Road Trip USA

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After Las Vegas I headed on east and caught a bus to Phoenix, Arizona. It was a long a difficult trip overnight, for some reason they really like to make the greyhound bus seats extremely uncomfortable but after a restless night I was immediatly in awe of the landscapes surrounding this area and the dry heat was very appealing. The city itself is very big and it really didnt have that much character apart from an exellent art gallery and few art shops.

I decided to head further south and ended up in a town called Tucson, again the bus trip was a nightmare even though it was the trip was only 1 hour the bus was delayed for 2. I dont normally complain about bus trips having been on alot of nightmare style trips but when you are paying top dollar in a first world country I did expect a better service. Not knowing what to expect I checked into the Road Runner hostel which is a small home based hostel not far from the bus station. The thing I like about these hostels is they have more of a homely feel as opposed to your average mega profit grabber.

Tucson is a town with a great feel about it. It has the main Arizona university thereby giving it that youthful freshness you only get in Uni towns. The music is great as well as a few good night spots and an excellent range of art gallerys and exhibitions. Walking around in the daytime was tough as the dry Sonora desert sun pounded by day and with little respite from prevailling cool winds which when they did show up were very refreshing. I also met some very interesting people with great stories to tell about the history of the nearby areas.

I could not help but feel the need to explore the area further, it is such a unique environment filled with cactus, canyons, desert and mountains. But it was impossible to get around by bus as they only really go into the big cities, the luck I had in New Zealand with buying a car was not so good so I bit the bullet and hired a car for a week.

The first stop was back up to Phoenix to pick up a few supplies from a local mall. But this was no ordinary mall, it was adorned with flash bright colours, large flames on pedestals and painted advertising lit up by various spotlights that was so intense that it filled your visionary delights. How could anyone go to all this effort in order to get you to consume.

I headed further north and ended up in a small, now ghost town called Jerome. A small town in the mountains that at the turn of the century was a thriving copper and gold town. Now it only really survives on tourism. Close to Jerome is the tiny town of Gold King Population 20, which basically consists only of a few houses and a junkyard that contained 20th century motoring relics that is now their graveyard. For some strange reason, these great ancient vehicles rusting away in the hot sun appeared as though natures elements have performed a great work of art, and I was inspired and ended up taking about 50 photos of rusty old parts and old paint scraped away in amongst rusty metal.

Heading further north I stopped at Red Rock state park and was starting to get annoyed at the exorbitant prices being asked for just to park your car and walk around in nature. Anyhow, this place was amazing with big red rocky mountains and various shaped cactus including the famous prickly pear. But this place was no match for the nearby Sedona which I knew little about apart from a few odd lyrics from a Pixies song and it was nothing to prepare me for the gargantuan mountains that just pertruded out of the ground as if from nothing. It is one of the "new age" capitals of the south west, meaning the people there are into alot of spiritual seeking and mediation work and the town has about as many crystal shops as Vegas has casinos. According to the locals, nearby to some of the big mountains including Bell Rock and the Chapel of the holy cross are energy power points ( not the ones where you plug in your fridge ) but subtle energy vortexes that because of the unique structure of the mountains, energy gets caught and sent down to the bottom. I myself having been to various sacred places, stone circles and am somewhat familiar with these energies but I was overwhelmed what I can only describe as a resonance coming particularly from the chapel of the holy cross. It definitely had an energy being emitted from it that nearly knocked me off my feet. It also was fairly audible similar to what you get after listening to loud rock music with headphones at volume 10.

After the enlightening experience of Sedona, I headed about 50 miles north to the small town of Flagstaff. Its a nice little town with a few old heritage buildings and to my luck the local pub had 25c drinks that night. I cannot believe how they can make money on that kind of price but it wasnt going to stop me enjoying it. Of course I didnt realise I had to tip for every drink until after a couple when the barman was about to punch my lights out! The bar was full of mostly friendly students around that made good company. Also a few people again, angry with the current political situation and also angry at the way the American people are portrayed because of it. I felt sympathetic towards their arguements as I could tell that the government really has a stranglehold on the people and to able to call this country free is literally an act of doublethink.

The next day I did as many before and went to the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, recent fires south in addition to all the polution around completly smoked up the place and visibility was atrocious. It made the whole visit quite disheartening and compared with Sedona made quite an uninspiring experience.

From this point I headed east towards New Mexico, through the Najavo indian reservation and it was very interesting to see the way these people lived in amongst small little towns in fairly abismal accomodation and what it seemed to be a very simple lifestyle. Unfortuntely I could not take any photos due to tribal law which is the usual tradition of the indian peoples.

After a long drive and alot of asking for directions I made it to Chaco Canyon, which is one of the oldest ruins in the whole of the southwest populated by the ancestors of the Navajo people. It used to be a large ancient city around 1000 years ago and archeologists are still unable to understand how and why such a desolate area was the main point of inhabitation at that time. The people that used to inhabit the area also knew alot about astronomy and had various stones that would cast points of light through large standing stones on the winter and summer solistice just like many other ancient cities. Again, however due to the destructive power of tourism, these stones have shifted out of place and the area is now closed off.

I continued driving east and ended up in Alberqerque, New Mexico. Overall, the place lacked any charm at all and wasnt worth the effort of coming. New Mexico was making me feel as though I should have headed north towards Utah and Colarado instead. Something to note for next time. From this point I went south to the famous town of Roswell. Apparently in the 50s, a UFO landed on the outskirts of town and ever since has been the subject of many conspiracies. I didnt happen upon any aliens apart from a few inflatable and cardboard cutouts and the entire community just seemed to believe anything and at the same time happy to earn a few dollars selling cheap, tacky gimics in the process. The only thing that was quite decent was their UFO library, which had probably the best selection of books in regards to anything paranormal from Alien encounters to Ancient Henges and stories of the Central American Mayans.

I was growing tired of sleeping in the car to save money on accomodation as it was next to impossible to get much sleep as the sun went down at around 10pm and rose at around 5am in the midst of 40 degree heat and the fan in car didnt really help. Another annoying aspect was that most of the trailer parks around would charge around $20 per night just for parking your car there and pitching the tent for the night!

Its something that is very annoying when hiring a car is that you have a time limit and mine was running out. Its very nice when you have your own car and you can spend as much time as you like at a place without having to worry about late fees as you do with hiring. So I headed back west as fast as possible and ended up stopping at white sands national monument which are large sand white sand dunes near to a old missile testing facility. The problem was I got there after dark and thought it would be alright to sleep in the car park for the night only to be awoken at 7am on the dot on a sunday morning by a park ranger telling me it is illegal to park there and was going to fine me unless I paid a $3 camp fee. I was still half asleep but they let me into the park which is normally $10 entrance just to see some white sand. I was very unimpressed compared to the large dunes of Western Australia and glad I didnt have to pay the full fare.

After that experience, I was quite annoyed all I wanted was to find a cheap place to camp and go for a hike around in nature, but it is next to impossible and another problem was there are people everywhere and they make so much facilities in national parks they look more like small towns. Something else that was quite concerning to me was the cheese that I bought 2 days prior, roasting in the 50 degree heat was still edible. I was doubting that there was any cheese in this so called "cheese". I guess the question is what really was it?

I was glad to get back to Arizona, and went closer to the border of Mexico to the small town of Tombstone. It is said to be one of the most haunted in towns Arizona, many people were victims of gun fights in the late 1800s and the main saloon alone accounted for 26 deaths. At its most famous place - the OK Corral, several witnesses have reported ghosts of the Earps as well as the Clanton brothers. At the nearby Boothill Graveyard, reports of apparitions and strange lights have frequently been given in this place that harbors several old outlaws beneath its wooden tombstones. Luckily, I only visited the place by day and it looks more like a theme park with most people dressed up in the old vintage clothing and re-enacting the legendary gunfights.

I was extremely tired of the tourist attractions around the area so I headed towards the southern sierra of Arizona to a place called Madera Canyon. Upon arriving, I decided to clean up the car abit and was immediately confronted by a ranger who demanded that I pay my camping and parking fee right away. I felt as though I was being threatened by gestapo style tactics and all this from a national park? I just got in the car and high tailed it out of there as quick as I could and returned back to Tucson.

It was a relief to be back in Tucson, the town with a great vibe and some of the best music on the radio I have heard with loads of classic rock tracks. It was really hot in the car and very difficult to sleep, I was very glad that the trip was all over. On the last day, I headed to Seguaro National park and decided to hike in the desert which was a pretty stupid idea considering it was about 42 degrees. It was very difficult to hike and I consumed perhaps 3 litres of water in just a matter of hours. I met some Czech girls hiking as well and I think we were the only ones that were that dumb. Anyway, it was weird that everytime I go hiking I meet Czech women but it was nice that I could speak and understand them and we had a good chat about our stories of being chased by rangers from camping illegally, perhaps its a Czech thing I do not know. Afterwards, I was exhausted from the hike and decided that it is much better to hike in the extreme cold of New Zealand than the extreme heat of Arizona. I gave back the car and felt my American experience was over and Mexico awaited.

The ultimate USA Road Trip musical repetoire

The Doors, Pearl Jam, Jefferson Airplane, Eagles, Red hot Chili Peppers, Stone temple Pilots, Queens of the stone age, Dire Straits, System of a down, Jeff Buckley, Nirvana MTV unplugged - you get the picture

Overall, the United States is one enormous country with almost as much diversity as Europe. The intermingling of Politics, Media and Religion are an integral part to the way the country is shaped, and to fully understand would probably take years and would most likely end up with more confusion and various suicide attempts so its best just to not go there. The government uses every method it can to keep a stranglehold on the proles which are the majority of the population so even for the minority of intelligent people, there remains a large bulk of poorly educated people susceptible to swallow anything that the media tells them, some of the questions I was asked were "Is Sweden the same country as Switzerland?" and "When was the first world war?". Among some of the bumper stickers I noticed were "Freedom is the right to bare arms", "Beef, its whats for dinner" and "Vegetarian, an old indian word for poor hunter". I guess there is no time to for learning history when you are spending all your time deciding whether you want French Vanilla, Toffee Cream or Hazlenut coffee, all of which taste so artificial and probably dont contain any real coffee beans anyway. Ironically, the KFC "chickens" that are pumped full of chemicals are similar to way the public is treated. Constantly bombared with advertising material, hundreds of pay tv channels all promoting items that are full of chemicals all shoved down our throats plumping us up until we can barely walk, and conviently die at an age when we are no longer economically viable. At the current moment in time thousands of American children are being forced to take mood altering drugs in order to control ADD, parents can face prison or have their children taken away if they object.

Another part of this scary nightmare has come to life through Bush’s USA Patriot Act. This act enables law enforcement departments to spy on anyone: To read private e-mail correspondence, monitor Internet usage, tap into phone conversations, delve into computer files and conduct “sneak-and-peak” searches of homes and offices without immediately, if ever, presenting residents with a search warrant. This truly is an orwellian society coming to life and the worst thing about it is spreading fast throughout the whole world.

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Photos

Arizona
Chapel of the Holy Cross

Sedona
Prickly Pear with Bell Rock background

Gold King
Cool Rust

Gold King
Classic Truck

Gold King
Windmill

Gold King
Rusty Chains

A very smoky Grand Canyon
Arizona

Chaco Canyon
New Mexico

Red Rock
New Mexico

Phoenix
Can you resist?

Bank
Glowing green with envy

White Sands Monument
New Mexico

Tucson Arizona
Interesting colours and architecture

Tucson Arizona
Graffiti

Roswell
The only aliens I saw

Saguaro Cactus
Arizona

Comments

[jenny]

erin-and-jen-do-asia travelblog
your photos are amazing.great reading your blog. Are you a photographer?