It was a later start than we had planned to travel from Las Vegas to Anaheim due to the Grand Canyon trip but we had no detours planned.
We were about videoed out and we took no photos on the journey. We travelled uneventfully and reached Anaheim without problem. The sat-nav got us to our hotel, The Clarion, and we found it to be one of the more luxurious that we had been in. We arrived at about 7.00pm and were resolved to take things pretty easy. We ate in the hotel, an American/Mexican restaurant, and it was adequate rather than better. We retired quite early and decided to tackle a trip out to the coast the following day.
Anaheim has little to recommend it to us, it is just the inland Disney resort, consequently it is packed with families and that is not our scene. We set off from the hotel with breakfast in mind – I was thinking pancakes and we remembered an Ihop restaurant on the way in the previous day. We found it without problem but the queue was right out of the door and across the pavement. It was a ho-brainer that we gave it a miss and walked on. There was a small parade of shops where we found a doughnut shop and bought a couple which we washed down with hot chocolate, it was getting to be our basic breakfast.
When we returned to the hotel we called a basketball friend, Jeff Bonds, who lives in LA. We knew that he was flying out the following day, to take up a job with a Spanish team so we couldn’t expect him to have time to visit with us but we wanted to touch base with him. Having left a message on his phone we were pleased that he phoned back and we had a pleasant chat. We had been thinking of going to Long Beach but he suggested the nearer Huntington Beach.
We spoke to the concierge and he echoed Jeff’s view so we navigated ourselves to Huntington Beach where we parked in the town before walking out to sea along the pier. From the pier we were able to watch first the beach volleyball, which was impressive, and then later people were surfing, which was equally excellent to watch. At the end of the pier there was a Chinese restaurant named Ruby’s, it was clearly popular, and while we watched people fishing off the end of the structure there were regular calls for the waiting diners as tables became available.
We noticed a regular flow of bicycle taxis up and down the pier; each one was pedaled by a student with a notice stating; “Driver works for tips only” I will write about the tipping culture later but it was everywhere.
We finally caught up with the pancakes by eating lunch in the Ihop on Huntington Beach high street. To be honest it was another time when for lunch we could have shared one portion but they were tasty.
We tried to travel down the coast to the Newport Beach area which we had been told was really worth the ride. Unfortunately it was Friday afternoon and everywhere was busy to the point that there was nowhere to park and we were in lines of traffic all the way. We turned off the coast road and made our way back to the hotel.
By the time we parked at the hotel we were not keen to go out in the car again so while Julia went up to the room I scouted the area. All the local restaurants seemed to be steak houses and throughout our trip we seemed to have eaten more than our share of cattle. Ironically we ended up at a cattle drive themed restaurant but we ate well and thoroughly enjoyed the service.
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Grand Canyon
We were successfully picked up by minibus early in the morning, we had eaten biscuits with our tea to serve as breakfast but truthfully we were too excited to be concerned about hunger. We collected a pair of American ladies from another hotel and to our surprise we headed out of Las Vegas to an airstrip at nearby Boulder City.
Their business premises were full, I would estimate 35 to 40 people due to go out on various trips some in helicopters some in fixed wing aircraft. When we checked in and paid, I decided against bringing up the disappointment of the previous day and was issued with a coloured piece of card. By trying to spot that colour in other people’s hands we were able to identify our party. It consisted of two men together, us and a Mexican couple but no pilot as yet. The groups were taken out and flew away as their assigned pilots arrived. One of the later pilots was ours; he led us out to the only black helicopter in a fleet of red, white and blue ones and introduced himself to us. As the early part of the flight was over and around the Hoover Dam recent legislation meant that we had to wear a life-jacket, which made the cabin space even more cramped for the seven of us. We were also wearing earphones and microphones to hear each other and the carefully picked CD tracks. We rose from the tarmac to a James Bond theme and later as we breasted a rise to see the Grand Canyon for the first time it was the theme from Apocalypse Now. The pilot was named Rick and he was very entertaining in his commentary. He told us that the Grand Canyon is a good three and a half hour drive from Las Vegas so it would have taken all day to go there and back also it is impossible to reach the canyon floor by car.
After the Hoover Dam we headed for the canyon at about 120mph, which only felt fast as he was lower to the ground, at altitude nothing seemed to be moving which I suppose illustrated the scale of everything. After a first look at the canyon from above we dropped into it and landed just above the river banks. Rick reclaimed our life-jackets from us just before we went on the boat remarking that the boat would probably issue us with parachutes if it followed the same logic as he had to. He pointed us in the right direction to clamber across the rocks and down through the scrub to the riverside. The New Zealanders were the intrepid sort; the Mexicans weren’t, so we fitted comfortably in the middle, as we had to find our way down to the small jetty where our river cruiser was moored. I think it was a flat bottomed boat which would have held 10-12 people and there were no currents to negotiate so it felt pretty solid on the water. The driver was a grizzled old white man, Jim, who was very well informed about the canyon and the river, the most striking fact that remains with me was that the river uses up almost 100% of its water by the time it should outlet into the ocean. It was also him that told us there were no real trails down to the river and he used a helicopter two or three times a week to come and go from the canyon floor. We had about 15-20 minutes on the river before returning up the same trail to the helicopter, which had waited for us. It flew us up to the canyon rim and we unloaded for two hours at the small airfield run by the Hualapai, Native Americans. We were given vouchers for the various parts of the tour and joined the queue for the shuttle bus to the sky walk.
It may be some failing in myself but I had never anticipated any problem walking on the glass area, although Julia was by now expressing some doubts about it. The first time we had seen the sky walk from the air I had struggled to see it because it looked so small against the scenery, now it looked and is a major construction. We took some photographs and video from the rim then joined the sky walk line. Inside the reception building we had to surrender our bags, cameras and other loose items before going forward to the platform. Just before we got there we had to slip duster bootees over our shoes, I guess this was to protect the glass surface from scratches. The fact that they kept our cameras from us meant that their crew of photographers on the walkway had a monopoly and there were many people lying on the glass panels to be photographed as if falling down the entire depth of the canyon. It was hugely impressive and we both found ourselves quite able to walk on the transparent bit and look down to see the huge drop below us. The photos taken by the staff photographers were again extortionately expensive but worse than that once again we appeared stouter than we see ourselves, we refused them again.
We cashed in our food voucher for chicken nuggets and fries for each of us, it was the worst meal we endured on our trip, and even a lack of breakfast combined with the breathtaking scenery couldn’t redeem it. We getting close to the end of our two hours so were close to just returning to the terminal but someone told us we should get off the shuttle bus at guano point as the views were even better. On the short bus trip we learned that the guano in question was bat droppings, an ingredient in fertilizer, other chemical products and often cosmetics. The driver remarked that this was why all girls can remember their mother telling them to “Get that crap off your face!” A basic joke but the next bit really stuck with me, Guano Point is actually on the opposite side of the Grand Canyon to where the bats were, so they built a cable system across the gap to get the mined droppings back to be processed. It boggles the mind to think how the whole enterprise was built.
The other attraction about Guano Point was that you could see further down the canyon as there are no safety barriers to stop you leaning out as far as you want. We managed to fit in Guano Point before catching the next bus back to the terminal. From there we watched Rick return from the floor of the canyon with a set of passengers before loading us and we were now on the way back to Las Vegas.
As we flew over the Arizona desert it was so inhospitable that a line from a movie came back to me, a grizzled old Indian scout remarked, “If the Devil owned Hell and Arizona he’d live in Hell and rent out Arizona!” To contest the theory as we approached the Hoover Dam again the land below was clearly marked out in rectangles and Rick told us that parcels of land were being sold to be commuter districts for Las Vegas when the major road over the dam was completed.
Before we crossed the highest point on our return we spotted a helicopter on the ground, again Rick had the answer, apparently one of the rival firms squeezed seven passengers into the same size of helicopter, but the increased payload meant that they had to land, disembark the passengers, pump fuel from a tank and fly on from there.
There is some concern about the number of helicopters and planes damaging the environment around the canyon and I can see some truth in it. Helicopters were coming and going all the time we were on the trip. However it seems ironic that the white men gave the Indians areas that basically could barely support them and because tourism has made the land profitable suddenly there may be an ecological issue.
Julia missed out on all the information on the return trip because her head-set wasn't working but the whole venture had blown her mind already and she was glowing as we were driven back to our motel. We had a last drink in Coco's before setting off for Anaheim at about 2.00pm
Their business premises were full, I would estimate 35 to 40 people due to go out on various trips some in helicopters some in fixed wing aircraft. When we checked in and paid, I decided against bringing up the disappointment of the previous day and was issued with a coloured piece of card. By trying to spot that colour in other people’s hands we were able to identify our party. It consisted of two men together, us and a Mexican couple but no pilot as yet. The groups were taken out and flew away as their assigned pilots arrived. One of the later pilots was ours; he led us out to the only black helicopter in a fleet of red, white and blue ones and introduced himself to us. As the early part of the flight was over and around the Hoover Dam recent legislation meant that we had to wear a life-jacket, which made the cabin space even more cramped for the seven of us. We were also wearing earphones and microphones to hear each other and the carefully picked CD tracks. We rose from the tarmac to a James Bond theme and later as we breasted a rise to see the Grand Canyon for the first time it was the theme from Apocalypse Now. The pilot was named Rick and he was very entertaining in his commentary. He told us that the Grand Canyon is a good three and a half hour drive from Las Vegas so it would have taken all day to go there and back also it is impossible to reach the canyon floor by car.
After the Hoover Dam we headed for the canyon at about 120mph, which only felt fast as he was lower to the ground, at altitude nothing seemed to be moving which I suppose illustrated the scale of everything. After a first look at the canyon from above we dropped into it and landed just above the river banks. Rick reclaimed our life-jackets from us just before we went on the boat remarking that the boat would probably issue us with parachutes if it followed the same logic as he had to. He pointed us in the right direction to clamber across the rocks and down through the scrub to the riverside. The New Zealanders were the intrepid sort; the Mexicans weren’t, so we fitted comfortably in the middle, as we had to find our way down to the small jetty where our river cruiser was moored. I think it was a flat bottomed boat which would have held 10-12 people and there were no currents to negotiate so it felt pretty solid on the water. The driver was a grizzled old white man, Jim, who was very well informed about the canyon and the river, the most striking fact that remains with me was that the river uses up almost 100% of its water by the time it should outlet into the ocean. It was also him that told us there were no real trails down to the river and he used a helicopter two or three times a week to come and go from the canyon floor. We had about 15-20 minutes on the river before returning up the same trail to the helicopter, which had waited for us. It flew us up to the canyon rim and we unloaded for two hours at the small airfield run by the Hualapai, Native Americans. We were given vouchers for the various parts of the tour and joined the queue for the shuttle bus to the sky walk.
It may be some failing in myself but I had never anticipated any problem walking on the glass area, although Julia was by now expressing some doubts about it. The first time we had seen the sky walk from the air I had struggled to see it because it looked so small against the scenery, now it looked and is a major construction. We took some photographs and video from the rim then joined the sky walk line. Inside the reception building we had to surrender our bags, cameras and other loose items before going forward to the platform. Just before we got there we had to slip duster bootees over our shoes, I guess this was to protect the glass surface from scratches. The fact that they kept our cameras from us meant that their crew of photographers on the walkway had a monopoly and there were many people lying on the glass panels to be photographed as if falling down the entire depth of the canyon. It was hugely impressive and we both found ourselves quite able to walk on the transparent bit and look down to see the huge drop below us. The photos taken by the staff photographers were again extortionately expensive but worse than that once again we appeared stouter than we see ourselves, we refused them again.
We cashed in our food voucher for chicken nuggets and fries for each of us, it was the worst meal we endured on our trip, and even a lack of breakfast combined with the breathtaking scenery couldn’t redeem it. We getting close to the end of our two hours so were close to just returning to the terminal but someone told us we should get off the shuttle bus at guano point as the views were even better. On the short bus trip we learned that the guano in question was bat droppings, an ingredient in fertilizer, other chemical products and often cosmetics. The driver remarked that this was why all girls can remember their mother telling them to “Get that crap off your face!” A basic joke but the next bit really stuck with me, Guano Point is actually on the opposite side of the Grand Canyon to where the bats were, so they built a cable system across the gap to get the mined droppings back to be processed. It boggles the mind to think how the whole enterprise was built.
The other attraction about Guano Point was that you could see further down the canyon as there are no safety barriers to stop you leaning out as far as you want. We managed to fit in Guano Point before catching the next bus back to the terminal. From there we watched Rick return from the floor of the canyon with a set of passengers before loading us and we were now on the way back to Las Vegas.
As we flew over the Arizona desert it was so inhospitable that a line from a movie came back to me, a grizzled old Indian scout remarked, “If the Devil owned Hell and Arizona he’d live in Hell and rent out Arizona!” To contest the theory as we approached the Hoover Dam again the land below was clearly marked out in rectangles and Rick told us that parcels of land were being sold to be commuter districts for Las Vegas when the major road over the dam was completed.
Before we crossed the highest point on our return we spotted a helicopter on the ground, again Rick had the answer, apparently one of the rival firms squeezed seven passengers into the same size of helicopter, but the increased payload meant that they had to land, disembark the passengers, pump fuel from a tank and fly on from there.
There is some concern about the number of helicopters and planes damaging the environment around the canyon and I can see some truth in it. Helicopters were coming and going all the time we were on the trip. However it seems ironic that the white men gave the Indians areas that basically could barely support them and because tourism has made the land profitable suddenly there may be an ecological issue.
Julia missed out on all the information on the return trip because her head-set wasn't working but the whole venture had blown her mind already and she was glowing as we were driven back to our motel. We had a last drink in Coco's before setting off for Anaheim at about 2.00pm
Monday, 25 August 2008
Las Vegas (Tuesday & Wednesday)
Our first full day in Las Vegas started with a breakfast at the local restaurant and bakery, Coco’s, it was most hospitable and we ate cheaply but well. Later I was disappointed to discover that Coco’s was a chain as up to then we were under the illusion that it was run by a Mr. & Mrs. Coco, possible their first venture after Mr. Coco left the circus.
Our appointment with the time-share was at 11.00am, so after breakfast, with some misgivings, we set off for the office block where we were to be sold something in exchange for free show tickets. When we got there it transpired that we had failed to bring our passports, it specifically demanded that we had photo-id on the contract Julia had signed the previous night. I guess they want everybody there to be able to commit themselves to the deal fully and irrevocably. Anyway we had the option of running back to the motel to get our passports and being rescheduled for later in the day or getting our $20 deposit back. With some relief we went for option B and were now free to plan our own day in the resort hotels. We booked the 8.30 comedy show at the Tropicana, which was the non-smoking show and we felt was quite reasonable at $21 each including a free drink.
The Tropicana is one of the oldest and most established of the casinos, and while we were there we decided to have a look at the Titanic Expedition that they had going. We made several discoveries about casino geography in this time. Firstly there are signs to everywhere you might want to go but the rule is that they all must send you through the gambling part of the establishment. Secondly if the thing you want is even vaguely educational it must be placed in a basement or attic to avoid it detracting in any way from the temptation to give them their money. So based on these rules, we found the Titanic Exhibition in the basement but they wanted to charge $28 each for us to check it out. We decided against and retraced our steps through the maze.
In the casinos we enjoyed watching Blackjack, which is the grown-up name for pontoon, so we understood it but we had to marvel at the speed of playing. We never gambled and are therefore not drawn to casinos but you have to admire the quality of the planning, everything has been considered. Any circumstance was met by a system, which was clearly time tested and fool-proof. To illustrate this as we walked through the casino in the MGM resort, we saw a senior member of the casino staff refusing to allow someone play on the basis they were drunk. There were at least three other staff members on the scene and the pit boss was patiently explaining that it would be unfair to let the guy play with less than full concentration so he could stay in the casino area, they gave him a card to get as much free non-alcoholic drink as he needed to sober up and when they thought he was ready he could play again.
We returned to the motel mid-afternoon and had a swim in the provided pool and, even better, sat in the hot tub. We were surrounded by student aged travelers from Europe; I guess they spent the morning in bed, the afternoon in the pool and the night in the bars. Along with many others from Europe they seemed completely unable to survive without a cigarette.
The timing of the comedy show combined with us having raided Subway mid-afternoon meant that we couldn’t eat dinner before getting back to the Tropicana; we had also resolved to video the fountains after the show, so we were anticipating eating late in the town that never sleeps. We enjoyed the comedy in quite a full bar, we were sitting with a newly wed couple, who helped us out with our latest installment of baseball questions. I’m convinced that live comedy venues spray a chemical on the audience which produces amnesia because I cannot remember a single joke told to us all night. Despite that I remember that there were three comedians, who each did a 30 minute spot while the compere kept things moving in between the acts.
By 10.30pm we were back on the strip and I tried to video the fountain show – we have not downloaded any video yet so we don’t know the results. Seemingly, unless you are in one of the casinos, the restaurants close at about 11.00 and this was happening all the way back down the strip as we headed back. Quite hungry by now we settled for a 24hour food court with all the usual suspects. We chose the Panda Chinese, and it was good enough in that level of emergency.
The next day we got up slowly, breakfasted on provisions from the shop, we then went round to the Motel 6 next door as they had internet access and checked our emails. We were to be picked up by the Grand Canyon trip at 11.15 for the 11.30 flight so we were surprised to see the LV Helicopters minibus there at 10.55. We were just getting aboard the bus when the driver received a call on his mobile. He put me on to speak to the controller and she simply said that we had to rearrange to the following day due to technical problems with several helicopters. The customer service aspect of the call was non-existent but in due course I agreed to take a replacement tour at 7.00am the following morning to allow us time to drive on to Anaheim as we had planned.
We were both very upset by the change and we went back to where we had booked it hoping that they could find and an alternative for the same day. Basically they were unable to help and again not very helpful. We now had to find things to do during the 6hours we had allocated to the tour and worry that the trip might not happen the following day.
We needed to cross the major junction diagonally to go from the MGM corner to Excalibur in order to go on the monorail to check out the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Beach resort. Out of four possible routes we chose to cross at pavement level past the New York New York Casino, their tribute to the 9/11 rescuers was on the way round and it made us see things with a better perspective and our self pity evaporated in the face of it. We had a good day from then on, we caught the monorail (free) to Mandalay Beach Resort, we stopped off at a bar on the way through the casino and had a cooling drink served by Scott, the (I made some bad choices in my life) bartender who did the full Cocktail routine, juggling bottles, pouring several drinks at the same time and generally just being good company.
When we got to it the aquarium was excellent and reasonably priced. We had an audio tour which took us through a flooded temple teaming with South American water life; the piranhas were there in all their glory in an open pool but with a permanent guard to avoid anyone trying them out. We progressed through other sets finishing on a sunken pirate ship surrounded by sharks and, supposedly, turtles but neither of us sighted one of these. It took us over an hour to go round the exhibits and when we came out we refused the photo they had taken on the way in, they are OK but they seem to show two heavier people than us, is it the lens they use? Anyway they are always overpriced.
Having mastered the monorail on our way out, we stopped at the Luxor Casino on the way back and did the usual people watching. We ate a bizarre combination lunch in their food court, I had pizza while Julia had ice cream but the food police missed us. We had already decided to have a Grand Buffet in the evening so we were leaving space for it.
With an early start due in the morning we were back at the casino eating by about 7.30. The buffet was excellent and we tried to do it justice but I suspect there were people there who got much better value out of it, conversely some people came and went unbelievably quickly, more money than sense as my mum would say. It was also an ultimate people-watching venue.
Our appointment with the time-share was at 11.00am, so after breakfast, with some misgivings, we set off for the office block where we were to be sold something in exchange for free show tickets. When we got there it transpired that we had failed to bring our passports, it specifically demanded that we had photo-id on the contract Julia had signed the previous night. I guess they want everybody there to be able to commit themselves to the deal fully and irrevocably. Anyway we had the option of running back to the motel to get our passports and being rescheduled for later in the day or getting our $20 deposit back. With some relief we went for option B and were now free to plan our own day in the resort hotels. We booked the 8.30 comedy show at the Tropicana, which was the non-smoking show and we felt was quite reasonable at $21 each including a free drink.
The Tropicana is one of the oldest and most established of the casinos, and while we were there we decided to have a look at the Titanic Expedition that they had going. We made several discoveries about casino geography in this time. Firstly there are signs to everywhere you might want to go but the rule is that they all must send you through the gambling part of the establishment. Secondly if the thing you want is even vaguely educational it must be placed in a basement or attic to avoid it detracting in any way from the temptation to give them their money. So based on these rules, we found the Titanic Exhibition in the basement but they wanted to charge $28 each for us to check it out. We decided against and retraced our steps through the maze.
In the casinos we enjoyed watching Blackjack, which is the grown-up name for pontoon, so we understood it but we had to marvel at the speed of playing. We never gambled and are therefore not drawn to casinos but you have to admire the quality of the planning, everything has been considered. Any circumstance was met by a system, which was clearly time tested and fool-proof. To illustrate this as we walked through the casino in the MGM resort, we saw a senior member of the casino staff refusing to allow someone play on the basis they were drunk. There were at least three other staff members on the scene and the pit boss was patiently explaining that it would be unfair to let the guy play with less than full concentration so he could stay in the casino area, they gave him a card to get as much free non-alcoholic drink as he needed to sober up and when they thought he was ready he could play again.
We returned to the motel mid-afternoon and had a swim in the provided pool and, even better, sat in the hot tub. We were surrounded by student aged travelers from Europe; I guess they spent the morning in bed, the afternoon in the pool and the night in the bars. Along with many others from Europe they seemed completely unable to survive without a cigarette.
The timing of the comedy show combined with us having raided Subway mid-afternoon meant that we couldn’t eat dinner before getting back to the Tropicana; we had also resolved to video the fountains after the show, so we were anticipating eating late in the town that never sleeps. We enjoyed the comedy in quite a full bar, we were sitting with a newly wed couple, who helped us out with our latest installment of baseball questions. I’m convinced that live comedy venues spray a chemical on the audience which produces amnesia because I cannot remember a single joke told to us all night. Despite that I remember that there were three comedians, who each did a 30 minute spot while the compere kept things moving in between the acts.
By 10.30pm we were back on the strip and I tried to video the fountain show – we have not downloaded any video yet so we don’t know the results. Seemingly, unless you are in one of the casinos, the restaurants close at about 11.00 and this was happening all the way back down the strip as we headed back. Quite hungry by now we settled for a 24hour food court with all the usual suspects. We chose the Panda Chinese, and it was good enough in that level of emergency.
The next day we got up slowly, breakfasted on provisions from the shop, we then went round to the Motel 6 next door as they had internet access and checked our emails. We were to be picked up by the Grand Canyon trip at 11.15 for the 11.30 flight so we were surprised to see the LV Helicopters minibus there at 10.55. We were just getting aboard the bus when the driver received a call on his mobile. He put me on to speak to the controller and she simply said that we had to rearrange to the following day due to technical problems with several helicopters. The customer service aspect of the call was non-existent but in due course I agreed to take a replacement tour at 7.00am the following morning to allow us time to drive on to Anaheim as we had planned.
We were both very upset by the change and we went back to where we had booked it hoping that they could find and an alternative for the same day. Basically they were unable to help and again not very helpful. We now had to find things to do during the 6hours we had allocated to the tour and worry that the trip might not happen the following day.
We needed to cross the major junction diagonally to go from the MGM corner to Excalibur in order to go on the monorail to check out the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Beach resort. Out of four possible routes we chose to cross at pavement level past the New York New York Casino, their tribute to the 9/11 rescuers was on the way round and it made us see things with a better perspective and our self pity evaporated in the face of it. We had a good day from then on, we caught the monorail (free) to Mandalay Beach Resort, we stopped off at a bar on the way through the casino and had a cooling drink served by Scott, the (I made some bad choices in my life) bartender who did the full Cocktail routine, juggling bottles, pouring several drinks at the same time and generally just being good company.
When we got to it the aquarium was excellent and reasonably priced. We had an audio tour which took us through a flooded temple teaming with South American water life; the piranhas were there in all their glory in an open pool but with a permanent guard to avoid anyone trying them out. We progressed through other sets finishing on a sunken pirate ship surrounded by sharks and, supposedly, turtles but neither of us sighted one of these. It took us over an hour to go round the exhibits and when we came out we refused the photo they had taken on the way in, they are OK but they seem to show two heavier people than us, is it the lens they use? Anyway they are always overpriced.
Having mastered the monorail on our way out, we stopped at the Luxor Casino on the way back and did the usual people watching. We ate a bizarre combination lunch in their food court, I had pizza while Julia had ice cream but the food police missed us. We had already decided to have a Grand Buffet in the evening so we were leaving space for it.
With an early start due in the morning we were back at the casino eating by about 7.30. The buffet was excellent and we tried to do it justice but I suspect there were people there who got much better value out of it, conversely some people came and went unbelievably quickly, more money than sense as my mum would say. It was also an ultimate people-watching venue.
Mammoth lakes to Las Vegas (405 miles about 10 hours)
Once again there was a free buffet breakfast of the same basics but the bonus was a PC with free internet connection in the lobby, mainly we had been paying for connection at about $5 for 30 minutes to keep in touch with our emails. We ate and checked emails and still were able to get on the road by 8.30am. The above approximation was disputed by the guys working in the hotel but we had decided to travel via Death Valley so we were expecting a long day driving. Up to this point Julia had done all the driving but this looked like the time for me to contribute. We knew that we were at altitude (10000ft ish) at Mammoth Lake and Death Valley is below sea level in some places so we reckoned that there would be some ups and downs in front of us which might have accounted for the low average speed. We were also warned by the same guys that we needed to stick to the speed limits in the small towns we passed through as they were very sharp on speeding as the fines were a good steady income for the town.
We set off and established ourselves on US-395, we passed through several towns where the speed limit dropped as low as 25mph but we had been warned – we contributed nothing to their finances. Using our own map we had decided to leave the appointed route and head for Lone Pine. We went through Big Pine on the US 390 but we were not distracted. We reached Independence one of many towns sharing this name across the USA and there I spotted the required sign and we switched off the sat-nav rather than upset our female voiced friend. We were now on the US-136 and passed through Lone Pine with nothing notable to report. There might be towns named Two Pines, Short Pine or even Many Pines nearby but they didn’t figure in our plans. Our next target was the town of Keeler. It was strangely missing from the signs but we stayed on line and in due course passed Keeler. The mystery was solved, the sign by the road proclaimed “KEELER, Elevation 3600ft Population 50”, having since looked it up we should have stopped to check it out. It had been a major industrial centre for local ore smelting and shipping by rail and “gave out shortly after the mines”. It is now registered as a ghost town. Notice I have refrained from any jokey mention of a twin town named Rice-Davies, well I would wouldn’t I.
We continued through the well-named Furnace Creek (elevation 175ft) and we were truly into Death Valley. We pushed on to Stove Pipe Wells, I don’t know if there is a modern Stove Pipe Wells, but where we stopped there was a general store, a saloon (closed), a motel and some old ruined wagons. We took a break there where we had a sandwich and a drink. There was a thermometer over the door of the general store and the temperature in the shade was 115oF, the maximum it had reached was 120 so we were lucky to have a more temperate day. Having driven down some of Death Valley we were in awe of any wagon train which had survived it, of course, not all did, we also decided that we had seen enough. We turned the sat-nav back on ready to follow her instructions to get us to Las Vegas. Perhaps it was affected by the heat but twice it tried to get us to turn off an admittedly very basic road onto pure desert. Having no “Mark Thatcher spirit” in us, we refused, and grudgingly it agreed to plot us an alternative route. It seemed quite quickly that we came upon a town; I have no memory of its identity, and through it ran a freeway signed for Las Vegas. The next hour on this freeway was uneventful, then we started to hit the city and its outskirts, we, and the sat-nav, found our way brilliantly to the Americas Best Value motel which was on Tropicana Avenue, an easy walk into the casinos and onto the Vegas strip.
We checked in smoothly and found the motel to be Americas Most Basic but it served us well. Julia, as yet our only driver needed to take a nap, and in her absence I walked to the MGM casino/resort. It was about 4.40pm and the heat was intense, but as everyone will tell you, the casinos are air-conditioned to chilly and there is no time to tell day from night once you are inside.
I returned to the motel less than impressed but things improved when we got dressed and went out for the evening. We managed to book a Grand Canyon experience, which was our main reason for coming to Las Vegas, for the Wednesday, it was now Monday but nothing was available for Tuesday and we travelled onwards to Anaheim on Thursday. My father always said if something was a one off you shouldn’t worry about the expense so we booked the deluxe version of the trip, Helicopter to the canyon floor, boat ride on the Colorado River, helicopter to the Skywalk, included meal and helicopter back.
Having sorted this out I discovered that Julia had signed us up for a time-share tour to get us a free magic show and comedy club; we used to do this sort of thing on the Costa del Sol but haven’t done it for some time.
We continued down the strip and watched the impressive free fountain show in front of the Bellagio hotel, we finished our outing eating very reasonable Mexican food and drinking Corona beer before walking back to the motel. There was an excellent 24 hour store right next to it, which provided us with milk so we were set up for the following day.
We set off and established ourselves on US-395, we passed through several towns where the speed limit dropped as low as 25mph but we had been warned – we contributed nothing to their finances. Using our own map we had decided to leave the appointed route and head for Lone Pine. We went through Big Pine on the US 390 but we were not distracted. We reached Independence one of many towns sharing this name across the USA and there I spotted the required sign and we switched off the sat-nav rather than upset our female voiced friend. We were now on the US-136 and passed through Lone Pine with nothing notable to report. There might be towns named Two Pines, Short Pine or even Many Pines nearby but they didn’t figure in our plans. Our next target was the town of Keeler. It was strangely missing from the signs but we stayed on line and in due course passed Keeler. The mystery was solved, the sign by the road proclaimed “KEELER, Elevation 3600ft Population 50”, having since looked it up we should have stopped to check it out. It had been a major industrial centre for local ore smelting and shipping by rail and “gave out shortly after the mines”. It is now registered as a ghost town. Notice I have refrained from any jokey mention of a twin town named Rice-Davies, well I would wouldn’t I.
We continued through the well-named Furnace Creek (elevation 175ft) and we were truly into Death Valley. We pushed on to Stove Pipe Wells, I don’t know if there is a modern Stove Pipe Wells, but where we stopped there was a general store, a saloon (closed), a motel and some old ruined wagons. We took a break there where we had a sandwich and a drink. There was a thermometer over the door of the general store and the temperature in the shade was 115oF, the maximum it had reached was 120 so we were lucky to have a more temperate day. Having driven down some of Death Valley we were in awe of any wagon train which had survived it, of course, not all did, we also decided that we had seen enough. We turned the sat-nav back on ready to follow her instructions to get us to Las Vegas. Perhaps it was affected by the heat but twice it tried to get us to turn off an admittedly very basic road onto pure desert. Having no “Mark Thatcher spirit” in us, we refused, and grudgingly it agreed to plot us an alternative route. It seemed quite quickly that we came upon a town; I have no memory of its identity, and through it ran a freeway signed for Las Vegas. The next hour on this freeway was uneventful, then we started to hit the city and its outskirts, we, and the sat-nav, found our way brilliantly to the Americas Best Value motel which was on Tropicana Avenue, an easy walk into the casinos and onto the Vegas strip.
We checked in smoothly and found the motel to be Americas Most Basic but it served us well. Julia, as yet our only driver needed to take a nap, and in her absence I walked to the MGM casino/resort. It was about 4.40pm and the heat was intense, but as everyone will tell you, the casinos are air-conditioned to chilly and there is no time to tell day from night once you are inside.
I returned to the motel less than impressed but things improved when we got dressed and went out for the evening. We managed to book a Grand Canyon experience, which was our main reason for coming to Las Vegas, for the Wednesday, it was now Monday but nothing was available for Tuesday and we travelled onwards to Anaheim on Thursday. My father always said if something was a one off you shouldn’t worry about the expense so we booked the deluxe version of the trip, Helicopter to the canyon floor, boat ride on the Colorado River, helicopter to the Skywalk, included meal and helicopter back.
Having sorted this out I discovered that Julia had signed us up for a time-share tour to get us a free magic show and comedy club; we used to do this sort of thing on the Costa del Sol but haven’t done it for some time.
We continued down the strip and watched the impressive free fountain show in front of the Bellagio hotel, we finished our outing eating very reasonable Mexican food and drinking Corona beer before walking back to the motel. There was an excellent 24 hour store right next to it, which provided us with milk so we were set up for the following day.
Saturday, 23 August 2008
San Francisco to Mammoth Lakes (260 miles about 8 hours)
After another doughnut and tea breakfast we set off early from San Francisco heading for Mammoth Lakes, a ski resort where the USA Olympic team had just done their altitude training. Our journey was to be extended by a detour into Yosemite national park where we would take a couple of hours absorbing the natural beauty. As we left San Francisco the sat-nav asked if we wanted to avoid toll roads and by habit I clicked on yes, in the next five miles we were climbing roads which defied belief. The car survived the ordeal although we were advised by at least one sign by the roadside to switch off our air-conditioning, I have no idea why but we noticed other cars had their windows down so I guess they were doing the same. Anyone who can explain this please let us know. We had our first attempt to fuel the car in a high altitude village, apparently all fuel is non-leaded and you pay the cashier before you pump the gas, not the British system where you pump your gas before paying. Strangely while I was doing all this the guy from the garage was wiping our windscreen. We reached Yosemite in the heat of the day and having asked at a Ranger station previously we knew pretty much what to expect. We parked in the first parking area and took the shuttle bus to the information centre. We were in the base of the valley and from everywhere there was an amazing view up the mountain sides. We went round the visitors centre and learnt how the national park had developed from an upper class holiday resort into the nature reserve which it is today. When we sat down to eat a late lunch we were quickly surrounded by begging bird and squirrels but there was a strict no feeding rule. The refuse bins were equipped with robust lids to defend them from squirrel raids. The water situation meant that the falls were not falling at all but the scenery was awesome and well worth the detour. Several times on our approach to the park we had seen signs which read “Speed kills bears” “Well show me a bear and I‘ll show you speed” I’d quipped but it emerges that these signs are placed on the spots where a bear has been killed by a vehicle and there were about 15 of these signs in all. I think it may be seasonal or even more often at night when it happens but we, of course, saw no sign of any bears. It was a long climb out of Yosemite Park and we took a considerable time to get to Mammoth Lake.
At the end of a long journey things may get tense if problems occur and they did. The sat-nav confidently took us to the wrong address for the hotel. We checked the address on our documents and I had entered it correctly so we were at the wrong place but the sat-nav didn’t agree. After a couple of false starts we decided that since the street name agreed with the documents we should drive the full length of the road in the hope of seeing the hotel. It didn’t seem much of a plan but it worked. We found the hotel, the Alpenhof Lodge, possibly our favourite on the tour, and by the time I had checked in Julia had found the bar and had a $3 pint of beer in front of her!
We ate in the attached restaurant and it was the only meal where we were able to finish the main course and tackle a dessert. It was also one of the best but most expensive meals and the service charge was 18% added to the bill. We had fully intended to meet up with some more of the cheap beer but having eaten both of us were ready to retire.
At the end of a long journey things may get tense if problems occur and they did. The sat-nav confidently took us to the wrong address for the hotel. We checked the address on our documents and I had entered it correctly so we were at the wrong place but the sat-nav didn’t agree. After a couple of false starts we decided that since the street name agreed with the documents we should drive the full length of the road in the hope of seeing the hotel. It didn’t seem much of a plan but it worked. We found the hotel, the Alpenhof Lodge, possibly our favourite on the tour, and by the time I had checked in Julia had found the bar and had a $3 pint of beer in front of her!
We ate in the attached restaurant and it was the only meal where we were able to finish the main course and tackle a dessert. It was also one of the best but most expensive meals and the service charge was 18% added to the bill. We had fully intended to meet up with some more of the cheap beer but having eaten both of us were ready to retire.
Friday, 22 August 2008
Santa Barbara to San Francisco (336miles about 6hrs 20min)
We left Santa Barbara after the token free breakfast which some US hotels provide, juice, fruit muffins and doughnuts. We also left the town thinking that it was nice enough but a bit sedate for our tastes. On clearing the built up area of Santa Barbara we joined the US -101 again and our first sat-nav instruction was after 123 miles keep left, this like little else illustrates the distances we were travelling and the lack of variation in the driving. Julia up to this point had undertaken all the driving which is our normal decision home or abroad but I was a listed driver and fully intended to share the driving as she became tired. We had decided to visit Carmel on the way to San Francisco not so much to see Clint Eastwood who is/was the mayor of the town rather to see the town itself as it had favourable reviews in our California guide book. Getting there proved a bit tricky as we had to do the old-fashioned thing of reading road signs as we had no zip code to aim the sat-nav at. We found Carmel By The Sea and assumed this to be our destination. There was no sign of Clint, but we had expected that, we found the sea and were amused to see two brides paddling in it, not together they were from two separate weddings. Apparently this is common and we then watched one bride and groom drive off in her truck, not the fairy carriage of legend. We had lunch in the town which was very neat and tidy; the risk of being gunned down by the mayor probably deters littering. Whether our sat-nav adjusted the route because of our new position when we switched it back on, the rational explanation, or because we had upset it by switching it off, our choice of explanation, we do not know. It decided for whatever reason to approach San Francisco via Oakland – it did not help that Oakland Raiders were playing San Francisco Giants in a pre-season game that very evening and the roads were very busy. We made slow progress and eventually entered San Francisco via the Bay Bridge, we still believe the good old US -101 would have avoided the bridge and the problems but worse was to follow. Typically of our journeys, we left the freeway with less than 3 miles to our destination, at once we were depressed by the area we found ourselves in, the shops were a mixture of the two types of pawn/porn and there were sex clubs and cinemas to drive the point home. As the distance to the hotel Renoir decreased there was no miracle improvement and we found the sat-nav all too accurate. While Julia parked outside and I went in to find out where to park she locked herself in the car, this is the same woman who rarely locks her car when she parks it and leaves it. Parking was by valet service and cost $38 per day – not what I wanted to hear. We found the hotel passable but it had been surrounded by the cast and set of Hill Street Blues since it had been built. We had little inclination to venture out but we needed to eat. We decided that we would take the recommendation of one of the reception staff and eat at an Italian restaurant in Little Italy, so we asked them to call a taxi for us. They called three but whether it was because it was Friday night, their theory, or because taxis didn’t like stopping near the Renoir, our theory, none arrived for 45 minutes. By this time hunger got the better of fear, and we ventured out on foot. We walked towards the signs of civilization and found a bar/restaurant packed to the doors. We queued up for less than ten minutes and got a table, while we ordered and ate there was a live Jazz combo performing, I’d rather have my food unaccompanied by this brand of trilling and wailing but Julia enjoyed it and it lightened her mood. Our return was of course even darker and later and for once I was closer to understanding why youths might carry knives for their own protection but I resisted the temptation to steal the steak knife. We set off unarmed but determined. We arrived unmolested but still not happy with our location and further upset that this was the first multiple night stopover; two nights.
We decided to spend as much of the next day as possible as far from the hotel as we could. We, with the help of the reception staff, who incidentally claimed one taxi appeared only minutes after we set off earlier, booked a double decker bus tour of the city for most of the day and a baseball match for the evening, San Francisco v LA Dodgers.
It was part of the tour that we were picked up by the firm’s minibus and taken to the San Francisco Waterfront where we joined our bus. The driver was also the tour guide and he knew an incredible amount about the city and delivered it while driving the bus through all manner of traffic. He claimed that it was his sixth tour of the week when he usually limited himself to three because his opinions tended to take over the information as he did more trips. We saw evidence of this as we toured the city. The mist refused to lift and when we reached the highest point of the city it was possible to see the layer of fog sitting on the city but nothing below it, the Golden Gate Bridge remains unseen by us for the same reason. We hugely enjoyed his commentary which fitted our sense of humour and were entertained for over two hours. He knew all the different districts that we went through and was quite clear which ones were taken over by “scum” at night at this time our hotel did not get mentioned. It was only when he returned to the waterfront and let off many off the passengers before planning a route back to hotels for the others. When we told him our hotel he said, “Nice Hotel, Terrible Area! Surrounded by scum-bags” and he dropped us off last to minimize causalities if there was unrest in the area.
We thought of using a taxi to get to the game in the evening but we were persuaded to take the underground train. We went down into the system less than a block away from the hotel and everything changed, it was clean, the staff was helpful and it only cost $1.50 each. As soon as we got on the right train we found nearly everyone was heading for the game. The match was exciting and we stayed to the end to see the Giants win 3-2 in an extra innings having been 1-1 after nine innings. Apparently most people drop into a baseball game either arriving late or leaving early, some do both but we didn’t know that rule so we watched and enjoyed it all. We returned to the hotel equally uneventfully and perhaps had mellowed somewhat towards the area but Julia was kept awake most of the night by fighting and the police response to it outside the sex cinema directly opposite our window.
On both mornings I brought doughnuts from a small shop several doors from the hotel, venturing out early I saw considerable numbers of people of both sexes sleeping on the street.
I feel I should make the following points, despite my attempts at humour we were both genuinely scared at times on the street and the situation was all our fault. I had looked the hotel Renoir up on the internet and despite reading where it was situated we together decided to go ahead with the booking rather than asking the tour organizer to get it changed. We will be happy to return to San Francisco in the future and we will probably book a hotel on the Waterfront where there was character and comfort.
We decided to spend as much of the next day as possible as far from the hotel as we could. We, with the help of the reception staff, who incidentally claimed one taxi appeared only minutes after we set off earlier, booked a double decker bus tour of the city for most of the day and a baseball match for the evening, San Francisco v LA Dodgers.
It was part of the tour that we were picked up by the firm’s minibus and taken to the San Francisco Waterfront where we joined our bus. The driver was also the tour guide and he knew an incredible amount about the city and delivered it while driving the bus through all manner of traffic. He claimed that it was his sixth tour of the week when he usually limited himself to three because his opinions tended to take over the information as he did more trips. We saw evidence of this as we toured the city. The mist refused to lift and when we reached the highest point of the city it was possible to see the layer of fog sitting on the city but nothing below it, the Golden Gate Bridge remains unseen by us for the same reason. We hugely enjoyed his commentary which fitted our sense of humour and were entertained for over two hours. He knew all the different districts that we went through and was quite clear which ones were taken over by “scum” at night at this time our hotel did not get mentioned. It was only when he returned to the waterfront and let off many off the passengers before planning a route back to hotels for the others. When we told him our hotel he said, “Nice Hotel, Terrible Area! Surrounded by scum-bags” and he dropped us off last to minimize causalities if there was unrest in the area.
We thought of using a taxi to get to the game in the evening but we were persuaded to take the underground train. We went down into the system less than a block away from the hotel and everything changed, it was clean, the staff was helpful and it only cost $1.50 each. As soon as we got on the right train we found nearly everyone was heading for the game. The match was exciting and we stayed to the end to see the Giants win 3-2 in an extra innings having been 1-1 after nine innings. Apparently most people drop into a baseball game either arriving late or leaving early, some do both but we didn’t know that rule so we watched and enjoyed it all. We returned to the hotel equally uneventfully and perhaps had mellowed somewhat towards the area but Julia was kept awake most of the night by fighting and the police response to it outside the sex cinema directly opposite our window.
On both mornings I brought doughnuts from a small shop several doors from the hotel, venturing out early I saw considerable numbers of people of both sexes sleeping on the street.
I feel I should make the following points, despite my attempts at humour we were both genuinely scared at times on the street and the situation was all our fault. I had looked the hotel Renoir up on the internet and despite reading where it was situated we together decided to go ahead with the booking rather than asking the tour organizer to get it changed. We will be happy to return to San Francisco in the future and we will probably book a hotel on the Waterfront where there was character and comfort.
Los Angeles to Santa Barbara (97miles about 1hr 45min)
We had provided ourselves with a kettle and several UKà USA adapters in order to produce cups of tea to nearer the required English standard; we had borrowed some milk from the Chinese restaurant the previous evening so we were able to start the day with a “cuppa” before checking out of the hotel. There was nothing to pay and I should perhaps mention here that our arrangements were faultless, every time we reached a hotel they were aware of the booking and took our voucher without any concern. We usually had to show picture ID and give in a credit card number for incidentals but often there were none of these added to the bill. In addition to the kettle we had purchased a card for the sat-nav so that we could use it in the USA, you can make your mind up which was the more essential item. We found it very useful to programme the device with the next hotel’s address and follow directions door to door, with the device set for the El Prado Inn in Santa Barbara we set off, we navigated flawlessly out of Los Angeles and basically followed one freeway, US-101 for 80miles, to Santa Barbara. We found the hotel easily and parked beneath it. We were able to check in earlier than allowed and took possession of a good sized room with a bed which could easily sleep four adults, we never tested this premise despite having beds of this size all over California, sometimes with two of them in the same room.
The hotel was a series of three storey blocks wrapped round an outside swimming pool. We walked down to the beach, bought lunch at Quisnos, a poor substitute for Subway, but you learn to make do. We walked out to the end of the pier and watched fishermen competing against pelicans for the available fish, not as I’ve tried to make you think, the rod and line v the graceful dive of the bird, the pelicans were quite content to let the humans do the work and then rob them of their catch either as they landed it or from their buckets. To be fair the humans seemed to retain most of their fish but it made an entertaining spectacle for the neutrals. From the end of the pier we were persuaded to take the water taxi round the harbour and paid $4 to do it. On our journey we passed less idle pelicans actually fishing for themselves and a yacht owned by David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash, look up your Rock music history if no bell rings! We figured out that we had walked 11 blocks from the hotel to the beach and each block had up to 100 numbers in it, so if it’s the second block it starts at 200 and won’t go past 299. Anyway it was quite a long way back to the hotel in the heat of the day so we used the electric tram which took us just short of the hotel. Notice on this occasion we got things right, we walked down to the beach and rode back up! We had a laze in and around the pool before eating out close to the hotel, we ate at an Argentinean Restaurant and the meals were good, well-presented and huge. The first two aspects of our meals varied but the last one was almost constant every meal we bought at any, but one, restaurant would have fed both of us.
The hotel was a series of three storey blocks wrapped round an outside swimming pool. We walked down to the beach, bought lunch at Quisnos, a poor substitute for Subway, but you learn to make do. We walked out to the end of the pier and watched fishermen competing against pelicans for the available fish, not as I’ve tried to make you think, the rod and line v the graceful dive of the bird, the pelicans were quite content to let the humans do the work and then rob them of their catch either as they landed it or from their buckets. To be fair the humans seemed to retain most of their fish but it made an entertaining spectacle for the neutrals. From the end of the pier we were persuaded to take the water taxi round the harbour and paid $4 to do it. On our journey we passed less idle pelicans actually fishing for themselves and a yacht owned by David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash, look up your Rock music history if no bell rings! We figured out that we had walked 11 blocks from the hotel to the beach and each block had up to 100 numbers in it, so if it’s the second block it starts at 200 and won’t go past 299. Anyway it was quite a long way back to the hotel in the heat of the day so we used the electric tram which took us just short of the hotel. Notice on this occasion we got things right, we walked down to the beach and rode back up! We had a laze in and around the pool before eating out close to the hotel, we ate at an Argentinean Restaurant and the meals were good, well-presented and huge. The first two aspects of our meals varied but the last one was almost constant every meal we bought at any, but one, restaurant would have fed both of us.
New York to Los Angeles (14.45 to 17.30)
Once again the check-in placed us on separate rows but we found an agreeable swap again without difficulty. This time the airline wanted to charge us for food and even the earphones used to access the in-flight entertainment. Having not had the fore-sight to steal those provided free on the previous flight and being too tight to invest in either we watched silent movies and the cabin crew feeding the business and first class sections. Of course on all of these travels the clock was giving us extra time so arriving in Los Angeles at 5.30pm actually meant that it was about 3.30am at home, some 22hours since we got up. Understandably we were tired but internal flights have no delay on your escaping the airport so, after just missing our hire-car bus transfer and thus seeing every other possible transfer at least once, we were on the way to the Dollar Hire car centre. To illustrate that there is always an exception to any rule, Julia’s people skills were completely ineffective on the guy behind this particular counter, he was at best monosyllabic, and any question we asked was treated to a one word response, eg; where do we bring the car back to? Answer; Here. We might have guessed that but perhaps a little more detail would have set our minds at ease but, since we were tired, we let matters progress. He tried to sell us roadside assistance the only extra not already paid for in our package, I think it was our joint response to his gruff manner that made us decline his suggestion, he made us aware that we would be responsible for having the car towed back to the depot if it broke down but we still held our ground. Bearing in mind that we intended to drive 2000ish miles through three states of the union I even now wonder about this decision but it illustrates the power of negative customer service. Having got through the paperwork, we were told to go into their garage, pick any car parked in the “1” section, check it for damage, and drive it off. Self service carried to an absurd level, I can remember when we first hired cars you almost had to pass a short written exam to be trusted with one. We chose a Suzuki and thus turned down all the older and more upright styled cars. It took one of the garage hands to explain how to get it into drive for the first time and Julia set off, the hotel for the night was the Howard Johnson International LAX and it was only ten minutes from the hire centre. We checked in and ate in the attached Chinese Restaurant, which was fine at that stage, and retired to bed. Considering the California section of the holiday was to start and finish in LA we were to see very little of the city at either end of our stay. The hotel was fine for our purposes and we slept well.
England to New York (08.30 to 11.00)
We set off for London Heath Row on Tuesday the 5th because we had booked a room at the Park Inn, for an overnight stay, on the edge of the airport for almost the same price as basic offsite parking for two weeks and there was 15 days parking thrown in for free. So it felt a quite leisurely preparation for the first journey of the holiday proper. Since the flight was reasonably early, 8.30am, we caught the airport shuttle bus at about 5.45 and were quickly in the American Airlines check in system, using the word system very loosely. Their method is that everybody queues in the same set of bullpens and the first people to the desks check in for their flights regardless of which flights are imminent. As soon as it gets tight for time for any particular flight, the people needing that flight are escorted out of the queue, past the other passengers, and on to the desks. Thus at about 7.00 we were checked in as a pair but with non-adjoining seats, a recurring theme of the whole holiday. Security remains tight and the process of going air-side consumed most of the period we had penciled in for breakfast and we only managed a final cup of English tea before being embarked on our flight. The lady placed between us by the American Airlines lottery cheerfully swapped places to reunite us and we were soon eating breakfast. We enjoyed the in-flight entertainment, we both, at different times, watched Margaret Thatcher’s early years as a prospective candidate for the Tory party, if the film is to be believed it explains some of her vindictive nature when she finally achieved real power, there were also some nice lighter moments when her son, Mark, managed to get lost as a child, and Carol was cooking with the aid of the nanny.
Arrival in New York was painless, some people had more trouble than us getting past immigration but it seemed they had missed the 37 time we were told that we had to fill in an immigration form and they polled up to the desks professing no knowledge of the system. Our particular official, a huge older black man, had already had one sortie into the assembled hoard waiting to be admitted to the US of A, when he detected the use of a camera, one of the offences we had been warned about by the million signs which welcomed us, he settled for the deletion of the picture taken when we were betting on summary execution. Julia met him first and he was, of course, cheerful and welcoming to us, she has the gift of getting the best out of people.
We had lugged our baggage through customs but shortly after that we were relieved of it, so casually that we scarcely expected to see it again, but it turned up correctly in LA. With a three hour connection time we had time for a beer in the airport sports bar where we discovered that my phone would, despite having £30 credit on it, be purely ornamental for the duration, it’s too basic to seek out foreign networks. Julia’s phone, a much higher tech device being one of Sarah’s cast-offs, fared no better in New York so we couldn’t let anyone know of our progress.
Arrival in New York was painless, some people had more trouble than us getting past immigration but it seemed they had missed the 37 time we were told that we had to fill in an immigration form and they polled up to the desks professing no knowledge of the system. Our particular official, a huge older black man, had already had one sortie into the assembled hoard waiting to be admitted to the US of A, when he detected the use of a camera, one of the offences we had been warned about by the million signs which welcomed us, he settled for the deletion of the picture taken when we were betting on summary execution. Julia met him first and he was, of course, cheerful and welcoming to us, she has the gift of getting the best out of people.
We had lugged our baggage through customs but shortly after that we were relieved of it, so casually that we scarcely expected to see it again, but it turned up correctly in LA. With a three hour connection time we had time for a beer in the airport sports bar where we discovered that my phone would, despite having £30 credit on it, be purely ornamental for the duration, it’s too basic to seek out foreign networks. Julia’s phone, a much higher tech device being one of Sarah’s cast-offs, fared no better in New York so we couldn’t let anyone know of our progress.
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