Utahkin to me?

Apologies for the lack of photo's today! Im writing this on the bus and dont have the cable to connect my camera!

I went to Salt Lake City for a weekend... and ended up staying almost 2 weeks! This happened for a few reasons. After a pretty terrible bus journey (it took 3 goes to get through the Rocky mountains, making us 15 hours late) I was feeling pretty ill and not looking forward to further trips. So I ended up looking for a cheap flight, which required an extra weeks stay. If we're being honest (and we usually are on this blog) though, I was having too much fun, and staying with great people so I kinda didnt want to leave!

I'm sure you dont want to hear me harp on about that stuff though, so onto the sights! Utah is famous for being home to the Mormons (or LDS Church). I was staying with my dad's friends Dave and Jan, who gave me a fair idea of all sides of the church, and took me to the temple they have in Salt Lake. Its a great place! All the original stuff was built with materials from the mountains overlooking the city. We went inside a room that used to serve as a meeting place, and everything had been painted to look like oak. Except it wasnt! It was really pretty amazing the level of skill that went into it.

My stay here marked the first time Ive ever been to the centre for a major religion. As a rookie, I of course made a mistake, one that the parents are yet to learn of (suprise Mam!). We were having a look around the centre and got talking to some missionaries (who were, naturally, very friendly). After a tour around some of the sights they mentioned it was possible to get a free Book of Mormon sent to my house. I was quite happy for this to happen, and filled out the form. The missionaries then gladly advised me that I could get the book when they sent some missionaries round to my house. Pretty sneaky, no? Having said that, I really dont mind - everyone in the mormon church is so friendly!

I also had the pleasure of attending a Republican caucus meeting. Those guys are pissed! I was quite interested to go along to this though, for a lot of people back home the Republicans get portrayed as the corporate supporting, red-neck based angry peoople. The anger part is definitely true, but otherwise its families standing up for what they genuinely believe in. Im not going to get into politics (as I thought it best not to at the meeting) but it seems to me that nearly everyone wants to do the right thing. I think the challenge is getting everyone to respect others opinions, understand how things work and also to try and understand why leaders make unpopular decisions. Perhaps then there would be less death threats...

Competition Time!

In four days time Ill be touching home. I'm bringing back stuff for various friends on demand, but I also want to give a prize away to one lucky blog reader!

To win, all you need to do is post a comment to this post with an answer to the following question:

Over the course of my trip, how many States have I been to?

Of course, such a prize cant be won without some rules. Here they are:

1. Im only counting entries posted on this blog. Sending me a message on facebook or an email will not count.
2. First person to get the right answer wins, and if no-one gets it spot on the closest answer wins.
3. Im counting states that Ive driven through, but not ones Ive flown over.
4. Entries should be received by at least Thursday. Ill be doing posts on Utah and a Top 5 round up type thing before then, so Ill announce the results when I get back in my final post. Ill count any received by the time I write it, but to be safe get your answer in for Thursday
5. Please put your name in the comment - otherwise I may give the prize to the wrong person by accident!
6. I can make up any other rules I want to.

Also! Please remember that DC is not a state.
Ill announce the prize when I announce the winner.
Good Luck!

Amarillo is a shithole

I was supposed to be going to Austin to see SXSW, however a supreme lack of planning on my part meant there was no-where left to stay! After a quick review of my options I ended up going to Houston. The city has loads to see and do, as long as your not looking to do it on a sunday. As such, it turned into quite a busy time for me, at least after the first day...

Houston is where the Astronauts take their problems. After a while it occured to NASA that if the spacemen insisted on contacting Texas then it would make sense to build a space center there. What they have now is an astronaut training facility, as well as a LOT of cool equipment.


I saw the floatation tank where a replica of the international space station is underwater, I saw the training facility for astronauts, and I saw the rocket that went to the Moon! (At least parts of it - the thing is one GIANT replica, but only some of it is original). The only tinge of sadness on the day is the knowledge that the new space mission to the moon has been cancelled, but this news has not been updated at the centre - they proudly boast of the former future plans.

While in Texas it would seem silly not to go see the Rodeo - especially as it was in season. I wasnt quite prepared for how big a thing it is though. They had a giant cowboy market, featuring livestock, hats and saddles. One thing I wanted while in the US was to get a cowboy hat, but they cost £300!! At least for the ones that dont look silly. So that was one dream left unfulfilled... Onto the main show, though, and things soon picked up with the National Anthem. Now, Im sure your aware that Americans treat their anthem with a lot more respect than we do, but get a load of this: The arena is dark, the central screens show the American flag and a choir start to sing. A woman standing on a galloping horse enters the arena holding a huge American flag. Then... the flag starts to shoot out FIREWORKS. Yes, fireworks - I did say that.

Anything after that was going to seem a bit anti-climactic, and I was starting to feel that you could only see men riding so many angry animals in competition without getting bored when the rodeo pulled out two events that completely transformed my opinion. The first was a calf grab. 22 18 year olds line up while a heard of 11 calves run like crazy. To win, they need to tie up the calf and bring it to the center of the arena. Aside from the comedically overweight contestants chasing after little cows, the highlight was the last calf captured. A girl managed to get hold of the calfs tail - quite a common tactic in this game. The calf, however, was not about to play by the rules. It sprinted off to get the hell away from her. The girl, ready for the challenge stood her ground. Unfortunately she was lacking the weight of the aforementioned contestent, and got dragged around the arena for a full ten minutes on her front. I have nothing short of full respect for this girl, no matter what she was getting dragged through she held on, tiring out the calf before eventually capturing it for the win. A true hero.


As if this event could be topped, they then had a bucking sheep riding contest... for 5 year olds. Little children riding angry sheep until they fall off. the kids took it really seriously too! One of them held on even after falling off and kind of got a hell of a trampling until the sheep ran off. As the rodeo came to a close and Keith Urban came on to sing, I left the arena in tears, actual tears of mirth. Shit country rock cant erase the memory of children riding sheep.

One final note on Houston. As I was leaving the greyhound station Barack Obama came on the news. The guy behind me, who had been asleep until this point started shouting out the most racist abuse Ive heard in my entire life. To a TV. The deep south may have created this aura of a lost sense of nobility and gentility, but it has a long way to go to live up to this.

The 51st State

The great thing about 50 is that it makes such a nice round number. Ever since Hawaii and Alaska joined the United States no other areas have been admitted. Despite this, there is no reason why more cant be added. When the original 13 colonies declared Independence, many people thought the country wouldn't expand beyond the Rocky Mountains - perceptions change over time. While Ive been here Ive been told about different proposals for the 51st State. Some serious, some seriously stupid. Heres a few:

State of Jefferson

I was told about this one from a guy on a bus. He made it out to be a serious thing, but then I found out how untrue that is. Jefferson State would be made up out of Southern Oregon and Northern California. It turns out that any serious effort for this was pretty much wiped out after Pearl Harbour. I was also advised it was the rural peoples way of gaining a bigger say, with the cities claiming most of both States resources. It turns out that the effort was a huge publicity stunt to draw attention to the crap roads they have.

Chances of happening: Null. Ive been on the roads there, they're fine.

District of Columbia

Theres no point in me mentioning that Washington D.C isn't part of a state. You already know that, right? Well, the car licence plates there all bare the slogan 'Taxation without Representation'. It turns out this is not just because of the history of the saying, but because they don't get any senators! 600,000 people live there now, and they don't have the rights of other American citizens.

The problem with this movement is that the Constitution states that the Capitol cant be one of the States. Having spoken to some friends from Carolina it seems much more likely that the government buildings and the mall will be cut off from the rest of the district, and Maryland will take all the remaining land back.

Chances of happening: Slim - though its likely one of the existing states will get larger.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico has been occupied by America for a century. Similarly to DC, Puerto Ricans are full US citizens who have no congressional voting rights. The difference is that they don't pay federal income tax for the most part. Puerto Rico itself is split between fans of statehood and full independence. They've had numerous referendums, each of which fails to gain enough votes to change the current status quo.

Chances of happening: Pretty good! Both the Republicans and the Democrats support Puerto Rico's ability to make its own choice. If enough people vote for it this means that they will most likely be admitted as a State. The decision hangs in the balance...


There are others, but these are a few I found interesting. 50 being a nice number is no reason to refuse new states - they even prepared a flag:



One final note. My travels are drawing to a close, and I'm back in Blighty on the 1st April. This means the end of the blog is nigh! Don't panic though - theres plenty of stuff still to come, including Space Rockets! Republicans! Rodeo's! Racists! Elvis! and a Competition!

Spring Break.

I was lucky enough to get invited over to Florida to indulge in the American tradition of spring break. If your unfamiliar with the concept, all the College students get a week off where we would normally have an Easter holiday. They all pile down to the beach and go a bit mental, in short. The best part is I got invited to Daytona - the home of spring break until the early noughties, when they clamped down on the drinking, drugs and girls taking their tops off. As a result I only saw the drinking part (which is a good thing!). It turned out to be one of the best weeks of the trip.

My first full day there was a daytrip to Disney World. Ive never been to a Disney theme park before, however I think it would be fair to say my expectations were considerably lower than if I'd went 15 years ago. That meant when it turned out to be exactly what I imagined when I was 9, I was thrilled.


The rides themselves weren't faster, bigger or more thrilling than any at, say Alton Towers. What separated the experience and really made it special was the attention to detail on the rides. This is best explained by talking you through the Log Flume. Most log flumes will have a few drops leading up to a big drop, a theme full of funny things to look at, and a bit in the dark. The one here had a full plot, with the dramatic parts accompanied by the drops in the flume. The plot was animated, fully explained and accompanied by maybe 10 drops. After the grand finale, you turn into a cave where you see a full sized steam boat filled with animatronics and lights providing an epilogue. Then another drop. This level of detail was on every ride or event or stall I saw. The staff were friendly, the fireworks were amazing, the place was really magical. Of course if I were to look at it slightly more cynically you do pay for what you get - an entry price is $80 - but this can be countered by pointing out that a days charity volunteer work will get you a free day pass. How many other places offer so much for a few hours helping a good cause?

Much of the time was spend simply enjoying the place. The beaches are lovely, they have sand in one place we went to that doesn't heat up no matter how hot the weather, so you can always walk on it! I also saw a dog beach for the first time. It was insane! Dozens of dogs kind of form into mini packs who play and run around together while the owners enjoy the beach. I was there with the person who I was staying with and their dog, as well as some mutual friends. I mention this only as a way of fitting in how well looked after I was in both the places I stayed through the week. Considering I was a friend of their relatives friend in both cases, I was welcomed like a member of the family. Southern hospitality really does have its charms.

We finished off the week with a big night out in Daytona. Aside from some pretty nasty abuse outside the club from some self congratulating idiots with microphones (I think I'm saving this one up for another post on differences in communication between the countries), the night was an unqualified success. It was my first proper US nightclub experience - Ive mostly been in bars or hostels so far because places can be so expensive. It was great to have so many happy people in a small place enjoying themselves. I didn't see any fighting or throwing up or any of the bad stuff normally associated with a Saturday night in Cav. I don't mean to be self congratulatory over this, I just raise the night out to make a point in a very roundabout way. Back home I think there's a perception that in America people cant handle their drink and its all about chugging and being an idiot. That element does exist, but its no larger than anything you'll see back home. By and large most Americans are just as fun and engaging as anyone else. This is true in pretty much every aspect of life Ive seen here. The stereotype (like all stereotypes) comes from misinformed people who haven't visited the place. The night out just pointed this home to me, despite the differences in how things are run, people are just as good whether in a nightclub or in Disney. Or in my case, outside the nightclub re-enacting a scene from Finding Nemo.

Sin City

Before I start the post Id just like to quickly apologize for the delay. Ive not had much Internet for the last week so Ive mainly been using it to send out messages advising I'm alive and well (which of course, I am). Anyways, this ones been ready for a while, and Ill most likely post another tomorrow to make up for it.

I'm going to make a deal with you - I'm not gonna talk about Vegas like its the most amazing place on earth. I'm also not going to go on like its the end of the earth. There's nowhere like that, and from the bulk of the stuff written about the place its easy to feel one way or the other about it. So what is it then? Well, its one very big tourist resort...


Its really hard to explain the size of the casinos, and the strip. The photo above is from outside one casino - Gondola's outside a casino! They have the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and a giant Coke bottle. they have Cesar's Palace, and Treasure Island. I spent four hours walking along the strip and back taking it all in. Inside the casino's its the same - in the MGM grand they have Lions on display right next to the machines! For me this is the highlight of Vegas - the spectacle. You see I'm not much of a gambler, on my own I get bored really quickly, so it was nice to have so much stuff to look at to keep me entertained. I didn't see any of the problems associated with Las Vegas either, nobody walking around asking for money for a bet or being thrown out by the security guards. My instincts suggest this could be to do with the efficiency of the security rather than the gambling issue itself, but I didn't see any problems. That is, apart from the drinks system. If you go to the bar, its around $7 a beer, whereas if you're gambling and a waitress comes up to you, its free. This can be extremely annoying if a waitress doesn't pass you by. Damn waitresses.


The other Vegas stereotype is weddings. I saw half a dozen newly wedded couples in a day and a half. This may have had something to do with my room view, but its still impressive. The place next to me had Elvis weddings as standard, and theme weddings optional. A place a few minutes up the road had drive in weddings, also by Elvis. The couples varied quite a lot too, from those surrounded by family to those who had clearly met 2 hours earlier. Still, who can blame them? Whats more romantic than getting married over the road from this place:



That's Las Vegas. Glamorous, dangerous, exciting, and above all else tacky.

Down in Mexico

Before heading over to the East coast I was determined to see two more places: Las Vegas (where Im writing this) and Mexico. When I planned out the trip initially I was hoping to spend up to a month in Mexico, and perhaps go see Mexico City. However when I realised Id be going into such a dangerous country (in places) on my own, I realised that would perhaps be better left for another time. Still I wanted to see at least some of the country, so I thought one night couldnt hurt, right? Sure enough there I was on my way back to the US border after a truly great time when I got cornered by a gang and my phone was stolen. Bugger.


Thats not going to dominate the post (I hope), so lets talk about the day before. Mexico is so incredibly cheap. Because of the proximity of the bus station to the city centre it makes the most sense to get off at San Ysidro in California and walk over the border. I stood for about 10 minutes looking confused in San Ysidro, mostly because the sign you need to follow tells you where some cafe is before the country. I knew the Mexican border would be relatively lax, but the sign really set the trend for what would follow. I had by bags searched in a half arsed way. I then turned the corner fully expecting to see passport control only to find a taxi rank. No-one checked my passport. I was illegal in Mexico (oh, the irony).

I found my hotel quickly enough and then set about enjoying my time there. I walked through the market, saw some fun bartering and settled at a bar for a few drinks. The bar was selling beers at 3 for $2.50 - how can you turn that down? I met a crazy barman who came over and asked the same set of questions everyone did in Mexico. 'Hey, you like the Beatles?' 'You like Elton John? ... ... Pch faggot.' Ok, no-one else was so rampantly homophobic, but the Beatles one came up several times. The food was great too - not exactly surprising considering how much I love mexican food but still worth a mention. I really enjoyed the day there, and headed back to my hotel room for the night. Oh! I forgot to mention my room, the windows looked out on the corridor! Brilliant.

So the next morning I headed out for the border. The taxi's are really cheap so I was looking to flag one down when a guy mentioned where there was a taxi rank and then I stupidly followed his directions. Ill not bore you with any of the specifics, but what essentially happened is that I let the panic trying to catch the bus out of there overtake common sense. It sucks that it happened, but then again I had literally all my stuff with me so I think I was lucky to get away with the rest of my stuff, and without being hurt in any way myself. I dont think Im going to let it take over my memory of Mexico, I really had a good time there and I would go again. Just not alone.

Expectations

A friend of mine insists that your enjoyment of a film is based on how good you are expecting it to be as much as how good it actually is. If your expecting a film to be terrible, but it is in fact mediocre, then you're going to enjoy it a lot more than if you were expecting a masterpiece. Quite often good films get a terrible reception purely because the fans are expecting so much more. I mention this, because I feel something similar has happened to me in California. After San Francisco I stayed in LA for 4 days. For every person who told me how great San Francisco was, there was another one (or quite often the same one) who said how horrible Los Angeles was. It was described to me as dirty, grimy and fake. Imagine my surprise when it turned out I loved it.


One perception Ive always had of the city is that its full of failed and failing actors and musicians. It turned out to be completely true! Literally my first meal in the city, I was sitting at some diner eavesdropping on two guys complaining about how the guitarist they looked up to and respected so much consistantly refused to give them lessons. "He's just worried people will steal his licks dude", "Yeah! Its like - he's afraid of some competition. Last time I spoke to him I was saying his stuff was pretty cool, you know, talking to him like Im on his level. When I asked him for lessons he said he was too busy touring! Dude he sucks". They also worried that if they got proper jobs then they would be likely to give up on their dreams. Idiots, yes, but this was exactly the kind of conversation I wanted to find in LA.

I stayed in Hollywood so I got to see the sign everyday. After a few days I decided to try and actually walk up there. Three hours and four wrong directions later, I made it. This was the result:


Dont laugh - its difficult to take these photos by yourself. Hollywood also meant that I got to spend time at a movie studio. Now the Universal studios one is by far the most popular tour. It is also, unfortunately for someone with a budget such as mine, about £30 more than I can pay for a single tour. Also its more of an interactive rollercoaster ride than a movie studio tour. I ended up going to the Paramount studios tour, which is half the price and has the benefits of being an active studio. It was really fun. I got to sit on the bench from Forest Gump. The guide claimed that whenever Tom Hanks is working there, he takes his lunch break on the bench, and speaks in Forests accent to people. I hope its true. I also got to see the cast of Glee, a show which I havent seen but am sure will make people jelous. For the record, I saw the teacher and the kid in the wheelchair (who was not in a wheelchair).

I enjoyed my time in LA thoroughly. The thing is, was it better than San Francisco? Its tough to say. It all comes down to expectations. San Francisco was a great city which I was ecpecting to be amazing. LA was a great city I was expecting to be a shithole. On reflection both cities are fun places with more than enough attractions to keep anyone going. Just make sure you have low expectiations.