The Final Straight - USA and Canada - Part 2 - Trans-American Road Trip

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16th April – 7th May 2011

Upon meeting up with Scabs and Woody, it didn’t take long for our first problem to become apparent – each of our backpacks are the size of a small African elephant and the car was made for normal sized luggage!! Nevertheless, after a game of luggage tetris we crammed it all in with no visibility out of the back window. Worryingly, as the trip went on, either the boot got bigger or we lost some stuff on the way as every day the gap of light through the back window got gradually bigger.

Our first stop on the trans-American journey was Calico Ghost Town near Barstow in California. This was essentially a mock wild wild west town in the middle of the desert and we were lucky enough to get in for free! Because it was out of season there wasn’t too much going on but we managed to get some comedy photos so it was well worth it, as well as a nice journey breaker before hitting Vegas.

We rocked up to the Hard Rock Hotel in the early evening and got checked into the rooms that Scabs had kindly treated us to for the next three nights – and they were the nicest we had seen in a while. It was then into our gladrags and over the road to the Hofbrauhaus, for a cheeky Steiner. After not overly enjoying paying way over the odds in a tacky themed German bar, we decided to head for the bright lights of The Strip to get a decent drink. This drink would be found in a grubby but fantastic Irish themed bar/casino called O’Sheas where a beer would set us back a staggering $1. After a few here we all agreed that we needed somewhere a little more classy so it was off to Margaritaville for a seriously strong cocktail (you guessed it..... a margarita) and busted a few moves on the dance floor to the live band. The margarita was probably the turning point in our now not so ‘quiet’ first night as we then headed onto another casino, Bill’s Gaming room for yet more drinks before a cheeky bet or two in Planet Hollywood. Full of alcohol and seriously lacking food we sought sustenance in Maccy D’s (the busiest place on the Strip!) and then stumbled back to the hotel for some well deserved sleep at 5am.

The next morning we decided to take a trip to Death Valley National Park, about an hour or two outside of the city, over the California state line. We were feeling a bit jaded, so the ‘hottest place on earth’ should perk us up a bit and sweat out some alcohol. After stopping for a Panda Express (Chinese takeaway) brunch in the wonderfully named Pahrump, it was onto the park.

Our first stop in the park was Zabriskie Point where we had views over the park and could really appreciate the vastness of the arid land and after cooking ourselves in the sun we sought refuge at the visitor centre where we got some drinks and ice-cream – just what the doctor ordered! At the visitor centre they had a thermometer showing the record temperature for the park at 134oF, when we were there it was a mere 108oF which is 43 oC of intense and dry heat. Our final stop would be ‘Bad Water Basin’ which is the lowest point in North America. Sitting 282 feet below sea level, it is a vast area of salt flats. Armed with a rumour that it’s hot enough to cook an egg on a stone, and six free-rangers that we had purchased for the task, we went about trying to prove the theory. It however proved to be an epic failure, unless the brief had been to spread egg all over the national park! We left our egg behind and hit the road back to Vegas.

The original plan had been to go nuts on the Strip that night, but after our strenuous day in the heat and still nursing a bit of a hangover, no one could face heavy drinking. So we elected for a nap until 10.30pm followed by dinner and only a few drinkies at the Hard Rock. Going to bed at 1.30am in Vegas felt really wrong as everything was alive and kicking around us so we vowed not to make the same mistake twice.

The following day would be our last full Vegas day and we ventured to the Strip just in time for lunch. We had heard good things about casino buffet lunches so we simply had to try one. After having traipsed around New York New York only to find they didn’t have one there, we decided on the MGM Grand, the next place we stumbled across. When we arrived at the MGM however all disappointment evaporated as we were treated to a wonderful feed and made the most of it! We were a bit full by pudding time so sneaked a few items into Ellie’s handbag as we would rely upon these later on.

Throughout the day we proceeded down the strip stopping off at the M&M’s shop, the Bellagio, and Caesar’s Palace for a cheeky bet before enjoying a cold beer out in the beautiful sunshine. Next up it was onto the monorail over to Stratosphere - this is the tallest building in Vegas and is more like a tower really with a bar and some fairground rides at the top. When we arrived we realised that it could be quite expensive so we weighed up our options. We could a) spend about $30 getting to the top of the tower and having a single ride and then have to spend even more on drinks or b) spending $20 per person at the bar downstairs in the casino which gave 4 hours of unlimited beer, margarita and martini. It was straight to the bar and although it was already 1 hour into the happy ‘hour’, we were confident we could get our money worth in the remaining 3 hours. We can’t tell you for sure how much we drank, but put it this way – next time we go, the price will be more than $20! On the way back to the monorail station, we happened upon ‘the world’s largest gift shop’ so we simply had to stumble in. Our memories of the visit are a little hazy but we found a bulging carrier bag of treats the next day so guess we had a good time in there. Feeling that we hadn’t had enough to drink yet, we popped into O’Sheas for a couple of cheap drinks before watching the Bellagio fountains show at midnight. At that point we were all more than a little tipsy so ‘One more drink’ we decided. We realised we would have to make it a good’un so headed to Paris. Woody sensibly opted for a beer as he would be driving the next day but Steve, Ellie and Scabs found it necessary to go for an Eiffel Tower cocktail. Essentially this is a ridiculously large receptacle shaped like..... you guessed it..... the Eiffel Tower. The best thing is you get to keep the cup so we have a very classy focal point for our mantelpiece! These were filled with very strong cocktails (the only sort they know how to in Vegas), Margaritas for Steve and Scabs and a teeth rottingly sweet Strawberry Daiquiri for Ellie. At 3:30am we went back to the hotel and Scabs and Woody went to bed. We decided a steak in the hotel restaurant was completely necessary as a fine end to a wonderful day and at 5:30 we decided enough was enough and went to bed.

The next morning........... ouch! With the benefit of our still and video cameras we pieced together what had happened last night and it was like watching The Hangover – minus the tiger! One video of the night shows us outside a lovely and tacky illuminated wedding chapel , which after 3 hours of hardcore drinking in Stratosphere, we decided that Scabs and Woody must get married so tried pushing the idea. Luckily, they were both still just about sensible enough to ignore our lobbying so the Vegas wedding wasn’t to be. In our lucky bag from the souvenir shop, we found a Las Vegas cushion that we had bought and a Vegas nail file, visor cap and fridge magnets that Scabs had acquired – great buys! At the end of our three days we were totally ready to get out of Vegas and our livers yearned for a break.

On our way to Flagstaff we stopped off at the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, neither of which we spent a lot of time at, but it was worth it to see them. It was a little cloudy at the Grand Canyon so we decided not to wait the 30 minutes for the sunset as we were getting pretty cold. As we were driving away we noticed a glorious crimson sky behind us and realised that it would have been totally worth braving the cold for. In Flagstaff, we headed to the Flagstaff Brewery Company’s microbrewery for a sandwich and a local beverage before grabbing an early night as the remainder of the road trip would involve a lot of driving and a new venue every night.

We met the next morning at 9:30 to get on the road to Albuquerque, New Mexico, taking in what’s remaining of Route 66. On the way we stopped off at a big hole in the ground formed by a meteor. We had planned to take a look but were put off by the astronomical cost of $15 per person, especially as we seen big holes before so weren’t that fussed. We also stopped off at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert which were very picturesque and fascinating. The Petrified Forest is basically fossilised trees that look like wood from the outside but are glossy coloured stone on the inside.

We were very excited about Albuquerque as we had heard it was a vibrant university city, but we were all quite disappointed. We did have a lovely meal of Mexican food in a diner in Nob Hill, but couldn’t find anywhere decent for a drink there, even though we were right opposite the university. We wound up at an Irish bar called Maloney’s and it didn’t take long to realise we were surrounded by lesbian couples but it gets better..... it was lesbian karaoke night! We looked a little incongruous - two straight couples sitting in the corner - and took our cue to leave when the barman called Steve ‘honey’. The next morning, we decided to give Albuquerque a chance to redeem itself and went to the Old Town for a snoop around. We found it to be full of tut shops but there was a nice relaxed feel to the place – not enough to make us like the place, and so we headed east in search of better times.

It was a very long day of driving before we reached the Cadillac Ranch just outside Amarillo – no jokes about ‘the way’, we have exhausted them already! The Cadillac Range is a symbol of the old Route 66. It is basically ten half buried Cadillac cars in a field just off the I-40. They have been spray painted in fluorescent colours and people are invited to graffiti them in their own style. We checked into our motel and decided there was only one option for dinner – we’re in Texas – we’re having a steak! Following the advice of the motel receptionist we went to the Texas Roadhouse where we had big beers, big steaks and melt in the mouth ribs and chicken and more food than the average human being needs! A lovely meal and a good memory from Texas.

Oklahoma was next on the list and after a long day of driving for Scabs and Woody we arrived in Bricktown in the daylight - which was rarity for the trip – and we were able to appreciate the cool buildings and trendy atmosphere of the area. We stopped for a drink at the Bricktown Brewery and then got tickets for that night’s minor league baseball game between Oklahoma Redhawks and Round Rock Express from Texas. It wasn’t exactly a thriller with only 3 runs in all 18 innings of the match but we sampled some more of the baseball culture with hot dogs, cotton candy and very large tins of beer – lovely! Oh we forgot to mention, our curse of supporting the home team struck again and Oklahoma lost the game 2-1. After the excellent Friday night fireworks, we enjoyed a few more drinks in Bricktown before retiring to bed.

The next day was a heck of a long one on the road with no interesting journey breakers as we crossed the state line into Arkansas, the destination being Little Rock, home of Bill Clinton. We arrived pretty late but got straight into the city and found a bar with $2 beers and a live band, well two old blokes anyway rolling out such ballads as ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’ and ‘The Joker’. We asked a local lass where was good for some cheap food and drinks and she sent us to an Irish theme bar a few blocks away. The place was packed and there was an excellent singer / guitarist / song writer who entertained us all night long. We had a really good time in Little Rock and were sad to leave, but we had bigger fish to fry in the next state along, Tennessee.

What a day we had. First stop was Memphis where we tried to catch the duck parade at the Peabody but despite Scabs’ F1 style driving, we missed by only a few minutes. We were all cheered however by Memphis’ main attraction – Graceland! At $35 we agonised over whether it was worth it and were glad we went for it, as it really was worth every cent. Elvis’ house itself was amazing as it was pretty much untouched since the 1970’s - which is apparent from the decor and appliances – and it was like walking into a time capsule. We were a little disappointed not to be allowed to snoop around upstairs and the boys were disappointed not to be able to see the infamous toilet! All in all, it was really worthwhile though. It was very solemn at the end where we stopped by the gravesite of Elvis and his family and noticed one woman in particular who seemed to be crying. On closer inspection however she was just having a really good pick of her nose – obviously out of respect for Elvis!?! As we boarded the shuttle bus to get back from the main house to the rest of the Graceland complex, Woody took the opportunity to grab a couple of photos of the front of the house. He was however a little too slow and as he strolled towards the bus, the driver decided it was time to go and set off on the short journey. About half the bus noticed this and found it hilarious, no one more than Scabs who enjoyed this moment a little too much perhaps.

That evening we headed for the home of country music, Nashville and got there pretty late in the day so got straight out to Broadway, a glitzy street of Honky Tonks, often referred to as Nashvegas! Our first port of call was The Stage where a band called Savannah Jack was playing and rocking the place with a good set. That night there was an ice hockey match on and the local team, Nashville Predators won the match to advance to the next stage of the Stanley Cup. After the match ended, all the bars were filled with their supporters who were in a jubilant mood which made for a fantastic atmosphere! We went for a traditional Tennessee dinner of pulled pork and chicken with beans and ‘slaw before taking in another band in Layla’s, where we heard a classic tune we all loved..... ‘Catfish Boogie Woogie’.

After the excitement of Tennessee, the next day was a quiet one. We stopped off at Knoxville and Bristol on the way to the small non-descript town of Roanoke where we crashed for the night in a dodgy motel, where most of the guests were in fact permanent residents who didn’t seem to like us outsiders!!

We drove through the Blue Ridge Mountains and then onto the Shenandoah National Park to take in some of the scenic beauty of the area. We stopped off for a picnic lunch before taking on the 105 mile road through Shenandoah, which was very slow and bendy. 70 miles in we had seen enough beauty for one day and took a short cut out of the park to get straight to Washington DC, where the next day we would bid farewell to our travelling buddies (and drivers) Scabs and Woody. We found a nice hotel in Arlington and jumped straight on the subway to the uber-trendy Georgetown with its bars and restaurants, where we celebrated our last night together in style.

Before saying goodbye, we dropped our stuff at our grimy hostel and all headed down to the Mall to take in some famous Washington landmarks. First we went to the Washington and Lincoln Memorials before taking on the White House and the State Capitol Building. It was an emotional farewell to Scabs and Woody who would be driving to New Jersey while we would be boarding a Greyhound north. We had an amazing time with them and were sad to be parting ways.

The next day, before our overnight bus, we decided on one last foray into DC at the free American Indian History Museum and the National Air and Space Museum, which are both part of the Smithsonian Museum. The American Indian Museum was really interesting as we hadn’t previously known too much about it. The Air and Space Museum was a lot busier and full of annoying school children. As we were running out of time, we went straight for the early flight exhibition to learn about Orville and Wilbur Wright and other aviation nutcases about their achievements.

We were dreading the overnight Greyhound to Niagara, but were pleasantly surprised by the legroom and also the onboard internet, the luxury of which we were not expecting. Suitably knocked out by a sleeping pill, we were in a daze at 5am when the border patrol police carried out a spot check of the passengers, even though we hadn’t yet reached the border. We had the back two seats on the bus and were particularly nervous as the officer boarded and made a bee line straight for us! Far from being compos mentis, he bought into the drugged up drivel we spouted to him about where we had been and where we were going and moved forward to the people in front.

On arrival in Niagara Falls, Ontario we headed towards the hostel and soon realised we had no idea where to go because the map we has acquired was unsatisfactory. Fortunately a local young couple in a Volvo pulled up and asked if we needed help. We asked them where the International Backpackers Hostel was and they kindly gave us and all our gear a lift to the door – very friendly people! We settled into our hostel which was the home a very friendly French Canadian family and it was therefore very homely. We were absolutely shattered and the weather was a bit grim so we stayed in most of the day, except going for a wander to get a nice brunch at Denny’s which featured Ellie’s favourite: pancakes, bacon and syrup!

The following day the weather was glorious so we headed to the Falls and what an amazing sight it was. We had been told by Woody that the Canadian side is much better and on arriving there, we could totally see why. The views were enhanced by the fact that the sky was completely blue. We were disappointed to learn that the Maid of the Mist tourist boat didn’t open for the season for another week but this was made up for by a ‘Journey Behind the Falls’. Basically you go down an elevator which takes you to a series of tunnels leading out to viewing platforms right next to the Horseshoe Falls and allows you to walk behind them to gain a central viewing point out. It really was quite amazing. That evening we headed back to the Falls to see them by night where they are all lit up by colourful spotlights which changed colours as you watched them. Later, we booked our hire car for the next day to take us from Niagara to Toronto via London.

On arrival at the Avis office we were told that our car was not available and they couldn’t guarantee that we would have one before 4pm – apparently, its company policy that they are not obliged to get you a car before the end of the day! It was 11am at the time and we had checked out of the hostel so had nothing to do, but we kept our cool and asked him to get it for us asap. So at 12.30 we were back to the car hire place and after much faffing with our contract and not a hint of an apology we were eventually on the road to London.

Now, the reason for our trip to London was to make a short ‘mocumentary’ about the place where Ellie’s Dad (aka Snr) was born. We were greeted by pouring rain and grey clouds, which remained for the majority of our stay, and was similar to what we would expect from London, England. Our first day in London was spent researching and preparing for the next day of filming which went without a hitch.

After London, it was on to Toronto for three nights before we would start our mammoth trip home. We stopped off at a northern suburb of the city where Snr used to live and filmed a scene for the video and take a couple of photos of the house. On dropping the car off, we had a bit of a ding-dong with Avis about the amount of money they were charging us, which was way over the amount quoted. After having a verbal scrap with the Niagara office on the phone, we eventually prevailed and left overpaying only $5 rather than the $35 they wanted. We walked away vowing never to use Avis again.

In Toronto, the big tourist thing to do is the CN Tower and we were looking forward to this. The day we decided to go there it was fantastic weather and we had amazing views across the city. The tower has a glass floor which you can stand on and look all the way down to the ground which is pretty cool but seriously scary too!

We were mindful that we had limits of 23kg each on our return flights so we had to get rid of some of our stuff, especially as we wanted to pick a few things up to take back including 4 cans of maple syrup beans! A ruthless approach was taken and we took great joy in chucking some pretty scrappy garments out. We eventually managed to fit all our remaining stuff into our two bags for the first time since we left! We celebrated this on our last night with a couple of Canadian beers in a local tavern, which was very nice.

The following couple of days were hell. First we took a bus back to Buffalo to look at buying some new clothes to take home with us. Unfortunately the Greyhound station in Buffalo had no luggage storage so we had to lug them around with us all day before our overnight bus. We were feeling pretty dirty even when we boarded the Greyhound to New York and the bus was what we had been expecting of coach travel in the US. There was no leg room and it was filthy with a horrible smell of mouldy apples. Also, the bus was jam-packed so there was no potential to spread out. Once again, aided by a sleeping pill we managed to get a bit of sleep.

We arrived in New York at 6am and our flight would not take off for 12 hours. We waited for the bag storage to open at 7am and then we had a few hours until we needed to head to JFK. What to do in NYC in a few hours? Well it’s Strawberry Fields and the Dakota Building by Central Park isn’t it? Seeing the John Lennon memorial and the place where he lived and was shot dead in 1980 was something Steve had always wanted to do. We also headed to see the nearby Chrysler Building and Times Square but were pretty exhausted and didn’t want to see too much of the city. Also, we were wearing dirty tracksuits and must have looked like tramps! We will come back in the future when we can do it properly and wanted to save most of it for then. We enjoyed a couple of hours in the Central Park sunshine writing this blog before our last meal on US soil, which was Wendy’s where Steve signed off with a triple decker square burger – our health can’t wait for us to leave here!

On the train out to the airport, Steve’s bag strap finally reached its limit and broke off which was great timing as it would have been very inconvenient had it happened any earlier. We boarded the 18:15 plane on Saturday night and after another bad Virgin experience, landed in Heathrow early on Sunday morning. Home at last! We were picked up by Steve’s brother and mightily glad to be back on home soil but were pleased with how amazing our time away had been.

That brings the end to our round the world trip. We hope you have enjoyed reading the blog and we can’t wait to see everyone in due course. Now then............ time to find jobs!!

With love,

S&E xxxx

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Photos

Margaritaville
First night in Vegas and still just about standing up

Death Valley
The disasterous egg experiment

Death Valley
The last outing for the hats before we realised how bent out of shape they were!!

Stratosphere bar
Two hours into 'all you can drink'

Paris
The Eiffel drinks!

Route 66
It was kinda weird

Graceland
The living room

Fat Elvis in Nashville
He even had a guitar shaped handbag!

The best thing ever!!
Maple syrup baked beans - they are so much nicer than you would imagine.

CN Tower
The glass floor

Comments

[NIcki & Ian]

Welcome home!!
Hi Guys, Gonna miss reading these blogs of your amazing adventures around the world, it sounds like you have had a truely amazing time, but great to have you home! Look forward to catching up with you soon, and hearing all about your trip. Nicki & Ian xx