Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Still kicking
Just to keeping the blog ticking and let the world know this blog isn't forgotten and we'll be starting it off again soon.
above is a view from the street outside my current temp apt.
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Back to reality
Just one final entry to close the San Francisco to Dallas 2009 Blog. The blog will remain here and will be used when planning for the next road trip begins (soon hopefully).
Well after the drama of the disappearing luggage (thankfully arrived now, luckycharms and all), it has been quite a shock to get back to reality. Work is a odd place at the moment, there seem to be subtle changes and weird vibes, its like something out of Revenge of the Body snatchers. I'm sure as the weeks go back I will fit comfortably back into the routine, well for the 6 more months at least.
Just some final photos from the trip.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
High five moments
- Remember that time (RTT) we went to America
- RTT we ate 20 taco
- RTT with Sherman the crazy german
- RTT we woke Marcus up
- RTT in Phoenix at fat tuesday
- RTT with the hot pirate on pier 39
- RTT we watched Marcus waste 40 quarters
- RTT we rode the roller coaster
- RTT me and Marcus saw the hot girl on the roller coaster
- RTT with the shrimp slot machine
- RTT with the inappropriate submarine joke
- RTT we first had In-N-Out burger at fishermans wharf
- RTT ride with the spanish taxi driver and he told us about the horn
- RTT Matt really had to pee
- RTT in the 'ghetto'
- RTT you saw the pimp
- RTT we smoke on Alcatraz
- RTT me and Marcus did Sean Connery impressions on Alcatraz
- RTT we woke up Marcus (but this time filmed it)
- RTT when I saw Bed, Bath and Beyond
- RTT in Taco bell when I won gay chicken (with the music too)
- RTT when Rob though it was 3 and Marcus it was 4, and me and Matt didn't care
- RTT I found the Chuck Norris vs Mr T book
- RTT on the popeyes chicken advert when the lady said fanny
- RTT we had In-N-Out burger in Vegas
- RTT we drove over the golden gate bridge
- RTT we went to ihop
- RTT with the Long Island ice teas at the Hard Rock cafe
- RTT we were cruising the Vegas strip at 4am, and I was winning on roulette
- RTT at the snack corral where Marcus insisted buying us ice cream
- RTT with the "more beers"
- RTT Rob and Marcus got drunk on tequila
- RTT lookng at myspace after we went to snack corral
- RTT we made the jizz moper tag at the ripleys believe it or not museum
- RTT with the two way mirrors
- RTT with the two headed weasel
- RTT we had In-N-Out burger in Phoenix
- RTT we had chilli cheese fries
- RTT we had d-backs dogs
- RTT the d-backs sucked
- RTT Marcus had a tail (and we laughed at him)
- RTT the 'check engine' light came on
- RTT at vista point
- RTT at Area 51 when it snowed
- RTT we went through Goldfield
- RTT Matt couldn't find the apple store
- RTT with the vietnamese sandwich (high five myself)
- RTT i made Marcus eat a corn dog
- RTT in Walmart
- RTT Matt scared Marcus at the Texas picnic area
- RTT in the carpark outside Arbys
- RTT Rob tried to win a giant Stewie at fishermans wharf (and failed)
- RTT we all laughed at Rob for buying so much tourist tat
- RTT i drove up to the Bellagio hotel
- RTT we found the welcome to south lake tahoe sign
- RTT we took a wrong turn and ended up in Carson city
- RTT we went to Sears and ate out weight in pancakes
- RTT we stood on the corner in winslow arizona
- RTT when it was 11.11
- RTT we drove down the Vegas strip
- RTT we saw a turnout
- RTT when you (matt) couldn't get the car into gear.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Last day and great conspiracies
Retrospective update:-
We started the day with another massive breakfast this time at the Waffle House, myself having the double blueberry waffle special, which I disappointingly was unable to finish (*hangs head in shame*), you'd think with two weeks plus in America I would be a pro by now. We then hit the twelve lane highway to central Dallas to check out the infamous Dealey Plaza and site of the John F. Kennedy assassination. After humming the Dallas theme tune and finding somewhere to park, we headed to the plaza on the way being stopped Sherman (or as he later became known Sherman the crazy German, even though he wasn't German) who was apparantly one of the museum tour guides on his lunch break and offered to give us a tour. We all saw through this, but he seemed friendly and slightly crazy so we went along with it and got the full tour of the assissination, and to be fair he certainly knew his stuff. It quickly became apparant he isn't a believer in the lone gunman theory and started going on about Jack Ruby and the mob and all sort of cool conspiracy theories. We all slipped him a couple dollars got a 'special' edition newspaper as well, all in all a throughly enjoyed Sherman the Crazy Germans tour and you totally look him up if your hitting the plaza (see picture).
We then hit this massive mall for some gift buying etc etc, all in the all the mall wasn't that impressive, it was a mile around and seemed to be filled with mostly shoe shops. Though I did find Marcus the Chuck Noris vs Mr.T handbook which is now currently his new bible, and also found him the giant rubber duck he's been searching for.
Later in the evening we went to Walmart to stock up on those joyous things you just can't get back in England...for myself this was Rese's, cheap cigarettes and butter fingers, and for Marcus and Matt it was Lucky Charms and Moutain Dew and every other gloreous sweet and chocolate that we are deprived of in the UK.
We started the day with another massive breakfast this time at the Waffle House, myself having the double blueberry waffle special, which I disappointingly was unable to finish (*hangs head in shame*), you'd think with two weeks plus in America I would be a pro by now. We then hit the twelve lane highway to central Dallas to check out the infamous Dealey Plaza and site of the John F. Kennedy assassination. After humming the Dallas theme tune and finding somewhere to park, we headed to the plaza on the way being stopped Sherman (or as he later became known Sherman the crazy German, even though he wasn't German) who was apparantly one of the museum tour guides on his lunch break and offered to give us a tour. We all saw through this, but he seemed friendly and slightly crazy so we went along with it and got the full tour of the assissination, and to be fair he certainly knew his stuff. It quickly became apparant he isn't a believer in the lone gunman theory and started going on about Jack Ruby and the mob and all sort of cool conspiracy theories. We all slipped him a couple dollars got a 'special' edition newspaper as well, all in all a throughly enjoyed Sherman the Crazy Germans tour and you totally look him up if your hitting the plaza (see picture).
We then hit this massive mall for some gift buying etc etc, all in the all the mall wasn't that impressive, it was a mile around and seemed to be filled with mostly shoe shops. Though I did find Marcus the Chuck Noris vs Mr.T handbook which is now currently his new bible, and also found him the giant rubber duck he's been searching for.Later in the evening we went to Walmart to stock up on those joyous things you just can't get back in England...for myself this was Rese's, cheap cigarettes and butter fingers, and for Marcus and Matt it was Lucky Charms and Moutain Dew and every other gloreous sweet and chocolate that we are deprived of in the UK.
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Austin to Dallas - just roadkill?
We only had a couple hundread miles to do today so we got a late start and had one last explore of Austin, but it was so hot I'm not sure any of us really enjoyed it, plus with is being Easter Sunday everywhere was shut anyway. I did get some BBQ and Marcus and Rob found the kind of arcade machine you'd only probably find in Texas...Big Buck Safari
We did get to see the capitol building though that was impressive. As with most driving in Texas you don't really see much, just desert after desert in all directions the only slightly interesting bits being a massive bit of road kill and a mini pile up on the opposite road.
We did get to see the capitol building though that was impressive. As with most driving in Texas you don't really see much, just desert after desert in all directions the only slightly interesting bits being a massive bit of road kill and a mini pile up on the opposite road.
Saturday, 11 April 2009
Nerdvana
All of us woke up pretty late in Austin after having such a long day previously. We grabbed some brunch at Jack in the Box and headed off to meet some warhammer internet friends of Rob, Marcus and James.
I will make this short as it was all really nerdy, but we hung out with warhammer geeks.
After a few hours of this they took us out for dinner. We went to Trudy's which was Mexican food and pretty good really. Had some good normal conversation after a while and a few drinks. Well I didn't as I was driving but Rob and Marcus got drunk which was really funny when we were trying to find a motel and Marcus would keep on shouting out "More Beers!".
Myself and James had a wonder in to Austin downtown to check out 6th street which was packed with live bands. It was a shame we couldn't go in and see them all as they sounded rocking from the street. We walked up back to the motel via Capitol building and through a park with nothing interesting and so ended the day of nerds in Austin (except I'm still traveling with three of them!).
I will make this short as it was all really nerdy, but we hung out with warhammer geeks.
After a few hours of this they took us out for dinner. We went to Trudy's which was Mexican food and pretty good really. Had some good normal conversation after a while and a few drinks. Well I didn't as I was driving but Rob and Marcus got drunk which was really funny when we were trying to find a motel and Marcus would keep on shouting out "More Beers!".
Myself and James had a wonder in to Austin downtown to check out 6th street which was packed with live bands. It was a shame we couldn't go in and see them all as they sounded rocking from the street. We walked up back to the motel via Capitol building and through a park with nothing interesting and so ended the day of nerds in Austin (except I'm still traveling with three of them!).
Friday, 10 April 2009
Roswell and Beyond..
We have had a lack of internet for the past few days so this is two days ago now. (plus Marcus and Rob have currently gone into hyper nerd mode)
Being only 75 miles from Roswell we got up fairly early and drove on in to Roswell. At first i was fairly exciting seeing the alien lampposts and spaceships out the side of buildings so we were pretty quick in getting to the UFO museum.
Oh on a side note here as we were leaving the motel in the morning Marcus noticed that he hadn't packed a sock so he tucked it in to his trouser waistband so in his words he "had a tail". By the time we got to Roswell he had forgotten about it but we noticed and couldn't stop laughing at him waling down the street with it still there. When he started to get REALLY annoyed that we were laughing and he didn't know why we told him and he joined in the laughing.
Back to the UFO museum, having paid $5 to get in we soon realised it wasn't that great. Maybe the shops were better? No. But we bought some alien tat before calling it a day in Roswell.
Unless you are really in to aliens and stuff like that don't bother going.
We drove in to the night and actually made it to Austin rather than spending the night near by and completing the journey the next day. Austin at night looks really nice and you can see the impressing capitol building. Much nicer than the Port Talbot look-a-like we had to pass through to get there...
Pulled in to a proper old school American motel like out of psycho for example and thats where we stayed the night. Before this we also all had a good laugh when we freaked out Marcus at a picnic stop on the way to Austin, he'd worked himself into a state talking about all the horror films set in Texas, and I jumped out and screamed at him while he sat in the car.
Being only 75 miles from Roswell we got up fairly early and drove on in to Roswell. At first i was fairly exciting seeing the alien lampposts and spaceships out the side of buildings so we were pretty quick in getting to the UFO museum.
Oh on a side note here as we were leaving the motel in the morning Marcus noticed that he hadn't packed a sock so he tucked it in to his trouser waistband so in his words he "had a tail". By the time we got to Roswell he had forgotten about it but we noticed and couldn't stop laughing at him waling down the street with it still there. When he started to get REALLY annoyed that we were laughing and he didn't know why we told him and he joined in the laughing.
Back to the UFO museum, having paid $5 to get in we soon realised it wasn't that great. Maybe the shops were better? No. But we bought some alien tat before calling it a day in Roswell.Unless you are really in to aliens and stuff like that don't bother going.
We drove in to the night and actually made it to Austin rather than spending the night near by and completing the journey the next day. Austin at night looks really nice and you can see the impressing capitol building. Much nicer than the Port Talbot look-a-like we had to pass through to get there...
Pulled in to a proper old school American motel like out of psycho for example and thats where we stayed the night. Before this we also all had a good laugh when we freaked out Marcus at a picnic stop on the way to Austin, he'd worked himself into a state talking about all the horror films set in Texas, and I jumped out and screamed at him while he sat in the car.
Lots of Driving & the Marcus Surprise
Today was a fun day but with lots of driving.
We had to get as close as to Roswell as we could so we could have a full day there. So we hit the road earlyish.
The first stop of the day was a plane bone yard just outside of Tucson. Rows and rows of planes being dismantled and just out in the desert.
We were just going to go on and drive as far as we could and find a motel to sleep in for the night. However we saw a sign for Tombstone and the O.K. Corral! We couldn't pass up the chance to go there.
It was brilliant. Cowboys everywhere, a real old western town. Rob and James bought cowboy hats (myself and Marcus are waiting for Texas) and looked at all the old western sights.
The surprise of the day is when Marcus went to get an ice cream and came out with the biggest smile on his face insisting he gets us all an ice cream from the snack corral. We soon found out why - the hot ice cream counter girl. The real surprise is when she came outside and was talking to us, then she went back inside and came out with a slip of paper with her phone number on it for Marcus to ring in June. That's when she is visiting England. He went back to see if she had facebook (she had never heard of facebook) but she did have myspace so we have been looking up her photos. I'll leave it to him to comment on that.
We did have a great time discussing her all the way to the motel 6 that we are in right now. We are less than 75 miles away from Roswell so we are going to get up early and complete the drive in the morning to see all the alien things.
We were also treated to a moon rise over the desert, but was a little tricky to photo.
We had to get as close as to Roswell as we could so we could have a full day there. So we hit the road earlyish.
The first stop of the day was a plane bone yard just outside of Tucson. Rows and rows of planes being dismantled and just out in the desert.
We were just going to go on and drive as far as we could and find a motel to sleep in for the night. However we saw a sign for Tombstone and the O.K. Corral! We couldn't pass up the chance to go there.
It was brilliant. Cowboys everywhere, a real old western town. Rob and James bought cowboy hats (myself and Marcus are waiting for Texas) and looked at all the old western sights.
The surprise of the day is when Marcus went to get an ice cream and came out with the biggest smile on his face insisting he gets us all an ice cream from the snack corral. We soon found out why - the hot ice cream counter girl. The real surprise is when she came outside and was talking to us, then she went back inside and came out with a slip of paper with her phone number on it for Marcus to ring in June. That's when she is visiting England. He went back to see if she had facebook (she had never heard of facebook) but she did have myspace so we have been looking up her photos. I'll leave it to him to comment on that.
We did have a great time discussing her all the way to the motel 6 that we are in right now. We are less than 75 miles away from Roswell so we are going to get up early and complete the drive in the morning to see all the alien things.We were also treated to a moon rise over the desert, but was a little tricky to photo.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Baseball!
Retrospective update!
Yesterday morning, coming up to midday myself and James finally woke up to a hangover a piece from the nights drinking before and realised we had to get to the baseball game. So got ready quickly, skipped breakfast and drove across town to the ball park, Chase Field. We sat down after getting tickets and immediately became bored, well Marcus didn't.
There was no atmosphere to the game but the snacks were great! Hot dogs galore and chilli-cheese fries. Arizona lost badly but we were lost and couldn't really tell what was going on.
Marcus had a great time and got another baseball for his collection.
After the game (which by the way James forgot to take his camera or phone too, hence the lack of photos) we went back to the hotel and pretty much done nothing as we were tired. But for dinner we found another In n' Out burger. So we had to get one.
After eating myself and James went out for another drink, but no one would accept our driving licences as ID this time so we bought some beers and shared with Rob and Marcus before getting a fairly early night as we did have a bit of a long drive for the next day.
Yesterday morning, coming up to midday myself and James finally woke up to a hangover a piece from the nights drinking before and realised we had to get to the baseball game. So got ready quickly, skipped breakfast and drove across town to the ball park, Chase Field. We sat down after getting tickets and immediately became bored, well Marcus didn't.
There was no atmosphere to the game but the snacks were great! Hot dogs galore and chilli-cheese fries. Arizona lost badly but we were lost and couldn't really tell what was going on.
Marcus had a great time and got another baseball for his collection.
After the game (which by the way James forgot to take his camera or phone too, hence the lack of photos) we went back to the hotel and pretty much done nothing as we were tired. But for dinner we found another In n' Out burger. So we had to get one.
After eating myself and James went out for another drink, but no one would accept our driving licences as ID this time so we bought some beers and shared with Rob and Marcus before getting a fairly early night as we did have a bit of a long drive for the next day.
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Big holes and the road south
Today (tuesday) was the day of big holes (please no innuendo), we started the day in with some standin' on the corner in Winslow Arizona before hitting the road and visiting the first big hole of the day the Winslow Meteor crater. Me and Rob found it fascinating, I'm not quite so sure Matt and Marcus were that impressed!
Next up was the Grand Canyon yet another absolutely stunningly massive hole in the ground, I couldn't quite get over the scale of it, and I totally could of spend several days there just taking photo's, but unfortunatly it was getting late and we had to hit the road south.
We rolled into Phoenix fairly late and headed out to check out Mill Ave which was very cool and me and matt enjoyed a quiet drink or two at Fat Tuesday - and then did nothing silly, and thats the official party line!Oh and we continue to enjoy playing the wake up Marcus game :-D
Oh and this is what vast portions of America looks like...
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Las Vegas - what a grove you town
After one final spin of the roulette wheel (which we lost on) we left Vegas behind us to once again set out on the open road, but not before we stopped at the famous sign for photo's.
After leaving Vegas we headed along the Lake Mead parkway that tracks along the side of the lake (reservoir) to the Hoover dam. Upon reaching the dam we joined the back of a massive queue of traffic caused by the state line checks and roadworks and after paying the extortionate parking fee we wandered over the dam in to Arizona where Marcus played the penny game (don't ask). The hoover dam was an amazing sight to see and highly worth the stop.
The late leaving Vegas and the traffic meant we lost a lot of driving time, and after a discussion in some bumsville Arizona town decided we decided to cut Monument valley from the agenda due to time constraints and it also being a major detour and backtrack, which is a shame, but logical. So we pushed on to Winslow (to stand on the corner) taking in more of the amazing scenery. We also had a discussion that we (the British) should come back and claim America as we doubt the Americans really appreciate it. (we are joking of course)
The millage topped 1600 today and with tomorrow being the Grand Canyon and then the drive down to Phoenix, (for bars and baseball) we could tip the 2k.
After leaving Vegas we headed along the Lake Mead parkway that tracks along the side of the lake (reservoir) to the Hoover dam. Upon reaching the dam we joined the back of a massive queue of traffic caused by the state line checks and roadworks and after paying the extortionate parking fee we wandered over the dam in to Arizona where Marcus played the penny game (don't ask). The hoover dam was an amazing sight to see and highly worth the stop.
The late leaving Vegas and the traffic meant we lost a lot of driving time, and after a discussion in some bumsville Arizona town decided we decided to cut Monument valley from the agenda due to time constraints and it also being a major detour and backtrack, which is a shame, but logical. So we pushed on to Winslow (to stand on the corner) taking in more of the amazing scenery. We also had a discussion that we (the British) should come back and claim America as we doubt the Americans really appreciate it. (we are joking of course)The millage topped 1600 today and with tomorrow being the Grand Canyon and then the drive down to Phoenix, (for bars and baseball) we could tip the 2k.
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