Goodbye San Francisco

So we have done our SF part of the Odyssey. We're pretty much 'gay'd out', the Castro is an interesting place, all openly loving, men and women can walk around holding hands (pretty much everywhere in SF) and no-one cares! Clubs, bars and the likes we did, unfortunately its a dirty city, in that, there's litter everywhere. Too many homeless people, too the point where you had to dodge around that many when walking around the city. And dope!!! Legalised here for "medical use" yeah right! It stank everywhere, walking thru puffs of dope smoke was disgusting...... So, saw some of the America's Cup got to the Muir Redwood Forest, dined in Sausalito, did the botanical gardens AND Derek saw his first humming bird in action. I liked the city, D says he wouldn't rush back So left on Sunday morning and started out road trip along the west coast of California, seeing and smelling the sea again was great (pacific ocean) crazy road with some amazing bridges. Drove for most of the day and landed in Pismo Beach, to a really nice Motel for the night. Unfortunately on the way we got to Hearst Castle at around 5pm when they were closing up, so didn't get to go and see it but the gift shop had some amazing book on it. Maybe next time.... Left the next morning for LA but detoured into another outlet centre, Derek sniffs 'em out I tell ya....this was HUGE in Camarillo 40+ miles out of LA. Left there and with white knuckles made it into LA on their, Hwys/Fwys or whatever you want to call 5 lanes @ 70mh roadways.....The hotel I changed our original booking from is new CLEAN and really lovely, its on West Sunset Blvd only a few blocks from everything, apparently! Unpacked ready for a weeks stay, made ourselves comfortable & will head out for a bite to eat. PnD xx

Where are we.......

Ok! Lets's see where are we up too? So we made it into Yosemite via some very steep terrain, much to Derek's dismay, don't know why, the cliff edge was on my side of the car pretty much all the way!!! Again we drove through smoke filled valleys from the fires, were detoured and then finally made it into Yosemite...well almost! The motel we were changed to, by bookings.com, because of said fires was approx 8miles outside of the gates into Yosemite AND THEN you had to drive a further 5miles (20.92147kms in total) to get to the visitors centre and all the shuttle buses. Long way, but! AND how archaic, the motel had no WiFi and their Internet service, if you could get onto it was zip/zero/nuf'n........best reception was in the actual park itself!! Any-hoo....Yosemite was lovely however dry, only 2 of the waterfalls were running, we walked/trekked to the closest which was about 4.5miles (7.242048kms) Made our days very exhausting, great exercise regime, makes up for me not going to the gym......saw deer, squirrels, chipmunks but no bears, except for paw prints and poo! So we did our 3 days there and headed for San Francisco, drive wasn't all too bad, Mr Worgan again was his usual self regarding other drivers and their standards.........!?!?!? Have arrived and the house we're staying at is PURPLE....old and a little musty in flavour, owned by a drag queen or something! Bummer AGAIN, no WiFi and get this NO TV, I know, I know......we're on holidays and we should be outside, but it's when you come back in, to just veg in front of one and catch up on stuff...even though all American reports here are on the Syrian Crisis! So yesterday we firmiliarised ourselves with the Castro and then went down to the bay. Walked along all the Piers and headed into the Americas Cup area, it was practice day, but we got to see Oracle the cheating US entry....scoot past us. Made it to the famous Fisherman's Wharf had our Clam Chowder (wasn't that nice) got on a trolley car and headed all the way back to the Castro. That's it so far..... PnD xx

Road Trip

So we leave the Grand Canyon and head for Monument Valley nice long drive, when we get there its spectacular i mean really spectacular! Derek was gobsmacked see some of the pictures. When we left we drove until dark and pulled in to a town Kanab in Utah this facility was 'nice' the lady running was a hoot. Left early the next morning and drove thru all the great basins across Nevada, and wow, long long long straight roads with mountains on either sides of these plains, just like in the movies, even the Sci Fi movies..... Well we drove on and again until dark then we stopped in a town Tonopah, everywhere we stopped was 'no vacancy' well we pulled up at a motel National 9 with vacancies.......Jess from work warned me about these places.....sorry Jess, we went in.....Aaaaargh, it was hideous, whadda u expect for $49 + taxes. There wasn't anywhere else! So after a very uncomfortable nights semi-sleep we go up & left by 7am..... Drove some more across Nevada and headed for California, and Yosemite NP but were diverted due to the fires in the park, so we headed for Lake Tahoe instead, but on the way the mountains we crossed were smothered with the smoke coming from these fires, very eerie. So we finally get here its pretty here, pretty large town as well! We have rung the hotel in Yosemite NP and all is good, but we have to travel a different route to get there, no big deal! The motel here is gorgeous, I said to D I wanted something 1000 times better than last nights so here we are, Beach Retreat & Lodge Motel, South Lake Tahoe.....heaven....hehehe Goodnight xxx PnD

Hoover Dam & The Grand Canyon

The drive so far has been ok, Worgan stresses & I stress because he drives complaining about everyone's driving and he speeds.......it's like being at home really!!!! We got to the Hoover dam and what a feat of engineering for the 30's pretty bloody amazing, it was boiling there finally some real hot weather. From there we made our way to the Canyon bloody long way via a bit of the famous Route 66. We are staying 8 miles from the entrance to the GC National Park, $25US for a 7 day pass. We get up for our first day into the park and its pouring with rain, and it keeps up for most of the morning as per our pics. Thought we were gonna miss out on the Canyon's full glory. But as we all know GOD shines on the USA (in God they trust)& yes she showed up with the sun!!!! It's truly a magnificent sight to see, the sheer magnitude of this big long hole in the ground, millions of years in the making & still growing according to the geologist/ranger guide. Worgan the "not so" brave wouldn't get close to the lookouts & doesn't want to take one of the walking trails down to almost the bottom (5-6hrs) round trip....but tomorrow is another day! Checkout some of the pics. PnD xx

Viva Las Vegas

Hi there! Well we got here in the wee hours due to a very long train ride, from Chicago.....Anyway so here we, and WOW!!! This place is large, flat, and over the top with lights and power usage. Have done the strip in the day and at night, of course the nocturnal time is best. The fountain at the Bellagio Hotel, the Volcano show at the Treasure Island Hotel and video screen at the Aria....all with the WOW factor, and then there was Caesars Palace...DOUBLE WOW!!!!! You walked into this casino and the opulence and decor the MONEY spent on this place, then you walk into the restaurant and shopping malls....it's been done to look like your walking in the evening in the piazzas of Italy the ceilings are painted with clouds and its dimmed, unbe-bloody believable..... Its hot here, which makes it great for us, as its meant to be summer, as for Chicago it was cooler. The Stratosphere Hotel is lovely, we're on the 14th floor looking out at the tower with the bungee jumping rope from the top of the tower, the rides that over shoot the top (see pics). The view from the top at night was also breath taking (see pics) Tomorrow we pick the car up?!?! And start our road trip across to Hoover Dam and then the Grand Canyon, so watch this space. PnD xx

Chicago

Howdy folks, Derek and I have arrived, it was fun on the train but sleeping was a little uncomfortable for Derek he's taller, there's plenty of room between seating but stretched out the poor bugger was not able to get his position right! I of course was fine...... Arrived and thought i go to Amtrak office at Chicago Union Station and upgrade for sleepers well 2 things.....an extra $405US errrrr no thanks, then I checked our next leg of the train trip, Chicago to Las Vegas WELL lucky I checked, as I had booked to go to Las Vegas New Mexico NOT Nevada. No where on the receipt email I got from Amtrak back in sept 12 did it say New Mexico. The lady agreed it was poor of Amtrak cause all it says is Las Vegas union station. Anyway we're here and all is well. Lovely city and amazing to see Lake Michigan as a coast so HUGE it really looks like the ocean. Have walked around, done their underground went to 'Boystown' went to a bar and sat and chatted to locals. Today we went to the Willis Tower formerly the Sears Tower, and went to the 103rd floor viewing floor, oh boy, wow, and holy shit.....best describes the view and me taking the step out on the glass deck, see the pics and you'll know why! Day 2 & 3 we walked all over the city took in their Millennium Park, gardens and more shops!! Yes we bought more shoes.... Here are some pics of Chicago. PnD xx

All Smithsonian Out.....

We've walked, crawled and stumbled through so many of this city's museums, art galleries and Smithsonian's that we'll be glad to put our feet up on the train on Thursday when we head for Chicago for some respite. An absolute amazing array of history, artwork and artefacts, well worth it i say and we are both so glad we came here. See some of the 'stuff' we saw here. PnD xx

The Nations Capital WASHINGTON DC

Anal......that's how best describes this city on its design! Adelaide, Canberra are the same! The streets run in grids, starting at A street then cross with 1st street then they maybe crossed with streets named after cities or states of the US. We are at a very lovely B&B in the suburb of Shaw on 5th street, close to the corner of P street and up the road a bit is Florida Rd...get the picture LOL! Don't get me wrong its beautiful here all the streets, roads and avenues are tree lined, Derek is spewing cause the trees they have here are trees we have in the garden and are no way near as big. They grow ornamental Maples in the verge. However they do need to trim a lot of them up makes it difficult for people to walk on footpaths or the best is 'ducking' whilst on the open deck of the hop on - hop off double decker bus tour around the city. Their monuments to their Presidents and World Wars are spectacular and HUGE, let alone Capitol Hill and the White House, Pentagon was a fizzer. Funny though you were told not to take pictures, YEAH RIGHT!! everyone started snapping as soon as we got within range!! LOL We did all 3 routes 48hr pass of the hop on - hop off bus (great way to see a city) orientated ourselves, so today we will hit the Museums and Smithsonian's. Here are some pic of DC, PnD xx