NB: This page was added after we returned.

We ended up going through the Arches National Park twice - firstly before we got to Denver, and then afterward, on our lap around Colorado with my folks. Definitely a spectacular place to visit, and very easy to see where they shot the footage for the Indiana Jones movie.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »

Originally posted from Grand Junction, Colorado, this update was split into three parts (see related articles) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

However, back to the more positive side of things - my folks are due to meet us in Denver at the end of the week which should be nice. I get to be the one in control of the steering wheel and if they misbehave, I get to be the one threatening that I’ll make them get out and walk, like they used to threaten Craig and I.
Muhahahaha…*pathetic attempt at evil laughter*

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »

Originally posted from Grand Junction, Colorado, this update was split into three parts (see related articles) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

On the more negative side, we had a small auto accident that is proving to be somewhat of a headache at the moment. We were sitting stationary in a line to go into Zion National Park, with six cars in front of us, and my foot on the brake when, suddenly, a car ran up the back of us.
There were a couple of French girls in the car and they’d been looking down, hunting for the National Parks Pass and misjudged the distance to our van.

The accident only happened at 5mph, and they hit the spare tyre, so the damage was minimal, but dealing with the insurance companies has so far been a real hassle. We spoke with an AllState agent named Ellen (she refused to give her last name) in Murray, Utah who basically told us that even though we were sitting still, we had to pay the excess (aka “deductible”) of US$250.00 before they’d do anything to recover the money. For two and three quarter hours we argued back and forth, trying to find out why *we* needed to pay for it, when it was not our fault.

Eventually, speaking to Mike Neely back in Louisiana, we made sense of the situation and it turns out we need to deal with Alamo Rentals since that was where the French girls rented their car. Why Ellen (who won our SPOTD award) would not just tell us that and had us in the blazing Utah sun for almost three hours, we do not know.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »

Originally posted from Grand Junction, Colorado, this update was split into three parts (see related articles) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

Wow! Southern Utah! Wow!
This has to be an area on *everyone’s* “must see” list because the beauty of the place is unbelievable. The colours in the rocks, the pinnacle spires of Bryce Canyon, the sheer immensity of Zion, and the Arches have to be seen to be appreciated.

We also spent some time at Goblin Valley State Park which was on my “definitely must see” list since I spied it in the movie “Galaxy Quest”. It was portrayed as a different planet, and let me tell you now, it really does have that atmosphere as you wander among all the odd shaped rocks.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »

As mentioned on another page (see related articles), we stayed in Goblin Valley State Park for a night as we passed through Southern Utah. Alas, if we’d known the area was going to be so spectacular, we’d have allowed more time for it. We were on a time budget though, since my folks were due to arrive in Denver shortly, for us to meet and spend a few days with.

Goblin Valley State Park was one of the places in North America that was never going to be missed. After seeing it in a movie (Galaxy Quest), depicted as an alien planet, it was on the “must see” itinerary.

I highly recommend this state park as a wonderful place to explore. You really have to see the movie first, so that you can visualise the small blue aliens and the pig beast, in order that it gives the place a little context. If you go there without seeing the movie though, the natural splendour will still blow you away. An amazing place!

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
1 Comment »

Well, we were expecting to be heading eastward this morning, but it all fell apart due to some luck happening our way.

Wandering into the Tropicana casino yesterday, we signed up to be members (to get a free T-shirt). The catch was that we had to play for 30 minutes first, which we did. Probably the only two people to ever play over half an hour on the pokies (slots) and spend a total of $3.00 - and we didn’t win a lot of credits to keep us going. The machines in Reno are far more “loose” than they are in Vegas. Probably because Reno does not give out free T-shirts, but hey…

Anyway, we went back to the promotions desk to get our free shirts and the woman behind the counter asked if we’d like free tickets to go see Folies Bergere, which is the dancing girly show they have at the casino. Sure. Why not? I’m sure we can fill in the day somehow, since the tickets are priced at US$51.45 each.

We then walked out to do a free pull on a giant slot machine to win a 2001 Ford Mustang and we won. Alas, not the Mustang. But, Di won a free ticket to, you guessed it, the dancing girls. We showed our tickets to that already and the guy swapped it for a ticket to a magic show.

I then spun the dial and won a ticket to the same magic show! Hurrah! So now, within an hour, we’d managed to get a free T-shirt each, free tickets to the dancing girls, and free tickets to the magic show (US$19.45 each). Not a bad hours work.

Just been to the magic show which was quite good. A couple of white tigers, a bit of humour, and a fair bit of stuff that we could not explain how the hell he did it.

We also managed to get free ice cream earlier today (we’re nuts about those little coupon things) and we’re going back to get a couple of hot dogs for dinner. Not just any hot dogs. Hot dogs that are 14 inches long! For a mere 99c! Fantastic!

Oh, by the way, we ended up spending our gambling winnings on a motel room (the Klondike) which did exceed the value of an RV park, but the latter did not come with a shower (we had three each!) and a pool and air conditioning and a remote control TV (watched an old episode of Knight Rider - don’t remember it being so bad!).

It was nearer the airport than most other motels, but you didn’t actually hear the planes, so no big deal. For US$32.60 (or US$29.99 plus a stupid tax), we got the room, a free prime rib dinner, and a cooked bacon, eggs, home fries and juice breakfast in the morning.

Life is good! We’re expecting to head out of Vegas tomorrow morning, unless we get a whole lot more free stuff…*grin*

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »

Originally posted from Las Vegas, this update was split into three parts (see New York City #3, and San Francisco, California) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

When we got back, we explored California further, and had a stroll by a wind farm (harnessing electricity from wind turbines) near Mojave which was very interesting. I’d always thought they were quite noisy and that’s why people objected to them - there is no noise at all, and they are quite silent. We think now that it might be the funny shapes on the horizon instead.

We also went to Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park as well. Both of these are absolutely stunning and have to be seen to be appreciated. Yosemite won my award for the most photogenic NP we’ve found so far on the tour - every corner you turned, there was another mist-laden waterfall or snow-capped peak or stand of giant trees. Beautiful beyond description.

The trees of Sequoia NP were enormous, and even though we knew we were going to look at the largest tree (by bulk) in the world, it was still stunning to see it and realise how large it was. The size of it was kind of lost on you until you realised that the limb right up there in the sky was actually larger than any other non-Sequoia tree in the park. One limb larger than any other tree? That’s a bloody big tree!

From there, we cruised up to San Fransisco, being sure to pass through Fairfield on the way to do a free tour of the Jelly Belly jelly bean factory (free samples! yay!) and a free tour of the Anheuser-Busch Budweiser factory (more free samples! yay!). What a town. I tried a honey beer that they make which was absolutely foul, but Di found a lemon flavoured beer that was really tasty.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »

Originally posted from Las Vegas, this update was split into three parts (see New York City #3, and Driving through California) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

In San Francisco, we toured The Rock, spending an absolute fortune (US$15.50 each, plus US$15 parking fee) to get out there and feeling rather ripped off. However, it was something that many people don’t get to do since it books out 7-14 days in advance in summer. Place was rather full when we were there, but it can’t get much fuller than that because of the National Parks Service restrictions anyway. Got to do one of those despised audio tours that we hated in Carlsbad Caverns, but here, oddly enough, everyone was really quiet and listened to the audio tour, not talked over it, so it was really pleasant inside the cells.

As an aside, they do not let you go into the cells like you see in the Sean Connery/Nicolas Cage movie, “The Rock” because the doors are temperamental. Apparently they filmed that scene in the middle of the night when they made the movie, and then, when they went to let the actors out, one of the cell doors did not open, and they really were trapped in there for roughly four hours before they could get them out. You can see why the regular folks like us are not allowed to be locked in. Still, they opened the doors and slammed them shut again so we got to hear the sound and it was a very impressive din of finality.

Also in San Francisco, we went to the Zoo, courtesy of some complimentary tickets from a wonderful person there by the name of Lori Quinn. Alas, when we went to thank her, she was away for two weeks and so we could not see her. Still, a very interesting way to spend the day. Most amusing thing of the day was that they fed the lions at 2:00pm, and the Lion House was crowded with people wanting to have a look.

What most people did not read was what they were going to feed the lions. As the lions ripped into the tied hessian sacks (they make them fight a bit for the food), everyone pressed forward. As the lions ripped the bags open and dragged out a beautiful white rabbit which had been gutted, and proceeded to crunch on it, a lot of families and people of a sensitive nature fled. Apparently they’d been under the impression the lions would be fed steak or something, and so when the white rabbit came out of the bag, parents were bundling kids out the door as fast as possible. Rather amusing.

Oh, there were Diana monkeys at the zoo too apparently, but they were invisible to us, though we looked mighty hard into that cage, trying to see what they looked like.

We then proceeded down the coast road, simultaneously admiring the sheer cliffs of the California coast, and being stunned by the poor driving abilities of so many people on the road. Slow cars had the opportunity to pull over into pull-outs to let faster cars through, and yet, there were many who simply refused to pull over, despite doing 10-15mph under the limit. Since the road was winding, it was double lines for most of the way, so if you’re going on this road, be prepared to drive v-e-r-y slow at times due to other people.

Found a beach full of elephant seals that oddly enough, usually shun people but chose a beach by the side of a busy California road in 1990, and have been returning ever since.

Cruised back over across the state inland, and managed to get to have a look at a solar power electricity generation plant. We needed to have a tour organised in advance apparently, but since we did not, and because I used that famous Aussie charm, we ended up getting a tour courtesy of the guard on duty. Very interesting to see a large array of mirrors. There were five plants in the one area comprising a total of 1,000,000 square metres (100 hectares) of reflective mirrors.

As you know from the start, we’re now in Vegas and sweltering. The heat yesterday was 97F as we came through Baker (home of the world’s tallest thermometer) and we’re expecting warmer today. We’re considering using some of the winnings to splurge on a motel room so we can get some air conditioning, but then, with the casinos all being so cool inside, and the free lessons on offer, perhaps we won’t. It’s all so exciting to hear such mundane decisions being worked out before your eyes, isn’t it?

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »

Originally posted from Las Vegas, this update was split into three parts (see related articles) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

Viva Las Vegas! Here in the city of dreams, where all is bright and shiny and pretty and twinkly and noisy and fun to watch. We were on the Strip last night for about five hours or so, and only saw a few gambling machines, which was somewhat amusing. The stuff the various casinos put on for people here has to be seen to be believed - massive fountains “dancing” to symphonies, exploding volcanoes (every fifteen minutes from dusk to midnight), and the like. Best of all, of course, is that we won some money - not a great deal, but we did walk out at the end of the night about USD$17 in our favour. Hurrah! No sweeter feeling than watching five dancing armadillos line up on the Texas Tea slot machine…*grin*

Before I go on further with Las Vegas, let me quickly recover a little part of New York. Contrary to what some of you believe, we did not hate New York. In fact, we found it to be much like Melbourne, and I would have driven in the traffic without a problem, I reckon. We imagine that it’s worse on the major exits from the city, but the parts of the city we saw were reasonable to drive in.

Yes, the Statue of Liberty was small, and we were kind of surprised at that. Not really disappointed, but a little let down, we guess. Always expected it to be some thundering huge object that the huddled masses could see for 100 miles before they got near the coast. Thus, a small statue was not what we’d prepared ourselves for.

The reason at the time for the short mailings from NYC was that we had only 15 minutes each time, and on slow computers, by the time you check email from home, and send out a MooQuack, that’s all the time you have. That explains the brevity, not that we did not like it.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »

Alas, we just missed out on Letterman. We were the very next people in the standby line when they announced it was a full house and we’d have to try and standby again at some time…*sigh*

So, no need to fire up the VCR on Saturday night after all…

Back to Los Angeles now - we’re at JFK airport now, having survived a day in NYC and a midnight subway ride without being mugged.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
No Comments »