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Death Valley
Snow capped peaks in the searing heat! I am SO behind with this - we left the USA on 19th May...
Anyway, I can still remember what happened, so here goes:
The last night in San Diego was a torrid one for me as I was very sick. I'm blaming the salad that I ate on Coronado Island, but I'll never know for certain. The next morning the alarm went off at 7am so I dragged myself out of bed as we had to get going as early as possible. I can quite honestly say that I've never felt as ill in my life and I was continuously sick throughout the day - a day which invovled twelve and a half hours and 550 miles in the car, most of which was spent in (bumpy) Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth! Happy bunny I was not.
I barely moved from the back seat all day and I was relieved when we finally left Death Valley and joined the road to Las Vegas. We arrived at night and were greeted by the expected sea of lights and sound which was gawdy and impressive in equal measure. Although we only drove past quickly, the Bellagio fountain
show (apparently there are over 1,000 fountains) looked pretty spectacular. We drove the length of the strip and found a cheap motel near the Stratosphere where I went straight to bed while Arf and Howie went out to explore.
The three days that we spent in Vegas were more or less wiped out for me as I didn't start to feel improved until the morning that we left. Determined not to completely miss out, I made myself go out in the day for an hour or two twice and I got up to listen to the West Ham v Ipswich game at the internet cafe across the road. Apart from that, and the fact that it is full of overweight mulletted freaks, I can't tell you much more about Vegas. I do regret not being able to go on any of the rollercoasters or being able explore it at night, especially as Arf and Howie tell me it really livened up after dark, but I'm not a serious gambler (unlike them!) so missing out on the casinos was no big deal. In fact, the picture of me at a slot machine was the only time that I placed a
Badwater Basin
The buildup of toxins and minerals makes it look like a big lake bet - I wonder how many people that have been to Vegas can say that they only bet $1 in the entire time that they were there? Completely unplanned, we left on the day that Las Vegas turned 100! I'd have stayed another day if we'd have had time as I was feeling a bit more perky, but we had to make our way south into Arizona.
Now, the Americans use the word 'awesome' far too much, but when I got my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon I could forgive them for using it to describe this place. It's the most impressive thing that I've seen in my life, natural or artificial, and although the photos can't capture the full panorama, I'm quite happy with how they've come out. I think it's possible to follow a trail down to the base of the canyon, but we didn't have time for this as we wanted to drive the 500-odd miles to LA and get a place there that night. We set off again after a few hours walking along the Canyon Rim.
The drive to LA wasn't without incident: I was behind the wheel for the first leg
when I passed a petrol station with about a quarter of a tank left. It was pricy so I decided to get petrol a bit later. Big mistake. We hit the red a while after but we were on an infamous long, straight and desolate American road - it felt like the middle of nowhere! The car spluttered to a halt about 50 miles after we went into the red (see photo below) and although it was dark, our wanderings from the car didn't reveal an awful lot of action on the horizon so I bit the bullett and called for assistance. We were quite lucky in terms of getting someone to come with fuel quickly (two hours) and cheaply ($60), but the good luck vibes didn't last too long as we got going again and passed a petrol station no more than two miles past where we had broken down. Typical!
The delay meant that we didn't make it to LA that night, so we found a grotty motel en route in Barstow. The photo of their pool below gives you an idea of the quality of the place! We finally got to LA the next day where
Elvis
Coming to a Somerfield near you we checked into a hostel that came highly recommended but was pretty shite. In fact, that quite accurately describes how I felt about Hollywood. What a letdown. No glitz, no glamour - Hollywood Boulevard could have been any old street and the Walk of Fame was just a dirty part of the road with tattered old stars in the pavement. People that know the district better might argue that the surrounding areas are the opposite of this, but I didn't see much to convince me otherwise.
We left Hollywood and relocated in the Venice area of LA for the last couple of days in the States. The beach there was nice and the Venice Boardwalk was a funky place to hang out during the day, although we were told that it was a dodgy place to be at night. We hired some rollerblades there one afternoon and although none of us were overly comfortable, we all managed to get about on them. The best part of hiring the blades was when Howie tried to do a fancy stop in front of two birds and fell arse over tit while they watched and I laughed. His chagrin was the perfect
Slot machines
I can't think of anything more boring opportunity for me to strike up a conversation; you just can't buy friendship like that. It wasn't just Howie that was left red faced that day though as Arthur and I had an embarrassing moment of our own on Venice Beach. We'd inadvertently swam into a no swimming area and rather than wave and get our attention, the lifeguard decided to get into his Jeep, drive to the water's edge, get on his PA system and beckon us out of the water at the top of his voice. I think everybody in a one mile radius was sitting up and watching us trudge out of the sea!
Other things that we got up to in LA included visiting the UCLA, going to Malibu Beach and Santa Monica Pier. They were ok, but nothing special. The clubs that we found there were a bit like Miami - overpriced.
I'm glad that I've been to America and I'm not saying that I'll never go back HOWEVER I was less impressed than I hoped I would be. I can't really put my finger on what was missing, perhaps their way of life is so similar to ours that it felt a
lot like home, but without the comforts? The biggest surprise was just how many hispanic people there were in most of the places that we went to, many of whom spoke no english. Also, many of the english-speaking Americans didn't understand me, even when I spoke really slowly. Continuously having to repeat myself to people that spoke the same language as me started to get frustrating! Since leaving, I've enjoyed my stay in Asia much more and I'll let you know about how we got on in Japan in the next travelblog. Until then, Sayonara.
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