Vegas

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All the photos I have uploaded are at Photobucket

Last time I sat down to update this was a while ago, and ALOT has happened since then. But just to finish off San Francisco, I hung out a little longer, saw alot of art, saw golden gate park, met some more great people (thanks Mauri, Stef, Sacha, Hong), and went to a gig by a band called "chow nasty", genuine west coast experience.

Then I picked up the rental car, a ford taurus. everything is either biege or metallic puke green. Cruises at the generally accepted freeway speed of 80mph comfortably. bench seats and column shift automatic, very american. I drove to Yosemite national park where i found a hostel and checked in. I was sitting infront of writing what woulkd have been my last blog when... two people walked in. a dutch guy Richard (who is trying to get some sleep right now), and an aussie girl Stacy.

Plot outline. Richard bought a Subaru about a year ago when he was working in small town Canada as (get this) a fudgepacker, in the literal sense. He's actually an IT consultant in another life. He decided to drive it to Prudhoe bay. Thats the northern tip of Alaska. So he had made it down to Yosemite in eastern California. Stacy is what i guess you would call a Very Good Traveller. Great attitude, gives anything a go, knows what she's doing and never books a day ahead. But pretty much 3 days away from broke.

We all got to know each other, then in the morning, Stacy and I climbed Yosemite Falls. This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in every way. Milford comes close but this place is incredible. I took way too many photos, some of the better ones are here. Yes the light is really that incredible. When the moon rose over Half Dome we were all out of words. Stunning.

Stacy was on a Greyhound bus pass. I offered to get her to LA instead, share accomodation and food and save some $$$ and share some stories as we drove. So we made the next stop Sequoia National Forest. Biggest trees on Earth "some trees are taller, some trees are wider, but none have as much mass" pics at photobucket also. Nice light in these hills also, we were just above the snowline.

We had a room in a place called John Muir lodge. There were only four other people in this 100 room pseudo log cabin. Cranked up the fire and drank some wine in the big lounge, which we had to ourselves.

Next day we saw more big trees and drove to LA. Pic of SUV at photobucket. Driving on a 12 lane freeway is something you have to either see or do to believe.

We got another hostel in LA in West Hollywood, after a sunset cruise over Mulholland Drive. You can see "the whole city" (read: mile after mile of smoggy sprawl) from here. Big houses, big cars. The smog from LA starts about 80 miles north and gets worse and worse. Parking is monitored agressively and costs alot. Everything is impersonal except for the burrito shop between Schrader and Highland on Sunset Boulevard.

No, LA was not my favourite place to be.

Next morning we drove to Santa Monica and found this beautiful 46 Ford "Woodie". Pretty much fell in love with it. Right after I put the camera away a van pulled up, out jumped a bikini model and photo crew to do a shoot with it. Classic.

We then went to Venice beach, ate lunch served by a guy wearing a hawaiian shirt and mirror glasses in a roadside cafe, and repeatedly said "venice beach, this is it baby." while looking at people who were obviously celebrities but that we didn't recognise.

I then dropped one very financially strained Aussie off and booked a room at "The Stratosphere" in Las Vegas. Vegas, baby.

It took two hours to get out of LA. Then I hit the I15 which is a six lane ribbon across the desert to Vegas. It was fully night by this time. Every radio station you can get is targetted at people either driving to vegas, or enticing the leavers to stay. Tracks like "born to be wild" run every other minute. Cruising at 80mph, passing big rigs and being passed by muscle cars, this has to be one of the world's great drives. I have about 4300 miles to go to get to New York.

Arriving in Vegas, however, unaccompanied by people who know the town, at 10:30pm, is THE MOST SURREAL THING I HAVE EVER DONE. If anyone has read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", Hunter S Thompson was completely accurate. The place is one big hallucination.

I checked in to the hotel and immediately felt very strange, very far from home, and very disoriented. A powerful whack of culture shock. Slowly got my bearings.

The Stratosphere tower is 1149 feet high, and no-one here will convert it to metres for you. What is a metre again?

Richard the Dutch guy from Yosemite then showed up. We checked in to "Circus Circus", a wilting flower from the 70s era on the strip. There is a rodeo in town, cowboy hats and big belt buckles everywhere. It all adds to the weirdness of the place.

We've just finished exploring Thursday night on the strip. We ended up meeting up with two guys from Montana who have both served in Iraq. We had dinner at Hooters. Steak and beer, good conversation. Las Vegas is like the American dream taken further than it was ever designed to go.

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Comments

[Mark]

Niiiice car
Classy wheels bro :-). The wrongness and rightness of the USA and your trip are becoming more and more apparent. 1149 feet is about 350 metres. Taller than Mt Vic and give or take the same height as One Canada Square (the tallest building in Canary Wharf).