Wednesday 20th
After our little stop at Kingman, we headed off on Route 66 proper, heading toward Flagstaff, the longest continuous strech of Route 66 is here, and heads up off the I-40 (for a change) and toward the Grand Canyon, part in the Hualapai Indian Reservation, and we stopped at the "Grand Canyon Caverns" now, this is in no way connected to the National Park, but what it is is a massive set of caverns 21 storeys below the ground, the lift takes a full minute to get down there, and as you walk around, you see how well everything is preserved due to there being no moisture there, all bacteria etc dies within 72 hours, there is no life down there at all. Just a few remains of things that were unlucky enough to fall in, (like a bob cat) and some bouquets from weddings they have held down there, that are still in very good condition. there is also a US Government supply of food and water and medical kits etc for 2000 people, as at one point in the cold war, all caverns were designated fall out shelters. Now, I said there was no life down there, so how would humans survive? well there is breathable air, naturally, not pumped down, and at one point they were curious to find where it came from, so they set of red smoke flares and had people up top wait to see where it came out. They waited, and waited, and waited, and gave up, then 2 weeks later someone called to say they'd seen the red smoke coming out of the Grand Canyon! Hence the names, and also, the reason it would make a terrible fallout shelter, after two weeks you'd be breathing radioactive air! Doh. We also saw some great little route 66 shops with t-shirts, number plates, tin signs etc etc in, and even a specifc route 66 map, which we are now using rather effectively! (much easier than normal maps, it has route 66 and some of it's earlier adjustments clearly marked in red :) ) Anyways, we carried alon the 66 to a town called Williams, where we diverted off North, so we could go see the south rim of the Grand Canyon, as always, by this time we were starting to get a bit tired, (everyday seems like 9-14 hours in the car!) but the views were amazing, we took many pictures, and got some information on the area from the observation station, and some very cool elevated views from the watchtower in the Indian Reservation section, and then we headed back down to Flagstaff to find our bed for the night :)
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Thursday, 21 May 2009
USA nearly a week!
Tuesday 19th
We decided not to head out for a Canyon Tour, as we needed a relaxing day, nothing was booked, AND we couldn't find free
internet anywhere! We took a wander down the strip, which was cool, then up to the Outlet stores wher yes, we did spend
money, which hasn't helped my money situation any, but in my defense, I wanted everything I bought for me, and presents
are well, presents! (No, you haven't got any, you've not been good enough :P) we then finally found a hotspot in a food
court on the strip and trying to book and sort a place to stay in Kingman. For some unknown reason, neither of our cards
was working with lastminute.com my bank accounts had some missing money as halifax were being slow and dumb, this would
later end up in a not entirely pleasant toned phone to get them to put the money in my account that they'd had for the
last 6 days. I'm so closing all my accounts with them when I get back. It just looks good on credit checks when they ask
how long you've been with your bank to say, 'over 20 years.' Well, loyalty has got me nowhere but wound up, so they can
stick it now. Anyways, back on with the story, we finally got somewhere to stay, and the route to Kingman took us over
the Hoover Dam, which was one of the things we really wanted to do.
As we got to Hoover Dam, ( I was really excited, having seen a program on discoveryHD about it before coming out) we saw
that they were building a new section to the 93, the road that goes over the dam, and to do so are in the prcess of
bulding a massive bridge a little further downstream from the dam. It looks awesome, the whole site does, the Dam with
all it's art deco styling and big brass doors and plaques and oh so much stuff to see, I could've taken photos all night,
but sadly after sunset all pedestrians have to get off the dam, and it was about 15 minutes to sunset and we had a little
walk back to the car, crossing the Arizona state line too. I was very much impressed by the dam, and in awe of the fact
it had been built at all. let alone the fact that it's still a massive hydro electrc plant producing enough power for
well over 1.3million people! (That's American people too) and all this back before colour tv!
We decided not to head out for a Canyon Tour, as we needed a relaxing day, nothing was booked, AND we couldn't find free
internet anywhere! We took a wander down the strip, which was cool, then up to the Outlet stores wher yes, we did spend
money, which hasn't helped my money situation any, but in my defense, I wanted everything I bought for me, and presents
are well, presents! (No, you haven't got any, you've not been good enough :P) we then finally found a hotspot in a food
court on the strip and trying to book and sort a place to stay in Kingman. For some unknown reason, neither of our cards
was working with lastminute.com my bank accounts had some missing money as halifax were being slow and dumb, this would
later end up in a not entirely pleasant toned phone to get them to put the money in my account that they'd had for the
last 6 days. I'm so closing all my accounts with them when I get back. It just looks good on credit checks when they ask
how long you've been with your bank to say, 'over 20 years.' Well, loyalty has got me nowhere but wound up, so they can
stick it now. Anyways, back on with the story, we finally got somewhere to stay, and the route to Kingman took us over
the Hoover Dam, which was one of the things we really wanted to do.
As we got to Hoover Dam, ( I was really excited, having seen a program on discoveryHD about it before coming out) we saw
that they were building a new section to the 93, the road that goes over the dam, and to do so are in the prcess of
bulding a massive bridge a little further downstream from the dam. It looks awesome, the whole site does, the Dam with
all it's art deco styling and big brass doors and plaques and oh so much stuff to see, I could've taken photos all night,
but sadly after sunset all pedestrians have to get off the dam, and it was about 15 minutes to sunset and we had a little
walk back to the car, crossing the Arizona state line too. I was very much impressed by the dam, and in awe of the fact
it had been built at all. let alone the fact that it's still a massive hydro electrc plant producing enough power for
well over 1.3million people! (That's American people too) and all this back before colour tv!
More America Day 5
Monday 18th
Time to leave and head on, undertaking a massive 14hour journey according to Google maps. We had an end point of
Stratosphere in Las Vegas, a room we grabbed through lastminute.com for $33! normally the run to LV is 8 and half hours,
but we wanted to try and see Yosemite and Death Valley, and had a good route all planned out, cutting across Yosemite,
then down into Death Valley taking in the view and Dante's Peak of the highest and lowest points you can see in one place
in all of mainland america, Badwater at -278ft, and Mount something or other at 14,400+ft. So we knew it would be a
mission. It was, it was a totally draining day we covered over 800 miles on roads that varied from interstate to windy
mountain passes, we spent most of our time at about 4000ft abot sea level, dropping down to 2000 and up to 6000+
typically, the pass across Yosemite was closed halfway along and there was no other detour than going back 137 miles and
going all the way around the top. Screw that mess, we ended up going down through the park instead, seeing some great
sites still and making many photo stops, then down to Fresno, where we took the 99 to Delano, and then across some more
winding forest/range roads to Lake Isabella, which was gorgeous, we took this route in the hope we'd get to a point we
chose as our descision point at a time to make it worth going to Death Valley and Dante's Peak before sunset, the point
was about 120miles from the peak, we got there at 6, wich sunset being at 8, and all the roads being so winding we knew
we'd only average 30 maybe 40 mph, so, defeated, we headed south and joined up the main route to I-15 and Vegas. We
Finally checked in at 23:20, having left San Francisco at about 8:00/8:30, shattered. Sleep was much needed and
gratefully recieved.
Time to leave and head on, undertaking a massive 14hour journey according to Google maps. We had an end point of
Stratosphere in Las Vegas, a room we grabbed through lastminute.com for $33! normally the run to LV is 8 and half hours,
but we wanted to try and see Yosemite and Death Valley, and had a good route all planned out, cutting across Yosemite,
then down into Death Valley taking in the view and Dante's Peak of the highest and lowest points you can see in one place
in all of mainland america, Badwater at -278ft, and Mount something or other at 14,400+ft. So we knew it would be a
mission. It was, it was a totally draining day we covered over 800 miles on roads that varied from interstate to windy
mountain passes, we spent most of our time at about 4000ft abot sea level, dropping down to 2000 and up to 6000+
typically, the pass across Yosemite was closed halfway along and there was no other detour than going back 137 miles and
going all the way around the top. Screw that mess, we ended up going down through the park instead, seeing some great
sites still and making many photo stops, then down to Fresno, where we took the 99 to Delano, and then across some more
winding forest/range roads to Lake Isabella, which was gorgeous, we took this route in the hope we'd get to a point we
chose as our descision point at a time to make it worth going to Death Valley and Dante's Peak before sunset, the point
was about 120miles from the peak, we got there at 6, wich sunset being at 8, and all the roads being so winding we knew
we'd only average 30 maybe 40 mph, so, defeated, we headed south and joined up the main route to I-15 and Vegas. We
Finally checked in at 23:20, having left San Francisco at about 8:00/8:30, shattered. Sleep was much needed and
gratefully recieved.
USA Day 4 innit
Sunday 17th.
Today we walked to Pier 33, bought tickets for Alcatraz, then spent the time waiting at Pier 39 which is a mini shopping
arcade, it was quite nice, we then walked back to pier 33 and took the ferry to Alcatraz, and enjoyed the tour, those
cells were tiny! Even more so once you had belongings in them. The audio tour was very informative, and the whole
experience was enjoyable. Once we got back to Per 33, we decided to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge, it only looked a
couple of miles on the map. It wasn't. By the time we got there I was very very grumpy at the slight sunburn I had, plus
how much my feet ached due to walking in my Reef flip-flops (I'm still not calling them Thongs) and my knee was playing
up again. We eventually got there at about 18:30, having left Pier 33 at 15:00ish, we'd left the motel at 10:00 so we
could walk along Lombard St on the way and take pictures of the crookedest street as it's now known, you know the part
I'm on about, it zig-zags down a hill and was in the Herbie film :) we then walked all the way back to the Motel for
20:30 to grab the car to drive to Golden Gate Park, a park 9 miles long with roads in it and nowhere near the bridge! it
was dark by then, so we did a little tour and headed to the coast for an "in N out burger" which we'd been told was the
best fast food outlet as they cook it fresh. I personally loved their menu which consisted of the following.
"Hamburger"
"Cheeseburger"
"Double Double" (Two burgers and slices of cheese in a bun)
"Combo"
Combo was any of the above with CHIPS (fries) and a drink.
That's it. That's the menu. Simple as. Loved it. THe burger was rather good too. :)
Despite the pain and frustration, I loved San Francisco, it's a great place, totally great, we didn't see any of the gay
parts, which would've been interesting to see the whole culture of city, but what we did go round and see was nice. They
also have the best radio station ever on 104.1 who have a 'hate at 8'section where people call up, say what they hate and
what song they love and it gets played, unless you're the woman who called up hating Linkin Park, and got demolished by
the DJ, telling her she's wrong, then she tried to sing, to which he said, "Wow, you're a great singer, you should go on
American Idol" very mockingly, she, being American and not understanding sarcasm said "thank you" his retort? "shut up"
and cut her off, not a moment too soon for my liking either. Other than that the station played top music all day, some
new stuff, some old stuff, an interview with Green Day about the new album, just generally good good stuff.
Today we walked to Pier 33, bought tickets for Alcatraz, then spent the time waiting at Pier 39 which is a mini shopping
arcade, it was quite nice, we then walked back to pier 33 and took the ferry to Alcatraz, and enjoyed the tour, those
cells were tiny! Even more so once you had belongings in them. The audio tour was very informative, and the whole
experience was enjoyable. Once we got back to Per 33, we decided to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge, it only looked a
couple of miles on the map. It wasn't. By the time we got there I was very very grumpy at the slight sunburn I had, plus
how much my feet ached due to walking in my Reef flip-flops (I'm still not calling them Thongs) and my knee was playing
up again. We eventually got there at about 18:30, having left Pier 33 at 15:00ish, we'd left the motel at 10:00 so we
could walk along Lombard St on the way and take pictures of the crookedest street as it's now known, you know the part
I'm on about, it zig-zags down a hill and was in the Herbie film :) we then walked all the way back to the Motel for
20:30 to grab the car to drive to Golden Gate Park, a park 9 miles long with roads in it and nowhere near the bridge! it
was dark by then, so we did a little tour and headed to the coast for an "in N out burger" which we'd been told was the
best fast food outlet as they cook it fresh. I personally loved their menu which consisted of the following.
"Hamburger"
"Cheeseburger"
"Double Double" (Two burgers and slices of cheese in a bun)
"Combo"
Combo was any of the above with CHIPS (fries) and a drink.
That's it. That's the menu. Simple as. Loved it. THe burger was rather good too. :)
Despite the pain and frustration, I loved San Francisco, it's a great place, totally great, we didn't see any of the gay
parts, which would've been interesting to see the whole culture of city, but what we did go round and see was nice. They
also have the best radio station ever on 104.1 who have a 'hate at 8'section where people call up, say what they hate and
what song they love and it gets played, unless you're the woman who called up hating Linkin Park, and got demolished by
the DJ, telling her she's wrong, then she tried to sing, to which he said, "Wow, you're a great singer, you should go on
American Idol" very mockingly, she, being American and not understanding sarcasm said "thank you" his retort? "shut up"
and cut her off, not a moment too soon for my liking either. Other than that the station played top music all day, some
new stuff, some old stuff, an interview with Green Day about the new album, just generally good good stuff.
US and A numero trois
Saturday 16th
We started off the day by retracing our way back along the coast to the places we didn't see in the daylight, Carmel-by-
the-Sea looked lush, very expensive, and they'd banned all neon signs and such to keep the place looking very respectible
and slightly old-fashioned. we then headed back to the Big Sur region taking some nice pics of the Bridge and the
coastline. We then decided if we were ever going to make it to San Francisco we'd need to make a move, and headed on up
the the coast with the Flaming Lips in my head as we went to Santa Cruz. I've one thing to say to you about Santa Cruz on
a lovely hot sunny weekend day. Don't bother. THe place was chock full of traffic, and whilst bits of it looked nice, by
then I was tired, hungry and fed up! we left about 5pm and Alana drove the rest of the way to San Francisco, whilst I
slept.
San Francisco is quite an odd city, in that it's busy, we know it's busy because it's San Francisco, yet, when we got
there there was moderately little traffic and the whole place is very easy to get round, even if the od one system foils
your first attempt to go up a street, you can always take the next one and swing round. We ended up checking into a nice
little motel on Union and Van Ness, having to part with a little more money than we'd hoped as there was a race going on
on sunday and everywhere was booked up! By this point my credit card had all of $100 on it and my pocket $70, which was
handy, as that just about covered the room for two nights.
In the grand sceme of things, I still owe Alana for the car hire, so I'm hoping to pay off as much debt as I can as we
go, sadly, my money situation isn't the best, the money I have is now notably less than my credit card debts, and I'd say
as I write this now on Weds 20th, I really need to spend less than £500 before I go home. Which I think will be
impossible. lol.
We started off the day by retracing our way back along the coast to the places we didn't see in the daylight, Carmel-by-
the-Sea looked lush, very expensive, and they'd banned all neon signs and such to keep the place looking very respectible
and slightly old-fashioned. we then headed back to the Big Sur region taking some nice pics of the Bridge and the
coastline. We then decided if we were ever going to make it to San Francisco we'd need to make a move, and headed on up
the the coast with the Flaming Lips in my head as we went to Santa Cruz. I've one thing to say to you about Santa Cruz on
a lovely hot sunny weekend day. Don't bother. THe place was chock full of traffic, and whilst bits of it looked nice, by
then I was tired, hungry and fed up! we left about 5pm and Alana drove the rest of the way to San Francisco, whilst I
slept.
San Francisco is quite an odd city, in that it's busy, we know it's busy because it's San Francisco, yet, when we got
there there was moderately little traffic and the whole place is very easy to get round, even if the od one system foils
your first attempt to go up a street, you can always take the next one and swing round. We ended up checking into a nice
little motel on Union and Van Ness, having to part with a little more money than we'd hoped as there was a race going on
on sunday and everywhere was booked up! By this point my credit card had all of $100 on it and my pocket $70, which was
handy, as that just about covered the room for two nights.
In the grand sceme of things, I still owe Alana for the car hire, so I'm hoping to pay off as much debt as I can as we
go, sadly, my money situation isn't the best, the money I have is now notably less than my credit card debts, and I'd say
as I write this now on Weds 20th, I really need to spend less than £500 before I go home. Which I think will be
impossible. lol.
USA Day 2
Friday 15h
Today we began our journey to San Francisco, the route we picked yesterday invovles taking the 101 through Santa Barbara
to San Luis Obispo, where we take highway 1 for a more scenic route all the way up the coast toward Santa Cruz. The drive
was very very long and by 8:30 (sunset) we still hadn't reached Big Sur and were a good 50 miles from our target of
Monterey, where we'd found a nice cheap motel to stay in if we got there! The day's travelling was cool, we stopped in
Ventura for breakfast (scrambled eggs, hash brown, bacon, sausage) and I stubbed my toe, which hurt an excruciating
amount! We then moved on up the coast on highway 101 to Santa Barbara, which was lovely, los of cool shops, restuarants,
bars, cafés and surf. Kinda like a US version of Byron Bay, but more upmarket.The next place we stopped was called Avila
Beach, just past Pismo Beach, and far nicer, it was a lovely long stretch of sand with a big long pier to walk out on,
fish and enjoy the views. From there, we passed through the town of San Luis Obismo, to switch onto the '1' to proceed up
along the coastline, We stopped briefly at Morro Beach, and Saw some surfers at San Simeon (I had to stop there because
of the Goldfinger song of the same name) then a few miles up the coast we stopped at an Elephant Seal look out, there
were literally hundreds of hte big, fat, lazy, noisey, burping, farting b*stards! got some awesome pictures and a bit of
a video, they were on the beach right beneath us, it was so amazing and totally unexpected! Now, it was starting to get a
bit dark, we figured we had maybe 30 minutes before sunset, so we took off along the road to get a decent spot (our aim
had been to get to Monterey before dark, but that was well out the window now) the road for the next hour or so was
truely not american, I don't know where they stole it from but they should steal more, hanging on to the edge of the
coastline, going up steep inclines, swinging round the edge of a slope, before plummeting back down to sea level for a
hairpin and back up again, it was quite like the more fun parts of the Great Ocean Road in Oz, we caught a really nice
lookout for sunset and took many photos. (Eventually I'll sort through the dozens for a decent one or two!) we then
decided we'd head on to Big Sur and find somewhere to stay. We didn't. they were all booked or too expensive, so we ended
up heading on past Carmel, to Monterey, a big town where we knew we'd find somewhere. We were in by 11, and soon asleep!
Today we began our journey to San Francisco, the route we picked yesterday invovles taking the 101 through Santa Barbara
to San Luis Obispo, where we take highway 1 for a more scenic route all the way up the coast toward Santa Cruz. The drive
was very very long and by 8:30 (sunset) we still hadn't reached Big Sur and were a good 50 miles from our target of
Monterey, where we'd found a nice cheap motel to stay in if we got there! The day's travelling was cool, we stopped in
Ventura for breakfast (scrambled eggs, hash brown, bacon, sausage) and I stubbed my toe, which hurt an excruciating
amount! We then moved on up the coast on highway 101 to Santa Barbara, which was lovely, los of cool shops, restuarants,
bars, cafés and surf. Kinda like a US version of Byron Bay, but more upmarket.The next place we stopped was called Avila
Beach, just past Pismo Beach, and far nicer, it was a lovely long stretch of sand with a big long pier to walk out on,
fish and enjoy the views. From there, we passed through the town of San Luis Obismo, to switch onto the '1' to proceed up
along the coastline, We stopped briefly at Morro Beach, and Saw some surfers at San Simeon (I had to stop there because
of the Goldfinger song of the same name) then a few miles up the coast we stopped at an Elephant Seal look out, there
were literally hundreds of hte big, fat, lazy, noisey, burping, farting b*stards! got some awesome pictures and a bit of
a video, they were on the beach right beneath us, it was so amazing and totally unexpected! Now, it was starting to get a
bit dark, we figured we had maybe 30 minutes before sunset, so we took off along the road to get a decent spot (our aim
had been to get to Monterey before dark, but that was well out the window now) the road for the next hour or so was
truely not american, I don't know where they stole it from but they should steal more, hanging on to the edge of the
coastline, going up steep inclines, swinging round the edge of a slope, before plummeting back down to sea level for a
hairpin and back up again, it was quite like the more fun parts of the Great Ocean Road in Oz, we caught a really nice
lookout for sunset and took many photos. (Eventually I'll sort through the dozens for a decent one or two!) we then
decided we'd head on to Big Sur and find somewhere to stay. We didn't. they were all booked or too expensive, so we ended
up heading on past Carmel, to Monterey, a big town where we knew we'd find somewhere. We were in by 11, and soon asleep!
Usa Day 1
Thursday 14th
Note to all, America doesn't understand backpacking or travelling, when faced with the question of where will you be
staying in America, the response, I don't know, I'm on a two week road trip, so nowhere for more than a night does not
compute, in the end, after queuing up for 30 minutes I had to leave the line, go back to the information desk and ask for
a hostel in LA, the information desk...well, let's say it's not very aptly named, so as far as the US Government and
immigration are concerned I'm now staying in Banana Barracks in Los Angles, I very much doubt this is a real place, but
they didn't check so stuff 'em! after that farce of trying to get into the country, I met Alana and got the car, given a
choice, which was nice, we were told we could pick anything in the compact section, if there were none there we could
take something out of the intermediate section, the. The compact section seemed to be taken up mostly by people carriers
apart from a blue Toyota Yaris saloon, and a white Nissan Sentra, n ow, I don't like white cars, but the Yaris didn't
have a jack plug for an mp3 player, the sentra did :) (For information, a nissan sentra is essentially the same size as
my Primera back home, and this one claims to have to 140Bhp, coupled to a cvt automatic gearbox, it's gutless as hell, my
old Passat had 140, albeit with diesel torque and a turbo, but it destroyed this thing, as most cars would!) we then
navigated the traffic to Stefan and Emily's took, 1h20. sat in the garden an chilled for a bit, then Emily came home and
we went out to dinner at a philly cheese steak type lace, and caught the end of the Magc Celtics game 6 playoff game.
After dinner we headed to a little shopping type village, which was desgned in a whole '50s? kind of retro style which
was nice then had a walk through a little mall, which was rather big by our standards and had lots of col shops I've
never heard of, and a few I had. We then went back to Stefan and Emily's and fired up the pc attached to the tv to have a
look at our proposed route and get some suggestions on a really cool trip to San Francisco, then somehow we managed to
catch the season finale of series 3 of 30 rock! (How cool is that Rob!!!) and feel asleep.
Note to all, America doesn't understand backpacking or travelling, when faced with the question of where will you be
staying in America, the response, I don't know, I'm on a two week road trip, so nowhere for more than a night does not
compute, in the end, after queuing up for 30 minutes I had to leave the line, go back to the information desk and ask for
a hostel in LA, the information desk...well, let's say it's not very aptly named, so as far as the US Government and
immigration are concerned I'm now staying in Banana Barracks in Los Angles, I very much doubt this is a real place, but
they didn't check so stuff 'em! after that farce of trying to get into the country, I met Alana and got the car, given a
choice, which was nice, we were told we could pick anything in the compact section, if there were none there we could
take something out of the intermediate section, the. The compact section seemed to be taken up mostly by people carriers
apart from a blue Toyota Yaris saloon, and a white Nissan Sentra, n ow, I don't like white cars, but the Yaris didn't
have a jack plug for an mp3 player, the sentra did :) (For information, a nissan sentra is essentially the same size as
my Primera back home, and this one claims to have to 140Bhp, coupled to a cvt automatic gearbox, it's gutless as hell, my
old Passat had 140, albeit with diesel torque and a turbo, but it destroyed this thing, as most cars would!) we then
navigated the traffic to Stefan and Emily's took, 1h20. sat in the garden an chilled for a bit, then Emily came home and
we went out to dinner at a philly cheese steak type lace, and caught the end of the Magc Celtics game 6 playoff game.
After dinner we headed to a little shopping type village, which was desgned in a whole '50s? kind of retro style which
was nice then had a walk through a little mall, which was rather big by our standards and had lots of col shops I've
never heard of, and a few I had. We then went back to Stefan and Emily's and fired up the pc attached to the tv to have a
look at our proposed route and get some suggestions on a really cool trip to San Francisco, then somehow we managed to
catch the season finale of series 3 of 30 rock! (How cool is that Rob!!!) and feel asleep.
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