Blogs from North America - page 9709

So, our hiatus from traveling drags interminably on. Meanwhile Ali is back in the UK visiting relatives and my co-blogger - for a carp fishing magazine – has just written an introduction to the up-coming “season” with an article detailing our back stories (reasoning that if Marvel and D.C. Comics can get away with it, again, and again…). Thus what’s a bored frustrated wannabe traveler to do? Seems a back story… Somewhat smug with 25 years of backpacking experience behind us it did make me titter (and cringe) to re-read our old diaries and see quite how clueless we once were: December 1989. Vicar Lane bus station, Leeds. Brian called over his shoulder as he waddled towards the Skipton-bound bus that he’d be driving. “Manager wants to see you int’ office”. Shit. I slid off the ... read more

Again we decided that we were not going to get ripped off by an official tour, so we made our own way to Disneyland. That was however a big mistake as there was a drivers strike and the Greyhound busses were not running. We managed to get there on the local buses, but it took a total of four hours with a lot of farting around down-town. It was a good job we hadn't planned on travelling over the States by bus, as that would have been knackered and we'd have been stuck in LA. Nightmare! Disneyland is not a place for nerve shattering rides. They tended to be very nice and very pretty with lots of moving characters and nice tunes. The place was clearly aimed at kids. There was one notable exception in the ... read more

ENTRY 47— February 28th 1990 Pistolet Bay Trinity College was and is an Anglican seminary. While I had been away, my good friend and mentor Dr. R.K. Harriman had retired at age 70. "Bryan!" he said when he saw me. "How do you feel about moving to Newfoundland?" "Well...." He continued, "You have acquired the reputation of a priest who likes a little travel and adventure. The House of Bishops will meet next week and I have arranged an interview for you with the Archbishop of Canada. He knows your story and has some interesting places he would like to send you." Pistolet Bay Parish Miranda and I met with the Archbishop. He was a very impressive person. He must have been at least 6'4" tall and was lean, well groomed, with white hair and kind ... read more

On the bus to Flagstaff, a Pamela Anderson look-alike sat beside Mike and proceeded to chat him up. It was several years before he stopped bragging about it. We were out for the count, although there were a couple of babies that did their best to keep us awake. The bus could have crashed and we would have slept through it. At Flagstaff we changed bus for San Diego. The nearest hostel to the transit centre in San Diego was the YMCA, so we checked in there. We soon lived to regret it. The place was heavily used by the army and consequently it was like an army camp. For example, the toilets were not in cubicles, they were all just in a row along the wall. We had to use the toilet in McDonalds! And ... read more

On the bus to Las Vegas we teamed up with another guy whom Mike got chatting to. It is weird how everyone that Mike meets is male, from London and heavily into football. The autopsy of various matches was going hammer and tongs so I caught up on some sleep. We had to change buses is LA and there was a three hour wait. We got hungry and we decided to leave the relative security of the transit centre in search of something edible to eat. The moment you walked through the security barrier you were surrounded by beggars. I got talking to one black guy who had a degree, was heavily into English literature and was probably one of the most well educated people I have ever met. What the hell was this guy doing ... read more