Fast food nation

Ok, so now I have to admit we've entered into the hellish pit that is American fast food. The problem is it's cheap. It's cheaper than buying stuff to make yourself by a long way, unfortunately. We have eaten in the odd restaurant now and again but it cripples the budget. Gone are the days my friend when we could eat in the finest restaurants every night quaffing bottles of red wine above the soft glow of candles and the sound of Latin America beating behind. Heady days indeed.
Getting by in America on our budget it difficult to say the least and money slips away easily. Taco Bell, the Mexican food based fast food chain, is our main source of cheap fodder. It's all clearly bad for you but needs must. The culture here seems a lot more geared to fast food than England. You often see people off all ages and classes eating in some of the grittiest grimiest places I've ever seen. On the whole the food is dire but mostly passable. However, 'Burrito' is now my favourite word. This food has clearly affected my brain.
If we had a normal holiday budget, i.e. more than what we've got, eating in decent places would be cheap and excellent I'm sure but not on this trip no siree.
We leave San Francisco thinking we won't see another great American city until we get to the east coast. Inland we head and next up is the capital of California, Sacramento.
This isn't a bad place, it's not one you'd go out of your way to go or even get out of bed for but we did manage at least that.


The downtown area of the city could be US anywhere apart from another white domed capital building. Of course the California sun is still shining so it's not a bad walk around. This is also the first place I've ever seen orange trees growing on the pavement next to the road and lots of them. Oranges in February? This ain't like Farington.


Sacramento also has an 'old' town area that is in an old west style with wooden buildings that have wide boardwalks in front. It's a weekend so there's plenty of people about and lines of cars driving up and down the 3 or 4 streets showing off themselves and so forth. Guys rev Harley Davidsons loudly and look around to see who's noticed.

A line of refurbished old American classic cars rolls through town, several times, trying to look cool and like they didn't want any attention as they rev their engines. Most shops sell awful tat that you wouldn't even want to throw at someone. Other than that there's plenty of candy stores selling saltwater dolphin friendly taffy, it makes no sense to me either. This is Americana right here right now. Hmph.
One plus note, other than the Orange trees and good weather, is that it's got a nice looking bridge. A golden bridge, with a gate on it. Excellent.

It really is gold too, in a metallic paint way. Oh the little things.
I'm tired of city life, especially American city life, and want to head further inland to see some good natural stuff. Many people we'd met along the way to North America couldn't believe we wanted to go and for soo long. I'm determined to make it worthwhile to see some great country, it's just a shame some of the man-made things can often be so depressingly bad.
But the warm weather continues as we drive further inland across dusty plains toward Lake Tahoe where things are very different.