Hellooo!
Well I'm back, and I'm completely knackered! That was a very tiring three week trip! Also, if there are spelling mistakes I blame the jet lag, my body is 8 hours behind my watch at the moment!
In case anyone's interested in what I did, here we go... :
We started out in New York, which I didn't like too much to be honest. There were some nice things to see, like Central Park and the Natural History Museum, but on the whole it was far too crowded for my liking, I'm a bit of a country boy really! Also, we arrived in the middle of what the weather people said was the 'worst weather in new york history', which meant that the Niagra trip was rained off and we didn't get to go on the boat to Ellis Island. We also went and had a look at ground zero, but being British it didn't really mean that much to me (with all respect due).
From New York we got on a Greyhound down to Washington, and basically wandered around all the memorials, as well as the Aquarium and the Air and Space museum. It was a lot less crowded and wholly more pleasant than New York, and apart from accidentally eating in a gay steak restraunt in the middle of the gay district on the first night (oops!), and eating a chinese which had me up all night with sickness and the squits in the second night (Ming Wah: avoid!) it was great.
From DC, we flew to Denver and picked the car up, and then drove to Boulder and got a motel. Boulder was great, not only did I finally get away from the smell of people roasting peanuts and the traffic noise and crowds, boulder is a Universoty town full of nubile, 21 year old American girls, yum
Once I was in Colorado I felt a lot more relaxed, the first week had just been too hectic really. After spending a night in Boulder we drove into the Rockies to a little place called Estes Park (incidentally, home of the 'Rocky Mountain Knife Company' where I mananged to pick up my Hibben Kenpo II
), and got another motel. We then spent a coupld of days up in the Rockies, going on some of the walks and hikes, and driving around the ridge road. It was by far the most enjoyable part of the holiday, and the nicest place I saw whilst I was in America. The only trouble was that it was so high up it was really easy to get out of breath whilst walking!
We then drove back to Denver and from there flew to Las Vegas. Now, Las Vegas....oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I don't want to offend anyone whole likes the place, but to be honest, I've never been to such a bloody hole in all my life. As soon as we got off the plane, in the very gate itself the chintz started, binging slot machines and adverts all over the walls for erotic reviews and the like. Hardly classy at all. The actual ariport gets ever worse as you make your way towards the doors, with scores of Americans eagerly losing money hand over fist before they've even seen the Nevada sun. Anyway, we went to the hotel and checked, and then wandered into vegas itself (this was the only night we were doing this, we were going straight to Arizona the next day). It's absolutely HORRIBLE, not only is it completely stuffed with people, the pavements are lined with hispanic people trying to shove porn flyers in your face every 5 meters or so, and flicking them with their fingers to try and get your attention. We lasted about half an hours and then just went back to the hotel to watch TV, not particualty inclined to waste any more time or money there.
The next day we got the car from the airport, and drove over the Hoover Dam into Arizona. Arizona, like Colorado, is beatiful. Lots of unpoilt, wide open spaces to enjoy and look at, and my paranoia about breaking down in the middle of nowhere went away when I saw how much traffic is on the road too! We made our way along to Williams, and then up to Tusayon just under the entrance to the Grand Canyon park, which from Vegas had taken pretty much the whole day. The next day, we went up to the Canyon itself and did part of one of the hikes, basically down the canyon face on a switchback trail made of scree, which was very exciting! Unfortunately, the three people I went with, unlike me, didn't really have suitable footwear, so we turned back after a couple of hours and climbed back up.
The plan after this was that we drive back to Vegas, and get on a greyhound to San Diego, however.....we kinda got lost! When we hit the 'welcome to California' sign we knew something had gone tits up, so we looked at the map and realised that we were on the road to San Diego anyway, and were a bloody long wat south west of Vegas! So, we promised Steve who was driving that he would be re-imbured with a pint or two in the hope that he'd just drive the distance there, and he reluctantly agreed. it took us a bit longer (read: 4 hours longer (oops)) than we thought but we crossed the Mojave desert and were in San Diego by about 11.15pm that night.
We then spent a few days in San Diego, just looking around a few museums and shops and resting a bit; 2 weeks in we were getting a bit lackadaisical!
From here, we were supposed to be getting on another greyhound up to San Fransisco, which was meant to take from 12pm-11pm via LA. However.....unbeknown to me, Greyhound sell more tickets than there are seats on the bus, so because we were at the end of the queue we didn't get on. Because of this we missed the connection in LA, and had to get one at 9pm, that got in at 5am. Joy. Also, the bus station in LA was in a terrible part of town, and the travel guide advised not to go outside, so I was sat there with a lot of unease. Worse than that the woman in the cafe couldn't understand my accent so I was also struggling ot get fed! Steve went and ordered some cheeseburgers in Spanish in the end! hehe
San Francisco was the final place we made it to, we had a look at the Bay Area (I was dissappointed not to spot any of the Metallica lads though!), and on the last day went and looked around Alcatraz, which I'd wanted to do for many years; and it wasn't at all dissappointing.
We had to fly right accross America then, back to New York, so that we could catch the flight home the next day.
In general, we had a really excellent time, and apart from the Greyhound cockup it all went pretty much to plan and on budget. America is, on the whole, a lovely place. The people are extremely friendly and courteous, and some of the landscape and the sites really are worth the treck to visit.
However.....not everything in life is rosey is it? I do have some complaints that I feel I must aire!
:soapbox: :soapbox: :soapbox: :soapbox:
1) Advertising on American TV...AGH! You guys have adverts like every 5 minutes or something, it's soul destroying! I even saw advert in the middle of a LIVE news report!! Not only that but the advertising isn't at all clever, it's just monotonous and crap, sorry!
2) 9/11 paranoia. I'm not going to harp on about this as I'm going to offend someone, suffice so say that all the additional security measures you people are taking in the aiports is flawed, weak, and annoying. I fail to see how a 'random' (read: letting Americans through and checking foreign people like me) check is going to help anything, surely you need to do everyone or no-one to be thorough?
3) Not including VAT in sales prices. Why? This is just a sod, if it says '3 postcards for a dollar', i want to give her the dollar in my hand. But no, it's $1.09 or something so you have to dig your wallet back out and give her some shrapnel as well. This gets even more annoying in restraunts when, coupled with the massive tip American waiters and waitresses expect, food is usually 25% more expensive in effect than teh quoted price. Makes it hard when you're trying to stick to a budget! Also, me=Mr. Pink.
4) American road system. Hoho, this really is crappy isn't it!? In britain, junctions have numbers, so you know exactly where to get of the motoray, in Ameica you just have to guess, leading to many 'I think we should have got off there' 'should we?' 'I don'y know, maybe it's the next one' type arguments! Also, there doesn't seem to be much forewarning of junctions, they jst appear. A sign a mile or so before would be nice to that you know it's coming up!
5) American cars: too big! Just because petrol is 20p/litre instead of 80p/litre (UK price) it doesn't mean that you have to use massive cars that guzzle lots up and knacker the environment! Also, automatic cars are yukky, we like gear sticks!
Apart from that, top notch. I shall be back!
Right, 3 weeks of posts to read now...
Ian.
That way I could have used the shots for set up as they did, once I understood what was happening. I play 9-ball yes, but I also play 8-ball and this is the game being played in question, and I also have played some billiards on a billiards table. Not a great player, just enjoy the challenge. 
