Well today we left San Francisco. I have to say that I sincerely love the place and would go back there in a heartbeat. It is truly awesome and has its own unique flavour. I don’t know if I could handle the fog when it sets in however I should be used to that from living in Toowoomba. Speaking of fog, the city had clear skies again today unlike yesterday when fog/cloud blanketed it. I was pleased to see this as driving in the rain and/or fog doesn’t do my nerves or patience any good.
On the way out of ‘Frisco, we did a couple of things including taking a drive down the worlds most crooked street. It has a speed limit of only 5 miles per hour, not that I think we should have even gone that fast! It was a steep and winding road although looked more like a driveway. The terrace houses on the crooked street were absolutely gorgeous and had immaculately manicured gardens. It was just beautiful. We then drove out through the suburbs of Tenderloin and Fillmore in order to try and get some photographs of the place names for Alyx. Unfortunately we couldn’t get one for Tenderloin but did for Fillmore! Long story which I will explain another time!
Next stop was at “Denny’s Diner” for some breakfast. I was excited to see that grits was on the menu! I decided against trying them this morning however as I wanted to leave that experience when we are in a more appropriate location such as New Orleans. Is there such a thing as an appropriate location to eat grits? I don’t know – it just seems like the right thing to do. Whilst at Denny’s I had my first toilet mishap of the day.
The diner had two ladies toilets – one for handicapped people, and the other one was a normal cubicle. The handicapped cubicle was in use so I went to the vacant other cubicle. It was very small and squishy which did absolutely nothing to help my “ireallyprefermyowndunnyphobia”. As with all public toilets I tried to gingerly “almost” sit down however somehow due to the lack of room, I have come down onto the toilet seat with a thud. I was not aware that the toilet seat was actually broken and was just sitting on top of the bowl. This came as a rude shock to me as I slid with the seat sideways to my right, and off the toilet. Due to lack of room I became sort of wedged on the right hand side of the loo – with my left leg pointing straight out in front of me, and my right leg at an impossible angle behind me. Fortunately because the cubicle was so small I was able to use the lack of space to help me upright. I checked that I was in one piece and scrubbed my hands and arms with anything I could find and sauntered back outside. For the record the person in the handicapped toilet was no longer there – and I have to wonder if she made a run for it upon hearing my colourful cussing.
I will definitely be trying grits once I get to somewhere like New Orleans. I asked the waitress in Denny’s today what they were (I had been wanting to ask a waitress in a diner a question, like they do in the movies. Yes...I am strange) and she said they were little white things that look like rice. The Bear and I thought it was potato. He looked it up on the iPhone and found that grits is actually some sort of corn! From what I read, it is fairly similar to the thickness and texture of porridge so I am thinking I am going to like them. I love porridge!
What I won’t be trying again is a “corndog”. The Bear and I purchased one at a gas station in between San Francisco and Las Vegas as sort of a late lunch. They looked like our Dagwood dogs – same shape, same colour, and same stick. I thought YUMMO given that I had been hanging out for something....actually ANYTHING that tasted like what we have at home. Once back out on the road, the Bear took a bite out of his, and said it was cold. I took a bite out of mine – it wasn’t cold but it tasted like crap! It was a frankfurt sausage covered in pancake batter and fried. The batter was sickly sweet and left a hideous after-taste. We both threw them out. I find it amazing that the American people seem to prefer sweet foods. This is displayed in most food that they eat including the likes of bread. If it’s not sweet or Mexican, it will be covered in layers of grease. I have made a promise to myself that I will find something in America that I like, and could live on....besides Coca Cola. In the meantime I will live on Quesadilla’s!
The road from San Francisco to Las Vegas would have to be the most boring drive I have ever encountered. This is more boring than the Townsville to Brisbane drive...I kid you not. The road is long....and straight. No turns or corners – just straight. It has some sort of moonscape landscape which left me absolutely baffled as to why they could not put the land to some sort of use. I did see a couple of hundred windmills out there which is what America uses to generate their electricity but that is about it. Once in Mojave we went and had a look at the airplane graveyard (where old planes get parked after they are taken out of the fleet) which was interesting. This is also where Richard Branson is doing his whole passenger in space thingy...not that we could see evidence of this other than a couple of signs. Once through Mojave and driving into the desert, I found it very interesting. The country side was very desert looking complete with cacti, and was relatively boring....but it had an excuse! It was a desert! I still found many things to photograph – which the Bear finds quite amusing. I really am quite the shutterbug! I don’t want to miss a thing.
Night fell a good couple of hours out of Las Vegas and I found large amount of traffic coming toward us troubling (I am night blind). If I don’t concentrate on something else, the cars lights will give me a migraine – so I took out my tweezers and began to shave (pluck the hairs out of my chin). That did the trick! I plucked my hairs in order to stop a migraine. I am a genius in my own mind! I was able to chat to the Bear, pluck my chin, and have the last couple of hours go by fairly quick.
I saw the glow in the sky from Las Vegas’ night lights, well before the city came into view. Once we got to the city however I was blown away. What a magnificent place – full of colour, light and energy. I could not believe the sheer size of some of the casinos, nor their themes. There are places that I have seen in movies and places that I know have had the biggest stars playing at them. Elvis used to play here, as did Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin. The history that this town holds is of huge interest to this music buff! And as it turns out, we are in walking distance to the Las Vegas Hilton where the Doobie Brothers are playing tomorrow and Saturday night. I am considering whether or not to stalk them or just crash tackle them during their concert on Saturday night. In the meantime I cannot wait to have a closer look at the spectacular casinos and take another zillion photos! I will be off to the shops tomorrow before I do anything else however in order to try to get a sweater or cardigan. It is snowing already in New York and may very well be snowing at the Grand Canyon by the time we get there. I have a parker and a poncho with me but something tells me I will need more than that!
On the way out of ‘Frisco, we did a couple of things including taking a drive down the worlds most crooked street. It has a speed limit of only 5 miles per hour, not that I think we should have even gone that fast! It was a steep and winding road although looked more like a driveway. The terrace houses on the crooked street were absolutely gorgeous and had immaculately manicured gardens. It was just beautiful. We then drove out through the suburbs of Tenderloin and Fillmore in order to try and get some photographs of the place names for Alyx. Unfortunately we couldn’t get one for Tenderloin but did for Fillmore! Long story which I will explain another time!
Next stop was at “Denny’s Diner” for some breakfast. I was excited to see that grits was on the menu! I decided against trying them this morning however as I wanted to leave that experience when we are in a more appropriate location such as New Orleans. Is there such a thing as an appropriate location to eat grits? I don’t know – it just seems like the right thing to do. Whilst at Denny’s I had my first toilet mishap of the day.
The diner had two ladies toilets – one for handicapped people, and the other one was a normal cubicle. The handicapped cubicle was in use so I went to the vacant other cubicle. It was very small and squishy which did absolutely nothing to help my “ireallyprefermyowndunnyphobia”. As with all public toilets I tried to gingerly “almost” sit down however somehow due to the lack of room, I have come down onto the toilet seat with a thud. I was not aware that the toilet seat was actually broken and was just sitting on top of the bowl. This came as a rude shock to me as I slid with the seat sideways to my right, and off the toilet. Due to lack of room I became sort of wedged on the right hand side of the loo – with my left leg pointing straight out in front of me, and my right leg at an impossible angle behind me. Fortunately because the cubicle was so small I was able to use the lack of space to help me upright. I checked that I was in one piece and scrubbed my hands and arms with anything I could find and sauntered back outside. For the record the person in the handicapped toilet was no longer there – and I have to wonder if she made a run for it upon hearing my colourful cussing.
I will definitely be trying grits once I get to somewhere like New Orleans. I asked the waitress in Denny’s today what they were (I had been wanting to ask a waitress in a diner a question, like they do in the movies. Yes...I am strange) and she said they were little white things that look like rice. The Bear and I thought it was potato. He looked it up on the iPhone and found that grits is actually some sort of corn! From what I read, it is fairly similar to the thickness and texture of porridge so I am thinking I am going to like them. I love porridge!
What I won’t be trying again is a “corndog”. The Bear and I purchased one at a gas station in between San Francisco and Las Vegas as sort of a late lunch. They looked like our Dagwood dogs – same shape, same colour, and same stick. I thought YUMMO given that I had been hanging out for something....actually ANYTHING that tasted like what we have at home. Once back out on the road, the Bear took a bite out of his, and said it was cold. I took a bite out of mine – it wasn’t cold but it tasted like crap! It was a frankfurt sausage covered in pancake batter and fried. The batter was sickly sweet and left a hideous after-taste. We both threw them out. I find it amazing that the American people seem to prefer sweet foods. This is displayed in most food that they eat including the likes of bread. If it’s not sweet or Mexican, it will be covered in layers of grease. I have made a promise to myself that I will find something in America that I like, and could live on....besides Coca Cola. In the meantime I will live on Quesadilla’s!
The road from San Francisco to Las Vegas would have to be the most boring drive I have ever encountered. This is more boring than the Townsville to Brisbane drive...I kid you not. The road is long....and straight. No turns or corners – just straight. It has some sort of moonscape landscape which left me absolutely baffled as to why they could not put the land to some sort of use. I did see a couple of hundred windmills out there which is what America uses to generate their electricity but that is about it. Once in Mojave we went and had a look at the airplane graveyard (where old planes get parked after they are taken out of the fleet) which was interesting. This is also where Richard Branson is doing his whole passenger in space thingy...not that we could see evidence of this other than a couple of signs. Once through Mojave and driving into the desert, I found it very interesting. The country side was very desert looking complete with cacti, and was relatively boring....but it had an excuse! It was a desert! I still found many things to photograph – which the Bear finds quite amusing. I really am quite the shutterbug! I don’t want to miss a thing.
Night fell a good couple of hours out of Las Vegas and I found large amount of traffic coming toward us troubling (I am night blind). If I don’t concentrate on something else, the cars lights will give me a migraine – so I took out my tweezers and began to shave (pluck the hairs out of my chin). That did the trick! I plucked my hairs in order to stop a migraine. I am a genius in my own mind! I was able to chat to the Bear, pluck my chin, and have the last couple of hours go by fairly quick.
I saw the glow in the sky from Las Vegas’ night lights, well before the city came into view. Once we got to the city however I was blown away. What a magnificent place – full of colour, light and energy. I could not believe the sheer size of some of the casinos, nor their themes. There are places that I have seen in movies and places that I know have had the biggest stars playing at them. Elvis used to play here, as did Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin. The history that this town holds is of huge interest to this music buff! And as it turns out, we are in walking distance to the Las Vegas Hilton where the Doobie Brothers are playing tomorrow and Saturday night. I am considering whether or not to stalk them or just crash tackle them during their concert on Saturday night. In the meantime I cannot wait to have a closer look at the spectacular casinos and take another zillion photos! I will be off to the shops tomorrow before I do anything else however in order to try to get a sweater or cardigan. It is snowing already in New York and may very well be snowing at the Grand Canyon by the time we get there. I have a parker and a poncho with me but something tells me I will need more than that!
