Back home
We made it back and on reflection we should have called the blog, “Tony and Julie eating their way across route 66”. We had a wonderful time and met many interesting people as we went from one fantastic place to another. People use the term “Trip of a lifetime” easily, but this really was one. 4500 miles of fun everyday that will remain with us for years.
Was there a best bit, no there were many. The view over the Grand Canyon at dusk, the awesome size of Yosemite, the sweep of Big Sur, the desolation of Death Valley, the smiles of all the guys in Route 66 dinners, the rumble of hundreds of Harleys, the fairyland that is Las Vegas, the fun was our wedding renewal, the grandeur of New York and the style of Chicago. I could go on and on with this summary but I won’t. All I want to add is that we did this trip, you should too.
Have fun.
PS anyone need a Sat Nav map of USA?
PPS thank you for reading
The last day, or so
Next day we had to buy a new bag at Sears to carry all the swag we had bought during the trip, up to now it had been stored in plastic carrier bags, there is really no room in the trunk of a Mustang. We drove off to get to Hertz to hand the car back and then off to the airport.
Did you know what they mean in CA when they say "little place on the beach" this is what they mean!
We couldn’t check in for 3 hours, so went to the only ground side café, a Starbucks and whiled away 3 hours. When we were allowed to check in there was none of the hassle we had faced in Paris and within 30 minutes we were through all processes. On the air side there is very little to do, a duty free shop, 3 restaurants and a couple of retail outlets, nothing like Heathrow. We had a pathetic Pizza and waited to board. The flight left on schedule at 1840 and we looked forward to the next 11 hours. The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Paris at 2 and raced through the terminal to catch the connection to Birmingham. Having checked in we were told that the flight had been cancelled and we would be booked onto a later trip. Chaos reigned as information was not in evidence, so having been tipped the wink by another traveller I went to the transfer desk and booked onto the next flight. There were only 10 spare places on this plane and we got 2 of them, hurray, the next flight wasn’t till after 8. By 7 we were back in Birmingham and by 8 we were in bed.
Back to 66
Well we checked with Air F rance and our flight had been delayed 24 hours. So we still drove down to LA. We knew we were close by the palm trees, a bit different from the redwoods 2 days ago. We decided to stay near LAX at Santa Monica, our hotel was just of Ocean. And the surf was up
We had some difficulty getting a room as there was an international conference of Gynaecologists in town, make of that what you will. So we made it to the end of route 66 at the junction of Ocean and Santa Monica Boulevard. There is a plaque to mark the end.
The journey was marred by a huge traffic jam, caused by a 5 car crash on Sunset Boulevard, but we were glad this was a Saturday not a weekday.
We drifted down to the beach, fine sand and blue water and a smashing bar called Big Bens just beside Muscle Beach ( there were no muscles in evidence).
After doinner in the evening we walked back to our hotel and right past "Hotel California"
Whilst I remember, we saw hundreds of RVs9(recreational vehicles); they were huge, often bigger than the trucks and most with a car in tow. To maintain environmental credibility they usually had a few bikes as well. What a green way to travel. I felt quite smug at only being responsible for a few hundred litres of Aviation fuel to get back to UK.
Julie had wondered what a place on the beach to a Californians mean, well this is it.
I got busy trying to get the blog up to date.
The ocean
Waking early we had to make up the miles we lost yesterday. The plan was to hit highway 1 near Monterey and follow it down to Los Angeles. This route is better known as the Big Sur and is where the Santa Lucia range joins the sea.. It is one of the drives you have to do with the roof off. We did but had to wear sweaters. It was a staggering drive and when you consider it was constructed in the 1930s a staggering engineering feat. We crossed a bridge called Bixby Bridge, was it named after a relative? but in its time it was the longest concrete bridge in the world.
As is right and proper for such a scenic route there were hundreds of places to stop on the route so that you could admire the views. We did and also admired the wildlife on display. Up until now we had seen a variety of animals on the trip, raccoons, skunks, armadillos, wolves etc, but all as road kill. Now they were alive. We saw Pelicans, sea otters, cormorants and elephant seals all down the coast. We didn’t see whales, but allegedly you can see them from the shore occasionally. We stayed at a Best Western at Pelican Point just south of Pismo Beach. We overlooked the sea and as the name suggests the rock promontory was covered with fishing pelicans. The view of the sunset was fantastic.
We ate at a local restaurant where the special was a Kobe Steak. Wow it was probably the best steak I have ever eaten.
Tomorrow it’s down to Los Angeles and off to UK.
Another surprise
This morning we planned to travel through Yosemite National park. I had seen pictures of the place in a View master slide that my father gave me when I was 8 and had been fascinated by sound of the place ever since.
We were not disappointed. Having been below sea level the day before we spent the first part of the day climbing and climbing.
We saw notices advising you to cut off your car air-conditioning and there were frequent pull in areas with radiator water.
When we came to the ranger hut, to pay the entry fee we saw the height was 9945 ft. This is the highest I have ever been in a car, and good old Trigger didn’t let us down.
The scenery was fantastic, each corner delivered a new vista that we had to stop and photograph. The whole place was fantastic and one of the reasons why this trip has been so special.
We were so high that we were above the snow line, something that pleased julie as she was able to make snowballs!
We had to watch out for bears, so we waited till we left the park to eat, where I had a small club sandwich as you can see.
Leaving Yosemite we headed for the coast, driving through more fantastic but different scenery. We realized that we would not make Monterey, as planned so we stopped at a small town of Santa Nella. The high spot of the evening was eating at a faux Danish windmill called “Pea Soup Andersons”, a restaurant serving pea soup with everything.
They are very proud of their cuisine that they have a very active web page here
http://www.peasoupandersens.net/. It certainly provided a different dinning experience.
Leaving Las Vegas
We checked out then had to get our bags taken down to the lobby, I went to get the car and wait at the front. Of course it was chaos with loads of people all wanting to get away at the same time, it was a bit like Olaya Street in Saudi at prayer time.
After 15 minutes the Security guard asked me to move the car so I drove round the block and waited another 15 minutes when at last the Bell Boy turned up with our baggage and the costumes we had to return. The Security tried to move me on again, when I reminded the guard that I was a client and would not move.
We left the hotel at 10 and went to the chapel to pick up our DVD, with which we will bore all our friends for years to come. We went over to Williams Costumes, where we learnt that in the same place where we stood had stood Mohammed Atttar, the leader of the 9/11 hijackers. Spooky, but nice see he also hired fancy dress!
At last we set of on the road to Reno and escaped the mad house that is Vegas.
We stopped at Indian Springs, at Nevada Joe's for lunch, where the waiter kept complaining about having fallen over, drunk?
We turned off at Beatty for Death Valley. The country side changed as we dropped from 4000ft to a few feet below sea level. Bleak, salt flats, surrounded by the high peaks of Sierra Nevada, covered in snow.
As we left the valley we passed great lakes at Mammoth, advertising the fantastic trout fishing.
We drove through a quaint small town Lone Pine
and stopped the night at Bishop, a lovely small town with clear fresh air.
It was a place we could have stayed for days. We ate at Whiskey Creek a real country restaurant with its own micro brewery and really delicious food, I had a pork chop cooked in Coca Cola, strangely lovely.
10/10
Well the big day arrived and we decided to have a really lazy start with only a little gentle, but profitable gambling, things really started at 2 when we had to get ready for a 3.30 o’clock pick up. We got a call from the limo driver saying that he was running a bit late as Elvis was tied up a little! We went down to the lobby at 3.15 and as we walked through became the subject of interest and lots of photos; we thought we knew what it must be like to be pursued by paparazzi. The limo, a pink open top Cadillac arrived with a red jacketed Elvis in the front seat finally arrived, more photos from the happy snappers and lots of “thank you very much” from Elvis. We got in the back and proceeded very slowly down the strip to the Little White Chapel. What a fun trip
Getting the costumes on was fun, especially the huge hoops needed to get Julie’s dress to the Southern Bell look. Well the finished effect was as follows.
we met Rev Robert Stone who said he would be with us shortly. He had to first conduct a Drive in Wedding for a couple, with the bloke wearing his baseball hat throughout (just no sense of occasion) This took less than 5 minutes
When we were ready I had to stand at the front of the chapel, the vicar put on “Here Comes the Bride” on a cassette and Elvis escorted Julie to the front. The service followed the form we had used 25 years ago until Elvis sang “Love me Tender” with all the movements and wiggles we have come to love over the years.
The exchange of vows was lovely but the exchange of rings caused a bit of a raised eyebrow from the vicar, as we had bought soft rubber flashing ones from MoMA for the occasion. The service ended with Elvis singing, “Don’t be cruel” with fortunately a teleprompt for the words as he asked me to join in the chorus, (How to ruin a good song in 10 secs). We had to have the photos, in the same place as Brittany, what joy, and then back to the hotel in a white stretched limo.
Arriving back at the Luxor we caused almost as much of a stir as when we departed.
Back to our room and out of our very hot costumes. How did they do it in the 1850s?
Our plan for the evening was to go the MGM Grand to see the Cirque Du Soleil in their show KA, no not about the small Ford car. See
http://www.lasvegas-nv.com/cirque-du-soleil.htm The show, the set and the action was spectacular. We really didn’t realize it was 11 o’clock when the show ended. Fantastic.
The day before
Wedding preparations.
The day began with a telephone search of wedding services; we didn’t fancy the chapel here at the Luxor. We tried the ‘Wee Kirk o’ the Heather’- no answer, The Elvis Chapel, but settled on the ‘Little White Chapel’
http://www.thelittlewhitechaple.com/ , this does helicopter weddings, Cadillac weddings and drive through weddings!! It is where Michael Jackson, Joan Collins, Brittany Spears and oh yes, Vera Duckworth were also married
Our package, in costume includes flowers and a pink open top Cadillac limo, an Elvis to give me away and sing and a video and photos.
We have chosen to dress as Rhet Butler and Scarlett O’Hara.
After a morning planning our ‘vow renewal’, we spent some time at the outlet mall. Then had a few cocktails and a delightful dinner at the Mandelay Bay hotel next door in ‘ Shanghai Lilly’s. A fine Cantonese dinner experience, Julie had a wonderful tangerine beef dish and Tony had a lemon chicken to die for. On the way back we had to stop at the shops in the Mandalay, one in particular was a fun place, It was called Lush Puppies that sold everything that you and your dog might or might not want. You can see the range at
http://www.marioworldpetproducts.com/ Early bed (10.30ish) to get beauty sleep for our big day tomorrow, however we did hit the loose slots on the way to our room; we even won, nearly 28 dollars, for 3 “invested” on our way to bed
.
On the corner
Saturday morning-We drove via Winslow (‘standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona, it’s such a fine place to be’ taken from the Eagles – ‘Take it easy’) . A lovely friendly little town, with very big dogs, Texas should look out. In a coffee house we discovered the Route 66 newspaper….try
http://www.route66pulse.com/ and .. and the coffee was delicious.
We also stopped at a Cherokee trading post called - Geronimo’s, we hope some of you will be pleased with the results of our shopping spree.
And we didn't forget Winona
Then we rolled into Flagstaff, and secured the last room in the Travelodge motel, opposite the railway… Poor Tony, really suffered at night from the eerie train horn calls, I slept through that!!
We went into the town for lunch and a bit of gee-gore shopping. Whilst in town we went to the local rail Depot, on the Santa Fe line. The trains we have seen have been at least a hundred cars long carrying double decker loads of containers with between 3 and 6 engines hauling the load. The longest we saw had over 180 cars!
Then calculated we had enough time to drive up to the ‘canyon’ for the sunset. (South Rim).
This experience is one that words cannot describe especially as we made it in time to see the canyon as the sun set and the variety of colours as the sun got lower. It is difficult to comprehend that the place is 1 mile deep where we were and 15 miles wide!
The drive back in the dark was fun. There were no lights at all and even when we neared Flagstaff there was not the glow in the night you get with UK towns. As the Lovell observatory is close by the city it makes a real effort to reduce light pollution. We were exhausted when we got back to our room ordered Domino Pizza and collapsed.
Sunday- We ate a very hearty breakfast in Flagstaff in this hotel, the same one Zane Grey wrote many of his western adventures. Then hit the interstate to Kingman and then to Las Vegas (baby).
Our guide suggested that a stop at Seligan was essential, and we couldn’t disagree. There were a lot of derelict businesses in the town but those left seemed to be thriving with the Route 66 passing trade. One in particular was the Rusty Bolt store, which was almost as interesting outside than in. We drove with the top down via the Hoover Dam. (The water level is down about 100 foot because of the drought that this area has been suffering for the last 5 years).
At the Nevada Visitors Centre, at Boulder City, just as we crossed the border, we booked a room at the Luxor
http://www.luxor.com/
Las Vegas is hard to describe, some pictures may help. Our advise it to suspend all personal dignity and jump in with both feet. Of course you know our plan is to renew our vows on Tuesday. This first evening we strolled as far as the water fountains show at Bellagios’s
http://www.bellagio.com/ then returned overawed and plain tuckered out. Our room is in the pyramid, 11th floor out of 30, room 11143!! It looks out from behind the famous Sphinx out to the desert and mountains.
One thing we saw was Kid Rock, a pop singer trying out a Lamborghini, from our hotel. He had never driven a stick shift car as he kangarooed around the block. You can have money but skill is something you can't buy!
