The Toronto skyline looms in the hazy distance as we negotiate the hectic freeway. The driving here is clearly insane. Everything is frenetic as cars constantly weave in and out of lanes full of traffic breaking the speed limit by at least 20 kilometres an hour. A stressed city this surely is. It's also an expensive place, the dearest in Canada, meaning our already stretched budget is breaking here. Thankfully we've amassed loyalty points from the many motels we've stayed in to book a couple of free nights here. The downside is that our first motel is way out of town but on the same road that runs directly through the center and to the waterfront. The traffic is beyond terrible and it takes us a good couple of hours to get about 15 miles, we've not seen traffic like this since Bangkok. At least Bangkok was strange and new to us, Toronto looked like everywhere that has a litter strewn shopping street, tatty undesirable buildings and horrendous traffic.
We take the free accommodation as an opportunity to go to a restaurant and get something decent for once. We'd been cursing the bad food we'd been eating the last couple of days so it was excellent to get some great food at an Ethiopian restaurant, who'd have thought they'd have such gastronomic delights!? The area around the restaurant is clearly the student end of town and it's very busy as a result. There's a youthful cool vibe on the street even though the buildings are run down and it all looks fairly dirty. I expected Toronto to be swish, modern and clean but it's the total opposite. Although I like the student area it still needs work to make it a worthwhile visit.
The next day we move into yet another free nights stay at another motel. Driving anywhere in this city, or on the freeway next to it, is a massive headache as we get stuck in jam after jam whilst impatient Canadians thrust their way into different lanes on a constant basis.
We take a walk around the downtown area hoping for something of interest but find nothing. The large CN Tower that dominates the skyline would be more impressive if we hadn't seen soo many others just like it.
The weather is at least hot now so we venture to the large park on the cusp of downtown. This too is busy as we walk by pens containing various animals in a free to the public zoo type affair. It too has rubbish wafting around and the animals don't seem to impressed either. We walk by a murky lake that seems to be contaminated with oil. Still, it's popular with mothers pushing prams but maybe they're making the most of the good weather. In Winter Toronto gets freezing and there's an underground shopping mall to accommodate those icy days. I can't remember off-hand how cold it gets but I'm sure it's somewhere round -16 degrees Celsius, either way it's damn cold. Which then begs the question why would anyone want to live here? The answer to that I have no clue.
Toronto is a massive disappointment, overtly expensive, dirty, choked with traffic, run down and just plain dull. We drove all over town and didn't seen an area of worth. Even with free accomodation and decent food the place couldn't improve. I was glad to leave. We did have one last bit of food before departing though. Fish and Chips from a so-called proper 'chippy', of which you don't really see in North America and Canada. £5 for decent fish but burnt chips. That was their style apparently, everybody had overcooked chips. I can't dislike this place enough.
Let's get to Canada's capital quick sharp!!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Poor Niagara
After a couple of hours drive we arrive in the town of Niagara Falls. We knew that we were going to compare Niagara Falls to Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil and to start off with there are similarities. Like Iguazu, Niagara Falls borders two countries and in a similar way one side is better to view the falls from than the other. But unlike Iguazu, the falls aren't set in a stunning remote landscape. Instead they're right next to a road and casino on the cusp of a town that largely resembles Blackpool on a really cold day. There's no denying the falls are impressive and our first glimpse is from the car whilst heading down toward the river. It comes as a bit of a surprise to see two large water falls gushing with thousands of gallons of water just over the edge of the road but that's just the way it is.
Downtown Niagara is run down, over priced and grim but there are a couple of passable streets nearer the falls themselves. A couple of streets of tat and awful attractions lie abit further on from our motel.
The sun is shining but the wind is cutting as we take a stroll along the river's edge for a closer view of the falls. A rusting barge sits stuck in the flowing river just upstream from the main mouth of the falls. The boat's crew were rescued by using a zip-line from the shoreline water turbine company's building, a day after they were stranded! The thoughts going through those guys heads must've been awful. To know that any moment the powerful river could carry their boat off and over the falls where a huge drop into icy mist would be the last thing they saw.
You can see the US side of the river from Canada and it looks no better. The city of Buffalo, in New York State, is apparently much worse than it's Canadian counterpart and we know it's pointless crossing the border to get a different perspective of the falls as the snow is incredibly deep over there around the viewing areas and we could do without the hassle at customs.
We get up close to the falls at which frequently freezing mist is sprayed across the path and road. A decent walk along the river it is too, obviously I was willing to walk here as parking for $16 is just not in me. There are tours that take you down to the foot of the falls but at this time of year the snow has still overwhelmed the viewing areas by a few feet. Even the edge of the river has ice floating around in it, certainly not somewhere you'd want to be stuck on a boat.
We don't plan on staying long, after you've seen the falls during the day you go back at night and that's your lot. I don't see any point in staying longer so I'm confused as to why it's a popular honeymoon destination. We splash out on a restaurant that night and wish we hadn't after the plain awful pasta we consume. Then it's back down to the falls to see the multi-coloured lights that are beamed on them from the casino each evening. It's an excellent novelty and looks good but standing around for any length of time is a mistake in these temperatures and when that biting mist covers you it's time to leave.
Although there are similarities, in the end Niagara and Iguazu couldn't be more different. Visiting Iguazu is a full days worth of walks through tropical jungle and views of many different falls surrounded by little else other than lush greenery. Niagara is just a grim town with all the class of a rubber plunger that just happens to be alongside a couple of large waterfalls. Still this place is hyped, and therefore world famous and busy, but in comparison doesn't stand a chance against the latin american wonder.
Supposedly, American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the vastly larger Iguazu Falls and declared, "Poor Niagara!". I can do nothing but agree.
Before rushing off immediately we pass through the wine region and town of Niagara on the Lake. It's supposed have the best persevered 19th century buildings in North America but I again think the people who write these things have noses longer than Pinocchio. Still, the town is nice and there are a few good looking buildings lined along the main street. There's a British theme going on and we can't resist going in to a British shop to get a Double Decker and a Crunchie. Oh how we reminisce over jam, mustard and Fawlty Towers. I also take the opportunity to buy a chicken pie, unavailable in most places we've been, and instantly wish I hadn't when the innards resemble, in taste and looks, a tin of Pedigree Chum which is then wrapped in pastry that clearly shouldv'e been involved in a Chinese dumpling.
We mourn the poor food we've had over the last couple of days whilst sitting by the deep blue lake. People have chosen to swim across this huge body of water, all 52 miles of it, and not one them has been British. 'Maybe I could be the first', I thought, 'Maybe that pie has affected my brain!'. The water is terribly cold and certainly not for the weary traveller.
We leave the white buildings of Niagara on the Lake with the odd English accent hanging in the air as we press on to Canada's most expensive and packed city, Toronto.
Downtown Niagara is run down, over priced and grim but there are a couple of passable streets nearer the falls themselves. A couple of streets of tat and awful attractions lie abit further on from our motel.
The sun is shining but the wind is cutting as we take a stroll along the river's edge for a closer view of the falls. A rusting barge sits stuck in the flowing river just upstream from the main mouth of the falls. The boat's crew were rescued by using a zip-line from the shoreline water turbine company's building, a day after they were stranded! The thoughts going through those guys heads must've been awful. To know that any moment the powerful river could carry their boat off and over the falls where a huge drop into icy mist would be the last thing they saw.
You can see the US side of the river from Canada and it looks no better. The city of Buffalo, in New York State, is apparently much worse than it's Canadian counterpart and we know it's pointless crossing the border to get a different perspective of the falls as the snow is incredibly deep over there around the viewing areas and we could do without the hassle at customs.
We get up close to the falls at which frequently freezing mist is sprayed across the path and road. A decent walk along the river it is too, obviously I was willing to walk here as parking for $16 is just not in me. There are tours that take you down to the foot of the falls but at this time of year the snow has still overwhelmed the viewing areas by a few feet. Even the edge of the river has ice floating around in it, certainly not somewhere you'd want to be stuck on a boat.
We don't plan on staying long, after you've seen the falls during the day you go back at night and that's your lot. I don't see any point in staying longer so I'm confused as to why it's a popular honeymoon destination. We splash out on a restaurant that night and wish we hadn't after the plain awful pasta we consume. Then it's back down to the falls to see the multi-coloured lights that are beamed on them from the casino each evening. It's an excellent novelty and looks good but standing around for any length of time is a mistake in these temperatures and when that biting mist covers you it's time to leave.
Although there are similarities, in the end Niagara and Iguazu couldn't be more different. Visiting Iguazu is a full days worth of walks through tropical jungle and views of many different falls surrounded by little else other than lush greenery. Niagara is just a grim town with all the class of a rubber plunger that just happens to be alongside a couple of large waterfalls. Still this place is hyped, and therefore world famous and busy, but in comparison doesn't stand a chance against the latin american wonder.
Supposedly, American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the vastly larger Iguazu Falls and declared, "Poor Niagara!". I can do nothing but agree.
Before rushing off immediately we pass through the wine region and town of Niagara on the Lake. It's supposed have the best persevered 19th century buildings in North America but I again think the people who write these things have noses longer than Pinocchio. Still, the town is nice and there are a few good looking buildings lined along the main street. There's a British theme going on and we can't resist going in to a British shop to get a Double Decker and a Crunchie. Oh how we reminisce over jam, mustard and Fawlty Towers. I also take the opportunity to buy a chicken pie, unavailable in most places we've been, and instantly wish I hadn't when the innards resemble, in taste and looks, a tin of Pedigree Chum which is then wrapped in pastry that clearly shouldv'e been involved in a Chinese dumpling.
We mourn the poor food we've had over the last couple of days whilst sitting by the deep blue lake. People have chosen to swim across this huge body of water, all 52 miles of it, and not one them has been British. 'Maybe I could be the first', I thought, 'Maybe that pie has affected my brain!'. The water is terribly cold and certainly not for the weary traveller.
We leave the white buildings of Niagara on the Lake with the odd English accent hanging in the air as we press on to Canada's most expensive and packed city, Toronto.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
On to London
First things first. I'm now back in Blighty, which shows how far behind on the blog I am, however I have to finish this thing and as I use my diary and photos to write my blog it doesn't make any difference. The other thing is that the photos for the next few entries are currently unattainable due to being on my laptop for which we don't have a British plug for. But soon I will.
I'll start with another amzingly useless fact: Detroit is the only American city that looks south onto Canada. This is due to the position of the land around the huge body of water in-between the countries. Right in downtown is a tunnel to Canada, we accidentally turned into it one night and had to turn around swiftly. There's also a long bridge and that's the one we take to leave the US customs construction zone to enter Canada for the last time. The Canadian customs official seemed confused over our car ownership but not too concerned to keep us longer than 5 minutes.
The landscape broadens out and has a flat green Belgium kind of look to it. Our first destination is London in the state of Ontario. London is in the county of Middlesex and has the Thames River running through it, how twee.
It's a half decent looking city if a bit rough around the edges, bits of rubbish float around as agressive looking homeless trawl the streets giving abuse for tips. But it's good to see a lively place again with hordes of people on the streets shopping and going about their business. Canada definitely has a more Euro feel to it than across the border.
We underestimated how expensive Canada is in comparison to the US. We were struggling on our budget enough in America but now it's even worse as accomodation prices have soared and quality plummeted. A long jaunt in Canada is not really an option for us.
We check out town with a brief walk around the park, war memorials and a proper tank adorn the place, to then walk the few blocks making up downtown. There's a student-rocker population about and plenty of dingy looking bars for them to occupy. The Greeks also seem to have taken a stronghold in town and judging by their food rightly so. We try a Souvlaki, an excellent sort of pork donner kebab style thing. In England this kind of thing would be inedible and only passible when you're devoid of all taste, and balance, on a night on the ales but here it's quality food.
We're only really stopping over in London to get somewhere else but I don't mind it. We attmept a stroll along the river the next morning but the Thames is murky and the banks are overgrown. We walk over a rusty bridge, complete with large rusting industrial pipe, while the icy wind blows down the back of my neck before we give up and move on.
There's a couple of major places we have to see in Canada while we're here and the next world famous one is a couple of hours away along a flat and featureless highway.
I'll start with another amzingly useless fact: Detroit is the only American city that looks south onto Canada. This is due to the position of the land around the huge body of water in-between the countries. Right in downtown is a tunnel to Canada, we accidentally turned into it one night and had to turn around swiftly. There's also a long bridge and that's the one we take to leave the US customs construction zone to enter Canada for the last time. The Canadian customs official seemed confused over our car ownership but not too concerned to keep us longer than 5 minutes.
The landscape broadens out and has a flat green Belgium kind of look to it. Our first destination is London in the state of Ontario. London is in the county of Middlesex and has the Thames River running through it, how twee.
It's a half decent looking city if a bit rough around the edges, bits of rubbish float around as agressive looking homeless trawl the streets giving abuse for tips. But it's good to see a lively place again with hordes of people on the streets shopping and going about their business. Canada definitely has a more Euro feel to it than across the border.
We underestimated how expensive Canada is in comparison to the US. We were struggling on our budget enough in America but now it's even worse as accomodation prices have soared and quality plummeted. A long jaunt in Canada is not really an option for us.
We check out town with a brief walk around the park, war memorials and a proper tank adorn the place, to then walk the few blocks making up downtown. There's a student-rocker population about and plenty of dingy looking bars for them to occupy. The Greeks also seem to have taken a stronghold in town and judging by their food rightly so. We try a Souvlaki, an excellent sort of pork donner kebab style thing. In England this kind of thing would be inedible and only passible when you're devoid of all taste, and balance, on a night on the ales but here it's quality food.
We're only really stopping over in London to get somewhere else but I don't mind it. We attmept a stroll along the river the next morning but the Thames is murky and the banks are overgrown. We walk over a rusty bridge, complete with large rusting industrial pipe, while the icy wind blows down the back of my neck before we give up and move on.
There's a couple of major places we have to see in Canada while we're here and the next world famous one is a couple of hours away along a flat and featureless highway.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Put your hands up for Detroit
Detroit, the home of the American motor industry's big three companies General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, is just down the road from Chicago. We skirt Indiana to get into the state of Michigan to be here. We stop off at the great named town of Kalamazoo for a bite to eat just off it's totally dead main street district. What a great place to say you're from.
As in Chicago we stay out of town to keep costs down and this is our first encounter of a motel that has bullet proof glass to protect the receptionist. Needless to say we have a crap nights sleep with various comings and goings and loud hip-hop music pumping around the motel. There's something like 80% of the population here that is African American, I've no idea where the other 20% are.
We change motels next day and head into the deserted downtown. Some decent buildings and some money has clearly been spent but there's no-one but the odd crazy homeless guy hanging around.
We drive up towards the large buildings, that have now been let go, of a residential area in which the large Institute of Arts is housed. This is a large building that includes one of the finest murals on earth from one of the world's best, Mexican master Diego Rivera. It's huge, filling an entire room on all walls.
This is the Detroit Industries mural and tells many stories from the era of the Ford Motor Company's factory and the effect on the people who lived and worked at the time, good and bad.
Even a homage to the five workers shot to death in a strike have been included. It was a very controversial mural upon release. The uptight Americans even considered the inclusion of female breasts as pornographic. But even though Henry Ford is depicted as a bit of a tyrant his son was the main backer for the Diego murals. Unlike the Rockefeller Mural in New York that was considered too controversial and not completed. A tremendous piece and a handy free personal hand held guide walks you through the different aspects of the mural and some of the meanings behind the images.
The rest of the institute has classics from some of the most famous artists who ever lived. Funnily enough this is the only place where we see white people. Where the hell are they the rest of the time? This also makes me realise the odd balance of black and white in this country. African Americans live across the country yet we've only seen one in a National Park in over 20 that we've been in. I'm not sure what this even means but I find it very odd.
We have a quick look along the couple of streets of Greek Town. Almost unmemorable if it wasn't for an incident we witnessed. An elderly couple shuffling around the back of their car to extract a zimmerframe. Unfortunately for them some random hobo had spotted this and used his opportunity to sneak in and get out the zimmer himself. Seems friendly enough, until he won't realise the stability device to the elderly woman until he gets some money first. I hate this kind of thing and you spotting this thing before it happens. It's just like when I know some tramp is going to ask me for change, I can see something in their face.
We don't have time for much else other than getting some new front tyres for the car. I figured if this is the home of the motor industry then tyre places would be everywhere, there is certainly a lot. The other reason to buy them here was that we didn't want any reason for the US customs to pull us up when we return back from Canada, which is where we're heading next.
Detroit has seen it all. From the industrial and economic highs to the job cut and crime ridden lows. Huge axes at car plants resulted in widespread unemployment that even made the backdrop of former Detroit resident Eminem's film '8 mile'. 8 mile is the road that splits the rich and poor here but I couldn't tell the difference between 8 mile road and 11 mile road or the other way.
The nearby industrial town of Flint was most affected and was featured in a Michael Moore documentary. With the American car industry faltering Detroit went the same way.
But in the end Detroit was alright and I expected it to be worse than it was. I wouldn't see a need to go back but there still remains one of the car industry's biggest exhibition here and the start of the car production line and Henry Ford's brainchild. I did think that the home of cars would have better roads but than this. Without doubt the worse roads we've driven on with highways full of massive holes for long periods. Maybe this is where the cars are tested.
As in Chicago we stay out of town to keep costs down and this is our first encounter of a motel that has bullet proof glass to protect the receptionist. Needless to say we have a crap nights sleep with various comings and goings and loud hip-hop music pumping around the motel. There's something like 80% of the population here that is African American, I've no idea where the other 20% are.
We change motels next day and head into the deserted downtown. Some decent buildings and some money has clearly been spent but there's no-one but the odd crazy homeless guy hanging around.
We drive up towards the large buildings, that have now been let go, of a residential area in which the large Institute of Arts is housed. This is a large building that includes one of the finest murals on earth from one of the world's best, Mexican master Diego Rivera. It's huge, filling an entire room on all walls.
This is the Detroit Industries mural and tells many stories from the era of the Ford Motor Company's factory and the effect on the people who lived and worked at the time, good and bad.
Even a homage to the five workers shot to death in a strike have been included. It was a very controversial mural upon release. The uptight Americans even considered the inclusion of female breasts as pornographic. But even though Henry Ford is depicted as a bit of a tyrant his son was the main backer for the Diego murals. Unlike the Rockefeller Mural in New York that was considered too controversial and not completed. A tremendous piece and a handy free personal hand held guide walks you through the different aspects of the mural and some of the meanings behind the images.
The rest of the institute has classics from some of the most famous artists who ever lived. Funnily enough this is the only place where we see white people. Where the hell are they the rest of the time? This also makes me realise the odd balance of black and white in this country. African Americans live across the country yet we've only seen one in a National Park in over 20 that we've been in. I'm not sure what this even means but I find it very odd.
We have a quick look along the couple of streets of Greek Town. Almost unmemorable if it wasn't for an incident we witnessed. An elderly couple shuffling around the back of their car to extract a zimmerframe. Unfortunately for them some random hobo had spotted this and used his opportunity to sneak in and get out the zimmer himself. Seems friendly enough, until he won't realise the stability device to the elderly woman until he gets some money first. I hate this kind of thing and you spotting this thing before it happens. It's just like when I know some tramp is going to ask me for change, I can see something in their face.
We don't have time for much else other than getting some new front tyres for the car. I figured if this is the home of the motor industry then tyre places would be everywhere, there is certainly a lot. The other reason to buy them here was that we didn't want any reason for the US customs to pull us up when we return back from Canada, which is where we're heading next.
Detroit has seen it all. From the industrial and economic highs to the job cut and crime ridden lows. Huge axes at car plants resulted in widespread unemployment that even made the backdrop of former Detroit resident Eminem's film '8 mile'. 8 mile is the road that splits the rich and poor here but I couldn't tell the difference between 8 mile road and 11 mile road or the other way.
The nearby industrial town of Flint was most affected and was featured in a Michael Moore documentary. With the American car industry faltering Detroit went the same way.But in the end Detroit was alright and I expected it to be worse than it was. I wouldn't see a need to go back but there still remains one of the car industry's biggest exhibition here and the start of the car production line and Henry Ford's brainchild. I did think that the home of cars would have better roads but than this. Without doubt the worse roads we've driven on with highways full of massive holes for long periods. Maybe this is where the cars are tested.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Through plains and winds
From Missouri we pass into Iowa. I know little about this state other than a high percentage of it's land is fertile for agriculture and author Bill Bryson is from it's capital, Des Moines. Frankly, this is all I need to know. It's dull.
We drive 170 miles or so of interstate that looks the same. We reach Des Moines after what must be some of the worst roads in America, pot holes shouldn't exist on motorways. What a bland capital this is. Although, the capitol building has a few gold covered domes that stand out a mile, literally, from the buildings and streets of downtown. There's also a few other government buildings and memorials around the capitol building, one of which is an incredibly bad version of the statue of liberty in miniature.
From here we stop over at a small town, Grinnel, that has some almost film set looking streets of coloured wooden houses and a main street that again has a flash Masons building. The Masons are huge here. I don't know massive amounts about the masons but it seems they've got their fingers in a lot of pies and have something to do with the success of America.
There is a reason we've been driving for a few days of brain numbingly boring landscapes, it's to reach the windy city Chicago.
It's still a fair few miles of boring driving before we get there though. We cross the Mississippi River into Illinois, 'Land of Lincoln' as the state plate reads. You can see Chicago from a good distance. The buildings look sleek and stylish, shimmering in the sunshine besides the deep blue Lake Michigan. It looks more like a sea than a lake.
There was a haze hanging over the city from a distance but now we're beneath the skyscrapers it's as clear as a bell.
All the images I had of Chicago being a icy cold city may well be shattered as people bike, hike and rollerblade along the waters edge in the sunshine.
Chicago is home to the Sears Tower, once the tallest building in the world but it didn't really seem that big. Maybe Asia has spoilt me but the skyscrapers and tall buildings aren't massively awe inspiring. There's still a great look to the place and a good mix of old and new too.
We have a stroll around in the sunshine and take a look at a huge art installation called 'The Bean'. This is a wicked looking shining bean shaped lump of metal.
Not only is this thing very cool but it gives warped mirrored images of the skyline and becomes like a kaleidoscope once you get beneath it.
Can I find a join or weld anywhere on this thing? Can I buggery.
There is also a modern amphitheatre built here that hosts various shows and gigs, a real good idea right near the heart of downtown. I like the look of it, reminds me of Terminator for some reason.
We needed to find somewhere to stay but this was a problem. Chicago is an expensive town to stop in and our only chance is staying out of town. We try just north in a cool student part of town but it was still too expensive. We end up staying a fair way out of town to keep costs down. It easier to spend half an hour to drive into Chicago and pay half the accommodation costs, we have the time but not the money.
It takes us a while to find somewhere that isn't in a rough shod neighbourhood. The outskirt streets of this part of Chicago can be awful. The streets are littered and buildings run down. At one set of traffic lights a guy with one leg is pushing himself down the middle of the road in wheelchair. It's annoying really as the houses around here are quite attractive but they've just been left to rot by their owners and scattered rubbish around the front yard is common place.
We keep driving.
We stay in a decent neighbourhood about half an hour out of town.
The next day the wind has blown in the clouds. The higher buildings are now immersed and the rain looks sure to follow.
Is Chicago's moniker as the windy city fitting? Oh yes. When the wind blows it seems to pick up speed in-between the walls of buildings surrounding you. It's a chilling wind too.
As we walk around the city the main downtown area is ringed by 'the loop', the overground metro system, called Metra officially, that is built above the road on metal girders.
It's a bit of an eyesore but is ingrained in Chicago and featured in many a cop drama car chase scene.
The streets beneath the loop are dark and dank being hemmed in by the buildings and devoid of much sunlight any time of the day. It's gritty but I like it.
Chicago is a proper city. Only a handful of these exist in America so it feels good to be back in a place with life and energy. There's a smattering of interesting history here and great buildings too. The place was built and run by mobsters, it's home to some excellent modern and gothic architecture and it gave the world the deep pan pizza.
The great Chicago Tribune building has pieces of other famous buildings and structures from around the world embedded in its exterior walls. Westminster Abbey, the Pyramids at Gisa, the Great Wall of China and so on.
There's a long street of shops of the usual variety but it eventually leads to an underground pedestrian tunnel that brings you out onto a beach. A beach! Right on the main outer road of the city is a beach on the edge of Lake Michigan. It's not the weather for it today but you can imagine this small stretch being crowded when the sun is out.
We dive out of the rain and into a bar down town. I still don't like the idea of waitress service in bars where everyone sits down. Not only do I not like tipping it also gives places a pretty dull atmosphere. Pubs in England far surpass this in my opinion. Prices are the same too so it's not exactly a bargain option.
A few districts make the city whole and after down town we have a look at Old Town. A small area of trendy shops and arty goings on. We had to compare the ale here so found ourselves in another darkly lit bar. Not bad really even if the place was filled with terrible paintings of people in various sexual positions, maybe it was the owner's handiwork because I can't see why anybody else would want these horrors.
And just like that we leave. A couple of days is enough on our budget. I like Chicago, not a destination I'd go out of my way for but a decent couple of days stop over.
Next up is the home of the motor industry and then we get out of America!
We drive 170 miles or so of interstate that looks the same. We reach Des Moines after what must be some of the worst roads in America, pot holes shouldn't exist on motorways. What a bland capital this is. Although, the capitol building has a few gold covered domes that stand out a mile, literally, from the buildings and streets of downtown. There's also a few other government buildings and memorials around the capitol building, one of which is an incredibly bad version of the statue of liberty in miniature.
From here we stop over at a small town, Grinnel, that has some almost film set looking streets of coloured wooden houses and a main street that again has a flash Masons building. The Masons are huge here. I don't know massive amounts about the masons but it seems they've got their fingers in a lot of pies and have something to do with the success of America.
There is a reason we've been driving for a few days of brain numbingly boring landscapes, it's to reach the windy city Chicago.
It's still a fair few miles of boring driving before we get there though. We cross the Mississippi River into Illinois, 'Land of Lincoln' as the state plate reads. You can see Chicago from a good distance. The buildings look sleek and stylish, shimmering in the sunshine besides the deep blue Lake Michigan. It looks more like a sea than a lake.
There was a haze hanging over the city from a distance but now we're beneath the skyscrapers it's as clear as a bell.
All the images I had of Chicago being a icy cold city may well be shattered as people bike, hike and rollerblade along the waters edge in the sunshine.Chicago is home to the Sears Tower, once the tallest building in the world but it didn't really seem that big. Maybe Asia has spoilt me but the skyscrapers and tall buildings aren't massively awe inspiring. There's still a great look to the place and a good mix of old and new too.
We have a stroll around in the sunshine and take a look at a huge art installation called 'The Bean'. This is a wicked looking shining bean shaped lump of metal.
Not only is this thing very cool but it gives warped mirrored images of the skyline and becomes like a kaleidoscope once you get beneath it.
Can I find a join or weld anywhere on this thing? Can I buggery.
There is also a modern amphitheatre built here that hosts various shows and gigs, a real good idea right near the heart of downtown. I like the look of it, reminds me of Terminator for some reason.
We needed to find somewhere to stay but this was a problem. Chicago is an expensive town to stop in and our only chance is staying out of town. We try just north in a cool student part of town but it was still too expensive. We end up staying a fair way out of town to keep costs down. It easier to spend half an hour to drive into Chicago and pay half the accommodation costs, we have the time but not the money.
It takes us a while to find somewhere that isn't in a rough shod neighbourhood. The outskirt streets of this part of Chicago can be awful. The streets are littered and buildings run down. At one set of traffic lights a guy with one leg is pushing himself down the middle of the road in wheelchair. It's annoying really as the houses around here are quite attractive but they've just been left to rot by their owners and scattered rubbish around the front yard is common place.
We keep driving.
We stay in a decent neighbourhood about half an hour out of town.
The next day the wind has blown in the clouds. The higher buildings are now immersed and the rain looks sure to follow.
Is Chicago's moniker as the windy city fitting? Oh yes. When the wind blows it seems to pick up speed in-between the walls of buildings surrounding you. It's a chilling wind too.As we walk around the city the main downtown area is ringed by 'the loop', the overground metro system, called Metra officially, that is built above the road on metal girders.
It's a bit of an eyesore but is ingrained in Chicago and featured in many a cop drama car chase scene.The streets beneath the loop are dark and dank being hemmed in by the buildings and devoid of much sunlight any time of the day. It's gritty but I like it.
Chicago is a proper city. Only a handful of these exist in America so it feels good to be back in a place with life and energy. There's a smattering of interesting history here and great buildings too. The place was built and run by mobsters, it's home to some excellent modern and gothic architecture and it gave the world the deep pan pizza.
The great Chicago Tribune building has pieces of other famous buildings and structures from around the world embedded in its exterior walls. Westminster Abbey, the Pyramids at Gisa, the Great Wall of China and so on.
There's a long street of shops of the usual variety but it eventually leads to an underground pedestrian tunnel that brings you out onto a beach. A beach! Right on the main outer road of the city is a beach on the edge of Lake Michigan. It's not the weather for it today but you can imagine this small stretch being crowded when the sun is out.
We dive out of the rain and into a bar down town. I still don't like the idea of waitress service in bars where everyone sits down. Not only do I not like tipping it also gives places a pretty dull atmosphere. Pubs in England far surpass this in my opinion. Prices are the same too so it's not exactly a bargain option.
A few districts make the city whole and after down town we have a look at Old Town. A small area of trendy shops and arty goings on. We had to compare the ale here so found ourselves in another darkly lit bar. Not bad really even if the place was filled with terrible paintings of people in various sexual positions, maybe it was the owner's handiwork because I can't see why anybody else would want these horrors.
And just like that we leave. A couple of days is enough on our budget. I like Chicago, not a destination I'd go out of my way for but a decent couple of days stop over.
Next up is the home of the motor industry and then we get out of America!
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Put yer red shoes on
East of Colorado we begin a couple of long driving days to cross the flat plains of Kansas. This is a place where you can tell a small village is coming up because there's a grain silo on the main street. This is a place where the land stretches out to the horizon and has no remarkable features for hours of driving. This is a land where in schools they're trying to stop teaching evolution in favour of only teaching the next generation that Adam and Eve are the reason we're here. This is the land where the Wizard of Oz was set and this is because we're entering Tornado country.
We stop over at Dodge City. This place is moderately famous in America as the setting for a TV series in the 50's called Gunsmoke. The main street is named after it and the adjacent one is named 'Wyatt Earp Boulevard'. I've heard of Mr Earp and I'm sure he has some connection to the old west and gunslinging but after a mesmerisingly dull drive I don't care.
Dodge City is OK. A small town with cobbled streets and a bit of a crummy western style shopping area that costs something like $8 to park in. One thing you do notice here is the amount of Mexicans, there's hordes of them. We read that the Mexican food here is famously good but we don't want to overspend on the budget to find out, besides we've been to Mexico.
Out of town the landscape returns to it's former blandness. After a while we stop for petrol in a small middle of nowhere town. The usual barren land has become even more so and the trees about town seem twisted, bare and strange looking. Inside the petrol station I'm surprised how busy it is and how extensive the store is, considering there doesn't seem to be anything around here. At first it strikes us as another grim American town and we see that next door is the old supermarket that is now just a shell of wood and iron. We think it would be funny to drive down Main Street and mock it's run down and awful looking appearance but as we turn on to it something in my mind suddenly clicks.
Before us is a main street consisting of two brick buildings, one boarded up, and nothing else but debris. This town was the unfortunate victim of a tornado in May 2007. It destroyed 95% of the town. Not much seems to have improved since then. 
I still don't understand the American way of building the majority of houses out of plywood. It's no surprise then that those buildings are wiped out and the brick ones survive. Still, it's a very unfortunate position to be in and the chances of a tornado wiping out a town are slim. Now a TV documentary has been released about the rebuilding of this place as a 'green' town. I'm not even sure if they're building it in the same place.
On we go through Wichita. I like the sound of this place and it's not too bad a city but like many others it's completely devoid of people. It's like they built the place and then moved. There's a strange mist hanging over the city and for miles around it smells like pipe tobacco, odd.
What's the capital of Kansas? Kansas City? No of course not, it's Topeka. If a more plain and dull state capital exists than this then we've yet to see it. This place can't even manage to string a decent street together and the standard capitol building is now looking as dull as all the others.
Avoiding the toll roads we take the backroads and Kansas is suddenly a lot more hilly than it seemed on the interstate. The roads lean left and right and up and down all over the place and makes for a more interesting drive, well it stops me falling asleep at the wheel at least.
We arrive near the state border of Missouri and Kansas City. This is strangely confusing to me and even now that we've been there I still don't understand what it's all about. Kansas City is in both Missouri and Kansas. I think there are two Kansas Cities but if so they are right next to each other on the border.
The Kansas City in Kansas seemed to consist of nothing but interstate, that is to say we couldn't find it. The Kansas City on the Missouri side is in fact a proper city. How all this came to be I don't know. I do know that the road signs around here are the worst we've encountered and although we have a detailed map we get lost often.
Kansas City, that's in Missouri not Kansas, is not bad looking. The sky is grey and it's threatening rain around the high buildings and the odd bit of Gothic architecture.
There's smatterings of art about as we take a look at the river front area, which is grim and industrial which looks even more so with the start of the rain. Still, there's sprinklings of cool stuff in-between the terminally run-down buildings. It feels like a city built on industry that's only recently begun to modernise itself into being a hip town.
And just like that we've left Kansas and are speeding through Missouri and into Iowa. The dullness continues!
We stop over at Dodge City. This place is moderately famous in America as the setting for a TV series in the 50's called Gunsmoke. The main street is named after it and the adjacent one is named 'Wyatt Earp Boulevard'. I've heard of Mr Earp and I'm sure he has some connection to the old west and gunslinging but after a mesmerisingly dull drive I don't care.
Dodge City is OK. A small town with cobbled streets and a bit of a crummy western style shopping area that costs something like $8 to park in. One thing you do notice here is the amount of Mexicans, there's hordes of them. We read that the Mexican food here is famously good but we don't want to overspend on the budget to find out, besides we've been to Mexico.
Out of town the landscape returns to it's former blandness. After a while we stop for petrol in a small middle of nowhere town. The usual barren land has become even more so and the trees about town seem twisted, bare and strange looking. Inside the petrol station I'm surprised how busy it is and how extensive the store is, considering there doesn't seem to be anything around here. At first it strikes us as another grim American town and we see that next door is the old supermarket that is now just a shell of wood and iron. We think it would be funny to drive down Main Street and mock it's run down and awful looking appearance but as we turn on to it something in my mind suddenly clicks.
Before us is a main street consisting of two brick buildings, one boarded up, and nothing else but debris. This town was the unfortunate victim of a tornado in May 2007. It destroyed 95% of the town. Not much seems to have improved since then. 
I still don't understand the American way of building the majority of houses out of plywood. It's no surprise then that those buildings are wiped out and the brick ones survive. Still, it's a very unfortunate position to be in and the chances of a tornado wiping out a town are slim. Now a TV documentary has been released about the rebuilding of this place as a 'green' town. I'm not even sure if they're building it in the same place.On we go through Wichita. I like the sound of this place and it's not too bad a city but like many others it's completely devoid of people. It's like they built the place and then moved. There's a strange mist hanging over the city and for miles around it smells like pipe tobacco, odd.
What's the capital of Kansas? Kansas City? No of course not, it's Topeka. If a more plain and dull state capital exists than this then we've yet to see it. This place can't even manage to string a decent street together and the standard capitol building is now looking as dull as all the others.
Avoiding the toll roads we take the backroads and Kansas is suddenly a lot more hilly than it seemed on the interstate. The roads lean left and right and up and down all over the place and makes for a more interesting drive, well it stops me falling asleep at the wheel at least.
We arrive near the state border of Missouri and Kansas City. This is strangely confusing to me and even now that we've been there I still don't understand what it's all about. Kansas City is in both Missouri and Kansas. I think there are two Kansas Cities but if so they are right next to each other on the border.
The Kansas City in Kansas seemed to consist of nothing but interstate, that is to say we couldn't find it. The Kansas City on the Missouri side is in fact a proper city. How all this came to be I don't know. I do know that the road signs around here are the worst we've encountered and although we have a detailed map we get lost often.Kansas City, that's in Missouri not Kansas, is not bad looking. The sky is grey and it's threatening rain around the high buildings and the odd bit of Gothic architecture.
There's smatterings of art about as we take a look at the river front area, which is grim and industrial which looks even more so with the start of the rain. Still, there's sprinklings of cool stuff in-between the terminally run-down buildings. It feels like a city built on industry that's only recently begun to modernise itself into being a hip town.And just like that we've left Kansas and are speeding through Missouri and into Iowa. The dullness continues!
Great sand and snow
Alamosa is south of Denver and much warmer. It fells like we've headed back into Arizona but the snowy mountains reassure us we haven't. It's a small town with zero to offer. 
We're here because of what is on the outskirts, Great Sand Dune National Park. Not only does Colorado have world class snowboarding on huge jagged peaks it also has the largest sand dunes in mainland America. Upon entering a motel we notice signs on the doors detailing a water problem in town. It turns out the council had discovered the town water was contaminated and are now in the process of dumping serious amounts of chlorine into the town's system. This means the water is undrinkable as well as inadvisable to wash in and brush your teeth in. We'll be staying just the one night then.
It's a bit out in the middle of nowhere here, we passed just two tiny hamlets in 70 miles to get here, so away from the main street it looks a bit tired, like the inhabitants, but there's a healthy mix of Mexicans and Americans here as the Mexican border used to be north of here. But, there isn't a great deal out here. Let's get to those sand dunes then!
You can see the dunes from the road into town but it's not until you drive the 15 miles toward them that you realise how big they are. Even then it's deceiving until you're stood at the foot of them. Of course we had to climb them. It took around an hour and a half to get to the highest dune in North America.
The sand gets deep in places and the wind gets stronger nearer the top spitting up sand in your face regularly. All this made harder by carrying my transport back down, the snowboard.
Great views at the top run on for 30 square miles of sand dunes toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
It really does look fake and difficult to comprehend it's size but it's bloody windy and I'm sliding down this thing on the steepest grade I can find.
There's a few people out on the dunes but we've been alone now for a while and don't really come close to anybody until we reach the car. Some families are out with their sleds and trying to get some speed up on the dunes. 
I get about 10 runs down various dunes until reaching the flat sands to where water running from mountain snowmelt is creeping along it's way. In a couple of weeks this will become a raging torrent, well almost. It'll still only be a few inches deep but rushing fast. 
The river is in fact a phenomena. It's pulsating motion has scientists intrigued and so forth and so on.
Beneath the large grains on the dunes is snow. Yep, snow. Climbing out of a large sand shaped funnel the sand shifts and white glistening snow appears. Odd but true. It's hard to describe this place as after all it's just tons of sand being constantly shaped by the whistling winds around the mountains. It does mean that this landscape is ever changing. If you went today the place will be different, the dunes could have grown or receded and the river could be pulsing away to it's own beat. What an amazing place.
So, what now? A couple of days of driving the flat plains of middle America. Into Kansas it is then.
We're here because of what is on the outskirts, Great Sand Dune National Park. Not only does Colorado have world class snowboarding on huge jagged peaks it also has the largest sand dunes in mainland America. Upon entering a motel we notice signs on the doors detailing a water problem in town. It turns out the council had discovered the town water was contaminated and are now in the process of dumping serious amounts of chlorine into the town's system. This means the water is undrinkable as well as inadvisable to wash in and brush your teeth in. We'll be staying just the one night then.It's a bit out in the middle of nowhere here, we passed just two tiny hamlets in 70 miles to get here, so away from the main street it looks a bit tired, like the inhabitants, but there's a healthy mix of Mexicans and Americans here as the Mexican border used to be north of here. But, there isn't a great deal out here. Let's get to those sand dunes then!
You can see the dunes from the road into town but it's not until you drive the 15 miles toward them that you realise how big they are. Even then it's deceiving until you're stood at the foot of them. Of course we had to climb them. It took around an hour and a half to get to the highest dune in North America.
The sand gets deep in places and the wind gets stronger nearer the top spitting up sand in your face regularly. All this made harder by carrying my transport back down, the snowboard.Great views at the top run on for 30 square miles of sand dunes toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
It really does look fake and difficult to comprehend it's size but it's bloody windy and I'm sliding down this thing on the steepest grade I can find.
There's a few people out on the dunes but we've been alone now for a while and don't really come close to anybody until we reach the car. Some families are out with their sleds and trying to get some speed up on the dunes. 
I get about 10 runs down various dunes until reaching the flat sands to where water running from mountain snowmelt is creeping along it's way. In a couple of weeks this will become a raging torrent, well almost. It'll still only be a few inches deep but rushing fast. 
The river is in fact a phenomena. It's pulsating motion has scientists intrigued and so forth and so on.
Beneath the large grains on the dunes is snow. Yep, snow. Climbing out of a large sand shaped funnel the sand shifts and white glistening snow appears. Odd but true. It's hard to describe this place as after all it's just tons of sand being constantly shaped by the whistling winds around the mountains. It does mean that this landscape is ever changing. If you went today the place will be different, the dunes could have grown or receded and the river could be pulsing away to it's own beat. What an amazing place.
So, what now? A couple of days of driving the flat plains of middle America. Into Kansas it is then.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Red is the colour
I don't quite understand that Colorado is supposed to be named after how the Spanish described it. Colour Red. From my jumbled Spanish knowledge I was of the belief that it should be named 'Colorojo' with the 'j' pronounced like a 'h'. Maybe someone misheard, or maybe I'm wrong, but one thing that is correct is the description. Of course not the whole state is red. Half of it is flat green plains and the other half is large sharp pointed mountains. But there's plenty of red rock thrown in for good measure and the state slogan, 'Colorful Colorado', continues to ring true.
First stop is the university town of Fort Collins. A long main street of brick fronted shops with local stores offering goods from student fashions to high price bicycles. A short pedestrianised section includes the dull chain stores, and wandering hoboes, until it all peters out near the university. There's a strong youthful energy about the place with cool kids abound. This is a rarity in the US. The opposite of the trendy and fashionable people of American TV and film applies. This is one of the least trendy and attractive nations we've visited. TV and film is packed with the image of the beautiful people of America but in reality around 95% of people look as if cruel experiments have been taken upon them whilst single-handedly robbing them of any sense of style. Ok so this isn't the most important thing one can note about a nation but until this trip I didn't realise how different people in Europe can be to the rest of the world. At times it often feels like a step back in time, as it did in Australia, to see how we used to live but have now moved on.
This is why Fort Collins is a decent place. Pockets of hip youthfulness help give energy to a place and keep it bouncing along rather than stagnate into another one of many flat lining American town.
We have another reason to like Colorado. It's the home of what has now become our favourite cheap food haunt and that has saved us from the depths of fast food depravity we've been locked in for months. Chipotle Mexican Grill started here and offers us huge burrittos of, as they declare it, gourmet quality for only slightly more than a limp slice of questionable meat slapped between fake cheese and a couple of dough based products they like to call buns. If this type of food was readily available in England someone would make an absolute fortune and its the cool kids of Colorado that helped the success of the chain that was originally located near to universities. The bad skin I am trying to fight off here from all the corn syrup in everything we consume has cleared. It's no wonder that all the countries we've visited most people look 10 times healthier than that of the American people. Bad skin here is endemic to bad diet and huge amounts of people into their late 30's and 40's still seem to be struggling with acne. Maybe if everything didn't come with melted cheese on it they'd be a lot nearer a solution.
Fort Collins is also home to many micro-breweries that carefully create wide varieties of good tasting beer. The towns of Colorado keep impressing.
This run of cool towns had to end but I didn't think it would end at the oddly named place we pass through, Loveland. I heard on the news that this place gets huge amounts of post redirected though it's office at Valentine's just so it can get the 'Loveland' stamp. And that's all I remember. Oh, it did have a great shop named 'Loveland Pawn' which tickled me but that's about your lot. It also has the honour of being an 'All American City', which I gather is an award of sorts handed out to a different town each year. We've passed through a few already. I'm not sure what the criteria for becoming an 'All American City' are but from what I've seen I think your town must have one fairly long dull main street. One or maybe two hanging baskets. Plenty of Amenities; Walmart, KFC, Burger King etc. and be a place you go to die(or want to die in).These plainly mediocre towns seem only to be inhabited by white folk, but maybe that's just what we saw passing through and not a true reflection of the societies living in these lifeless blocks of uniformity.
Colorado Springs is the next town, it's probably a city, that we spend a couple of days at. The downtown area is like many others and does include some nice looking establishments and a couple of grand museums. The real draw here is out of town. Just on the edge of town is a free park that is full of red rock formations that just seem like they're growing out of the green landscape around the area.
The obligatory overnight snowfall shows the park in it's best light and the sun is out making for a great stroll around. A decent loop road also takes you around the sights, the large balanced rock being a favourite. With snow still on the nearby mountains these rocks stand out even more, no wonder it's a popular visitors spot. 
We'd had a quick look round the park the previous afternoon as the light rain became snow. It wasn't the best conditions for a stroll but today with the luminescent blue sky and dazzling sun coupled with the snow still laying about waiting to melt it couldn't have been better. What a difference a day makes.
Colorado Springs has another trick up it's sleeve. Pike's Peak that looms high over the town is a famous timed rally spot. The road leading to the top hosts a gruelling event annually but anyone can drive up it for a fee. As the fee was over $35 it was something we'd have to miss but we did get up to the small village at the foot of the famous peak. At this point I was glad we didn't attempt the drive up the peak once the snow got had begin to get thicker and thicker.
The village of Manitou Springs is the point from which a cog train takes tourists to the top of Pikes Peak but we can't even see it now due to snow.
The place itself seems quaint and has a bit of a wizard and fairy sort of theme about, we walk around for 15 minutes or so before the snow gets even heavier.
We grab a burritto before we go and scoff it outside the decent looking Pioneer Museum downtown. We sit in the car gorging on the Mexican delight whilst traffic builds up at the nearby lights. A woman decides this is the opportunity she's been waiting for and gets out of her car to flash her bra at her friends following behind. They find this even more hilarious when they spot us two right next to them. There must be something in the air around here as in the ice cold Rocky Mountains I spot a girl in her early twenties wearing a skimpy black top and just her knickers.....in the snow!! Someone is taking photos of her while she poses but it's not even in a discreet place, it's right next to a car park!
It's time again to head on and we've got one last National Park to visit before heading east. It'll be the last park we'll see for a while as the excellent run of parks in the west has come to an end. Thankfully this one is a corker.
First stop is the university town of Fort Collins. A long main street of brick fronted shops with local stores offering goods from student fashions to high price bicycles. A short pedestrianised section includes the dull chain stores, and wandering hoboes, until it all peters out near the university. There's a strong youthful energy about the place with cool kids abound. This is a rarity in the US. The opposite of the trendy and fashionable people of American TV and film applies. This is one of the least trendy and attractive nations we've visited. TV and film is packed with the image of the beautiful people of America but in reality around 95% of people look as if cruel experiments have been taken upon them whilst single-handedly robbing them of any sense of style. Ok so this isn't the most important thing one can note about a nation but until this trip I didn't realise how different people in Europe can be to the rest of the world. At times it often feels like a step back in time, as it did in Australia, to see how we used to live but have now moved on.
This is why Fort Collins is a decent place. Pockets of hip youthfulness help give energy to a place and keep it bouncing along rather than stagnate into another one of many flat lining American town.
We have another reason to like Colorado. It's the home of what has now become our favourite cheap food haunt and that has saved us from the depths of fast food depravity we've been locked in for months. Chipotle Mexican Grill started here and offers us huge burrittos of, as they declare it, gourmet quality for only slightly more than a limp slice of questionable meat slapped between fake cheese and a couple of dough based products they like to call buns. If this type of food was readily available in England someone would make an absolute fortune and its the cool kids of Colorado that helped the success of the chain that was originally located near to universities. The bad skin I am trying to fight off here from all the corn syrup in everything we consume has cleared. It's no wonder that all the countries we've visited most people look 10 times healthier than that of the American people. Bad skin here is endemic to bad diet and huge amounts of people into their late 30's and 40's still seem to be struggling with acne. Maybe if everything didn't come with melted cheese on it they'd be a lot nearer a solution.
Fort Collins is also home to many micro-breweries that carefully create wide varieties of good tasting beer. The towns of Colorado keep impressing.
This run of cool towns had to end but I didn't think it would end at the oddly named place we pass through, Loveland. I heard on the news that this place gets huge amounts of post redirected though it's office at Valentine's just so it can get the 'Loveland' stamp. And that's all I remember. Oh, it did have a great shop named 'Loveland Pawn' which tickled me but that's about your lot. It also has the honour of being an 'All American City', which I gather is an award of sorts handed out to a different town each year. We've passed through a few already. I'm not sure what the criteria for becoming an 'All American City' are but from what I've seen I think your town must have one fairly long dull main street. One or maybe two hanging baskets. Plenty of Amenities; Walmart, KFC, Burger King etc. and be a place you go to die(or want to die in).These plainly mediocre towns seem only to be inhabited by white folk, but maybe that's just what we saw passing through and not a true reflection of the societies living in these lifeless blocks of uniformity.
Colorado Springs is the next town, it's probably a city, that we spend a couple of days at. The downtown area is like many others and does include some nice looking establishments and a couple of grand museums. The real draw here is out of town. Just on the edge of town is a free park that is full of red rock formations that just seem like they're growing out of the green landscape around the area.
The obligatory overnight snowfall shows the park in it's best light and the sun is out making for a great stroll around. A decent loop road also takes you around the sights, the large balanced rock being a favourite. With snow still on the nearby mountains these rocks stand out even more, no wonder it's a popular visitors spot. 
We'd had a quick look round the park the previous afternoon as the light rain became snow. It wasn't the best conditions for a stroll but today with the luminescent blue sky and dazzling sun coupled with the snow still laying about waiting to melt it couldn't have been better. What a difference a day makes.
Colorado Springs has another trick up it's sleeve. Pike's Peak that looms high over the town is a famous timed rally spot. The road leading to the top hosts a gruelling event annually but anyone can drive up it for a fee. As the fee was over $35 it was something we'd have to miss but we did get up to the small village at the foot of the famous peak. At this point I was glad we didn't attempt the drive up the peak once the snow got had begin to get thicker and thicker.
The village of Manitou Springs is the point from which a cog train takes tourists to the top of Pikes Peak but we can't even see it now due to snow.
The place itself seems quaint and has a bit of a wizard and fairy sort of theme about, we walk around for 15 minutes or so before the snow gets even heavier.We grab a burritto before we go and scoff it outside the decent looking Pioneer Museum downtown. We sit in the car gorging on the Mexican delight whilst traffic builds up at the nearby lights. A woman decides this is the opportunity she's been waiting for and gets out of her car to flash her bra at her friends following behind. They find this even more hilarious when they spot us two right next to them. There must be something in the air around here as in the ice cold Rocky Mountains I spot a girl in her early twenties wearing a skimpy black top and just her knickers.....in the snow!! Someone is taking photos of her while she poses but it's not even in a discreet place, it's right next to a car park!
It's time again to head on and we've got one last National Park to visit before heading east. It'll be the last park we'll see for a while as the excellent run of parks in the west has come to an end. Thankfully this one is a corker.
on the road again
Leaving the mile-high city of Denver we soon enter back into the state of Wyoming. The American interstate system is good for just ploughing ahead but don't plan on seeing a great deal. Dull is the best word to describe most outlooks from the interstate but at least it's direct.
The yellow grass plains of Wyoming start displaying signs of snow and the more west we head the more the snow appears. By the time we reach the small town of Rawlins it's freezing and ice surrounds the crummy motel we stop in. Rawlins is one of those American towns that is terminally ugly and unfathomably expensive.
Why in this dead end backwater are all the motels soo pricey I can't comprehend. After entering the petrol station to the sound of the black toothed cashier swearing her head off, then her total lack of being able to understand a word I was saying, I was glad to get out of the place. In many places, more often in small towns, people seem to have no clue what the hell I'm saying to them. Tuna isn't that far away from the American pronunciation 'Toona' but still this baffles hordes of backwards born hicks. My refusal to repeat it the American way sometimes drags things out but I feel it must be done. This is probably caused in part by the lack of worldly knowledge they have. Any programme on TV featuring foriegners, even English, speaking English has subtitles along the bottom. This kind of forced laziness is farcically annoying at times when I have to prepay for petrol by announcing I want, '40 dollars on pump 5 please' and getting responses like, '15 dollars on what ya say?'. I'm surprised I haven't bitten my tongue clean off by now but I'm at the whim of these morons as I need what they're selling.
We leave miserable Rawlins behind on a snow covered highway on which the wind is throwing snow around like a white sea. Further on heavy road salting leaves the road looking not dissimilar to a scene from 'The Fog' with it's rising swirls of steam.
We spend the night in another 'anywhere America' town named Pocatello. It's much better than Rawlins at least but the sun from the late afternoon doesn't continue into the next day and we once again awake to heavy snow fall. We make a decision on the car's starter motor, if it doesn't start first time this morning then we're buying a new one. The reception clerk helps us push start it in the falling snow on our way to the car parts place.
Thankfully for us my mum had found a second hand starter motor on the internet a few days earlier. And where could we buy this vital part from? Pocatello handily enough. After we'd found the place and they'd returned from lunch the part was ours at a third of the price of a new one, excellent. Now all it needed was fitting. We decide to buy some tools but put off the fitting for a couple of days in the hope that the weather just gets a touch warmer and we can make in time before the Craters of the moon visitors centre closes.
We re-enter Idaho with a different view from two weeks previous. Last time we were here every single piece of ground was layered in thick snow.
This time the pale grass is showing prominently through and the snow has receded. I begin to think that snowboarding may not even be an option but as we close in on the visitors centre we see the large cinder cone of weeks before still wearing a blanket of snow. Granted it's nowhere near as thick but it's good enough. We get to the visitors centre and gratefully retrieve the boots, in the exact same condition we left them, then quickly repeat our previous snowboarding attempts on the cone. It's easier to walk much higher on the cone this time but I didn't forget that the higher altitude make the trudge just that much harder. 
In places the snow has become packed ice which I duly test the strength of with my skull , knocking me into a daze for a few minutes. Maybe a helmet would be a good idea.
After a couple of hours of hard work we drive out of the barren middle-of-nowhere setting to the town we stopped in last time, Idaho Falls.
This time we stay in a nicer motel, not that the last one was bad, with a Mormon Temple view and recover from the battering we'd inflicted on ourselves.
Right, the moment of truth. Firstly, will the newly purchased starter motor work? Secondly, will I be able to fit it myself. It gets of to an OK start on another chilly morning until failure to reach the last bolt means scouting around town for a shorter spanner. Of course we can't find one, not even the local tool shop sells many items smaller than my forearm. So I put the bolts back and head back south through Pocatello once again. Here I get what I need and attempt once again, swapping the starter motors, in the icy breeze of the middle of the day on a Walmart car park. Oh the joys of travelling. But when I turn the ignition key all is good with the world and we've just saved ourselves a bundle of cash.
Back on the interstate we drive south out of Idaho into Wyoming, briefly skirting Utah, to another pointless town, Evanston. This woefully grey town was briefly turned lighter when we arrive out our motel and get chatting to the friendly Indian owner. His vast travelling, along with being able to speak 7 languages, gives us reason to talk for some time and leads, more importantly in my view, to him offering to give us some of his wife's home cooked food that evening. All at my favourite price, nothing. He even delivers it to our room, brill! It's been a long while since we'd had decent Indian food so the pakoras he gave us were very appreciated.
The next morning brings the usual heavy snow fall and the true test of the new starter motor, it works like a charm. A good way to start the day. Another good start to the day is leaving Evanston, which offers almost nothing from memory. I do like Wyoming as a state but for it's natural beauty alone as it's towns are just plain awful.
Now with the boots reclaimed and some extra miles under our belts we can get back to where we left off in a state that seems to have a lot more good places than bad, Colorado.
The yellow grass plains of Wyoming start displaying signs of snow and the more west we head the more the snow appears. By the time we reach the small town of Rawlins it's freezing and ice surrounds the crummy motel we stop in. Rawlins is one of those American towns that is terminally ugly and unfathomably expensive.
Why in this dead end backwater are all the motels soo pricey I can't comprehend. After entering the petrol station to the sound of the black toothed cashier swearing her head off, then her total lack of being able to understand a word I was saying, I was glad to get out of the place. In many places, more often in small towns, people seem to have no clue what the hell I'm saying to them. Tuna isn't that far away from the American pronunciation 'Toona' but still this baffles hordes of backwards born hicks. My refusal to repeat it the American way sometimes drags things out but I feel it must be done. This is probably caused in part by the lack of worldly knowledge they have. Any programme on TV featuring foriegners, even English, speaking English has subtitles along the bottom. This kind of forced laziness is farcically annoying at times when I have to prepay for petrol by announcing I want, '40 dollars on pump 5 please' and getting responses like, '15 dollars on what ya say?'. I'm surprised I haven't bitten my tongue clean off by now but I'm at the whim of these morons as I need what they're selling.
We leave miserable Rawlins behind on a snow covered highway on which the wind is throwing snow around like a white sea. Further on heavy road salting leaves the road looking not dissimilar to a scene from 'The Fog' with it's rising swirls of steam.
We spend the night in another 'anywhere America' town named Pocatello. It's much better than Rawlins at least but the sun from the late afternoon doesn't continue into the next day and we once again awake to heavy snow fall. We make a decision on the car's starter motor, if it doesn't start first time this morning then we're buying a new one. The reception clerk helps us push start it in the falling snow on our way to the car parts place.
Thankfully for us my mum had found a second hand starter motor on the internet a few days earlier. And where could we buy this vital part from? Pocatello handily enough. After we'd found the place and they'd returned from lunch the part was ours at a third of the price of a new one, excellent. Now all it needed was fitting. We decide to buy some tools but put off the fitting for a couple of days in the hope that the weather just gets a touch warmer and we can make in time before the Craters of the moon visitors centre closes.
We re-enter Idaho with a different view from two weeks previous. Last time we were here every single piece of ground was layered in thick snow.
This time the pale grass is showing prominently through and the snow has receded. I begin to think that snowboarding may not even be an option but as we close in on the visitors centre we see the large cinder cone of weeks before still wearing a blanket of snow. Granted it's nowhere near as thick but it's good enough. We get to the visitors centre and gratefully retrieve the boots, in the exact same condition we left them, then quickly repeat our previous snowboarding attempts on the cone. It's easier to walk much higher on the cone this time but I didn't forget that the higher altitude make the trudge just that much harder. 
In places the snow has become packed ice which I duly test the strength of with my skull , knocking me into a daze for a few minutes. Maybe a helmet would be a good idea.After a couple of hours of hard work we drive out of the barren middle-of-nowhere setting to the town we stopped in last time, Idaho Falls.
This time we stay in a nicer motel, not that the last one was bad, with a Mormon Temple view and recover from the battering we'd inflicted on ourselves.Right, the moment of truth. Firstly, will the newly purchased starter motor work? Secondly, will I be able to fit it myself. It gets of to an OK start on another chilly morning until failure to reach the last bolt means scouting around town for a shorter spanner. Of course we can't find one, not even the local tool shop sells many items smaller than my forearm. So I put the bolts back and head back south through Pocatello once again. Here I get what I need and attempt once again, swapping the starter motors, in the icy breeze of the middle of the day on a Walmart car park. Oh the joys of travelling. But when I turn the ignition key all is good with the world and we've just saved ourselves a bundle of cash.
Back on the interstate we drive south out of Idaho into Wyoming, briefly skirting Utah, to another pointless town, Evanston. This woefully grey town was briefly turned lighter when we arrive out our motel and get chatting to the friendly Indian owner. His vast travelling, along with being able to speak 7 languages, gives us reason to talk for some time and leads, more importantly in my view, to him offering to give us some of his wife's home cooked food that evening. All at my favourite price, nothing. He even delivers it to our room, brill! It's been a long while since we'd had decent Indian food so the pakoras he gave us were very appreciated.
The next morning brings the usual heavy snow fall and the true test of the new starter motor, it works like a charm. A good way to start the day. Another good start to the day is leaving Evanston, which offers almost nothing from memory. I do like Wyoming as a state but for it's natural beauty alone as it's towns are just plain awful.
Now with the boots reclaimed and some extra miles under our belts we can get back to where we left off in a state that seems to have a lot more good places than bad, Colorado.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
