Only in America!

Yesterday, I had a great sleep in, went downstairs haf my favourite breakfast ( eggs benadict), eventually found my way out of the hotel and went for a walk in the afternoon. I think it was that hot that my nostril hairs singed to nothing, the water that I was drinking to keep me cool and hydratrated was reaching boiling point in my stomach and burning me from the inside out! The first pic was taking at 1.30 this morning! The others are on my walk along the strip.





























I then just chilled out in the room, was planning on seeing on seeing Terry Fator, the puppet guy who won 'America's Got Talent' and who now has a $5 million deal with the Mirage casino, but tickets were expensive. So I went to Hard Rock Casino bar at about midnight as I heard that was the place to be. There was about 10 people in there and I thought great, is this it for a Monday night. I knew they would be quiet but thought it would be busier especially for a tourist place. Anyway, the bar man said go to Jet nightclub at Mirage. I got a taxi and there was a bar opposite the club. The bar was like a nightclub on itself! The music was great, there was a percussionist (which i love when they play over dance music) on a stage in the middle of the bar like I had never seen before and an outside patio area like Hugh Heffners back garden! Had 2 drinks in there and so glad I stayed for the second because guess who brushed past my arm?! Come on guess?!! Only 5 million dollar Terry!

Location:Circus Circus Dr,Las Vegas,United States

You don't see one for ages then...

So today is the trip to Las Vegas. I had an option of two routes and decided to go the slightly longer one as it looked more scenic and went past the salt lakes.























I then hit the stare of Nevada and was almost immediately greeted with signs to go left to a casino or right for an Asian massage. I was a good boy and went to burger king for a drink!






I know I asked for large but come on! Surprised they weren't giving away free spades with it! The next part of the drive was really remote. just one single road as far as the eye could see, going through a valley of shrubs and gravel with huge mountains at either side dominating the skylines (I should be a writer!)



















So I'm driving along minding my own business on the remote road and a cop was coming the other way. Next thing his lights and siren went on and he did a 180 turn in road as I passed him.

Wow! It was like been in the movies and was worth the speeding fine just to see that! I was gonna ask him if I could take a photo for my blog but thought better of it! It was a fair cop officer.

Literally 2 minutes later I am driving into a small town, next thing I have the blues and twos in my rear view mirror again. I thought he had forgot something. No, it was a different cop telling me I was speeding again, luckily he knew I had just been pulled and let me off with a warning as we both put it down to the fact I had just been pulled as was probably still thinking about it. Anyway, he was kind enough to give me directions to a quicker way to vegas. When I asked him would there be less cops on that route, he failed to see the funny side!

But that wasn't the scariest thing I saw today. That would be a sign saying '167 miles to the next gas station'! Good thing I had just filled up. I don't know how people would cope if they broke down at night with no payphones or mobile phone signal.

Just got to Vegas and the hotel is mental! It's huge! The lobby is like a shopping mall, they have a huge theme park inside and at least 20 restaurants. It will take a week just to find everything in the hotel never mind outside! Nice view from my room too!

Location:Circus Circus Dr,Las Vegas,United States

Next stop Vegas baby!!

Last few days I have just been chilling by the pool, going for walks and just general relaxing. Went out last night to a karoke bar and met a good group of people, needless to say was feeling delicate today! Did i sing? "Some people were born to sing records, I was born to play them!" (Chris Moss, 2010)

Tonight I just ordered room service and had a movie night while booking my next hotel in Vegas. I couldn't believe how cheap they are! I'm staying at Circus Circus hotel which was only $25 a night, in the centre of the 'strip' and looks like a whole heap of fun with fairgrounds and magic and stuff! I'll be there 3 nights. There was even a half decent hotel for $12! So in theory, I could rent my house out in England and live in a hotel in Vegas and have $500 spending money a month, it does make you think!

Tomorrow (27th) will be a day of thoughts for my mum as it would have been her birthday and a year since she left us. But not a sad day as she is in a much better place now and will be looking down at me with a smile because she always wanted me to travel. I am watching the England match at 8pm at a sports bar then hitting the road to Vegas. Not sure how much I will be able to write on my blog because we all know....What happens in Vegas...!!!!

Few pics, first is my hotel with the mountains behind

















Salt Lake City has definately been my favourite place so far and will take some beating but I feel California will the best of the trip.

If you can't stand the heat...

Had a great day today. Went for a haircut at the barbers in the hotel. The most expensive one I've ever had and he didn't do much. He said he was going golfing this afternoon and I think I know who paid for the round! Did some sunbathing by the pool and I will never learn the power of the sun, needless to say I am a nice beetroot colour now.


Started to go for a walk in the afternoon to an Irish bar a few blocks away but had to turn back because of the heat. I wonderered why the pavements were like a ghost town. There was just one crazy Brit walking on them! I'm sure that snow on top of the mountains is painted on, either that or it has some really good sunblock!

It's been nice just to chill today and not do any driving. Staying here a few days.

Location:Utah 270,Salt Lake City,United States

Think I'm in heaven!

I got itchy feet and decided to leave Colorado Springs and head for Salt Lake City and spend a few days there. I stopped at Denver for my big boy breakfast (I hope the seats are wider on the plane home!)




I would just like to thank the chef who cleverly concealed a fried egg under my bacon so when I cut into the bacon, the egg squirted out all over my shorts. And the jam on the pancakes decided they prefer my T-Shirt to my mouth so by the time I left, it looked like I had a food fight with myself and lost! The waitresses are great, they come running up to you as you are paying the cashier and "hope you have a good day, a safe trip, a long and prosperous life and healthy children" just as the cashier is hand you the receipt with the 'Tip' part to fill in!

This was another long drive but it was another good one right into the mountains, it was like being on the M62 but on a much grander scale and the prize at the end is a beautiful city. No, not Manchester!!




I was 8,000 ft above sea level at one point with nothing but fields, mountains and 2 strips of road. It was very remote.






Everytime I pass a big black 18 wheeler, I can't help but think of the film 'Duel'!




I'm so glad I have my iPod with me, I've just been going through it and listening to albums I haven't heard for ages. Some parts have been the perfect soundtrack to the scenery around me.





As I came into Salt Lake City, the roads were unbelievable, real proper drivers roads that twisted and turned, up and down between the huge mountains instead of having tunnels going through them. It was such a great experience I'm even thinking of driving back out to drive in again. The sun was just setting, it was great and then before my eyes, Salt Lake City was presented to me. A huge flat ground as far as the eye could see of buildings, life and lights and then in the distance, the huge mountains overlooking the city and the lakes.

Got to the hotel and it's one of the best I have been in for ages. As well as been really nice and friendly staff, it's got a pool, nightclub on the roof, and I got a free upgrade!











Oh, by the way, if anyone see's Peter Kay or that Tony Christie send then this, it may help!

Location:Martin Luther King Jr Blvd,Salt Lake City,United States

Wow! What a drive!!

So I got to Oklahoma City last night and was another big city, didn't see much of it as it was dark. However, I did get to see some weird and wonderful bugs and insects. Unfortunately, they were in my hotel room. I had a word with the manager and we came to an agreement that seeing as I was the last one into the room, the bugs should stay and I should leave. So I got a new room. I'm sure the bugs cheered as I left. I didn't do much last night except watch an infomercial on TV about a carpet and floor steam cleaner. Hey that man was good, I had my credit card out and was just reaching for the phone before I realised what I was doing.



This morning I had an earlyish start and had one of my fave breakfasts (Eggs benadict) before hitting the road. I was going to go further west to Alberkirky but couldn't spell it so did a 10 hours drive to Colorado Springs instead which included 2 states (New Mexico and Texas) and another time zone (I can get used to these 25 days!) and it was the best drive I had ever done in my life. I would rather do that again than a 3 hour Leeds to London drive. If Top Gear ever want to go looking for the best roads in the world again then they should do what I did today. The views were breathtaking. I was going up one road and thought I was in the set of 'Smoky and the Bandit 2010', loads of cop cars were hid behind bushes on a certain stretch of road and was getting the speeding cars.

Smokey and the Bandit!

Route 66 was part of the journey again.

I nearly had a fight with a Tornado but it wasn't quite ready yet and I wasn't waiting around for it! I got some pics. You can just make it out on here (pics on other camera hopefully better) and there was plenty of lightning going on within it. The risks 'Storm chasing Mossy' takes for photo's for this blog! Tomorrow I'm going swimming with the Loch Ness monster!



So now I'm in a really nice hotel in Colorado Springs which huge mountains all around and tomorrow having a bit of a break from driving and going to do some sunbathing and sightseeing instead because I like it here. Next stop Utah

Fantastic last 2 days

Yesterday I got to spend the day in St. Louis. I was expecting to see just a store made from wood with a large black woman with half moon spectacles, sat out front in a rocking chair doing some knitting and a river next to her with one of those big paddle boats, all in sepia tone! Instead I got a very large city, looked very upmarket, lots of nice hotels and very clean. So I guess I must have been thinking of a wrong town or decade or both! They had this amazing round object in the air, the pic won't do justice to the size and magnificence of it.





I have better pics on my camera, just doing all this from the iPhone. So I just had a walk round and sat at a restaurant in this really nice cobbled area of the city near the waterfront where all the bars and restaurants where.





Was walking back to the car and saw this building. It looks like a building has been knocked down next to them so instead of putting new windows in to keep in line with the top and front of their building, they just painted them on! Only the top 6 or so floors are proper windows! You should be able to click on the pic to see bigger





Then at about 10ish last night, I left St. Louis and decided to start on route 66. Route 66 (also known as 'The mother road" is a long route the starts in Chicago and goes all the way to the West coast and it's slowly disappearing and so is all the trade alongside it as 'super' highways of just Tarmac and trees takeover with big chain restaurants and hotels dotted around. It's a shame really, USA is losing it's character. I was lucky enough to see it as a kid with my parents and can see the changes.

Anyway, so last night, the first part wasn't great, just a road running alongside the new highway. I did about 4 hours and decided to sleep in the car! Which was good because I then got an early start next morning. That's when it started getting good, in fact I had to stop taking pics because I was stopping every 5 minutes and getting nowhere fast! Here's some











Some parts where like a ghost town. Like people had just packed up years ago and never bothered coming back. These were taken at an old mining village in Kansas











I also went to a place called 'Branson' which was really nice, it looked like a holiday place, where people had cabins, lots of trees and lakes up in the hills, kind of like our Lake District but a lot bigger! The next pic is the oldest road of Route 66, it was built in 1922 and only 8 feet wide and crumbling badly! I'm so glad I had a hire car and not my own!


This is the dust it created in my rear view mirror. I lost the cops like they do in the movies!


So then I went through Kansas state and then to Tulsa, nothing much happening there so I'm now in Oklahoma City, I was dying to say to someone 'Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more." but I couldn't find anyone called Toto, so I didn't bother!

I've done about 1,500 miles so far (not all of them in the right direction!!), I've driven through a time zone and got an extra hour (think I've find a way of keeping young!) and on the road so far, I've seen 3 dead Deer, 2 Armadillo and an overturned lorry in a central reservation....I'm thinking at this rate, I will be able to rewrite 'The 12 days of Christmas"! (Think about it!)

Heading for Route 66

Pittsburgh was ok. Had a good time with my Dad and we found things to do in the end. I was walking down the street and a jazz band were playing, not usually my thing but they were good






One night we went to a place called Station Square which is like a leisure complex with bars, food etc, never seen so many motorbikes in one place and there were some real beauties there. Apparently it's a regular Thursday night thing.












So yesterday I said goodbye to my dad at the airport and drove 5 hours to Indianapolis which is where I am now. Had a great night on the town, lots of friendly people. I ended up in a club with a bucking bronco mechanical bull in it which was fun. I knew the Leeds nightlife was missing something, just realised what it was! I'm in a great apartment with a good view of downtown.





Just getting ready (reluctantly as my head hurts!) and then heading to St Louis which is my next stop and that is where I join Route 66 which is exciting.

Location:S White River Pkwy W Dr,Indianapolis,United States

Downtown

It's 9.30am and I've not looked outside yet but by the cars driving past the motel it sound very wet! Yesterday I went downtown for the first time and had my first (and by no means last) Mcdonalds of the trip. I'm suprised I've waited a whole 3 days before having one. Next on the cards is pizza and chicken wings in any order.



Nothing really much happening downtown, lots of restaurants and shops and bridges, loads of roadworks. But I had a really good walk round and finished up in a restaurant in a square, having a beer, watching people walking past and the perfect record came on Radiohead - High and Dry and made it the highlight of my trip so far.



Today my dad is arriving so I get to move hotels again but now going to a nicer to one downtown while my dad is here, so I get a bit of luxury for the rest of the week before slumming it again!

Location:U.S. 19,Pittsburgh,United States