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Published: October 7th 2008
Mustang!
Mustang Matty....better slow your Mustang down!Once we arrived at LA, we took a shuttle straight down to Anaheim where we stayed overnight. We arrived at the same time as most of the flights from Australia, so the shuttle was full of Aussies.
Despite being one month into autumn, it was still well into the 30s so we didn’t go out too much that day and used the opportunity to catch up on some sleep.
The next day, we set out to right a wrong from Matt’s previous trip to the USA with his Dad. As some of you know, last time Matt & Ross came to the USA, they were to hire a Ford Mustang to drive throughout California. Despite best efforts, Budget let them down and gave them a Chrysler Sebring. Whilst that is still a convertible, it just didn’t have the street cred (or luggage space) of the Mustang.
So to ensure that we got a Mustang, Matt made a make & model reservation with Hertz, and then called the branch in Anaheim in August to ensure they were going to give us a Mustang. They came good, albeit a little late! We had booked the car for 10am, but got
it at 12pm which put us a little behind schedule. But they had even been good enough to give us a red Mustang.
So off we drove. Matt bought a TomTom GPS unit in Hawaii, so there was no problem with navigation. This has proved to be the best investment in ensuring a happy holiday.
Our first stop was something that we found was on our way out of LA. We stopped at the site of the first McDonald’s. Whilst it might sound a bit tacky, it actually was quite interesting and had lots of history, not only on the establishment of McDonald’s, but also on the years as McDonald’s has grown. It even had a menu from the original McDonald’s BBQ restaurant. This was before it became a fast food setup. Originally it was a drive in setup with waitresses who rollerskated to the cars to take orders. The menu was a bit odd…it included peanut butter & jelly fries! Yuck!
We drove on to Joshua Tree National Park. This is a most spectacular park which is found in the desert about 1.5 hours east of LA. It has two main highlights. One is a hike
Joshua Tree NP #1
Hidden Valley hike around a section of the park called Hidden Valley. A popular location with rockclimbers, it also has fantastic examples of Joshua trees and desert flora and fauna. There is also a section called Keys View which has a view over the San Andreas fault and the Salton Sea (a dried up ocean bed which is below sea level). It was pointless taking photos there, because the valley is full of LA smog. We were quite lucky, as we could see a reasonable distance - but it didn’t turn out in pictures.
We drove on to Las Vegas - with a game of Bowzer Bingo on the way. We had expected to stop at a café in a small town on Route 66 which has petrol. It was closed. So we drove on to Needles to find petrol. The needle was scraping ‘E’ when we arrived. When we arrived in Vegas, it was about 11:30pm. We arrived at our hotel, the Stratosphere, and expected to be able to go get some sleep, as we had a tour early in the morning. It turned out that the cleaners had gone on strike and that there were no rooms available at that
time. We managed to get a free dinner whilst we waited for our room. We came back after dinner, and our room was still not ready. We went and played in the casino for a while, spending a whole $0.20 out of our own pocket. We came back and thankfully a room was available. We got 2 hours sleep before getting up at 4:30am for a day long tour.
The tour we had was a day tour including a helicopter trip over the Grand Canyon, followed by a cruise down the Colorado River. The helicopter trip was awesome. It was the first time for both of us in a chopper. We saw Hoover Dam and the new bridge being built to bypass the dam, Lake Mead, the Grand Canyon and the surrounding desert. We stopped in the Canyon for a champagne breakfast and watched the sunrise into the Canyon.
Our cruise was on a floating pontoon down the Colorado River. We saw the Black Canyon and plenty of wildlife including bighorn sheep and even a beaver which the tour guide had never spotted before in the canyon. We also learnt some interesting things about the Colorado River and
the effect of having it dammed. The Colorado River was named due to it being a very muddy river, (Colorado = Red Coloured in Spanish). It was said that the river was too thick to drink and too thin too plough. Once the Hoover Dam was built, the water that gets sent downstream is obtained from 100ft & 300ft below the surface of Lake Mead. So it is very cold and clear. It now has trout in the river which it didn’t have previously.
After managing to stay relatively awake for the tour, we caught the bus back to Vegas and caught a few hours sleep. In the evening we hit the Strip. One of the main things we did was take photos of Emma in front of the casinos which feature landmarks we’ll see on our holiday. So as we go along, we’ll try and show photos of the two - just to show how tacky Vegas is.
The next morning was our last day in Vegas. We had a laundry day. Due to the cleaner issue when we checked in, we got a free night and a late checkout. Whilst waiting for our laundry, we went
Grand Canyon
Our chopper that took us into the Canyon. up the Stratosphere Tower for lunch. There’s a nice revolving restaurant up there which was quite enjoyable.
We also played in the casino some more. We had a $4.80 voucher from our earlier round (we had stuck $5.00 into a machine to kill some time waiting for our room). That $4.80 turned into $250 so we pulled that out and bid Vegas farewell. Not too many people actually come away with more money than they arrived with in Vegas!
We drove out to Death Valley that afternoon, and managed to see Badwater Basin at sunset. It was quite beautiful, except for the really strong wind that was blowing. Badwater Basin is the lowest point in the USA at 80-odd metres below sea level. You see the evidence of the fact that this place used to be an ocean, and can see shorelines on the mountains surrounding you.
We drove on to Ridgecrest which is a town just outside of Death Valley. Nothing exciting there, except for the fact that our hotel had an awesome shower and a 12pm checkout time so that we could catch up on sleep lost in Vegas.
The next day we drove
Grand (Canyon) Breakfast
Enjoying our champagne breakfast. to Mammoth Lakes, which was just a pit stop before driving into Yosemite National Park. We saw the Manzanar Internment Camp which was where the US Government “evacuated” both Japanese citizens residing in the USA as well as American citizens of Japanese ancestry. It was pretty much a concentration camp setup on the basis of racism and fear. It was quite sad, and had a strong message of not letting such a thing happen again. Quite a timely message post-September 11.
The next morning, we set out for Yosemite. But we’ll save that for another blog.
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Elise
non-member comment
Great stuff
Hey guys, awesome blog. I'm really enjoying living vicariously through your detailed and interesting travel accounts. Keep it up! Elise.