LAS VEGAS

The drive from Kingman to the Hoover Dam was a dead straight road, which almost caused me to nod off once or twice. We stopped at a place called Rosie’s Den for a break and found a queue about a mile long. We were there for about 10 minutes before we realized we were in the queue for the Powerball, and that there was no queue for the food (which in itself was a bit of cause for concern).

We crossed the state border into Nevada at the impressive Hoover Dam.

The Hoover Dam was so impressive, even Derwent (Karen's teddy bear) got out of the truck to pose for a picture

In Vegas, we stayed at The Stratosphere casino, and had the best time. We let the girls off their leashes during the days, and they went off by themselves and walked The Strip, visiting the multitude of casinos and shops along the way. During the evenings they were confined to The Stratosphere, which had a huge amount of shops and restaurants to amuse them.

As part of our hotel deal we also scored free tickets for the rides at the top of the Stratosphere Tower, and against my beliefs they actually went up there at night and rode the rides, one of which jettisoned them off the edge of the tower. I wouldn’t have believed them had they not come back to our room with the pictures of their ride.

Vegas is the playground of the world. Every minute there was fun, with so much to do and see, and the place has an energy which is found nowhere else in the world. It pumps 24/7, and most establishments never close. Four nights there was never going to be long enough, but we all packed in the most we could.

The pics here are of Vegas as seen through the camera lens of Chloe and Chanelle:-

Chanelle the star




Inside the Venetian Casino shops. This picture was taken around midnight, but in Vegas false skies are created to give people the illusion it is daytime

A part of the old Downtown Las Vegas, where it all began when the famous Strip was still cow paddocks. Although the casinos in the Downtown area are older and less glitzy, they retain a charm from a different era

Another shot of Downtown in the Freemont Street Experience

The Strip seen from the top of The Stratosphere Tower

Day view of the above

The half-scale Eiffel Tower at The Paris casino

Another interior view of the Venetian Casino shops

A view of the Strip from an overpass. The Venetian is on the left and the famous Caesar's Palace is about 25mm in from the right

The Bellagio - probably the most opulent of all the casinos

The Sahara casino

The famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign

Another view of 'old Vegas'

The Stratopshere has a 50's style diner, where the staff frequently burst into a karaoke routine of some famous 50's or 60's hit. Here Chloe is being charmed by one of the waiters

From the Stratosphere Tower

Karen and Chanelle at The Venetian

ROUTE 66

For those not familiar with Route 66, the following gives a background:

U.S. Route 66 (also known as Route 66, U.S. Highway 66, The Main Street of America, The Mother Road and the Will Rogers Highway) was a highway in the U.S. Highway system. One of the original federal routes, US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, though signs did not go up until the following year. It originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles for a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).

Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime that changed its overall length. One of these realignments moved the western endpoint from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

US 66 was officially decommissioned (that is, officially removed from the United States Highway System) on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been redesignated State Route 66, and others bear "Historic Route 66" signs

As we had already done the Santa Monica to Hollywood section, our journey started on Sunset Boulevard. Route 66 winds its way through Hollywood and into downtown LA, before twisting back out through Pasadena and on towards San Bernardino. Much of this section of 66 has been replaced directly with 6-lane freeways.

Once clear of LA, Route 66 turns away from the multi-lane roads and turns into seldom used two-lane roads, many of them crumbling and ridden with pot-holes.

A section of old 66 in better condition than many other parts. There was little danger of me being hit by another car. On one particular section over a distance of about 160km, we passed only four other vehicles.

Our first stop was at Amboy, a small town by-passed long ago by the interstate is now a ghost town. The only life was at the ‘famous’ Roy’s Drive-In, a gas station/diner/motel, which now only has the gas station, which was run by a strange looking guy wearing a Sheriffs uniform complete with hand-gun in a holster, who gave us some weird looks whilst we used the ‘rest rooms’. Karen reported that the ladies had all the cubicles locked except for a solitary one which had no door. We decided that the Sheriff was in fact Roy, who now ran the whole town (as he appeared to be the only resident), and had appointed himself to the position. It was one of those places that you don’t want to stay in too long.

Roy's Motel Cafe at Amboy

The derelict Amboy School

All along Route 66 were remnants of the road when it was a thriving thoroughfare. We passed countless derelict service stations, motels and diners.

The long-disused Roadrunner Restaurant in the Californian Desert


We crossed into Arizona at a place called Needles, where Route 66 begins a long winding ascent into the Arizona desert mountains. The road wound its way up the mountain through several hairpins, in a lonely desolate area, probably inhabited by lonely desolate people, when we encountered a sign which said Welcome to Oatman – bring your own banjo. Actually, it didn’t say that, I just thought it sounded funny.

Route 66 climbs into the Arizona Mountains

Main Street of Oatman, Arizona

We entered a town which made it easily into our Top 5 Unusual USA Towns. Oatman survived the Route 66 by-pass by turning itself (or maybe it was always that way) into a place resembling an old cowboy town. Most of the shops sold touristy things like t-shirts, tea towels, cowboy hats, postcards, banjo repair kits etc. The oddest thing about the town (other than the obvious fact that the place was in dire need of a resident dentist), was the presence of burros, which resemble small donkeys, that wandered through the main street, walking in and out of shops to their hearts desire. Apparently the town is a major tourist attraction, and anywhere else you’d have to pay a fee to get in, but this was a normally-operating town (other than the lack of dental hygiene), and people come from as far away as New York, Los Angeles and Coolangatta to look at the burros and buy souvenir t-shirts.

The Oatman Hotel. Its only claim to fame is that Hollywood stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their wedding night here about 70 years ago. It is apparent they were trying to get away from it all

After Oatman we continued to Kingman, where we made a small detour to a town about 100 miles off Route 66 - Las Vegas

LOS ANGELES

Arriving in LA, we headed straight for the CBS studios as Chloe had procured tickets for herself and Chanelle for the Ellen Degenerate show (that’s my title and I’m sticking to it). Chloe had got these some weeks back over the internet. Whilst the little ones were otherwise engaged Karen and I took time to find our accommodation.

We checked into a motel just off Hollywood Boulevard so we were able to sample the delights of that area. Low lifes, beggars, pimps, prostitutes – it had it all! The whole strip is just a sleaze pot which, when you drive across the intersection which marks the boundary with Beverly Hills changes as if from black to white. You are suddenly greeted with beautifully manicured gardens, big houses (many surrounded with very high walls).

Next day, we did Disneyland (of course), and hit the jackpot. The combination of off-season and an overcast day meant a small crowd. We did all the rides, and the longest wait was about 5 minutes. Considering at peak times a 45 minute wait is normal, we couldn’t believe our good fortune. We all agreed Space Mountain to be the best ride, even though now it is one of the oldest, as I first went on it way back in 1984, and it still manages to get the adrenalin pumping. Even Karen, who hates rollercoasters of any sort, never mind those inside a dark building, went back for a second ride. We stayed to closing and watched the Disney parade. A pretty exhausting day, but after all it is “the happiest place in the world”

The following day the kids wanted to do Universal Studies. Both Karen and I had previously done this and had no real desire to revisit, so again, we dropped them off and decided to do our own thing. One of the main purposes of this trip to the US was to drive the famous Route 66 from LA to Chicago, and we decided to tick the box of the Santa Monica to Hollywood section. It’s only a few miles (yes, our American friends still use miles, gallons, feet etc), but it took us a few hours, due mainly to traffic.

Our final fling with LA was a visit to the Hollywood Hills, Hollywood Bowl, Greek Theatre, and to look at one or two famous homes. I indulged myself and checked out Ron Howard’s home (to make sure other members of the Howard clan are doing alright). After looking at his house and the land it covered and the views it afforded, both Karen and I decided that Ron was doing ok for himself and would not need a handout from us.

Karen also got her wish in Hollywood as we were able to locate the house used for the outside scenes of The Brady Bunch

I had to take a few indulgences too, by tracking down the original ‘Batmobile’ from the 1960’s TV series, which now lives anonymously under a tarpaulin at the back of George Barris’ Custom Car workshop in Hollywood. Normally not available for public scrutiny, when I told them that I’d come all the way from Australia to see it, I suddenly took on celebrity status and was even allowed to sit in it and use the BATphone!

That was just the start of my BAT-adventures, as we followed that up on the way out of LA by stopping at the location of the BATcave, and of course Stately Wayne Manor, which unfortunately was surrounded by a very high wall and a very high security gate. I climbed onto the wall of the garden opposite to try to take some pictures over the wall. This still didn’t afford a great view, but I was pleased to see that LA residents are happy people as the guy living in the place whose wall I’d climbed on started waving at me, even with a shotgun in his hand. So I waved back and called out “God Bless America”.

SAN FRANCISCO

“Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair”

Well, I didn’t wear any flowers in my hair, on account that I didn’t know if guys could still do that without getting arrested or at least accosted by people of the same gender! More of that later.

We arrived at 10.00 in the morning technically only 4 hours after leaving Coolangatta on account of going over the international date line. The flight was relatively uneventful, and we hit the town as soon as we had checked into our motel.

First day we did all the touristy things. The streetcar (read tram) ride and of course the famous cable car ride up the steep hills of SF. Went to Fisherman’s Wharf, where I had my first of many Budweisers. The next few days we spent exploring some of the more 'notorious' areas of the city.

A famous San Francisco cable car

Chanelle and Chloe wait for for their first cable car ride

While waiting for the cable car ride Chanelle befriends a member of the San Francisco PoliceDepartment

The classis photo shot of San Francisco - hanging off the side of a cable car

Another classis SF view - the Golden Gate Bridge emerging from the early morning mist

Chloe and Chanelle ponder the crookedest street in the world, Lombard Street, SF

After a hard day sightseeing, Chloe and Chanelle unwind in a restored 1950's Diner

HAIGHT-ASHBURY

For hippy affectionados, you will know that this was the suburb of SF which gave birth to the hippy movement way back in that Summer of Love of 1967. Today it is known just as The Haight, and still bears many momentoes of that era. Not unlike a much larger version of Nimbin, with plenty of psychedelic signs on the shop fronts and numerous shops selling arts, crafts, hippie clothes, bongs (what?????), tobacco, other tobacco etc etc.

We wandered through The Haight down to Golden Gate park where all the loving of that Summer took place. There were still so many people sitting on the grassy hills, many looked like they hadn’t moved in 40 years, but plenty of young people had also moved in. A band was playing, and there was a strange smell which filled the air with love and peace!!

Golden Gate Park, where the hippy movement began in 1967

Colourful shopfronts in the area of Haight-Ashbury



THE CASTRO

There are four main things SF is famous for, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Cable Cars, the birthplace of the hippies, and the fact that it is the gay capital of the world.

The Castro is the suburb where the gay community hangs out. Of course, we had to take the kids there to educate them in their journey of life. It is a cool place. Strangely, we felt safer there at night than anywhere else in SF (not that SF has a high crime rate, but it’s still the US!!). We got virtually dragged into a shop, an art gallery type of place, still open at 10 pm, which was celebrating it’s first birthday and they were handing out free wine and nibblies. Never one for turning down people’s generosity, I accepted their invitation, and we were then treated to a karaoke performance of an unlikely drag queen performing ‘Fever’ much to the amazement of Chloe.

After this, Karen and the girls went into a pharmacy to get some girlie-type stuff and I said I’d wait outside to watch the passing parade. Whilst they were inside, I was approached twice by guys and both used the same opening line “Are you alone?” (in an American accent of course). Naturally enough, I turned them down flat. I won’t have anything to do with that sort of thing (although the second one was quite cute).

On our last day in SF we picked up the rental vehicle, a Toyota 4WD, known in the USA as a ‘truck’ so I was finally able to achieve my life-long ambition to be a ‘truck driver’. We took a drive over the Golden Gate bridge, a fabulous experience, and was able to nominate our “Personality of San Francisco” award to the guy who collected our $5 toll on the return trip. He was wearing a cap which had “My Life Sucks” printed on the front of it. Actually, I made that bit up, but he should have been.

"Hey! The steering wheel's on the wrong side!!!"

Night view of San Francisco from the lookout at Twin Peaks

WELCOME BACK TO THE BLOG

Hello all!
First real opportunity, other than Chloe’s interim effort, to get something posted. A combination of poor internet connections and having fun has stalled the blog, but now we've got a bit of breathing space over the next few days to bring this up to date. For those interested only in the pics, I’ve put a caption on each one, and for those in desperate need of a life, I’ve done the text. Hope you don’t get too bored, but if worse comes to worse at least it will send you to sleep!!