mandan

After being stuck for a long time in crazy LA traffic, we decided to chill with the still yesterday morning and head out at around noon to a few key locations that we wanted to see. Avoiding rush hour made the roads quieter but it was still quite hectic and it was really revealing how my expectations of this part was so different to its true appearance. I always imagined all around LA and Hollywood in particular, to be glitzy and glamorous with just a small selection of hidden run down locations that aren't quite so aesthetically pleasing. Obviously we have only seen a small percentage of areas mostly off of the highway but it almost seems quite the opposite, I guess with every largely populated area in the world there is always the sharp contrast ... read more

Mandie stepped up today and released me from my 8 day stretch of driving as we had a nice gentle 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Grand Canyon West mostly on the 66 and then straight up the 90. So I kicked back, devoured most of a packet of Cheetos and really took in the scenery. It was breath taking views all the way up to the canyons with plenty of stops for scenic pictures. We decided against going into the skywalk which looks down into the mile deep valley as it was 40 dollars each more and you cant even take photos! We managed to get almost as good a view from the 2 points anyway. The shuttle bus takes you round the two best stops so you can stare down into the vast voids ... read more

Not a lot to report today. Being now in the mountain time zone, we have gained another hour making us 7 hours behind. We were a little disappointed with Santa Rosa and wished we could have just driven the additional few miles to here last night so we could have 2 nights in the Grand Canyon. We were planning on doing the Breaking Bad tour in Albuquerque which involves being taken round all the locations in the show in a big RV! However we sat down last night and realised we could just google the locations and visit them ourselves and save some bucks. So we hauled ass the 120ish miles from Santa Rosa and got some good pictures of Walt and Jessie's house, Jane and Jessie's apartments, Saul's office and the car wash. If you ... read more

Well with all the good intentions in the world, our early start didn't happen! We were all dressed, packed, had breakfast and ready to go by half 8 and just as we were checking out there was an error on our reservation. There was some cock up with the system that our travel agents third party had used and the payment for the room wouldn't go through. We had to get hold of the office in uk and try and sort it out with them and the hotel manager who I was starting to get a bit frustrated with. After a long time a decision was reached and we begrudgingly paid out of our own pocket in the promise that the agents would refund us, which involved scanning documents and sending emails etc. We finally got ... read more

We didn't have many sites to visit today so took our time and decided to follow the old road as much as we could instead of taking the I44 all the way. This proves difficult in this section due to how much has been abandoned, closed or just doesn't exist anymore. Past about 1984, the actual route 66 doesn't exist and it is just a mix of dozens of different highways. We got lost a couple of times but we did also manage to cruise through a lot of the old road which is dubiously sign posted. The first stop was the "worlds largest rocking chair", a staple tourist attraction that was very cool and a lot bigger than I thought! The store next to it was closed so we got our pictures, and jumped back ... read more