2007 USA Elise Trip: 04/01/2007

2007-04-28

Day 23: Larimie, WY to Des Moines, IA

Before we set off we bid farewell to the lovely lady who ran the Gas Lite Motel (many apologies as I forgot her name).

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The Gas Lite Motel was in our guidebook and seems to be quite popular, and she told us of a number of celebrities that have stayed there, including some big movie stars and that band Limp Biscuit or whatever they are called. It's a really nice place and if you ever find yourself in western Wyoming then stay there :)

The remainder of Wyoming and Nebraska didn't offer too much to write home about. I amused myself mainly with the road signs and place names (see the gallery for some of those). I think that it would be almost impossible to fall asleep at the wheel in Nebraska though as the rather pungent 'farming smell' keeps one quite alert. The generous 75 mph speed limit also helps cross the state. For this part of the journey lots of old British Indie music was my audio entertainment: Ride, The Wonderstuff, The Family Cat and Inspiral Carpets. Great stuff.

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So I quite enjoyed going through Nebraska, but I couldn't help think that it must be one of the worst states for Elise ownership. Highway on and off ramps are the only corners we encountered. Admittedly we were only on the highway but saw no real evidence of anything too exciting road-wise off of it.

Jared and I have split the leading/following pretty evenly throughout the trip, and we keep together quite well, but today I noticed him lagging behind once or twice. I finally radioed to him to see if he was ok, only to find out his radar detector had been going off so he was being cautious. Apparently I was either bait or a sacrifice as he kept me in the dark about this!

We got to Omaha in the early evening. It's a place I knew nothing about, other than 'Lady Fanny of Omaha' from the brilliant Michael Caine and Steve Martin film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I know it's a remake, but have never seen the original, so I have no idea whether that line was in the first one. We had planned to stay there overnight but after consulting the maps, and given we had to make it to Chicago the next day decided to grab a snack and head onto Des Moines, Iowa. We left Omaha with me knowing nothing about it other than 'Lady Fanny of Omaha' from the brilliant Michael Caine and Steve Martin film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Oh they have a mall there.

Darkness was setting in at this point, and we made one of the few night time legs of the whole journey. I am a big fan of night time driving, and I find the music I listen to changes when doing so.

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As we were going through a rural area with little light for about two hours it was a perfect drive to listen to a classic album. I consider Jeff Wayne's 1978 musical version of War of the Worlds one of the greatest concept albums ever. A superb orchestral rock album with Richard Burton's haunting narration. It is best enjoyed at night and turned up very loud. Some people have a problem with the disco elements that pepper the album, but I can't imagine it without them. The album used to scare me as a boy when my dad played it.

Day 22: Elko, NV to Larimie, WY

Today was another long driving day, so we got going at 9am. We realised one thing before setting off; we'll be losing an hour a day as we head east through the time zones. When coming west earlier in the journey it was a pleasant surprise to find we had occasionally gained an hour, but losing time is something one is much more conscious of.

We had the last small portion of eastern Nevada to drive through before Utah, and were treated to more amazing scenery.

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As we entered Utah the terrain almost instantly changes to the famous salt flats, but there are still lots of hills around. At some places it looks as if we were surrounded by water due to the famous 'shimmering' effect given off by the ground. Around Salt Lake City there is (obviously) water, and some fun elevation changes. Thankfully extra lanes are provided for the many trucks to labour up.

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We past near the Bonneville Salt Flats, the location of the land speed record attempts.

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As we were crossing the narrow part of Utah in the north, it doesn't take too long and we were soon into Wyoming, which offers yet more new terrain. Some of the pronounced striation on the hills is beautiful.

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Otherwise though Wyoming looked mainly like the following picture. Not too exciting, but I kept busy today by listening to all the (very funny) Baddiel and Skinner podcasts from last year's World Cup, although I had to skip the one where England were knocked out.

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We had a little break at a rest stop, at which there was a brave colony of Prairie Dogs.

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We ended up at Larimie, and headed to the wonderful Gas Lite Motel. It's packed with Old West memorabilia inside and out, and the proprietress is a big animal lover. Being Polish she was happy to learn one of my cats is called Kicia (Polish for kitty). I am now happily sitting in the cosy reception area. Here is a picture of Sheba, one of the cats here, preventing me from writing this, so blame her for the lack of a big blog today :) I will take more pictures of the motel tomorrow, before we set off on what is apparently a flat, mundane journey across Nebraska.

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2007-04-27

Day 21: San Francisco, CA to Elko, NV

Today Priya had to head back home sadly so our first destination was the airport, which is only 15 minutes or so south of the city.

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We dropped her off at 11am, so had to eagerly get driving as we had a long drive today of about 8 hours. The next few days will all be of similar length as we have had to revise the itinerary once again. This is my fault as the itinerary I had put up on the Automapic journey plan included two September 26ths, which implied we would be in San Francisco and Battle Mountain Nevada at the same time. This reminded me of the bit in the first Red Dwarf book when Rimmer fails (yet again) in preparing for the Astro-Navigation exam by including two Septembers in his revision timetable.

Mentioning the Red Dwarf story isn't so random as it seems. Some people were asking whether the drives are getting boring, and what I do during them to stay interested. Audiobooks are a great way to make long drives fly by, and before leaving on the trip I stocked up on plenty including Red Dwarf, Terry Pratchett's Discworld, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Agatha Christie and James Herbert. I also bought a few stand up performance CDs by Eddie Izzard and Rowan Atkinson. Podcasts are also great for long trips, especially as there is new material almost daily. My staples here are World Soccer Daily, various BBC Five Live ones, Adam Curry's Daily Source Code and some other news and sports ones. I also had some that discussed Lost, but I haven't seen it since we left so can't listen to those anymore. Music still fills much of the day though. Iron Maiden has randomly been the most played band. What started as an amusing nostalgic listen to an old Maiden album has completely rekindled my childhood love for the band.

Back to the itinerary, the reason for the long drives over the next few days is that Todd off EliseTalk has had a barbecue planned for us in Chicago on Sunday. Due to my error with the schedule, we have one day less than we thought to travel the 2,000+ miles to Chicago. We really don't want to miss it, and the final date of the whole journey is something that we can't really adjust due to commitments both Jared and I have once we return home. From here to the end is going to be all road and no stay.

Yosemite Park was the latest planned destination that had to be pruned from the journey, and instead we traveled north east up through California towards Nevada. Once past Sacramento it's an incredible drive on undulating roads with sweeping bends; not the hairpin twisties we had driven near LA by any stretch, but nice roads to be on. The road surface was awful however, and we later learned that this is probably due to heavy snow chain usage ripping up the road. We had obviously started the day at near sea level, but just a couple of hours later were at 8000ft or so in snow-banked mountain roads with crisp, cool air. Very cool.

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Just after we passed into Nevada we stopped at Reno for lunch. Not much to report there, although I had yet another sign misreading that startled me. I knew Nevada was a state of vice, but seeing an advertisement for 'Loosest Sluts in the State' is still a shock. Of course it is 'Loosest Slots in the State', which could in itself be considered a bit dodgy.

I realised that this would be the only time in the whole trip that we'd visit the same state twice, of course not including Pennsylvania and North Carolina, myself and Jared's respective starting and ending states. This time through Nevada we'd be passing through the north of the state, rather than the small southern section we visited when in Vegas. The terrain is very impressive, although there is very little civilisation between Reno and Salt Lake City, Utah. The 75 mph speed limit in Nevada it most welcome.

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We finally reached our planned destination for the day, Elko Nevada. It has to be the winning town so far for turning heads; we may as well have rolled into town dressed in pink ball gowns riding penny farthings with our heads on fire. Having said that though I have to stress how nice everyone is in greeting us and inquiring about the cars. I had envisaged encountering occasional hostility or snide comments towards two brightly coloured foreign sports cars turning up in the middle of nowhere but that has turned out to be an unfair expectation. People's open warmheartedness absolutely everywhere we have been has been a humbling pleasure.

2007-04-26

Day 20: San Francisco, CA

Priya felt a bit under the weather so Jared and I explored San Francisco by ourselves. One recommendation we had was to visit the Fisherman's Wharf area, and the best way to get there was by tram. It turns out the word 'tram' is one of those aluminium/aluminum words, and I kept getting corrected to use 'trolley' instead.

The trams are a central part of San Francisco's charm, and must be experienced. They aren't necessarily high-tech, with clunking gears, loud running and involved two man operation, but these things add to their delight. The driver stands in the front center area, surrounded by open air outward-facing wooden benches and standing platforms, and the rear is an enclosed seating area. Another manual element of the tram system is the way they are pushed at the end of the line to rotate them 180 degrees, as in this photo:

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We rode the tram to Fisherman's Wharf, which offered some really nice views along the way, and more San Francisco quirks, such as the signs reminding people how to park on slopes to avoid runaway vehicles. Almost every single car parked on a slope has its wheels either turned towards the curb (when facing downhill) or away from it (when parked uphill), so it's a habit people get used to quickly it seems.

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We stopped at the top of a famous little road on Lombard Street that winds tightly down a steep hill for one block. I recognised it from Grand Theft Auto, but didn't know it had a name. The map we had labeled it 'The Windingest Road'. Windingest is one of those American adjectives that makes me cringe, like reading that a sporting coach is the winningest in history. I am sure my English teacher would have cracked me over the head with a stick for using that at school.

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Fisherman's wharf is a rich area of shops, restaurants, museums and the like. Some pedestrian areas had live music and open air cafes, which are always nice to walk around. We were directed to a popular seafood restaurant within the small market area, and had an excellent fishy lunch.

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The piers in the area normally offer great views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. The latter was almost completely obstructed by a docked ship and fog, but the famous prison island was close enough to get some snaps of.

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The next pier over has become a big attraction over the last few years. Pier 39 has been adopted by a big colony of Sea Lions, who bask on floating wooden things (they must have a name) and spar with each other. Here is a little video of some snoozing.

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At this point it's worth mentioning the worryingly large number of homeless people in the city. Especially at night, one can't walk more than a few paces without being met by someone asking for a donation. We are always happy to help them out, but the sheer number of people on the streets is upsetting. Some are more industrious than others in looking for cash; down at the wharf we were scared out of our skins when what we thought was a stationary bush leapt out at us. It turns out that one guy was crouching down, a bush in each hand, and waiting for innocents such as ourselves to walk past, at which point he would scream and leap. This was accompanied by quite a large number of onlookers across the road howling with laughter, many recording the action on their phones, so I expect there is a youtube video of me jumping 5 feet in the air and screaming like a girl.

We had a fantastic Italian dinner, possibly the best meal of the trip so far, including the amazing deserts pictured here:

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Afterwards we went to the same Irish bar as the night before with Priya's friend Jesse, a really nice fellow who is in the Coast Guard. Another brilliant day. Please check out the gallery as always for more pictures.

2007-04-25

Day 19: Los Angeles, CA to San Francisco, CA

Packing up is getting harder to do every time we leave a hotel, given all the stuff we keep buying. Plus packing the same bag becomes less and less space-efficient as neatly folded clothes become stuffed bundles in any available space. On the plus side we are becoming more efficient at getting things packed into the Lotus, and my years of playing Tetris down the student union are really paying off.

Heading out of LA:

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One of the most popular suggestions I received when planning the trip was the Pacific Coastal Highway (PCH) drive, and after dabbling a little on that road near LA we agreed we simply had to drive it. The PCH drive up to San Francisco is in reality much longer than taking one of the major roads. After a couple of hours we realised that we simply weren't going to honour our 6pm appointment meeting a few EliseTalk people in Santa Clara. Begrudgingly we cut back across to the 101, and the apparently best portion of the PCH will have to wait until another time.

In the meantime the gallery has some shots of scenery we saw along the way.

We were ultimately glad we missed the central bit of the PCH as we got to Santa Clara on time. We were in fact the first ones there, and after a little trouble finding the place saw some other Elises patrolling the area.

The fellow Elise owners we met with in Santa Clara were a terrific group. Thanks to Rahul for setting up the meet, and apologies to people for talking cricket, curry and geeky stuff at dinner!

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After dinner we said goodbye and headed on into San Francisco. I love urban driving, especially in a new and exciting city, and was having a ball zooming around the San Francisco streets reliving Playstation driving games. However I selfishly forgot Jared's opposite feeling doing this, and to his relief we soon found Union Square and parked the cars up for a couple of days.

Day 18: Los Angeles, CA

We had stayed up late the night before, Priya gossiping with Mohini, and myself mucking about on the computer, so we got off to a bit of a late start. We did manage to take advantage of the hotel breakfast though. I think this was actually the first time since I left Philadelphia that I ate one of the complimentary breakfasts. The weather was the best of the Los Angeles days so far.

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As we cruised over to Universal Studios we found a new way to survive the terrible LA roads by going 'Aaaaaaahhhhhh' and making amusing sounds as the abysmal washboard roads shake us. We have a ChaseCam clip somewhere of that hilarity. I also think we only got lost 4 times, which is almost a record low.

We got to Universal Studios in mid-afternoon and had a Hard Rock Cafe lunch. As we ate we learned it is currently off-season, and therefore the park was closing at 6pm. Panicking a little, we rushed down the (pretty awful) lunch and rushed into the park. Thankfully it wasn't that busy and it looked as if we could go on all the rides of note before close. It's quite a small park and there were only five things we wanted to go on.

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1) Studio Tour
This is the classic Universal Studios bus tour, going around sound studios, outdoor sets, special effects demonstrations and the like. Although it has been the staple attraction of the park for some time, it is often updated with new bits and pieces, whilst retaining such classics as the Jaws scene and Bates Motel. I could see small children getting quite scared on it, as there are loud bits, bits where you get wet, bits with intense special effects and a really cool bit in a 'rotating' tunnel which gives the sensation of falling over. We were quite scared.

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We both find movie making a bit magical and really liked the outdoor street sets, just for the sense of majesty they evoke. One more recent set that is preserved and visited on the tour is the crashed Airplane one from War of the Worlds. It is very impressive; they actually got a full sized jet and cut it up for the set. Quite eerie.

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2) Back to the Future
This is a hydraulic Delorean ride accompanied by a projected race against Biff in another car. It is very effective and quite unsettling at some points as the visual cues coupled with the movement of the car really make you think you're experiencing a range of extreme motions. Our one gripe with this one was that the video looks quite dated now. Surely it wouldn't be too much to ask to make a new hi resolution version.

3) Jurassic Park
This is a water ride in much larger 'logs' than the usual ones of this type, and in a Jurassic Park style environment. As with the other rides at Universal Studios, they aren't necessarily the most extreme, but the effort spent in dressing them up in themes really adds to the experience. The Jurassic Park one is really entertaining with moving dinosaurs, some unexpected things leaping out and squirting water, and quite a dramatic final drop. We did this one twice as there was no queue, as was fortunately the case with all the other ones.

4) The Mummy
Priya said this one was similar to the Indiana Jones one she went on somewhere once. It's an indoor coaster mostly in the dark with a really good sudden acceleration bit, stop and a backwards portion.

5) Shrek 4D
We understood that this was a motion ride, but after a funny Shrek introduction in the staging room entered what looked like a normal movie theater. We donned our 3D glasses and sat back. The movie was really funny, as one would expect from a Shrek movie, and it was indeed a motion ride. The seats moved about in synchronisation with various action portions, and water and air squirted from in front and behind us. There were also things moving around our feet during the spider bit, although I didn't figure out how that worked.

We were cheap and didn't fork out for the action prints, but I sneaked a couple of photos of the screens. Here are some of us on the Jurassic Park and The Mummy ones.

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Jared had driven over to the park after visiting Lotus of South Bay, but got there even later than we did and just looked around the shopping arcade outside and waited for us to get out. We all headed back to the hotel and, being quite shagged out just had a local meal for our last evening in LA.

2007-04-23

Day 17: Los Angeles, CA

Every Sunday a bunch of LA Elise owners get together for a drive up through the hills. Their meeting place is in Marina del Rey, just a few minutes away from our hotel, so it was an easy decision to join them. The downside was their departure time of 9am, and this meant forcing myself out of bed at 8 after we had been out late eating and drinking. Later I understood the early time though; the traffic really gets heavy as the day goes on, and there is nothing worse than being stuck in traffic when on a fun drive. The early time also provided some fortunate fair weather; later in the afternoon it did start to rain.

There were about 10 Elises, which I understood is a very good turnout. Some guy also showed up with an Ariel Atom. He was, to be nice, a bit of a misery but it was nice seeing the car and good having people over here buying them. I didn't get any pics, but Jared took some and may put them up in his gallery.

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The drive itself was incredible. Mile after mile of really twisty hill roads. As is sensible when driving any new area I took it easy at the start, but Josh who was behind me is an experienced canyon driver and filled my mirrors for the first few miles. As we progressed it became more and more fun, with plenty of fast corners and lots of heel-toe practice.

I only caught the scenery out of the corner of my eye once or twice, and certainly had no opportunity to take any pictures. When we head out of LA tomorrow we may drive one portion of the route again in a more leisurely fashion and get some photos and absorb what I think were some pretty amazing vistas.

I thought I was well prepared for the drive, but got everything wrong. I set up the ChaseCam but had forgotten the Compact Flash card, so no video. I was recording our GPS path but forgot to plug the laptop in, so the GPS track ends halfway through the drive. Then after the third canyon run I ran out of fuel. Thankfully Milton was kindly on hand to drive me to the very cheap $3.80 a gallon for 90 octane and $16 for a gas can station up the road. Here is a screenshot of some of the GPS route. I set my software to only capture a point every 10 seconds or so, and as a result there are many corners not represented in the path, but you can get the idea. They are really fortunate to have roads like that around here, and being able to drive the canyons is the perfect antidote for other, less desirable areas of LA.

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As I mentioned, the traffic on and around the PCH gets really heavy as the day goes on, and I passed more flashy cars than you could shake a stick at. However the lunch location we had planned to meet at was simply too busy and Priya was (finally) surfacing, so I headed back to Venice for a change of pace.

Venice is a largely bohemian area with a busy boardwalk by the beach and a network of canals. Rather than recount the history of the place, the Wikipedia page is quite an interesting read. We walked the boardwalk for a while, buying some cheap nick-nacks from the hippy merchants, amusing ourselves with the street entertainers and grabbing some lunch.

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We came across this fellow and Priya started cooing. He is apparently in a lot of movies and known for being a famous homeless person. He seemed to have a finely tuned sense of being the center of attention: I pointed a camera at him after he went by and he instantly span around, hand outstretched for a donation. Then in one motion like a ninja unsheathing a hidden sword he produced a tshirt from behind his back. He seems to have quite an industry going.

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Later on we met Priya's friend Mohini and Jared for some Thai food in Santa Monica. Quite a full day but very enjoyable :)

2007-04-22

Day 16: Las Vegas, NV to Los Angeles, CA

We cut the time in Vegas from four days to three, which would give us an extra day in LA. After visiting the Stratosphere (see last blog entry) we headed to Los Angeles, leaving the rest of the crew for another day in Vegas. Jared had left a day before us. Hopefully our trip to LA would be a little easier than him as he had taken over 6 hours due to accidents and traffic jams.

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It was a relatively short drive and quite uneventful, but offers some nice scenery before entering Los Angeles. There is a really dramatic point when approaching the crest of one hill where the weather changes within a few seconds from sunny and warm to completely overcast and cold. It's caused by something to do with the ocean and hills, and perhaps the famous LA pollution, and butterflies, I don't know.

A big mistake to make when passing that point and entering the outskirts of LA is to assume you have arrived at your destination. Ohhh no. It's a huge place. At one point we wondered what town those big buildings on the horizon belonged to, and it then dawned on us that they were downtown LA. We drove on I10 westerly across the city towards the ocean. This road is nice as the traffic moves quickly but it's in a disastrous physical state. The washboard effect is so bad we pulled off the highway at one point to check that my suspension hadn't failed and was causing the bouncing.

Once we hit the ocean front all was forgiven. Other than getting to an amazing looking area, we had finally reached the Pacific. On one journey we had been at the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific. Lots more pics and stories of the area to come over the next couple of days.

We found a hotel in Venice right on the beach with a pretty nice view:

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Days 13-16: Las Vegas

Now that we have moved on from Vegas I can do a recap of what we got up to.

All seven of us stayed at The Sahara, a casino/hotel that has by its own admission seen a more glamorous time (all the brochures talk about the Rat Pack). We actually liked the cheesy second tier feel of it, and because it is a little distance from the main strip not so crazily busy. It also has a really fun roller coaster attached to it. Having said that some bits of it are a bit frustrating, but we understand they are in the process of being taken over or something. Thankfully it is on the Vegas Monorail so all the major destinations are a quick ride away.

Any Vegas recount has to include the gambling. I am not a big gambler myself; I see it as spending some money to have fun rather than trying to make money, and with Priya watching like a hawk we are really tame gamblers. Whenever we won anything she would make us stop and move on, and $3 War was our favourite game, which says it all. In the end we ended up about even cash wise, and definitely up given the amount we drank :)

At The Flamingo for dinner and drinks:

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We walked around a couple of the casinos. Here is the interior of the shopping gallery in Caesar's Palace:

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Ben, Keith, Sophie and Declan had really wanted to go see Prince. The box office there was releasing extra tickets the night of the concert, so they tried their luck. After a couple of hours it looked bleak, but some people they had chatted up came into possession of 20 VIP tickets and all of a sudden they were getting royal treatment. Even Paris Hilton had worse seats behind them; someone sneaked a photo ;)

As they were living the high life Priya and I went to see The Amazing Johnathan, something we had planned to do for months. Some of you may have seen him on Comedy Central. Billed as 'The Freddy Krueger of Comedy', his show incorporates silly magic and a lot of adult humour, a little similar to Penn and Teller but less actual magic and more laughs. We met him afterwards, but the poor fellow seemed a little burned out. I am sure Priya grabbing his cheeks made him feel a lot better.


"Dance Monkey Dance" From 2007 USA Elises

Before we left on Saturday we rode the Sahara coaster (again) and headed to the Stratosphere, 1,149ft high tower near the hotel that has three rides on top of it: one that goes up and down vertically on the top, another that spins around and hangs the riders off the edge, and a third that see-saws the riders again off the edge of the tower (here is a video of Priya and Keith on this one). The last two are particularly terrifying, and I didn't go near them. They can be seen in the second picture here hanging off the edge.