Last musings about the USA

It's time to go. We're checked in, and chilling out in the lounge. I don't really want to go home, but I know that we must. 

People ask why I choose to go to the USA so often. 

I do love the States. I like the people - in general they are very friendly, helpful and interested. The majority of people I've come across appear to speak at least two languages, which impresses me. 

I love that we can drive from one side to the other, and that even the locals find that amazing. 

I am grateful that there is always a fuel and convenience stop when you need it, and that it's clean. 

I shall miss the toilets that flush themselves, and automatic taps and soap dispensers. Yes, we have them in Oz, must they're not commonplace, as they are here. 

I love the shopping. The availability of great clothes and the affordability of them. I love that the sizes are slightly different, and that in America, I feel much smaller than I do at home. 

There are so many national parks! They're everywhere. Diverse and well kept. I'm keen to revisit those I've been to and to see those I haven't. I need more time! This is definitely not our last visit. 

We won't be hiring a car from Dollar again. Our go-to is still Alamo. Friendly, convenient, helpful with nice cars in good condition. The pick up office in LA is close to the airport and they're never busy. 

Well, that's all. We're almost home and the sunrise is chasing us in. The flight was quite full, and coming home always takes longer than going. 

I'm always grateful to get home again with out any terrible travel stories to note. Ther drive went without a hitch, the flights worked well, the hotels were great. Very happy.

Thanks for reading. Til next adventure. 

The OC

Our last hotel is the Hyatt at Newport Beach in Orange County, the OC, where we'd stay for two nights, but booked three, to account for the late departure back to Oz on Saturday night. Even if we managed to get a late checkout, it's still too early to go to the airport, so we've found that it is much more relaxing to stay in our room until we are ready to leave. 

We had a quiet few days in LA, driving along the coast, looking at the houses and neighborhoods, the fabulous cars, enjoying the perfect weather. Shopping. Packing. Attempting to sleep in. 

We visited the Portofino Inn, where the Cannonball Run finished. We stood in the carpark and felt pleased that we'd finished our own journey. 4,200 miles in the end, and 15 states. 

We saw seals sunning themselves and 'chatting' to eachother on the walkways of the marina, and many amazing boats and yachts. We had a lovely breakfast watching the fish through the clear waters. 

We shopped. We hadn't been to South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa for awhile, but it was close to our hotel and one of the best centers in LA. It has the biggest Nordstrom Rack we've seen, and all of our favourite shops. 

We had a great dinner at 'Lark' at Fashion Island, Newport, and a fabulous breakfast at 'Nick's' at Laguna Beach. 

I had never been as far south as Laguna before, but it was beautiful. Lovely beaches, walking trails, people out enjoying the weekend, huge houses, lovely old shops and restaurants. I really liked the area. 

 Real coffee! 

The Last City

The drive into LA was met with mixed feelings. I was relieved to have made it to the other side of the (vast) country without incident, but immediately wanted to set off again. 

It's been an amazing journey, and something I can highly recommend. So much variety in countryside and food and architecture. Great roads. Clean roadside rest stops. Food and fuel whenever you need it. Friendly people. Too easy. 

Almost as soon as we left Palm Springs the smog of LA was discernible, but the world greened up a little in between the massive warehouses, distribution centers, and power stations. 

Dom dropped me off at another outlet mall (yes, I know) and went to see the NHRA Hotrod Museum. It depicted the history of Hotrod and drag racing with lots of great cars on display. 

We had a great run in to West Holywood to our hotel, the Andaz. This is despite 'carmageddon', as Dom calls it, on the outbound lanes. 

I do love driving in LA. I really enjoy seeing the people and the buildings - it's an incredible mix of architecture, but mostly quite old, and a little worn and dirty. To me it's as though everyone has the attitude that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

There are a lot of trees and flowers in LA. Everywhere. The city smells good. 

Our hotel was quite outstanding. We were given a fabulous suite on the 10th floor, with a view down to Sunset Boulevard. 

I'd always been curious to see the famed Chateau Marmont, which was just a block away. We walked up to the entrance and asked if we could go in for a drink. The valets said it was unlikely, but that we could go in and ask. I had to put away the camera as there was a 'no photo' policy. 

The host was very welcoming and sat us in the old world glamour bar, where we toasted the end of the journey and 3,999 miles! 

There were many beautiful, well dressed people walking through the hotel, but we didn't recognise anyone famous. The place certainly has an understated, sophisticated, air about it. 

Desert Oasis

6am: I woke to see the first signs of morning as a pink glow on the mountain side. 

There appeared to be people hiking up a trail with lights on their heads, which seemed like a good idea. It must be a spectacular view from the top and it is definitely a pleasant temperature for exercise right now. 

I had googled 'best things to do in Palm Springs' and came up with the Aerial Tramway, a cable car ride to the mountain top. We'd seen no evidence of it or heard about it, but set off in search. 

It was well hidden, sensitively camouflaged into the hillside and we'd never have known about it without google. It was $25 each to the top (and back) and we only had to wait about 10 minutes for a ride. 

There are two rotating cars, at opposite ends of the line to eachother for energy conservation and balance, that can hold approximately 50 people each. The rotation means that everyone who wants to gets a turn at the view. 

The tram ascends to 8,500 feet, and has an impressively steep trajectory. I really enjoyed the trip and the view. It was impossible to catch the perspective properly on camera, however. 

At the mountain top station there is both a cafe and a restaurant, as well as the start of many walking trails. It does snow up here in winter, despite the low rainfall below. Breathing was a little labored at this altitude, and the air was very dry. It was 12 degrees at the top, versus 27 at the base. On a clear day, apparently you can see Las Vegas! 

It was a highlight of the trip for me. 

From there we drove to Desert Hills Premium Outlets, about 10 minutes down the I-10 towards LA. It was an excellent outlet mall, with the best coffee in the USA! 

On the way we saw the biggest wind farm ever. These things are huge - perhaps 50-60 meters tall. 

We enjoyed a swim and spa again this evening, enjoying the music and the desert evening. 

Palm Springs, California

We had a nice night in Phoenix, where the storm finally caught up with us. We watched the lightning from the bar of the revolving restaurant in 24th floor of our hotel, which was pretty cool. 

This morning we were on the road by 8.30am, grateful not to be mixing it with the bumper to bumper traffic inbound to the city. 

We're off to California, our 15th and final state for this holiday. 

The landscape is beautiful. Jagged, coloured mountains all around, with great open desert plains between the highway and the ranges, sparsely covered in low bushes.

The mountains look as though they were created yesterday. Sharp and folded at odd angles. 

We've seen corn and cotton crops, saguaro cactus (the tall, armed type) and nuclear power stations. And a big, blue, cloudless sky. 

It amazes me that people crossed this country on horses and in wagons. What faith and perseverance. 

Joshua Tree National Park was on the way to Palm Springs, so we drove in to the visitor centre at Cottonwood Springs. It is very hot and dry here, and it's late autumn. I enjoyed seeing so many of the desert plants in flower, but saw no Joshua trees. The main part of the park is further north. 

Driving down off the plain into the valley of Palm Springs I was amazed to see how high we'd been. There were craggy mountain peaks below us! The desert here is more grey and dusty in colour, with much less vegetation than we've seen over the past few days. 

We were both surprised how big Palm Springs is, and that it is tucked in next to big desert mountains. It is a beautifully kept city - new buildings obviously style controlled to fit, gardens manicured with brilliant green lawns and bright flowers. Palm trees line every road. Very attractive. 

Our hotel, Hyatt Palm Springs, was in the north of town, sitting right beside the mountains. It was lovely to go for a swim for the first time this trip, and stretch out our muscles after the long drive. 

A wander into the fairy-light decorated town presented several interesting places for dinner, where we chose Spanish tapas at Alicante. Great food. 

Photos so far

So far, the blog has contained only photos taken from my iPhone. 

I take a lot with my camera as well but haven't been able to upload them til now. 

Grand Central Station

Chandeliers of Grand Central 

Times Square 

New York, 42nd Street

View from the deck of the USS Intrepid

Cycling in Washington

Marine One

Bourbon Orleans, our hotel in New Orleans

Halloween decorations in New Orleans

Space Centre Houston

Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson 

Trying to see into the famed 'Boneyard'

Tucson, New Mexico

9pm: Why does every hotel have different light switches, and different shower dials, air conditioning operations, toilet flushes, and even room key operations? For anyone who travels often, it is a recurring challenge just to be able to do normal things every day! 

 

It shouldn't be frustrating. It should be a part of the joy of travel. The fun. But strangely enough, challenge of simple things when you're tired is just labelled 'annoying', not 'fun' by the brain. 

Answer: sleep and tolerance. Maybe the other way around. Both. 

8am: We've slept well in our Comfort Inn, which had excellent wifi and a laundry, which we took advantage of. Most of the hotels will look after your laundry but in the States, it has been cheaper to buy new gear at the outlets than to wash the existing clothes. Of course then you have lots of dirty clothes. It was nice to get a few things cleaned. 

We're on the road in New Mexico, our 14th state this trip, heading west on the I-10. We've done over 3000 miles now, over 4500 kilometers.   

We came to a US Border Patrol check point, similar to the one we saw on the other side of the road yesterday. 

All west bound traffic was required to stop. We rolled down the window and the officer asked if we were US citizens. When we said 'no', he asked for our visas. Visas? What visas? We were asked to pull over and produce our passports. Which we did, with now four officers standing around us, not looking very friendly. 

The Mexican border is 20 miles away to the south here. We'd only just past a prison with big signs on the highway warning not to pick up hitchhikers! And seen the National Guard out in fatigues with huge packs on a morning run through the desert. 

New Mexico

The road ahead

From here west through Arizona to California is my favourite countryside. I love the multi coloured earth and craggy mountains, the long straight roads, velvet covered undulating hills, the tussock covered plains, the big sky, the silvery grass. 

Some of the mountains are over 10,000 feet high in this area. Definitely stunning landscape. 

We crossed the Continental Divide (there were T-shirts available!) which, according to Dom, means that all the rivers and creeks on this side flow down towards the Pacific Ocean, rather than the Gulf of Mexico. 

We stopped at Tombstone, hoping to catch the daily gunfight at the OK Coral, but instead came across their yearly street parade. The place was packed with people in fancy dress. 

We were stopped at a different border check, but this time just waved through.

We arrived at Pima Air and Space Museum in the early afternoon, and spent an hour and a half wandering the exhibits. The ones outdoors are fun to wander up close to, but it must be punishing in full summer sun. There are lots of great displays in hangars as well. 

 

From there we drove around the 'Boneyard', the fields of old aircraft that have been mothballed. There's a tour that you can do by bus from Pima, but it only runs during the week from 10 am. We thought we'd sneak a look through the fence. It's hard to grasp just how many aircraft there are here. We're very keen to come back and do a tour another time. 

We saw Hercules, Galaxies, Starlifters, Globe Masters, Orion's, KC-35's, A-10's, F-16's, A-7's. And many more. All in lines. Hundreds of each. Very impressive. 

Just as we left Pima, a huge storm broke with lightning and thunder and high winds. 

Having seen what we wanted to, we decided to drive on through to Phoenix (where we'd not planned to stop, but it cuts down our drive to Palm Springs tomorrow), watching the blackness envelope Tucson in our rear view mirror.

Tucson looked to be an interesting city with some cool bars and restaurants. This town goes on our 'Visit next time' list. 

Yes, it's a long list.