Many apologies that the blog has pretty much been sacked off this past week - a combination of bad internet access & being busy driving & exploring left it pretty far down on our list of priorities!! We had a cool day in Minnesota last tuesday though - we went to 'Mall of America' in Minneapolis, the biggest mall in the whole country, complete with its own theme park!! Ha, needless to say Mr.Abercrombie & Fitch was paid a visit...
After spending tuesday night in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, we continued our journey East to Green Bay on the wednesday, where we did a tour of the Green Bay Packers stadium; Lambeau Field, which was pretty impressive to be fair. It's one of the oldest stadiums in the country & holds 72,000 people! After that we drove south through Milwaukee & arrived in Chicago, Illinois for three nights!!
We had an awesome time in Chicago, despite not seeing the sun the whole time we were there!! City itself seemed awesome - we had a really good look around & also spent some time in the burbs where our hotel was in a place called Morton Grove - we even found a local Soccer field to have a good kick around on one afternoon!!
We left Chicago on the saturday morning & headed quickly to Joliet, where the prison from 'Prison Break' is located...!! Ha, needless to say we both really wanted to see it!! From there we were back on the roadand quickly got to our 31st state; Indiana, before driving up to Michigan and staying in a place called Dearborn Heights, just outside Detroit!
Our main reason for going to Detroit was to visit a shooting range which had come highly recommended from a Turkish gangster we know, so we headed there early on sunday morning to shoot some guns!! It was a worthwhile experience I guess, definitely would hate to see the damage a bullet would cause to a person anyway!! From there we drove through Ohio, where we got to see a bit of Cleveland as we headed towards Buffalo, New York to stay for the night.
Buffalo is very close to Niagara Falls, so come monday morning we quickly headed there as Build hadn't been before, and I'd only seen it once on a somewhat cloudy day...! After doing that we headed East once more, this time to Saratoga to watch Blink 182!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or not as the case may be as they cancelled at the last minute - the less said about it the better to be honest, as we're still pissed off about it now!! Oh well, least we get a refund...
We're now in New Hampshire for a week or so, needless to say looking forward to enjoying a bit of a relax and chill out after the last 6 weeks!! 11,200 miles driven & 35 states visited....which should be up to 39 by the time we leave, with Maine, Massachussetts, Rhode Island & Connecticut still to tick off before we head home next wednesday...
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Yellowstone National Park - Sioux City, Iowa.
Well safe to say we've done a lot of driving since the last blog!! We got up early on sunday and drove from Pocatello up to Yellowstone, briefly entering Montana & then into Wyoming, which took us up to 24 states visited!! Yellowstone was absolutely awesome - without doubt the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life!! Shame I couldn't be arsed to upload any pictures really!! Ha, anyway we did everything we wanted to do, namely checking out 'Old Faithful' - the famous geyser and getting close to some Bison!! At one point we had to stop on the road to let a Bison cross literally right in front of us...awesome creatures!!
We left Yellowstone about 4pm and then headed East once again, driving quite a way through Wyoming & eventually crashing at a place called Gillette - there was some awesome driving to be had after leaving Yellowstone though, with one part having non-stop hairpins for about half an hour!! Monday arrived with yet another early morning, this time as we continued East to Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. It was pretty cool I guess, although a little smaller than you'd expect & safe to say neither of us were blown away!! Anyhow after that we decided we had to try chalk up as many states as possible, so we went South before going East, just so that we could tick off Nebraska!!
There was very little in Nebraska as you'd expect, although we did manage to stumble upon another town called Valentine!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely awesome place which I couldn't recommend enough!! We didn't get to our hotel here in Sioux City, Iowa until about 11pm last night, although that was mainly due to losing an hour as we crossed back into the Central time zone, an unexpected road closure & an unbelieveable storm - rain, lightening & thunder, which was still going great guns when we went to sleep!!
Anyway that means we're up to 27 states now, and have also driven OVER 9000 miles!!!!!!! Pretty crazy really, although we only have a week left on the road now - which today will involve driving up to Minneapolis in Minnesota, before heading East to stay in Wisconsin for the night....
We left Yellowstone about 4pm and then headed East once again, driving quite a way through Wyoming & eventually crashing at a place called Gillette - there was some awesome driving to be had after leaving Yellowstone though, with one part having non-stop hairpins for about half an hour!! Monday arrived with yet another early morning, this time as we continued East to Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. It was pretty cool I guess, although a little smaller than you'd expect & safe to say neither of us were blown away!! Anyhow after that we decided we had to try chalk up as many states as possible, so we went South before going East, just so that we could tick off Nebraska!!
There was very little in Nebraska as you'd expect, although we did manage to stumble upon another town called Valentine!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely awesome place which I couldn't recommend enough!! We didn't get to our hotel here in Sioux City, Iowa until about 11pm last night, although that was mainly due to losing an hour as we crossed back into the Central time zone, an unexpected road closure & an unbelieveable storm - rain, lightening & thunder, which was still going great guns when we went to sleep!!
Anyway that means we're up to 27 states now, and have also driven OVER 9000 miles!!!!!!! Pretty crazy really, although we only have a week left on the road now - which today will involve driving up to Minneapolis in Minnesota, before heading East to stay in Wisconsin for the night....
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Salt Lake City, Utah - Idaho
Salt Lake City, the venue of the 2002 winter Olympics, is definitely one of our favourite places so far!
We got up late on Friday because we had two nights at the hotel and didn't need to worry about checking out. I guess it was about lunch time we took a wander downtown to check out the sights. By this time it was rocking 100 degrees so we managed to top up the tan on the way. Its quite strange to think that in the winter its a booming ski resort! The city seems to be dominated by the Mormon church grounds and the usual large bank buildings, but its a beautiful place and well laid out so its easy to get around. There is also a lot of construction work and renovation going on despite the downturn. By mid afternoon we found ourselves in the shopping district but managed to refrain from any purchases. We just got a cinema ticket for 'Inglorious Basterds' which started that night. Turns out it was a great shout as we both agree its one of the best movies we have ever seen.. so whenever it reaches the UK you should definitely go and see it!
As we didn't get to bed til late we slept in again...! But it was only a short drive today to Idaho and the stop over town of Pocatello where we spent most of the afternoon playing 'soccer' aka football on a 'football' aka American football field! Early start tomorrow folks as we're heading to Yellowstone National Park to see some dodgy geezers...
We got up late on Friday because we had two nights at the hotel and didn't need to worry about checking out. I guess it was about lunch time we took a wander downtown to check out the sights. By this time it was rocking 100 degrees so we managed to top up the tan on the way. Its quite strange to think that in the winter its a booming ski resort! The city seems to be dominated by the Mormon church grounds and the usual large bank buildings, but its a beautiful place and well laid out so its easy to get around. There is also a lot of construction work and renovation going on despite the downturn. By mid afternoon we found ourselves in the shopping district but managed to refrain from any purchases. We just got a cinema ticket for 'Inglorious Basterds' which started that night. Turns out it was a great shout as we both agree its one of the best movies we have ever seen.. so whenever it reaches the UK you should definitely go and see it!
As we didn't get to bed til late we slept in again...! But it was only a short drive today to Idaho and the stop over town of Pocatello where we spent most of the afternoon playing 'soccer' aka football on a 'football' aka American football field! Early start tomorrow folks as we're heading to Yellowstone National Park to see some dodgy geezers...
Friday, August 21, 2009
Yosemite National Park, California - Utah
We left San Fran Wednesday morning for the 4-hour drive East to Yosemite National Park....where we had a really good look around the park, which to be fair...was awesome!!!! We weren't originally meant to be going there, but we realised we'd made up a day whilst in California; in our haste to avoid a night in the LA area!! So it was definitely a bit of a bonus day - park was absolutely beautiful, and the pic above is one of about 20 I could have picked from!!
It took us a bit of time to get clear of Yosemite with its winding roads with steep climbs & drops - which obviously made for some excellent driving!!! We were out of there for about 8pm though, and then headed to a place North East of there called Fallon, which returned us to the state of Nevada.
There was pretty much nothing there, but we only used it as a place to crash so didn't mind one bit! We were then back on the road this morning (Thursday) - through the Nevada desert, lets just say upstate Nevada is certainly no Las Vegas!! But anyway, we drove the 450 miles or so to Salt Lake City, Utah, with no dramas - just a very open road Eastward-bound with a 75mph speed limit!! We're in Salt Lake for a couple of nights now so looking forward to checking it out tomorrow, the only other thing to report really is that we are now back in the Mountain Time Zone - so just the 7 hours behind the UK once again.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
San Francisco, California
Well its a bit chilly in San Francisco!
Our hotel was pretty central (on Market Street) so we were close to all the action. We headed out on the first night for a quick look around and planned on going to the cinema in the big METREON complex. Its fair to say our hotel wasn't located in the nicest of areas....when we walked out we were confronted by half the cities homeless population! Anyway we waded through, got our bearings and had a bite to eat. We realised that we had no idea what any of the films were about so gave it a miss and headed back to the hotel.
Next morning we were up and ready for a tram trip and bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. The tram was cool and we got to see a few areas of the city we haven't been to before. Had a bit of a disaster with the bikes though as they were demanding a $500 deposit just to rent one for a day, considering the rental was less than $30 each we told them where to go! Instead we wandered around the pier area, did a bit of shopping and walked back through town. We decided to do some film research and head back to the cinema, choosing the latest movie from Peter Jackson called District 9. The plot basically involved an alien invasion of South Africa by prawn like creatures....sounded like an absolute winner.....!
All in all we didn't really achieve much here, but as we have already been here and done the best things we weren't to disheartened. It was nice to recharge the batteries on out last day on the West Coast.
Our hotel was pretty central (on Market Street) so we were close to all the action. We headed out on the first night for a quick look around and planned on going to the cinema in the big METREON complex. Its fair to say our hotel wasn't located in the nicest of areas....when we walked out we were confronted by half the cities homeless population! Anyway we waded through, got our bearings and had a bite to eat. We realised that we had no idea what any of the films were about so gave it a miss and headed back to the hotel.
Next morning we were up and ready for a tram trip and bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. The tram was cool and we got to see a few areas of the city we haven't been to before. Had a bit of a disaster with the bikes though as they were demanding a $500 deposit just to rent one for a day, considering the rental was less than $30 each we told them where to go! Instead we wandered around the pier area, did a bit of shopping and walked back through town. We decided to do some film research and head back to the cinema, choosing the latest movie from Peter Jackson called District 9. The plot basically involved an alien invasion of South Africa by prawn like creatures....sounded like an absolute winner.....!
All in all we didn't really achieve much here, but as we have already been here and done the best things we weren't to disheartened. It was nice to recharge the batteries on out last day on the West Coast.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Los Angeles & San Diego, California
We weren't in any rush to get to LA on Saturday, so left Vegas around mid-day and headed West towards LA...where we've both been before, and of which neither of us are fans!! But this time we weren't actually going to downtown LA itself, just Carson, which is south of downtown and where the LA Galaxy play!! Their game against the 'Seattle Sounders' didn't kick off until 8pm so we got there in plenty of time - about 5ish I think!! So we just had a good kick about in the car park for an hour or so before going in!! The game itself was the usual poor standard I've come to expect from the MLS...it was good to see Beckham (23) though...
...However the 'seeing him' didn't last too long, as he got sent off after SEVENTEEN minutes!! Haha, shouldnt have been a red, but the ref sent a couple more players off too later in the game & Seattle ended up winning 2-0. We had a good laugh though and some of the banter was pretty funny, some Seattle guy was near us with a sign saying 'We drove 1100 miles to boooo Beckham', so some LA Galaxy fan went off and made his own sign saying 'Seattle fucking blows'....Imaginative hey!! Anyway we got out of the game and headed south towards San Diego to find a hotel for 2 nights...which ended up being a bit of a nightmare with it being a Saturday but after we'd been driving around for a good hour or so trying to find one, we found one in Oceanside, about 30 minutes North of San Diego itself. We spent Sunday at the San Diego Zoo which was pretty awesome...I don't really know what else to say about it to be honest, there were lots of animals...
...However the 'seeing him' didn't last too long, as he got sent off after SEVENTEEN minutes!! Haha, shouldnt have been a red, but the ref sent a couple more players off too later in the game & Seattle ended up winning 2-0. We had a good laugh though and some of the banter was pretty funny, some Seattle guy was near us with a sign saying 'We drove 1100 miles to boooo Beckham', so some LA Galaxy fan went off and made his own sign saying 'Seattle fucking blows'....Imaginative hey!! Anyway we got out of the game and headed south towards San Diego to find a hotel for 2 nights...which ended up being a bit of a nightmare with it being a Saturday but after we'd been driving around for a good hour or so trying to find one, we found one in Oceanside, about 30 minutes North of San Diego itself. We spent Sunday at the San Diego Zoo which was pretty awesome...I don't really know what else to say about it to be honest, there were lots of animals...
After leaving the Zoo we headed into the centre for a look around & ate at the local Hard Rock Cafe!! Then we had a nice early start today (Monday!!) for our drive up the California coastline...just the 450 miles or so North to San Francisco!! Its not been too bad though - we drove through a few cool places like Laguna Beach, Newport Beach & Malibu, plus we've ended up getting here and checked into our hotel for just after 5pm, so cant complain!! We're in San Fran for 2 nights now, before we head East for the first time this trip on Wednesday!! When we'll be off to Yosemite National Park...
Las Vegas, Nevada
Welcome to Las Vegas..!
We found our way to Circus Circus Casino Hotel by late afternoon on Thursday. We decided to book this online about a week ago because it was dirt cheap, about £16 per night each! The bags were dumped and we headed straight out...to Starbucks obviously.
We decided to go to the MGM Grand Thursday night as this is where we both won mountains of cash on our last visit. Mr Valentine manged to pocket himself a few hundred bucks to keep his run going but I was less fortunate... We cruised the strip and took in the sights before heading back to the Hotel.
Friday we decided to have a deserved lie in and casual shopping day. We both made wise purchases in Abercrombie... a pair of winter warm pants! It was 107 degrees outside but we were thinking ahead! In the evening we went to Caesars Palace for a build your own salad. Unfortunately Alan from the hangover wasn't around so we decided to gamble somewhere else. It was my turn to win a bit of cash in Treasure Island then we headed back to the hotel.....unfortunately you have to pass through the casino to get to your room and it was obvious we would never make it. Roulette came calling again..we battled bravely and were about to walk away with a few extra dollars when..... Valentine THROWS down $100....I told him to put it all on 6 black for a return of $3600....but he stuck with just black....unbelievably 6 came out! $200 instead of $3600...and we were let wondering what might have been.
All in all a pretty successful 2 days as we left even if not slightly up and with a pair of warm pants for horrible LA...
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