Washington (Capital)

I have to give a big shout out to all the people that i’ve met there I had lots of fun seeing you guys and your strange-strange country. I saw some great museums and art galleries and other public works. Note: Picture of capitol with canadian flags and unseen black canadian death squirils









I was also fortunate to be there during Halloween, a festival where guys dress up as something scary or funny and girls as something sexy. This really plays to the strength of both sexes. Forget the witches and zombies stuff that’s for 6 year olds, grownups are all sci-fi and nurses, tigers and cowboys. Good times.

Arizona – Sunburnt Splendour

The Grand Canyon... no matter how many pictures you have seen it’s still very impressive. And you can’t physically stop yourself from taking pictures of it.. ohhh there’s a rock ohhh and a stick and ohhh the canyon and ohhh look a cactus ohhh another rock... you get the idea. This one is up there with the great wall in the list of overly touristy things that are worth doing. Sunset at the canyon is definitely recommended.

Driving across America, and particularly Arizona, we saw a little of small town USA, complete with dodgy motels/dines. They are an experience in themselves.

As we moved south the Cacti became more plentiful and bigger. Once we arrived at the little cabin of Jim and Chris, my sister’s godfather, we were greeted by a sumptuous feast of rear Mexican food. Followed by fireside stories and smores. What the hell is a smore? Is it an endangered spices? and should you be eating them? Says any non-American. Americans will tell you Yum, No, Yes and also explain that it is a ‘gram crakker’ (no relation to the weight of 1g) chocolate and a marshmallow. The concoction is toasted so that the marshmallow is gooie and melts the chocolate... not bad. Even better when enjoyed in this picturesque setting with good company.

Driving USA

So I picked out my car the 3.5L American beast known as a Dodge Charger. It comes with two pedals one can make a tire noise the other makes a roaring engine noise, full of the sound and fury of 250 confused horses. Not that these horses come out of the paddock - fear not for your faces being pulled off, my grandma would be quite comfortable overtaking in this car, and would probably floor the accelerator too – big heavy and underpowered (might have something to do with the lolly water they jokingly refer to as Petrol or ‘Gas’) I suddenly see the point of the 6.1L V8 version. The feeling of mismatched proportion continues everywhere i drove this kitten with a megaphone. Of course everything is in miles the mythical distance that seems to stretch and can seem close and yet far... I know i did 2,386 of the little buggers (many on route 66) but I have yet to figure out how far away is “20 miles” A little voice in the back of my head tells me something about 1.6 times something is uhm... how many was it again... ohh well.

Driving always seams slow and the road conditions generally poor. Driving 60 mph is painfully slow and you can drive at 85 miles an hour and be surprised to discover this is 140km/hr. Then you fuel up in Gallons and i have no idea how many teacups per furlong the doge does but i think it’s a few.

A Large Portion, Yes!.... I compulsively order the largest size as in Australia this is a reasonably filling size... in America normal sizes are 500-600ml for coke ect.. fries and burgers are considerably larger and everything has more sugar. Except the coke is not as sweet and less caffeinated than the Australian variety. So here is a picture of my coke and my Car, both oversized and underpowered.

As so i swim in a sea of Quarts and fl Oz, of miles and gallons, nickels and dimes, of inches and feet, of Fourths (quaters that are not coins) and 5/16”, not knowing wich way is up -but in this noisy sea of confusion there is one glimmer of hope – My Sat Nav is metric!

Viva Los Vegas

So we arrive Late night into Los Vegas, the city that dosen’t sleep -24 hours of gambling, drinking, partying right? WRONG. We thought it was just after 11pm but every food place was closed, so walked from the MGM Grand to the New York, but again almost no food. We finally got a bad burger and a fruit salad at a place called “America!” and in true American tradition it was oversized and unpalatable. The tables too were closed – as we had crossed state lines we changed time zones so it was 12:30am. We decided this was not Vegas we had to stay another night.
Vegas is full of novelty amusements and gimmicks. The coolest include the Bellagio’s fountains playing “Viva Las Vegas – Elvis” exploding volcanoes and going indoor skydiving. Picture yourself staring into your hairdryer, imagine wearing baggy clothing, now dial that up to use a jet engine in a vertical wind tunnel and your feet no longer touch the ground then I think you know what indoor skydiving is. I went for a quick ( no really quick) gamble, lost some money, and walked away feeling I had least supported the industry that built Vegas, and let’s face it the Buffet was worth it.

California Dreaming

Los Angeles is where we start our journey from the airport to Santa Monica Pier parked on the wooden boardwalk the furthest possible east on route 66. An excellent start, even if i was dizzy from my jet Lag. 24 hours later we start driving north.


Yosemite is California, man – the Chillies restaurant attendant proudly proclaims. So yes we swung a left and headed there, before death vally . This impressive national park offers some fantastic views, waterfalls, and snow. Pictures don’t do it justice but hell I’ll try. Also lost my phone and MP3 player somewhere near here. So don’t bother calling me just yet :)


Death Vally – Lots of Sun not much snow. Volcanic craters, sand dunes, salt lakes and canyons. And if you ever have to run up a crater of an active Vulcan to escape certain doom... it will be easier just to stay there and accept your fate... runing down on the other hand was fun.




Going to San Francisco – flowers in the hair optional. Cable cars and homeless people, clam chowder and Alcatraz.