It's been a very long time since the last blog. An embarrassingly long time. I have a fantastic excuse for this, however!
Las Vegas, casinos, pool
parties, gigs, Death Valley, Los Angeles, Venice beach, Hollywood, Rodeo Drive…. all things I've been doing, and all things you're not going to hear about now. No, this blog post consists of all the stuff prior to those amazing things. Yet they are no less interesting.
Due to being so far behind on these blogs, the video is maybe a bit shorter/ less entertaining than usual, and this post may be similarly short/ less detailed. But we'll see what happens.
I left off last time having just visited the Barbed Wire Museum,
at the beginning of our stint on Route 66. We continued on Route 66 for a
majority of this and what will be the next blog post, hopping on and off to see different things along the way. Route 66 doesn't actually end until you hit Los Angeles – built as a connection between there and Chicago – and, as a result, takes up a
large chunk of our trip overall.
17th April
Amarillo was next up, a town which has much more to boast than just being
situated on one of the most well-known roads in the world (and being a Tony
Christie hit). The Palo Duro canyon cites itself as the second biggest
canyon in the world and, having not been to the Grand Canyon by this point,
it really did impress. Unlike the Grand Canyon, it was covered in trees and
foliage, making it a very colourful sight, and of course was pretty damn big
(although its bigger brother in Arizona may have something to say about
that).
Following this, we headed to the Big Texan Steak Ranch, made infamous in the Man vs. Food TV programme. We made our entrance through the saloon
doors, were greeted by a denim-clad waiter, and taken to our table,
surrounded by mounted rifles and stuffed animal heads. The ranch played host
to a rifle range, a maze, a gift shop, and hotel. The main point of note,
however, came on the menu. Here they offer you a free 72oz steak, on the provision that you eat it within one hour. A stage in the centre of the
room hungrily awaited a challenger, but sadly the 72ozs of meat would have to wait another day. Me and Ben shared a 32oz steak and a couple beers, instead.
We drove onwards a couple hundred miles with the intention of sleeping there for the night. We were making good time, though, and felt good, so continued on another couple hundred miles to the outskirts of Albuquerque in New
Mexico. On the way, we stopped at a Denny's so I could try the 'Baconator'
ice-cream sundae. It was exactly as it sounds: an ice-cream sundae filled with pieces of bacon and maple syrup. Don't diss it till you've tried it people.
18th April
New Mexico itself was a massive change of scenery. The drive between towns are sparse, open desert with very little to see. The towns themselves are as lively as anywhere else, just with that cosy, laid-back Mexican way of life. Our first stop in Albuquerque was in Old Town, which reminded me so much of smaller towns in Mexico like Merida, which we'd visited the summer before. There was a pretty town square surrounded by cafes and shops,
the hub of life.
In Old Town, we visited one of my favourite attractions so far: the
Rattlesnake Museum. The old building housed one of the largest collections of snakes in the world, and this completely ignores the hundreds of other weird creatures kept there.
The owner, Bob, obviously has a passion for dangerous animals and, from speaking to him after, it became clear they really were his whole life. Anything reptile related, he loves (as a result I am sending him a
bottle of Cornish Rattler cider when I get home, I made a promise). If you ever get the chance to go to New Mexico, go here! You will not be disappointed. That evening we went out to a few bars and a couple of clubs, had a dance, had some drinks, and enjoyed a really fun city. This included
Burt's Tiki Bar (which was, despite the name, actually a hipster bar), and an underage club (bear in mind, 20 is underage here).
19th April
For the next two days we were driving north, sneaking off Route 66 temporarily to head into Colorado. Again, almost instantaneously after crossing the state line the scenery changed. We were now driving through a green mountain range, some of which were topped with snow. Turns out we were accidentally driving through (or at least next to) the Colorado Rockies. Which,
embarrassingly, we had no idea we'd be coming across on this trip. We stayed in a KOA, did some washing, sorted the place out, and prepared ourselves for the next few days of long hard driving through some of the most impressive country we'd see so far.
21st April
I had always dreamed of cruising through Monument Valley. It was a long drive away, but we were determined to do it that day.
First, however, we detoured slightly to the Four Corners monument. Here, the corners of four states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona) all meet, giving you the unique chance to stand in four states at one time.
Once we'd taken all the
cliche photos we continued on towards Monument Valley. The whole area is in
an old Native Indian reservation which is still maintained by them to this day. As a result, we again spent a day in a whole new culture. We stopped off at several attractions on the way, including the Bluff Fort settlement, the
Goulding's rest area, and the town of Mexican Hat (which for several years I
always thought was a hilarious place-name. Turns out it's named after a rock that looks like a Mexican hat. *see video).
We were also told about the numerous movies filmed here, which include Forrest Gump and Back to the
Future III! Oh and numerous John Wayne classics, but who really cares about those...
As the strange rock formations slowly peeked over the horizon, I got very excited. The sun shone through the weird shapes, and it looked, to put it
frankly, beautiful. It really is a bizarre sight, and very hard to put into words (but that phrase does pretty well).
We parked up behind a Burger King in the middle of nowhere at about 10pm that night intending on sleeping there. After about an hour, we got a knock on the door from a young gentleman
who wanted to "borrow some money for some drugs." In a completely unrelated move, we decided to drive onwards three hours south to Flagstaff.
We had no idea what Flagstaff had to offer before we arrived, but ended up having a really nice day. Sunset Crater was there and, due to a GPS error, we didn't actually get to go up to it, but we had a really nice drive around it instead.
It's surrounded by the Cococino Forrest, a National Park devastated by
forest fires and volcanic activity leaving large scathes of it almost completely bare except for a coating of ash and sand on the floor. This made it incredibly eery, but also strangely pretty. Following that excursion, we wandered around a mall, found a park, played football, got a couple beers,
then went to the cinema (I want to say the film was called Last Olympus?).
All in all, a good day.
The Grand Canyon was what our 23rd April 2013 consisted of. We got the shuttle bus around the South rim main points, feeling quite tall considering our mainly Japanese companions. Like so many other things we've done on this trip (Monument Valley included), it's very hard to put into words what we saw. It really was mind-blowing. I wasn't really looking forward to staring at a huge hole in the ground, but I really was taken aback. You can't quite understand how large it is. Looking out across just one part of it, your eyes can only attempt to take in what they are seeing.
Again, we took all the classic photos, then made our way out of the Grand Canyon area towards our next stop. A little place called Las Vegas….
But that's for the next blog.
But that's for the next blog.
HERE IS THE VIDEO YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR:
