A final long drive to Los Angeles was nicely broken up by a visit to the Joshua Tree National Park, which looked suspiciously like a Star Trek set, with huge rocks and alien trees.
Passing through the wind farms on the outskirts of LA we hit the rush hour traffic and spent two hours and two [...]
Long hot drive to Las Vegas through Death Valley, which is all below sea level.
After running (slowly) round the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells we went to the Visitor Centre.
All the US National Parks have a Visitor Centre which hands out excellent maps and guides and tends to have an auditorium or cinema where they [...]
Long drive today over the 9600ft Sonora Pass but with a couple of interesting stops.
Bodie is a ghost town that used to be a mining community in the late 1800’s. It’s now full of old wooden buildings being preserved, but the most interesting part if the cemetery which shows the rapid changes in population and [...]
Despite the previous days errors I went back to the Mexican Diner for a more restrained breakfast of Huevos Rancheros, or Eggs with Pork Chilli and Salsa.
Possibly due to all the beans, a prevailing wind helped me climb a small mountain called Sentinel Dome. Bizarrely my camera memory decided to corrupt at this point so [...]
From Patterson we drove to Mariposa and set up shop in the Mariposa Lodge, our first American Motel – much better than they’re made to look on My Name is Earl.
We headed to the local supermarket to buy a packed lunch, which was made difficult as the selection was enormous. Most people opted for a [...]
The next morning we took the ferry to Alcatraz. This was really well run – the interesting audio commentary was narrated by ex-guards and convicts, but to be honest I spent most of my time figuring out locations from The Rock.
In the afternoon we drove to a small town called Patterson via a couple of [...]
If I had a penny for every time someone said to me ‘Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair’, I’d have 4p.
Arrived in San Francisco and after messing about a bit at the airport met the group (older than I expected, but all nice people) and were all transferred to the Mark Twain hotel [...]
Having taken a taxi from Charing Cross to Paddington at 5am on a Saturday morning I was privileged to see all the hardcore clubbers heading home. Lots of tartan skirts and top hats for some reason, although my favourite outfit had to be the chap in a tutu and Darth Vader control panel. It’s all [...]
