Well we have ended our stay with Amy and Nathan and the kids. We have seen a bit of Houston and had a flying visit to Galveston on the coast.
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After arriving in Houston and meeting up with Gail after three weeks, Amy and Nathan helped start our USA holiday together by showing us some of the sights and taking us out to various eating places. The stories you hear about large food servings are horrifyingly true. We have been to Texan and Mexican restaurants and had to bring home doggie bags from both.
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The traffic in Houston is manic and you must get on the freeways to go anywhere. Public transport is almost non-existent, so visitors find it difficult to get around unless you hire a car. Which seems odd in a city of 4 million. Some of the freeway to freeway connections are three and four levels high and the freeways are up to 10 lanes in each direction. The weather is hot and humid at the moment and getting hotter.
Gail and I went to our first Walmart store and it is a bit like a LARGE K Mart store but with guns, alcohol, banking, pharmacy and just about anything else you can think of – and they’re open 24/7.
After 4 days in Houston we flew to Phoenix, Arizona and picked up a hire car. We then drove out to Wickenburg and stayed there for the night. Arizona is cowboy country and lots of shops and museums are set up to showcase that. From Wickenburg we drove the scenic route to our stop in Flagstone. The road took us through Prescott which was great, and then Sedona where we stopped after tarrying too long in Prescott. Sedona is like Margret River down south, very trendy and therefore expensive. The next morning we did some exploring around Sedona which is in red rock country. We finally made it to our motel into Flagstone late that afternoon. The motel is straight out of the past – in a bad way. It is on a remnant of the famous route 66 and seems to have stopped in the 60s. it is right on the highway now (6 lanes) and across the road is the railway which runs double stacked freight trains of about 80 carriages at 15-20 minute intervals all through the day and night. The rooms are made not sound proof at all and we can hear people cough in the next unit. Luckily we don’t hear too much of the outside noise as the air conditioner in our room is so loud it blocks it out.
After cowboy country the day we spent at the Grand Canyon was amazing. From Flagstaff we drove in to the Grand Canyon and spent a full day exploring a very small part of the southern rim. It is very well set up for tourists without being too overdone. There were hundred of people there but there wasn't any feeling of being crowded. It is too large to truly capture in a photo – but we took hundreds trying. Next stop is Las Vegas when two cowpokes hit the big city – I think there’s another train coming.
On the drive to Las Vegas we stopped in at the Hoover Dam. It is an amazing piece of engineering and quite an iconic view. From there the drive in to Las Vegas to drop off the car and then taxi to our hotel meant we finished the day quite late. Las Vegas is really all about gambling. The casinos are over the top in decoration to try and make people come to their hotels. Each hotel has a theme and its decoration reflects that theme. The one upside is if you don’t gamble there is plenty to see and the shows that the hotels have are world class – but not cheap. Gail and I saw Ka, which is a Cirque Du Soleil production. The performers were great as was the mechanics behind the stage which was a huge platform attached with arms and gears to 2m diam steel columns. This enabled the stage to tilt to all sorts of angles including 90 degrees to form a cliff for part of the act, with the performers scaling the vertical stage.
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We managed to visit the Bellagio Hotel and casino to see the famous moulded glass ceiling and also the garden which is a display the is made almost entirely from real flowers and is changed every 3 months. This is one of the most expensive hotels to stay in and it is easy to see why. Our hotel was the Excalibur and had a castle theme, it was at the low end of hotels on the strip and one of the cheapest. A side note - Hotels in Las Vegas no longer have kettles, fridges or microwaves in them which forces anyone staying there to buy everything including a cup of coffee.
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Our departure from Las Vegas and arrival in San Francisco was unfortunately delayed as we missed our flight out and then the next one we were meant to be on was cancelled before our third try was successful. Long story and not for here. This ended with us arriving in San Francisco late at night and in a slightly dodgy part of town. The motel was good value but was about 40 minutes out of the wharf area of San Francisco. To save money Gail and I caught the local bus in each morning. The variety of locals that live in this poorer section of the city went from poor immigrant families who still didn’t speak English to drug affected street people who seemed to ride the bus as a form of diversion from daily life. The trips did get a bit worrying when some of the passengers would get a bit loud and aggressive. Definitely best not to make eye contact.
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Our last day in San Francisco was a little rushed as we squeezed a trip to Alcatrz Island and the prison in before picking up our hire car. With delays at the rental car office we didn’t get started for Reno until about 2pm. The drive getting out of the city and on to the highway to Reno was nerve wracking as the traffic on their motorway was manic. Trying to make sure we got in the right lane was our biggest worry and sure enough we missed a lane and ended up going the long way around to get back on course. The drive to Reno was then just long. We felt we were driving in Perth peak hour traffic but at 110kph. The speed limits got up to 80mph (about 130kph) but we generally travelled at about 90-95mph. Even the semi-trailers travel about 110kph-120kph.
We arrived at our hotel at 8pm which was later than expected. Diane had been keen to have us to a meal when we arrived and she came and picked us up and we went back for a late tea with her and Bob.
We went back to Bob and Diane’s for breakfast the next morning before Diane drove us around to Lake Tahoe as it is quite pretty. The lake is surrounded by summer/holiday homes of wealthy people and in summer access to the lake is blocked unless you are staying at the hotel which has its own bit of lake access. The nightly rate is $500+ and that is US dollars so about $700/night our money. Diane also took us out to Virginia City which is Bonanza country as it was filmed around the area in its day. The price of western gear is cheaper here than further south in Arizona too so saving buying anything until you reach here. Too late for us. After getting back form our drive we went to Happy Hour at our hotel with Bob and Diane for tea before our goodbyes. They fly out tomorrow at 5am to visit their son and to make preparations for their move to Utah.
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We set off for our two days drive to Yellowstone National Park. Our overnight stop was a cheap motel that is an overnight truck stop. It was our cheapest stay so far and I got a further $10 a night off because I had my Heavy Vehicle Drivers Licence with me. Next day was uneventful driving and we made West Yellowstone where we were staying at the Yellowstone National Park Hotel. We checked in unpacked and collapsed.
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Day 1 at the park saw us take the southern route through the park which takes us past the geysers including the famous, Old Faithful. We did manage to see bison on this leg and some elk. We did quite a bit of stopping along the way as went and managed to see lots of birds around the water. Day two was great weatherwise and animalwise. We saw larger herds of bison, and some smaller mammals but the highlight was two sightings of black bears. One was a young bear on its own running across a hillside and the other was a mother and cub under some trees. The scenery is fantastic but a bit hard to show in a photo. We had a quiet day 3 and went to Mass, did the laundry, visited the Wolf and Grizzly Discovery Center and took a quick drive into the park for one last bison photo. On the drive in we had a storm and it started to sleet. A bit scary to drive in - almost like snow.
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From Yellowstone we drove to Bozeman for our flight to Calgary. Thankfully we arrived at the airport early as I was suddenly confronted with the fact that I hadn’t applied for a visa (eTA) to visit Canada. We frantically applied on line while we were standing at the check in desk and just made it though with 10 minutes to spare. Horrible moment! The plane flight was a three stop one so we went from Calgary to Portland, then Portland to Vancouver then Vancouver to Calgary. By this time it was 10.30pm. We picked up the car and set off for our hotel. Unfortunately the guy at the car hire place hadn’t set the GPS correctly so we set off and found ourselves on the way to Edmonton or Winnipeg instead of our hotel. This became obvious after driving for 15 minutes and still being on the highway and the GPS telling us we had 150 Kms to go to our hotel – which was supposed to be 10 minutes from the airport! Eventually after ignoring the GPS and driving around in circles we managed to get off the freeway. We then found a service station that was open and got directions from there which then got us to our hotel – at midnight!
Next morning was a short 1 ½ drive to Banff thank goodness. We booked in early and unpacked ready for our trip out to the glacier and skywalk next day. On the drive to the glacier we ran in to some bad weather and had everything... rain, sleet and SNOW! Our time on the glacier and viewing the mountain valley from the sky walk was exciting. Unfortunately, our scheduled time was delayed due to the weather, so we didn't venture into the Jasper National Park until late afternoon. We went in search of wildlife and since it didn't get dark until after 10pm this wasn't too big a deal. We were rewarded with seeing a black bear come out right in front of the car and wander through the trees next to the road, snuffling around and marking its territory. On our way back to Banff, we saw a grizzly bear ambling alongside the road happily eating yellow flowers on the grass which they seem to love. We watched it for a while and then suddenly noticed an elk nearby. The bear saw it as well and before we could get a photo they both ran off into the forest with the bear in hot pursuit. Luckily the bear lost interest and came back and wandered alongside the road way. By this time a number of other cars had stopped and we all crawled along the breakdown lane of the highway following the bear. We saw it stop and take a drink from a running stream coming from the hillside. It was so amazing to see it in the wild doing what it does. Further down the highway we saw another black bear with 2 cubs, come across the road in front of us. We watched them for a while as they enjoyed the same flowers as the grizzly. It was 11pm by the time we arrived back, rather tired but exhilarated by our incredible day. Understandably, we had a late start next day, Gail got a hair trim and we went to see Lake Louise. We took a short walk along a trail but it was raining, so wasn't the best for being out and about. Last day in Banff we have spent looking around the town and close by. Saw some big horn sheep and deer in the forest around Banff as we drove up to a lookout. Tomorrow the airport and next stop Niagara Falls!
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