Route 66 Day Nineteen
June 30, 2009
Santa Monica – Universal Studios Hollywood
Woke up and ordered room service for breakfast, I had a ham and cheese omelette and Sarah had the eggs Benedict.
We got ready and then headed to Universal Studios, the last time I was here was in 2000 so was interested to see how much it had changed.
We park our car and then walk over to the theme park through Universal City Walk which is a shopping and dinning area next to the park.
I decide to get the front of line passes, they are like regular tickets but mean you get to go to the front of the line on all the attractions so it will save us time and guarantee we will get to see everything.
The first thing we did was see the Waterworld stunt show and to be honest it did not seam like everything went according to plan with it, there was long periods of silences that looked like they should not be there and some of the actors did not have the type of enthusiasm you would expect.
After the show we then boarded the tram for the studio backlot tour, this is a great ride as it goes around all the sound stages on the Universal backlot, back in 2000 we even drove right past Kevin Spacey when he was outside his trailer. This time Sarah actually saw Jennifer Love Hewitt in an office but before she could point her out to me she was gone. Ghost Whisperer is filmed here so she may have been taking a break.
Also on this tour you go through the Earthquake set, Jaws set, Fast and the Furious and a load others, many of which you recognise from movies.
From here we headed down to the lower level and when on the Mummy ride, which I don’t think is as good as the Florida one as well as Jurassic Park. We then went on the Backdraft special effect show which they don’t have in Florida followed by the behind the scenes experience showing you how they do the effects in the movies.
We then go back up to the top level and watch the animal actors on stage, this follows exactly the same script as the Florida show so I could say the dialogue before the actors but it was still entertaining.
Next came the Creature from the Black Lagoon the Musical, I found out that this was a press screening and the show was not due to be launched for a few days so that was quite interesting. But as for the show it self I did not know what to make of it, to be quite honest it was terrible and a large proportion of the audience walked out during the performance, it was not the acting that was bad, that was quite good, it was the story and how it mixed with the music. I think it was trying to be a tongue-in-cheek version of the 1950’s original set to music and filled with sexual innuendo, but it was falling well short of the mark, I really think they will need to do some work on this before it is properly released.
We also go and see Terminator 2:3D which again is the same version as the Florida one.
Finally we go to the Universal House of Horrors which is a walk through haunted house filled with actors who jump out at you, Sarah was particularly scarred by a little person dressed as Chuckie running after her, I was laughing the whole way through, Sarah wasn’t.
We leave the park and get some food at Universal city walk before going for a little drive around LA down Wilshire Blvd around Rodeo Drive before heading down Santa Monica Blvd back to the hotel. I really wish we had more time to spend here but we need to move on tomorrow up the coast. Santa Monica is on my list of places I would have a holiday home, after Florida of course.
Route 66 Day Eighteen
June 29, 2009
Las Vegas – Santa Monica
Got up and had the continental breakfast again before packing our bags and hitting the road once more.
Spent a few hours driving and caught up with Route 66 again at Barstow and followed it for large areas at a time. But again certain places we lost it and had to go on the interstate.
We stopped for lunch at In N’ Out burger before continuing towards LA. It was getting late and as I have been to LA and especially Santa Monica many times before (even spent a whole month there back in 2000) I know what the traffic would be like if we tried to go through the centre of the city so we decided to leave Route 66 and take the freeway to the coast.
When we arrived in Santa Monica we checked into our hotel, The Georgian which is right on the coast and went up to our suite.
After checking the room out and unpacking we go down and head for Santa Monica Place where we want a Mongolian BBQ and hot dog on a stick, which is our usual when we are here and have been dreaming about it for the past few days. For those that are not aware Santa Monica Place is the shopping mall they filmed such classics as Woody Allen’s “Scenes from a Mall”, “Terminator 2″ and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to name a few. But when we got there we found out it has been knocked down and is being rebuilt and will not re-open until 2010. so that was that idea out of the window, in the end we settle for a pizza and salad from Wolfgang Puck Express on the Third Street Promenade.
We then go for a walk to the end of the Pier where we have a churro and a hot chocolate before heading back to the hotel for the night.
Route 66 Day Seventeen
June 28, 2009
Las Vegas
As today is the first one on the trip we did not have to check out of the hotel and drive somewhere else we had a bit of a lye in, we did not get up until after 9am!!! We also got a continental breakfast delivered to our room. Luckily this was complementary as part of our room plan otherwise it would have cost $50 for a couple of bagels, orange juice and some hot chocolate, what a rip off.
After we got ready we spend a couple hours walking around the strip near to our hotel before returning and driving a couple of miles to the gun store.
I just want you all to know that I am not a violent person and I believe that guns should only be used by the military and law enforcement and should never be able to be purchased by normal people like it is in the UK.
But after seeing adverts all over the place to shoot a machine gun I had to go and check it out.
I paid to shoot an AK47 (like the one that all terrorists and militia around the world use, an MP5 like the SAS and other special forces use and a lever action shotgun like Arnie used in Terminator 2). I have to admit it was quite fun if not a little short lived. I was all very rushed and a lot of people were taking part, it was a bit worrying that here all these people were paying to fire machine guns without any checks to see if they were sane or anything, what if they decided to run amuck In the shop? People would not be able to stand a chance. And another thing this place actually sells machine guns, they even had grenade launchers for sale, what possible reason would a normal person want to own any of this, surely they should be made illegal over here.
Anyway after we went back to the room we freshened up a bit, after all it was 114 degrees out side and then went to the Bellagio for the buffet. This has to be one of the best buffets I have ever been to and it is well worth the long wait to get in. after we had been queuing up for about 20 minutes a woman came past and offered us her jump the line pass to get to the front, what a nice person, this saved us about another hour in line.
Once we were in I was sure to make the most of it and went for kobe beef steaks, sushi, shrimp, basically anything that costs a lot and went back again and again until I could not take anymore, but there was always room for dessert and and I had five cakes (what a greedy bugger I am).
After this we went out and watched the fountains outside the hotel before going back to the Venetian and to bed.
Route 66 Day Sixteen
June 27, 2009
Las Vegas
Got up and checked out of the Excalibur hotel, again it took ages to find our way to the car but we got there eventually. We then drove over to the Venetian parked our car and then walked around the place and had breakfast.
We then checked in and went up to our room, the room was great and we were staying in one of their Bella Suites, the only problem was we did not have a view of the strip, so I went down to the front desk to see if they could upgrade us and they did free of charge. Our new room had a view of the Strip so we could see The Mirage with it’s volcano, Treasure Island and front of the Venetian.
Once we unpacked we went for a walk around the area, to be honest as this was our third time to Vegas we have seen it all before so we restricted ourselves to the hotels in this area due to the heat as it was difficult walking around with the sun beating down on you.
We went to the Belagio, Mirage and Treasure Island. We even did a bit of gambling in the Mirage on a $.01 slot machine from $1 we won $13.35, what high rollers we are, but greed got the better of us and we blew it all.
That night we wanted to see one of the Cirque du Soleil’s that are in Vegas and there are a number to chose from. We decided on “O” so went to buy tickets. All they had left as right at the back for $170 so we did not see that on but then went and got tickets for Mystere for a more reasonable price and in the seventh row.
The show was great and ranks as my second favourite Cirque that I have seen (I have still yet to see anything surpass La Nuba)
For our evening meal we drive over to In N’ Out Burger, if you are unfamiliar with this chain, they are the best burger fast food restaurant I have ever tasted and I always make sure I get one when I am on the West side of the USA.
We then go back to our room and settle in for the night.
Route 66 Day Fifteen
June 26, 2009
Bryce Canyon – Las Vegas
Today did not really go as planned; we were supposed to spend half the day exploring Bryce Canyon National Park and the other half exploring Zion National Park. But, unfortunately there was a big thunderstorm in the morning with lightning striking right above us so that put an end to exploring the park. We did spend about 30 minutes checking it out and the sun did show it’s face for a short time but it started raining again so we left.
This was a big shame as the the only other time I have been to Bryce was in 2003 and the same thing happened then so I still have not seen it properly.
We then drove all the way to Zion National Park passing through Red Canyon along the way.
At Zion we drove along the scenic route passing through a number of tunnels and admiring the scenery as we went, one of the highlights was spotting a natural arch in the cliff face.
Before we left we made sure to check out the visitor centre. By this time the weather had started to clear up.
By this time we were well ahead of my planned schedule and decided to head for Las Vegas. We had intended to arrive in Vegas on Saturday and I have already booked our room at the Venetian. I did not want to check in a day early there as Friday nights are quite expensive so wanted to find a cheaper alternative somewhere on the Strip. We thought we would try Paris and after waiting in the checking in line for over 20 minutes we were told there were no vacancies, great!
Next we went to Excalibur, they had a room and we checked in.
We went for a brief walk around at our hotel and New York, New York and the MGM Grand and net went for a buffet.
I don’t want to sound like a snob but every time we come to Vegas the people seem to be, how can I say it politely, trash!! I really don’t want to talk bad about anyone but if you are going to check into a hotel don’t have a beer in one hand a cigarette in the other and be wearing a wife beater vest. Also the amount of girls that walk around in what they probably think are nice dresses but actually make them look like cheap prostitutes is unbelievable. Any that is my little rant over and it is just my opinion.
Actually one more thing, you experience this in every casino and hotel you go into in Vegas, once you get in there it is virtually impossible to get back out of, it took us ages to find the small entrance we entered Excalibur through so we could go back out to the car and get our luggage.
I am also not going to pay the extortionate internet rate to post this tonight so will do it tomorrow when I get to the Venetian.
Route 66 Day Fourteen
June 25, 2009
Grand Canyon – Bryce Canyon
After breakfast we began our tour of the Grand Canyon, first we went to the visitors centre to get some information about the park and then we went for a walk around the rim.
After walking around for quite a while and taking a load of photographs and video we got in the car and drove to the East section and went to all the lookouts along the way including the Desert View Tower were we had a couple of corn dogs.
We then left the Canyon and set off to another one, Bryce Canyon in Utah to be precise. It took hours to get there down quite small roads but eventually we did just as it was getting dark.
We were planning to stay at Ruby’s Inn where we did six years ago but a new best western had just opened up across the road so we stayed there instead. This is probably the best Best Western we have stayed at and definitely worth the money.
For dinner we went to Ruby’s Inn and had their all you can eat buffet, which surprisingly was very nice.
Tomorrow we plan on exploring the Canyon.
Route 66 Day Thirteen
June 24, 2009
Holbrook – The Grand Canyon
The Holiday Inn in Holbrook once again surpassed itself this morning with a lack of breakfast items being offered in their “deluxe breakfast” as you can see from these photos most of the items had run out before we got there.
Apart from that the rest of the day went really well, much more interesting than yesterday.
First stop was the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, here you could spend the night in a concrete wigwam if you wanted, we did not fancy that prospect but it is a classic piece of Route 66 history so we had to take a look.
Next was Joe and Aggies Café also in Holbrook where we stopped to take a few pictures before we left the town.
We rejoined Interstate 40 and soon stopped at Geronimo’s a Native American gift shop selling jewellery and handy crafts. A few miles down the road was Jack Rabbits Trading Post where we had our pictures taken riding a giant rabbit.
Next up was Winslow, made famous by the line in the Eagles song “Take it Easy” in fact the statue they have erected on the corner of one of their streets is the only thing of any interest there, of course we had to stop and take a few pictures of us “Standin’ on the corner”.
Upon leaving Winslow we saw a mini tornado or a dirt devil forming in a nearby field which was quite interesting.
A little bit further down the road was Meteor Crater, this is the impact site of a meteor that hit the earth 25 million years ago, although it was quite expensive to get in $15 each the view of the crater was really good and I enjoyed it quite a lot.
We saw signs for Walnut Canyon National Park and were intrigued to see what it was so we followed the signs and made the small detour. It turned out to be a canyon that had prehistoric dwellings in the side of the cliff faces that had been there for many, many years created to inhabitants of the area.
Next was the low point of the day, we foolishly decided to go to Denny’s for lunch, I had the country fried steak, which from the description and picture in the menu looked nice. When it came it turned out to be two breaded and deep fat fried hamburgers and I did not feel very good for the rest of the day after eating them.
We then headed to the Grand Canyon, here we stayed at the Bright Angel Lodge in one of their cabins, to be honest this was not a very nice place, it was very basic but in a prime location to tour the Canyon tomorrow.
Route 66 Day Twelve
June 23, 2009
Albuquerque – Holbrook
I have to write this blog entry a day later than normal as the Holiday Inn Express in Holbrook that we stayed at last night that advertised free wifi access did not have any wifi access and it has not worked correctly for the past few weeks, how inconvenient as I not only use it to upload the text and images for this blog but use to plan the next days journey.
Anyway back to what happened today. To be honest it has been pretty boring, it has just seemed that we did not do anything, it started off bad with the sat nav sending us around in circles through Albuquerque. Then once we had left the city on Interstate 40 we kept coming off and trying to meet up with Route 66 only to find that we would follow it for a few miles before loosing it, very frustrating, I definitely think that the New Mexico section of the trip has by far the worst Route 66 signage so far.
The hours past with the same scenery endlessly scrolling past the windows until we finally entered Arizona. Again Route 66 was difficult to follow, at one point we followed it for a good few miles until we came up to a road block and had to go all the way back to the interstate, very, very annoying.
The only thing we did today was visit the Petrified Forest National Park, but to be honest it was as if we paid money to drive down the road with the same scenery we had been experiencing for the past few hours. The only interesting parts were the fossilised remains of some logs next to the road during one section of the 28 mile route.
After we left the park it was a short drive to Holbrook which is where we would be staying. As I mentioned earlier we stopped at the Holiday Inn Express there and was not happy as they did not have any internet service despite adverting it, a few other complaints included it did not have an elevator so I had to carry our cases up the flights of steps and there was no iron despite having an ironing board. To be honest I think it would have been better staying at the motel 6 next door for one third of the price.
One last thing about the hotel, when I was checking in and they asked me for my phone number I started off by saying the dialling code for the UK is +44 then gave my number, the person behind the counter then said what if I was calling someone down the road from my house would I need to use the country code to which my reply was no as it would be in the same country wouldn’t it, some people just make you laugh.
For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant down the roads were the portions are enormous, we left quite a bit but it tasted good.
As there was no internet to plan the next day I had to break out the maps and do it the old fashioned way.
Route 66 Day Eleven
June 22, 2009
Roswell – Albuquerque
After our breakfast and check out we went straight to the UFO museum.
The museum was about three miles away on the main street at Roswell. This place was so tacky, but in a good way. It had lots of so called evidence and eye witness reports about a space ship that crash landed in Roswell back in 1947. Personally I believe that something did crash but it was more likely to be a top secret government aircraft than something of an extra terrestrial nature.
When we came out of the museum we walked up and down the street for a bit looking at all the alien related gift shops and even saw a couple of people walking around with tin foil on their heads.
After leaving Roswell we preceded to Lincoln, this again is synonymous with Billy the Kid as it is where he worked at the Tunstall store and where he broke out of the court house killing some law men as he did so.
A lot of the buildings in Lincoln are still original and the whole area is a national park keeping them so. We found this a lot more interesting than the Billy the Kid museum from yesterday. There is even the bullet hole in the wall that Billy shot during his escape.
We spend a good couple of hours here exploring all the original old buildings both inside and out along with having a tour around the museum at the visitors centre.
After we left we then started the long (and I mean long) road back up to Route 66, it took hours with no discernable change in scenery, we did stop of to buy ice creams at Smokey’s Country Store along the way.
We finally made it to Albuquerque where we stayed the night in the Hilton Garden inn and had our dinner at Shoneys.
Route 66 Day Ten
June 21, 2009
Amarillo – Roswell
Got up and went down for breakfast, which to be honest was a pretty poor affair, for starters they only had one two slice toaster which was totally unsuitable for the amount of guests, they had also run out of plain bagels, two types of cereal and a host of other items, there was also a lack of seating, luckily we got a table but there was people arriving after us who was not so lucky.
After we checked out the first port of call was the Cadillac Ranch, this contains ten Cadillac cars that have been buried in the ground, we almost missed them as it was on the opposite side of the road and set quite far back. We turned the car around and parked up then walked over to them. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm, and it consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line. After taking some photographs we moved on.
Next we arrived at Mid Point in Adrian, this is the half way point on Route 66 and to celebrate we called in the Mid Point Café to have a banana cream pie.
As we arrived in New Mexico we stopped of at the visitor information centre to pick up some leaflets and a map before passing through Tucumcari. Tucumcari is an old town with a lot of old abandoned buildings.
This I when we decided to do another detour off Route 66, we went to Fort Sumner, famous for being the last resting place of Billy the Kid. When we were here we checked out the Billy the Kid Museum but to be honest it should have just been called a local area museum as apart from an alleged rifle said to once belong to the outlaw and a few paintings everything else related to Fort Sumner and even had old telephones and cars.
A few miles down the road we visited the grave yard where Billy the Kid aka William H Bonney is laid to rest.
We then started our drive down to Roswell, these were real open roads and we only saw a couple of cars during the whole trip, some dear even ran along side the car at one point. Unfortunately, a bird flew straight into the front of the car killing it instantly; this really made both of us feel bad.
When we arrived in Roswell I went to check into the Hampton Inn but they wanted a scandalous amount to stay the night so we drove a bit further till we got to the Best Western were the price was more reasonable, although the internet connection was painfully slow and the room stank with a mixture of soy source and smoke, not to mention the noisy people next door.
We had dinner at a Golden Corral down the street, for $9.99 you could eat as much as you wanted. One thing really annoyed us here as soon as we got in we put our drinks on a table and went to get some food by the time we came back some idiot hillbilly family where trying to move out table onto theirs to fit their excessively sized family after grabbing it and saying we was sitting there, and they were our drinks all they could say was he thought they were his kids drinks, what an @sshole.
After we ate we went back to the hotel.