ever return in future, to stay in a hotel in the middle of such a view would be a chance not to pass up.There's a 17 mile track that runs around and through the famous sights in Monument Valley, and we weren't about to pass up the opportunity to drive it ourselves, and so we returned to the car and jumped in, eager to get started. Unfortunately, our little red machine got stuck in the thick sand as we tried to make our way out of the car park, leaving us red-faced and in search of a park-ranger to help get us out. After being told that we couldn't be pulled out due to some perculiar regulations, we started digging under the tires, and laying rocks down where we could, in the vain hope that the wheels may get enough traction to enable us to be freed. Thankfully, the hard work paid off, and we escaped unscathed.

So - did that stop us attempting the dirt track around the valley? Did it hell. We braved the track and started off into the park. We got about half a mile in before we realised our mistake. This joyous automobile may look and sound good, but it's a rear-wheel-drive automatic that weighs a bleedin' ton, and as such, is not made for this kind of road. We turned back, and headed for the exit, fearing all the while for the car, and our teeth, which were in danger of being shaken from our mouths. As we finally exited, we took a look in the rear-view mirror and saw the park-ranger from earlier in his SUV. He had obviously followed us to make sure of two things. One - that we were ok, and two - that we were leaving!

Back on the road, and we retraced our steps from earlier back down to the Interstate, and we headed toward the small town of Holbrook, where we were hoping to find an infamous Route 66 motel, made up entirely of Wigwams. However, we got a little side-tracked when we noticed we were coming up on the Petrified Forest. We thought we may be a little late for a jaunt round, until we asked the women on the entrance gate what time it was. Little did we know that Arizona doesn't run on Daylight Savings, so despite being in Mountain Timezone as New Mexico was, we were in actual fact an hour earlier than we thought we were, so we had time to drive through the Forest Park.

It was interesting enough and there were some nice views of the Painted Desert and of some Petrified Wood, but after seeing some of the most wonderous views you will ever come across at Monument Valley, the forest (which was anything but - no trees anymore thanks to years of erosion change) was a bit of a let-down. We spent around an hour driving through, but our cameras had long since run out of battery thanks to our snap-happy ways earlier in the day.

We headed for Holbrook, and the Wigwams. But, we were to be dissapointed again, as there were no vacancies. Such a shame, as the complex is unlike nothing you've ever seen. Would love to have stayed there, but I guess that will have to wait for another day. Perhaps we should do a sequel to this blog? Let me see - Joel and Adam's Even Longer Car Journey? If we do, remind us to take an SUV to Monument Valley - if just for the carpark!


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Now playing: Metallica - Enter Sandman
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CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM MONUMENT VALLEY HERE

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE PETRIFIED FOREST HERE

Fishy and full of bullet-holes

We had no hot-dogs, jumping frogs but a damn good time in Alburquerque. We are truly the kings of rock and roll.

It was only a two hour drive from Alburquerque so we thought it prudent to do whatever
possible to follow the 66 as much as we could, despite it sometimes only being about about 30
metres from the interstate. We visited the Alburquerque Aquarium in the morning after missing breakfast at the Plaza Inn, fools. We grabbed our first McDonalds of the trip so far, it was not good, we shall not do it again. The Aquarium wasn't as fun packed as we hoped but we saw some scary sharks and some cool-ass jellyfish. Sure we still felt gyped for the $15.00 entrance fee, so got straight on with the driving.

Route 66 took a bit of detour of the I40 so we thought we had better take it and once again it degenerated into a little travelled dirt track. The wind had whipped waves into the fine gravel of the road which made travelling above a crawl a really bad idea as the bizarre suspension on the Mustang shook the car so violently we thought something might fall off... Like a door. The road continued on for about 8 miles but luckily started to level out after a while. Seeing a sign ahead, it was reassuring to know we were still on a proper road... That is until we took a closer look at the sign.

Bullet riddled and mildly concerning we drove on as fast as we dared back to the I40 to get as far away from that desolate place, as fast as we could.

The next thing on the road came as a surprise as we rose to 7295 ft above sea level we reached The Continental Divide which is the mid point where water either runs east toward the Atlantic or weest toward the Pacific. Once again Uncle Sam didn't miss a trick and did his damndest to sell us some souvenirs, we weren't buying and continued on.

Before we knew it our destination was ahead of us, Gallup. We found the hotel El Rancho appealing as it was reputed to have had many movies stars stay there in the 50's and 60's. Such as Mae West, Jimmy Stewart and Humphrey Bogart to name a few. Despite the beautifully unique and ornate wooden architecture of El Rancho there really wasn't much to do in the one horse town of Gallup which we drove to in a Mustang... (Any more horse puns please feel free to insert them here). We left Gallup the following morning after a good sleep and a fine breakfast at Aurelia's Diner, which was a authentic 50's diner complete with individual booth jukeboxes and milkshakes to die for. That for Gallup was it and we headed off early for the next leg of the adventure.


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Now playing: Radiohead - Bullet Proof.. I Wish I was
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CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE JOURNEY IN NEW MEXICO HERE

Hot Dog, Jumping Frog - Albuquerque

The journey from Texas into New Mexico, wasn't our most fun-filled day of the trip, but we did pull into see one of Route 66's most famous sites, and rather enjoy the town in which we ended up - Albuquerque.

As we headed out of Amarillo, we spotted on the left of us as we left the Interstate, a remarkable, if odd site, that is ingrained in the conscience of Route 66 lovers everywhere. Lying in the middle of a dusty field, just off the highway, are 10 upturned and buried Cadillacs, sprayed with various different colours by the people who come to visit them. Named Cadillac Ranch, it was concieved by an art group called 'The Ant Farm', and it is felt the piece represents the mobility and freedom of the automobile - so it was rather fitting that we paid it a visit.

Back onto the road we went, and Texas continued to be flat, and rather dull, although we did pull up to see a couple of other ghost towns, and stopped off at a place called Adrian, which is home to the Midway cafe, and a sign stating that we were indeed midway along Route 66, halfway between Chicago and Los Angeles. The cafe itself was a definitive throwback joint, decorated straight out of the fifties, with the inevitable 66 gift shop attached.

Back on the Interstate and Route 66, which for the most part became one and the same, we headed out of Texas and into New Mexico, where the land slowly became more barren, and more flat. Now this is not to say that it wasn't without beauty, because there was no denying the visual impression it made on us, it was just very repetitive, as we spent around 3 hours basically looking at the same view.

We stopped off at yet another tribute to the automobile at Santa Rosa, in the form of the Route 66 Auto Museum. Much to my delight they had three fantastic examples of classic 60s Mustangs parked up inside, which I spent a bit of time drooling over. The other cars in the place were equaling beautiful, and some of them were even for sale (don't worry Mum, I kept my wallet in my pocket).

We headed back onto the road and continued on our journey toward Albuquerque, which after the dissapointments of Amarillo, didn't exactly excite us as we wound down the mountains in the rain, toward the city. However, the place sprung a very welcome surprise, for the long stretch of Route 66 that runs through the city, named Central Avenue, held a bevy of old-style bars, restaurants and shops. We found a cheap motel, and the nice chap at reception, Jason, told us that he'd be glad to shuttle us to the best bars and back that evening. We took him up on his offer, and headed onto into a couple of bars for some food, beer and tequila, all of which ended up being rather good in this part of the world. Heading into our last joint of the evening, Adam strolled up to two guys playing pool, and challanged them to a couple of games. You'll be glad to know the Brits triumphed in this little battle!

There was something else that happened today as well - as we drove around Albuquerque, the tripometer on the car clicked over for the third time on our journey, which means that we've now done 3000 miles since arriving. Phew - exhausting stuff! Great fun though.

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Now playing: Prefab Sprout - The King Of Rock And Roll
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CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE JOURNEY TO ALBUQUERQUE HERE