Travelling up the West coast to San Francisco

The next morning bill took us into Ventura where we would catch our train and bus to San Francisco that night, so we spent the day on the beach and in a cafe! I read on the Train until we got to santa barbera and then on teh coach I slept although it was freezing, We rolled into San Fran at 5am! Found a Hotel on Union Square (really good location) and I got us all a room for cheap, after we slept for a while we caught the tour bus to golden gate park and wondered around for ages their before catching teh bus again to the golden gate bridge, our tour guide was this wierd old guy who said the most pointless things but it was helarious! We were really lucky in San Fran as it was roasting hot and not cloudy which it usually is because of the pacific ocean pulls in cold weather and makes it cloudy. We then caught the bus to fishermans wharf and baught tickets for Alcatraz, we wanted to do the night tour but they were sold out for over a week :( so we got tickets for teh next day baught a takeaway and caught teh tram back. Next day we got up had brekkie and caught the bus to the golden gate bridge which we walked across, then went to see the sea lions and then alcatraz which was amazing, their was a guy their who was signing books, he had been an inmate for 5 years at alcatraz! shopped after for a bit and caught the tram back before going into china town and then to teh cheesecake factory which was onthe roof of macy's and teh view was awesome! Next day.......... phewwwww lol we got up quite late, went and played golf in the golden gate park which is bigger than central park! after golf we came back and caught the cable car up russian hill to the crookedest street and then went to the steepest road in San Fran which is over 30degrees :O finally before going to bed we went back to the cheesecake factory! Wow today!!!!!!! ok so basically I woke up late, went shopping, baught some new board shorts and a quiksilver t-shirt. went and had a wiked icecream at this quirky place 2 blocks away! then I chilled in union square and listened to music before talking to this guy who had also road tripped across america in a bus with randomers! later on today ill probly just go to teh cheesecake factory again. Tomorrow I fly to NYC in teh morning :(
Im gonna miss San Fran!

Ojai and the end of the YukonXL :(

With the rest of the day I drove us all to Ojai which is a beautiful spanish influenced town a few hours north of LA just above Malibu beach, this town is where we would leave our YukonXL with our Boss's Bill and Sabina. We checked into the Best Western Hotel and then Bill took us all for a meal at this gorgeous Mediterrainian and after we chilled in the pool and jacousi :)

No more Driving!!!!!!!!!!

Santa Monica, Hollywood, Venice Beach etc...

Later this day we drove to LA's Santa Monica, during our drive through the Nevada Desert it reached 113f which is 45oC so yeah it was roasting hot, we got to Todd's house around 6pm, Todd worked at camp this year for his 50th birthday and he is a financial advisor for celebritys like will smith etc... The night we got to his house we had a wonderful meal and then Todd rushed off at 9pm for a meeting with Christina Aguilera! we all chilled in their pool and Jacouse. The next day we went to Santa Monica beach and chilled, then muscle beach had lunch, hired bikes and biked down the boulevard where everyone rollerblades etc.... we went to venice beach and after we just chilled in teh Gelfands pool for a while before going to a Mexican restaraunt and then Hollywood and Beverly Hills at night. The next day I drove to LA down sunset blvd and past beverly hills and to Hollywood where we spent the morning. I also drove to the big sign of "hollywood" on the side of the mountain which was a nightmare to get to!!!

Hoover Dam and Las Vegas

After sunset we got back in the car and drove to Vegas! during teh drive we stopped off at the Hoover Dam at night and got some pictures. A few hours later we rolled into Vegas and immediatly drove down the strip to Ceasars Palace, walked in at 2:30am looking like tramps and asked for a reservation... it was $380 per night so we turned it down, looked at a few more which was hard work as no other hotels would recommend others as they were competition, we eventually settled at circus circus for really cheap but a really nice room! straight away I dumped my bags and went to the casino to get away from everyone as emotions were high, I had a drink at the bar and played poker and then just kept getting free drinks so I stayed till quite early in the morning and then hit the bed! The next day we or should I say the girls really annoyed us by messing around with breakfast for agesssssss, that pissed me off alot to be honest. we then toured the strip/shopped, I got a new bag and t-shirt and then the girls were late so that pissed me and pete off even more and we just left them and did our own thing! we went and did a rollercoaster at NY NY and then went into Luxor and omg their were the hottest women working their! got a picture with them :D then we went to the bellagio and saw the water display their which was phenominal! hehe and then went back to the hotel to get ready for the night. That night pete was ill so it was just me and the girls who went out, we went to a few casinos but they got bored so we hit a nightclub called Tao which was inside the Vanecian. That was really posh and kool, I met a girl here who was at the olympics just before and she worked in China for 5 years but grew up in Germany, spent the night with her at the Hilton hotel and then the next day I went up the stratosphere but wasnt feeling to good to actually go on the rides :(

Moab Utah and Arizona

From here we had a 4hourish drive to a place called Moab in Utah, this was a fun drive as it was dark, thunderstorms all around us, no sign posts, no cars, ghost towns! and we were telling ghost stories and stuff. We finally rolled into Moab and booked into a ranch style motel. The next day we drove back on ourselfs to Arches National park and got some amazing pictures their, I climbed in to a hole on one of teh arches and the view was amazing! it is a great place to be. After arches we continued to Monument valley which you drive down to and it looks like a town of rocks, its pretty amazing, we were running into the road to take pictures and then running off before cars came lol! Our final stop that day was the grand canyon, I drove in their and we stayed around the watch tower for a while before rushing to the grand canyon outlook for sunset, during the rush I was speeding a little and a cop flashed their lights at me and I thaught he was going to spin around and give me a ticket but he didnt luckily! we got their just in time for sunset and it was unreal! It was nice to be alone and just think things through their.
Oh Oh we also drove down teh original route 66 :D

Badlands, Mt Rushmore and onto Denver

OK so I got to the badlands before on my last blog and then I tried to update it and wrote shed loads and the computer got cut off! so all my efforts were lost but ill try to mention most of the things I did here.... After the badlands I drove To mount rushmore which was pretty amazing but the meaning of teh whole thing was lame and the fact you couldnt get up close to it sucked but apart from that it was a spectacle and teh whole history behind its making was phenominal, the use of TNT and that 90% of the work was done by explosives and then the info on their being an inscription their but they had to blow up and move one of teh faces of teh presidentr because the rock was to brittle took up the room for the inscription. Also the designer wasnt sure weather to include abraham with or without a beard! and the fact it cost over $900,000,000 to make it was pretty crazy :S After this we hit subway with some $5 footlongs and I drove on through the black hills which were steep and bendy, their were several bits with one way tunnels where you had to honk the horn and it was a kool road to drive on with a amazing view, during this drive we saw gophers on the plains, wild horses, a herd of buffalo which we had to stop for, and I nearly hit a fleet of Elk that dashed out infront of me which was scary! This was a really kool part of the trip as we saw little big horn and custers last stand, it was surreal as you could almost tell from the plains that it was fighting ground! I then drove on all the way through wyoming which was one massive straight road with a train track alongside it and probly the biggest freight train ive ever seen with over 100 carriages! This was a fun easy drive as I could hit 90mph all the way and not worry about the cops as I could see for miles!

Evergreen Colorado and Mt Evans

We arrived in Denver quite late around 8pm I think :S drove through to Evergreen which is where our Athletic Director Kenny lives, its like 8,000ft high and its so high the air is slightly thinner and soda cans burst under pressure their! We watched a thunder storm roll in that evening and i got a picture of the lightening hitting a mountain which looks sweet :D The next day we all went and watched a colorado rockies game at the Coors stadium, they were playing cincinatti reds and it went to the 11th inning which is quite rare and the rockies won 4-3 After this we had a lovely meal at kennys which his wife cooked and then played on the Xbox with Jake for a few hours. The next day we left and we drove up Mt Evans which is one of teh tallest mountains in America, its 14,200+ ft high and the air is really thin up their! the view was surreal and on teh way back down the mountain our car started to run low on coolant! so I had to pull over into wallmart and buy some and wait for teh engine to cool down before adding it! so we all got lunch :)