Day 7 Week 1

Great day today. I did about 324 miles. Still in Utah but I managed to get off the Interstate and parallel it on back roads. Allowed me to see a lot of little towns that have been bypassed by the freeway.

The day started off well and I don’t want to bore you with another Diner story but I thought I would mention this one. I went to the Black Bear Diner in St George for breakfast before heading off. It was a great Diner. The waitress came and took my order. Apparently, I must have a bit of an accent because when she came back with my fried eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes and hash brown, there were 4 eggs on the plate. I said “ Four eggs, well I’ll give it a go.” And she said “Didn’t you order four eggs?” I said “I’m sorry, I said fried eggs.” She said “ Oh, I thought you said you wanted four eggs sunny side up” Not wanting to let the side down, I took one for the team and ate the lot.

So, after that, with a bloody full belly, I went to Zion National Park. It was spectacular. Absolutely incredible. Breathtaking. Again, I took a heap of photo’s but they just don’t show how huge the cliffs are.  One spot where I had my photo taken is called Weeping Rocks. The water constantly weeps out of the rocks all year round. It is like standing under a shower. The water is supposed to be about 1200 years old, finally filtering out of the rocks. It tastes beautiful too.

After Zion, I continued north. As I got higher, I crossed the snow line again and was able to refill my esky.

 Refilling the esky

Continuing north and then east towards Colorado, I have finished up here at a little town called Green River.  The last 120 miles of my trip has been across the most spectacular desert.

Green River. Tonights accomodation.

The sky is clear tonight and being in the desert, I am going to go for a walk later and check out the night sky. It will be good to check out the constellations in the northern sky.

Tomorrow, I should be in high Colorado.

Day 6 Week 1

I awoke to an absolutely stunning morning this today. Not a cloud in the sky and the snow was piled high.

I filled my esky with drinks I bought last night at SAFEWAY and then filled it with snow from a snow drift outside my room. It is still partially frozen now 12hrs later. I should be in Colorado tomorrow afternoon so I will be able to refill it with snow.

After checking out, I had a great breakfast of bacon, sausage, hash browns and eggs at a diner in Williams.

As I was leaving the diner, I noticed the store next door sold bric-a-brac, guns and whips. They also taught whip cracking and fast drawing. I wandered in for a look around and left an hour and a half later after chewing the fat with the owner ‘Buck’ and his various mates that wandered in. I was even talked into learning to quick draw by Buck who holds the title of 5^th fastest quick draw in the world. We were using an 1872 Colt open top revolver in .45.

 Me learning to quick draw. I had to wear the hat.

Buck and the boys, oh and the waitress from the Diner next door.

I finally headed off towards Nevada. Next stop the Hoover Dam. I had intended to go to the Grand Canyon Sky Walk but stopped at a Diner on the way to use the restroom and got talking to the owner.

The Diner on US 93

I asked for directions and she advised me of the true costs of the Skywalk. In addition to the $29.95 entrance fee to walk on the skywalk, they charge a compulsory ‘Legacy Fee’ of $43.05 which goes to the Hualapai Indian Nation. Personal cameras are not allowed on the skywalk but a guide can take your picture for you and you can purchase those for $30 each. I checked out her figures online and she was right. Needless to say, I gave it a miss as I had already been to the South Rim of the Canyon yesterday.

When I got to the Hoover Dam, I was amazed at the amount of people there to sight see. There were hundreds of people all over the top of the dam. Not to mention the people all along the new bypass bridge. I am really starting to notice the huge amount of people here compared to Australia. Whenever I am driving, there seems to be a constant stream of traffic coming from the other direction. The Dam itself is huge and the bypass bridge is just as impressive if not more. US 93 used to wind its way down over the dam wall until 19^th October 2010 when they opened the new bridge. Now visitors have to detour off the Interstate to visit the Dam.

I continued on to Las Vegas which is only 30 miles away.

Approaching Las Vegas

The Interstate led me into the main centre of the city. I jumped off the freeway somewhere in the city and just got pushed with the traffic. I have NEVER seen traffic like it. Sydney has nothing on Las Vegas traffic. I drove around and around the city trying to get to something that looked like a place to park. I finally saw a small motel so I pulled in and breathed a sigh of relief.  I got to see the Strip a bit and the huge casinos but oh my God the traffic.  

I booked into the motel for $40 for the night. It looked a bit rough but I was just glad to be out of the traffic. After putting my bags in the room, I took the managers advice and wandered down the street to a bus stop intending to get a bus to the Strip. There was an African American lady sitting on the bench and her male companion was kneeling beside her whispering something. There was another white gent, in his early twenties on the other side of the shelter wall. I asked the single gent for advice as to what I should refer to this area as on my return journey. He looked at me with a surprised look on his face and said “You’re not staying around here are you?” I said “Yeah, in that motel right there”. He said “Man, this is crack town. You’re in the worst part of the city.” He said he was just sitting there nervously waiting for the bus to come so he could get the hell out of there. He said that if I stayed there I would find people “turning tricks” all night in the motel and chances are my car wouldn’t be there in the morning.

He said that there is no way I could walk outside at night.  When I looked around there did seem to be a lot of less fortunate looking people around and a lot of empty lots and rundown buildings. A police car was stopped down the street with its lights going and come to think of it, the steel door to the motel reception that led to an area about 1.2m x 1.2m square, where you then spoke to the motel manager through a glass screen with a money slot under the glass, should have been a giveaway. Also come to think of it, when I asked the manager if it was a Non Smoking room he looked at me weird as if he had never been asked that question before. And the room really did look and smell disgusting.  I decided that the traffic wasn’t that bad after all and I might continue on my journey. Not that I was scared or anything, I just decided that I had seen enough of Las Vegas.  I walked back to the motel and told the manager that I was moving on and he understood completely, funnily enough. Because I hadn’t used the room he gave me my $40 back.

I had another nightmare journey out of the city but finally made it onto the Interstate heading north. I passed through the most amazing canyons when I re entered Arizona.

I have stopped tonight at a little town in southern Utah called St George. St George was founded by the Mormon founder Brigham Young. St George also got soaked in radiation by the prevailing winds from the Nevada Atomic Test sites in the 50’s.

Tomorrow I hope to make it across Utah and into Colorado but I will see what happens.

Day 5 Week 1

Got on my way at 10.00am this morning. I was hardly on the road heading for Flagstaff when it started to sleet. Within minutes it turned to snow. As I approached Flagstaff it turned into a full blown blizzard. Visibility was down to 50 or 60 metres in parts and it was getting a bit hairy. I couldn’t slow down on the Interstate because no one else was and I would have been collected for sure. I was sitting along with traffic on the speed limit of 75 mph (120 kph) and cars were overtaking me.

Travelling through Flagstaff, I heard on the radio that the road to Williams (which happened to be where I was heading) was closed due to snow and ice. I didn’t have many options at hand so I pushed on. I thought that if I have to sit on the side of the road for awhile it wouldn’t be too bad. Snowplows were out everywhere, so I figured they would have it open pretty quickly. I noticed all the big rigs weren’t slowing down and if anyone would know if it was closed or not, they would. So I decided to just follow them and sure enough, the road was open. As I approached Williams the clouds started clearing and the Sun was shining through. It turned into a lovely day.

I met ‘Smokey the Bear’ on my way into the Park.

Well, The Grand Canyon. What can I say? It is one BIG hole. It is true what they say about photo’s just can’t do it justice. As you approach the rim on the walking path you kind of come over the crest of the path and WOW! No seriously, I mean WOW!!! It literally takes your breath away. IT IS HUGE!!! I’ll post a picture or two but it won’t do it justice.

One of the strangest things I found fascinating was the amount of open edges that don’t have hand rails or anything. Whilst they did have a lot of hand rails there were other places where you can literally stand on the edge of a 1000ft drop. The walking path goes right past the edge within metres of it.  That pic of me was as close as I was going to get to the edge because it was a mile straight down. With the snow and ice around it was as slippery as hell. Luckily my mate David, who I visited in Sierra Vista, gave me a pair of 12 x 50 BARSKA binoculars. I had those with me and they were fantastic. There were hundreds of people around and not another person there had binoculars. They didn’t know what they were missing. I was seeing buildings and things down along the Colorado River you just couldn’t see with the naked eye. If anyone ever comes here, bring your Bino’s, or line up with the kids to put quarters into the fixed ones at the Lodges.

After a couple of hours of exploring the South Rim, I departed the Canyon and headed back to Williams. The township of Williams hosts the Rail hub for the historic Grand Canyon Railway. Next time, I think I might take the train for the novelty of it.  Williams is located on the original Route 66. It is full of Route 66 souvenir shops.

I have booked into a Motel 6 for night. Nice room for $44 per night. I just popped over to a SAFEWAY supermarket and bought some supplies to fill my esky. Tomorrow I am heading to Las Vegas Nevada via the Hoover Dam. The weather is supposed to clear up by then so it should be a nice drive. If time permits, I might pop up to the Grand Canyon Sky Walk on the West Rim. I’ll see what happens.

Day 4 Week 1

Left Sierra Vista today and headed north towards Tucson. Absolutely freezing today with rain. Feeling very tired because I didn’t sleep well last night so I pulled over outside the town of Benson at a truck stop. I slept for about 3 hours in the car. When I woke up, I went into the truck stop and bought a hotdog and a hot chocolate to drink in the car. Feeling better, I continued on to Tucson where I went to the Pima Air Museum. They have over 300 aircraft on 80 acres. Unbelievable! For the aircraft enthusiast it is absolutely amazing.

After that, I continued north to Phoenix AZ. I have stopped for the night at a little town just north of Phoenix called Black Canyon City. Tiny little town with one motel. I just had tea at a Steakhouse where I had the all you can eat beef Ribs for $15.99 and a Budweiser.

Tomorrow I hope to push on to the Grand Canyon. Bit weather dependent because they have been having a lot of snow up north and the road may be closed but I will hang around until it opens if I have too. I’m not missing out on the Canyon.

Day 3 Week 1

Saturday 17th of March (St Patricks Day)

Had a pretty quiet day today. I went out on my own this morning to do some shopping and get a bit more familiar with the traffic. I figured I would just throw myself into the deep end and swim. Deep immersion treatment did the trick. I reckon I have this driving thing pretty much down pat. Taking on busy Saturday morning traffic worked a treat.  

I bought some Twinkies for Al but I don’t think they will last so I had better eat them.

In the pharmacy of this huge supermarket called Fry’s, I found a bottle of 1000 Iboprofen tablets for $7.99. I took a couple for my knees and they worked really well. I might go back and get some more.

My steady diet while I am here.

I have finally gotten my bearings in relation to where the sun is in the sky. It is exactly as different as I thought it would be. I have been really thrown off by the Sun being in the Southern sky.  I really felt discombobulated not having my bearings for the first couple of days but I walked outside this morning and looked at the Sun and thought, Hhmm, it is 10.30, the Sun is there,I looked around and said to myself ”That is South”. I pulled out my compass and sure enough, it was spot on. I feel much better now. This is one of the things I really wanted to experience and feel how different it is being in the northern hemisphere and a lot further away from the equator.

I went over to Dave’s about lunch time to show him some pictures on my laptop. We ended up going out to Walmart so I could buy my Esky (Cooler) and a Dooner (Comforter) and Pillow (Pillow). They thought our names for things was so weird I was going to tell them we call pillows something like ‘head sponges’ but they probably would have believed me.

After this we returned to Dave’s for a lovely dinner of Barbecue chicken and salad.  Barbecue meat here is nothing like what we consider BBQ meat.  Their BBQ meat, whether it is beef, chicken or whatever, is cooked in a crock pot for about 7 or 8 hours in a lovely flavoured mix. By then the meat is so soft it is shredded with a couple of forks and stirred through the juice. It is absolutely spectacular. I will be making this when I get home.

I will be heading off in the general direction of the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I will be going through Tucson, stopping at the Pima Air Museum and seeing the Aircraft Boneyard. Then on to Phoenix and then Flagstaff.  Not sure how far I will get but we will see.

Day 2 Week 1

I met up with David this morning for a look around Sierra Vista and do the whole tourist thing. Before we got going, we popped into a huge store, not a Walmart but very similar to it, to buy a coffee from Starbucks inside.  On the way, David had been telling me about the firearms laws in Arizona. Overt and covert carrying of firearms by civilians is totally legal.  No concealed carry permit required or anything.  Whilst standing at the counter getting our coffee, David gives me the ‘eye flick’ as if to say look at that bloke, and sure enough, this old bloke with a pony tail goes walking by, pushing his shopping trolley wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals and carrying a semi automatic pistol on his hip with two spare mags on the other side.  Nobody even batted an eye, except for me of course.  This place is so cool!

After we got our coffee, I asked Dave to take me somewhere to buy some new runners. The cheap $14 disposable ones I got from Target at home were starting to hurt my feet.  We drove over to a sporting goods store similar to Rebel sport except when you enter this one, the wall on the left is covered in rifles and shotguns and the pistols are in the display case.  This place is so cool!

Anyway, I bought a pair of New Balance runners for $43. The same shoes at home are $169. I may have to get some more before I leave.

Feeling like I was walking on air compared to my old pieces of rubbish, we went for a drive out to the Mexican border to see some illegal’s running through the desert. Unfortunately, it must have been too hot because we didn’t see any. I was assured that they were there, just waiting for the cover of darkness.  In the picture below, the mountains in the distance are actually in Mexico. The border runs along this side of them.

I took over the driving to get use to the right side of the road. I don’t care what anyone says, it is hard and very confusing. I kept forgetting and ending up on the wrong side of the road. (Well, two or three times).  Usually after turning a corner and the road not marked with lines. No problems when you’re following other vehicles but when left to my own devices, sheesh! Luckily Dave kept correcting me.

After that, we headed over to Tombstone, the scene of the shootout at the OK Corral.  That is a great little town. Very touristy of course but you expect that.  A lot of people in yeoldy clothes and carrying six guns etc.  Absolutely no reason for them to be fake so they probably weren’t.  This place is so cool!

They have walled off the actual OK Corral so if you want to see the actual scene of the shootout it costs $6.00 or $10.00 if you watch the re-enactment. David thought I was mad paying the 6 bucks but I hadn’t travelled for 26 hours and 15,000k’s to not go in for the sake of the cost of a good cup of coffee.

We headed back to Dave’s for dinner and had a lovely meal, followed by freshly baked banana bread.

Tomorrow I am heading out on my own to have a drive around and do some shopping before I head over to Dave’s for lunch. That is going to be an adventure.

Oh, I need to mention that I ended up flying direct from LAX to Tucson to start my trip here.  Dave insisted, and I am glad he did, that I Do Not, I say again, Do Not start off driving on the right side of the road in LA if I have never done it before. He shouted me an airline ticket to Tucson and is teaching me to drive all over again in the quieter parts of America. It is still busier than anything I would usually encounter around Canberra.  It just means I am going to back track up to the Grand Canyon, then on to Las Vegas, up to Aspen CO, on down to Alburqurqe and across from there.

Day 1 Week 1

Well I finally arrived at LAX at 10.10hrs on Thursday 15^th of March US time. Friday Aus time. It took a full hour of standing in queues to get through customs and immigration. All visitors to the US now have to have all their fingerprints and photo taken so it really slows down the whole process.

I met a lovely lady on the plane in the seat next to me. Her name is Mai Bloomfield and she is a folk singer.  She was returning home from a 3 week tour around Aus with Adam Cohen, the son of the legendary singer Leonard Cohen.   She was so helpful, she wrote out 4 pages of info and advice for me to see and do while I am here.  She gave me here contact details in case I need to get bailed out or something if I get into strife.

After exiting the customs hall, I was walking up a fairly steep ramp and there was a little old Mexican lady pushing a baggage trolley with about 4 or 5 bags on it.  Obviously struggling a bit and everyone was just powering past her.  I grabbed the handle of the trolley and offered to help and she smiled and said “Gracias” I pushed it to the top for her and gave it back when it levelled out.  She appeared most grateful so I felt I had done my good deed for the day.  

I got into Tucson at 1700hrs and met my mate David.  Really good to catch up with him after about 15 months. We went over and picked up my hire car and wouldn’t you know it, I got a much bigger and better car than I expected. It is a Dodge with a leather interior and only 7,000 miles on the clock.  It is beautiful! Karma must have been thanking me for the little old lady.

David drove the first 70 miles to his home in Sierra Vista to give me a chance to get use to the traffic on the right side of the road.  OH MY GOD!!!  Everything is flipped. I am literally going to have to learn how to drive in traffic again.   It is sooo different.  We had a quick tour of the town before going for dinner at  a restaurant called the Golden Corral.  It is like our ‘Sizzlers’ on steroids.  So much choice of all you can eat.  It just went on and on.

I am staying in a Holiday Inn tonight and tomorrow that David is shouting me.  Very, very nice room and facilities. 

Tomorrow we are heading down to the Mexican border to see some illegal aliens running through the desert.  After that we are going to Tombstone to visit the OK Corral etc and then back up to Tucson so see the aeroplane boneyard and a few other things.