Well we finally got back to good ol’ blighty after a ‘short’ 10 hour flight, bit jet-lagged and desperate to get back to work so I can rest up and take things easy. The whole trip has been a blast and Mike and I have met some wonderful and colourful people on our 2500 mile epic journey, we’ve seen all we set out to see and had a good old laugh along the way. America is a big, big country and we’ve only touched on 3 states and I’d encourage anyone to travel to the West Coast and explore this vast wilderness, just take plenty of sunscreen and water as it can get quite warm!! I want to shout out to Mike for being such splendid company and to his long suffering better half, Nikki, for letting him spend 2 weeks on a boy’s road trip!! I’d also like to thank all the people we met and had drinks with and, to all those we have yet to meet…………………….Cheers!!!

We carried on down Highway 1 until we reached Elephant Seal Beach, I don’t know the proper name for it but this describes it perfectly!! The entire beach was full of all sizes from youngsters all the way up to the Beachmaster, a giant inelegant bag of blubber and hormones fighting to keep his place as top dog. The breeding season was close and all of them were play fighting and sizing up their opponents in preparation for mating. I mean who’d want to lie on a beach all day in the sunshine and only occasionally getting up to eat, drink or have sex? ………………….Oh wait!! Well we finally got to Hollywood and sought out a cracking Thai restaurant were the shellfish were superb and the drink flowed like wine, well it actually was wine! After this oceanic feast we sauntered over to what we thought was a comedy club as it had a huge figure of a clown on the side of the building and we looked forward to rounding off an enjoyable evening with some sharp, satirical American humour. That’s not what we got but let’s just say my eyes were opened that night and cameras weren’t allowed in so you’ll just have to use your imagination. The drinks were reasonable though and the ‘cabaret’ was interesting to say the least. Anyway we decided to call it an early night as we were flying back tomorrow so at 2 am we quit and walked back to the hotel. Next stop LAX and the long flight home.

We left San Francisco and travelled North to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, however the weather was against us and low mist covered the towers so photo opportunities were limited and having reached the other side, we passed by the observation point, turned round and went back over. Even with limited visibility, driving over such an iconic structure is exciting and by limited visibility I meant the weather and not my eyesight although it has seen better days, or not, as the case may be!! The rock that is Alcatraz, which had been visible before, was also obscured and as a result of the weather it was a chilly 65F the coldest we had encountered for the whole trip. It became warmer driving south and motoring down Highway 1 next to the ocean is one driving pleasure that I will never tire from, the scenery is spectacular and there are so many places to stop off for food and drink especially as we drove through Big Sur which was full of Hikers and Campers! They do like their outdoor sports in California!! Anyway we arrived at the resort of Pismo Beach which allows vehicles to drive up and down the enormous stretch of sand for a small fee and we watched dozens of off-road vehicles and a few brave souls take on the sand dunes which are huge. Unfortunately our car, although a 4WD wasn’t equipped enough to cope with the beach so we had to park up and walk down to the sea whilst I explained to Mike that Taffy was not a slang term for a Welshman but their version of toffee which is very chewy and sometimes flavoured with salt. Salt Water Taffy is very popular with tourists but I can ill afford to lose any more fillings or teeth for that matter!! The resort itself is nothing special and after a Jack in the Box fast food meal and a few cold beers it was off to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow it’s Hollywood!!

San Francisco day 2, the day we visit Chinatown at night and, on our way to our next stop, drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. Chinatown was a long walk from the hotel and I mean a long walk!! We’d seen the famous gateway from the cable car but we didn’t take into account the hills! As we were sandwiched between Pacific Heights and Russian Hills it meant everywhere was either uphill or downhill. They were so steep even the residents park their cars side on just in case!! If only we had stayed in Frog Hollow which is brilliantly flat! After reaching the aforementioned arch we nosed around Chinatown looking for somewhere to eat. Now we’ve all seen Chinese Restaurant menus but some of the items over here were very odd. There were intestines of various animals, Chicken’s feet, Lotus Buns?, Cold Jellyfish! and Spicy Cold Noodles. Yummy, cold noodles 😋😋😋 We eventually had something more traditional and made our way back to the hotel. Once again the hills pretty much finished me off and, once back in the hotel, crashed out. Thank God Pablo was driving tomorrow!!

We arrived in San Francisco late afternoon amongst the rush hour traffic and checked into our hotel on Broadway. It’s mentioned in a lot of reviews as a very nice area and this seemed to be the case but it really was scruffy and lots of litter on the sidewalks. Street beggars are also cited as being a nuisance but, to be honest it wasn’t a problem we encountered. However we did see many cases of people rifling through dumpsters whilst all their worldly goods were crammed into shopping trollies nearby. It certainly is a city of contrasts with multi-million dollars homes alongside people sleeping in parks and on pavements, a problem that all the western world faces. On a more upbeat note, as this is meant to be a holiday, we strolled down to fisherman’s wharf for lunch and caught a tram back up. I’m not talking of a trolley bus but an old, original cable car with open sides that you see in the movies 😀😀😀 Brilliant!! We’d already had a very heavy evening the night before which involved three amazing bars, some Jack Daniels and, heaven forbid, a few Fireballs – (will we ever learn) so we spent most of the day sight seeing including taxis up and down the hills of Pacific Heights and Russian Hills. Tomorrow we’ll visit Chinatown!

Hanford is another quiet western town full of old buildings and ridiculously friendly people, even the police driving past waved at us. There’s not a lot to do in Hanford except sweat, it was over 100F for most of the day, and drink!! The only cinema in the town was showing old films and I mean old in the sense that they were recent films but had been released years ago! The evening meal was Italian and expensive but quite an exclusive restaurant so we blended in a treat 😉😉😉 Our saving grace was our accent, everybody loves the UK accent (really the English accent but Mike’s Welsh and I don’t want to antagonise him, he probably won’t read this anyway!!) And nearly everyone we spoke to wants to know where abouts we come from and they have a relative who lives in the UK and do we know them? That last bit’s a lie but I thought it was funny 😂 That evening we went to one of the few bars in Hanford called Huggy’s and that’s all you need to know!! Back to the hotel and then it’s San Francisco. I almost forgot one of the exciting things that happened in Hanford – Mike got his shoes shined!!

So leaving Olancha and Death Valley behind we headed towards the Sequoia National Forest. On the way we called in at a little place called Kern Valley which has its own airfield. As we sat and had lunch a small 4 seater airplane that we had seen flying over the lake came in to land and the pilot and his passengers came over and started chatting. They certainly were characters and when asked how much would they charge to take Mike and myself for a flight over the lake? The answer, ‘ Just a burger’ and they were serious although on further questioning it was raised to ‘Just pay for the fuel’ and I wish we had taken them up on the offer but they all left to get pizza and we had to make tracks as the clouds were gathering and it was getting late. It was at Kern Valley that we saw the humming birds and I managed to get a couple of shots of them which I’ll post in the Gallery later. Evidently they migrate this way every year and the Cafe owner puts out a sugar water feeder for them. Anyway back in the car and off to see the sequoias. We parked up at the trail head for the ‘one hundred giants’ and walked amongst these massive living things and filmed chipmunks dashing in and out of the fallen trunks on the forest floor. It was at this point we felt the first spots of rain and the ominous rumble of distant thunder. We just made it back to the car when the heavens opened, driving through the storm was pretty scary as the windscreen wipers were only just coping and there was always the danger of flash flooding even though we were high up at around 4000 ft the rain was bouncing off the rocks creating mist as it hit and running down the road in torrents. It was pretty hairy and awesome at the same time and we decided to push on rather than stop and wait it out. The climb ended around 8000 ft and the rain had eased as we descended the most winding road I have ever experienced. There was never a moment where you had 50 yards of straight in front of you as it was always a bend and ones that were almost 360!! Overall this continued for the best part of half an hour and by the time we reached the bottom driver Mike was in need of a stiff drink and I had to have my fingernails prised from the dashboard!! Hairy doesn’t begin to describe it!! So onto Hanford, a sleepy little town on the way to SF that has a bar called Huggy’s where we may have had a few drinks. More details to follow 😋😋

Well, after Vegas we needed somewhere less intense to recover and chill out. What better place than Death Valley!! Calling in at Pahrump, pronounced thrrrruuup, we bought copious amounts of water and gas for the journey ahead. Just outside Death Valley is a small town called Shoshone where I had the pleasure of staying four years ago with my son Christopher but this time only had time for a cold beer, alcohol free of course, in the famous Crowbar Saloon. Death Valley is a very strange place where temperatures reach 120F regularly, on this visit it was a cool 116F so we kept our cardigans and vests on!! After stopping for a few photos in Badwater which is the second lowest point in the whole western hemisphere at 86metres below sea level, we continued through to Mesquite Dunes which, as the name implies, are Sahara like sand dunes with the finest sand and covering miles as far as the eye could see. And if you’re a Star Wars fan then you’ll know the location as Tatooine!! Yes! This is where R2D2 and C3PO were lost in the very first film. Then onto Olancha and the Rustic Lodge where we encountered our first traffic jam. Evidently the Burning Man festival had finished that day and tens of thousands of anti establishment, save the World, fight the Man hippies were heading home to LA in their very expensive gas guzzling RVs and 4WDs!! Right on brother 😎😎😎. We eventually got to the lodge and chilled on the porch with a beer or two watching aforementioned festival goers drive past on the highway for hours until around 9pm when it suddenly became very quiet. Shortly after the lights on the porch were turned off and the whole of the night sky was visible with the Milky Way, perfectly clear to the naked eye, shining right through the middle of a jet black sky and, with a distant lightening storm over the mountains, it made for a memorable evening. Off to bed and tomorrow we make for San Francisco but not without a stop off at a quiet little spot called Hanford. Plus we get to meet a few big trees, a couple of humming birds, some chipmunks and one mother of a storm. Keep visiting.

So second day in Vegas. Both won a little bit of money but Vegas takes everything and spits you out afterwards. So we’re a little wiser but a lot poorer! So we took a bus from Freemont where we were staying to The Strip. The casinos there are unbelievable, Caeser’s Palace, full of repro architecture that included ‘The Fountain of the Gods’ and Roman statues everywhere, The Venice with canals, gondolas and St Marks square and The Paris which has the Eiffel tower perched over it!! All awesome and totally over the top. The Bellagio with it’s musical fountains and all the sights of Vegas at night. To me it is both horrible and beautiful at the same time. Horrible in the sense that it is hedonism and western excess at it’s very worst, beautiful in the sense that all people from all countries and cultures were there with one single aim…..to have a good time!! Tomorrow we are off to Death Valley and a beer at the famous Crowbar before we crash at The Rustic Motel in Olancha. Now where the hell’s that!!!

After exploring Kingman, which has historic ties with Route66, we set off for Chloride, a genuine living ghost town that had in its heyday a population of 2500 complete with a Bank, Billiard Hall, Saloon Bar, Whore House and Train Station. Since then people have abandoned their homes and went looking for work elsewhere. The more that left the greater the decline until only about 250 people still live there as well as the occasional dog or two. It was on the Main Street that we joined several townsfolk at their local bar on the boardwalk outside. We then wandered over to the main square where several original buildings from the late 1800s still stand. It was here that we were entertained to a genuine wild west shootout! The acting was pretty awful but the guns were real and didn’t they make a noise. I was roped into their performance to add some gravitas and played the role superbly!! After photos were taken and we had our first Steak and eggs of the trip in the local saloon we headed off to Last Vegas with just a little detour to the Hoover Dam. An impressive civil engineering project that harnesses the power of the mighty Colorado River although the water level was 50% lower the last time I visited in 2014. Finally we were on our way to Last Vegas, the city that never sleeps!! As true as it’s reputation we went for a walk downtown at half past one in the morning after mixed success in the casino and there were three rock bands, one of which was called Spandex. You can imagine what they were like. There were also adhoc percussionists drumming on anything that made a noise, a guitarist, zip wire nutters and the all-pervading aroma of weed!! And I forgot to mention it’s their Labour Day weekend which means bikers, petrolheads and custom car nutters are all roaring around the main drag bouncing the suspension and blaring out hip-hop or drum and bass for all to hear. I forgot to mention the street trader who sells ‘Kick me in the Balls’ opportunities!! You pay him $5 and he stands there, legs apart, and you kick him in the groin. I watched as some punters were taking run ups and kicking him in the nuts so hard he actually lifted into the air!! I couldn’t watch for too long but you’ve got to admire the blokes balls, that’s if he has any 😮😮😮