Hello Canyons!

 

Hey folks. Am just writing this sitting in the back of Albert, on our mattress, boot open, (that's our van/home for those not 'in the know') with a view to die for! Big cliffs up in front of me – and behind me, and diagonal....you get the idea. Zion National Park (Utah) is beautiful – such stunning terrain, and this is just the beginning of the canyons! We arrived a few days ago, after hanging out in Vegas and Boulder City for 4 or 5 days. Did a couple of technical, rocky mtb trails at Bootleg

Canyon there, plus a bit of lake swimming – and also experienced some of the nightlife in Sin City :-) As many of you would know, that place is bizarre – can't imagine there would be anywhere else in the world you can compare it to. Not really our scene, but definitely worth checking out!

So, here we are now in a little town called Springdale, in Zion, Utah. Got a campsite next to a lush, fast flowing, cold river which makes a great contrast to the 40 degree temps we're still getting every day. Good for a soak, and also great for a bit of river tubing! Fun. Yesterday we checked out the local trails here on our bikes. Seriously technical

stuff with a challenge at every corner! Place was called Gooseberry Mesa and was rocky single track mixed in with 'slick rock' – took awhile to get used to. Rocks aren't so soft to land on!! But managed to be slightly less of a 'nana' by the end of it, haha. Brent took to it like a fish to water. Of course.

Today we did about 4 hours of hiking. AWESOME exposed trail called Angel's Landing. Only went up about 450 metres in elevation gain but ended up traversing this ridgeline that was pretty exposed in places. We were loving it, but I think some people were not especially in their comfort zones :-) The views at the top were top notch. Met a lovely couple up there too, so chit-chatted with them most of the way down.

Chillaxing this afternoon next to the river...then tomorrow we're going to do another hike which heads up Narrows Canyon and basically follows a river bed. The walls of the canyon go up a few hundred metres and the width of the canyon can get to as little as 6 or 7 metres. Got to hire ourselves some canyon boots so our tootsies don't freeze off!  Think that'll be a refreshing walk :-) As you imagine, we won't get much sun. Then we're thinking of cruising over to Bryce Nat Park tomorrow, with Albert, which is a stone's throw away but meant to be totally different terrain. Big red rocks, spires, arches etc. Either that, or go to the Grand Canyon....decisions, decisions...

Hugs to you all. Keep well and warm x

Fabulous Vegas!

Vegas has definitely lived up to expectations! This is the consumer capital – there's gambling everywhere you look, shops, touts, tarts, tacky souvenirs, shows, restaurants, bright lights – Vegas is all about spend, spend, spend. Fortunately I have exceptional talents at being a tight-arse and ridiculously thrifty – so we have not succumbed to the bottomless pit that Vegas so wants us to be :-) It's brash, in-ya-face and so completely tacky & fake, and yet in it's own way – it's really quite appealing! Very fun.

We stayed in a mega-complex last night on the Vegas Boulevard called 'Circus Circus'. Weird name, but was also a rather unusual place! 3500 rooms, 3 pools, a huge sprawling casino, 10 restaurants, a daily circus act, an indoor theme park including a super fast rollercoaster (I couldn't walk straight afterwards, knocked my socks off but had us both grinning), a wedding chapel (no we didn't :-) ) and a zillion shops. I think our accomm was more on the budget side, as we realised when we walked further down the strip last night that some of these mega-hotel

complexes are insane, and just OOZE opulence and excess. Caesers Palace, The Mirage, Wynns, MGM, Treasure Island (see pic of me in front of their ship), New York New York (a phenomenal mini-NY built as a hotel complex) and Bellagios...amongst others. Pure extravagance and OTT everything! The atmosphere and energy that comes out of this little city in the middle of the desert is awesome. It blows me away just how many people are in to gambling though – there must have been 1000s and 1000s of pokies, games and other money-wasting devices, but people just couldn't get enough of them. I can't even work out how to work a pokie machine. They look complicated!! Ha ha

Back in Boulder City tonight, just down the road from Vegas. Hoover Dam was interesting – built over 5 yrs and completed in 1935 during the Great Depression and gave 1000s of people lots of work. Awesome piece of engineering and located in quite a stunning canyon. Still struggling with HOT temps at the moment (43 deg at the Dam) so not feeling too energetic to truly explore places! Hopefully will get used to it soon :-) Going to try and go for a mt bike ride at the local Bootleg Canyon tomorrow morning...see how long we last!

Brent had to get a root canal yesterday for an absyss on his tooth, so sticking around here for another few days so the dentist can finish the treatment on Monday. All went well...so no worries there. Just been a bit of a yucky toothache for a few weeks, so thought we better get some proper advice. The health treatment here has been fab – awesome customer service and so professional! After the weekend, we'll start heading towards the Grand Canyon.... yeehaaaaa

 (PS American accent is coming along nicely. Have nearly perfected 'y'all' and 'ahsum')

Melting in Death Valley

 7.20am. 70 metres below sea level. No wind. 37 degrees in the shade. 40 degrees in the sun.  Very dry heat.  CRAZY hot.  This is Death Valley.  So fascinating, but oh, so intimidating!  This is not the place where you want your car to break down.  Fear not, this didn't happen to us.  Albert the van was well behaved and air conditioned us well :-)
Stayed overnight last night in Shoshone (pop. 100?? and totally away from it all) in a quiet little RV Park.  Went out for dinner at the local 'Crow Bar'...hmmm, a scary sounding name, but was pleasant enough. Finding it hard to get good healthy food though! 

Met this crazy but interesting chap at Shoshone - a German fella called Nico cycle touring from Flagstaff Arizona to San Fran.  And his next stage was Death Valley :-) He left this morning at 4am to try and avoid the heat - and Brent was pretty keen on joining him for the last leg.  So we got up early and drove thru the valley to meet up with Nico.  Brent hops on his bike 7.45 am and I think by 8.15am, he was pretty well melted (and possibly wondering what the heck he was letting himself in for...).  40 deg in the sun, maybe 37 in the rare bit of shade?  Holy smokes. I was happy in my air con van!  Went past Badlands, the lowest point in the US - 79 metres under sea level, and a bright salt flat. Pretty cool terrain.  The boys finished their ride by 10am, at Furnace Creek (trust me, totally an appropriate name).  We left then...but apparently Nico kept going in to the heat to get even further into the park.....seriously hardcore dude!

Death Valley is one heck of a place.  I think this is the America that I came to see! Same for Brent too. So striking and beautiful and vast....the contours and shapes and colours in the mountains were awesome.
Anyway, onwards, and eastwards....in to Nevada!
As soon as we hit the state of Nevada - it was casinos, fireworks, 'gentleman's clubs' everywhere - think this is the 'play' state for the neighbouring inhabitants of California etc.  They're all about fun here!  It's either that  or the sand industry I guess...haha, .there's a crap-load of desert here...
Bypassed Vegas and now staying in Boulder City, about 25 miles SE of Sin City...gonna check out Hoover Dam tomorrow and if we can drag our arses out of bed early enough - will try and avoid the mega-heat and do some local mt bike trails :-) Going to go to Vegas tomorrow night and gamble all our savings away. May see y'all next week if we don't get a winner, and we're penniless!! Haha...

Hangin' with the nutcases and fruitloops

Well, LA certainly has its fair share of nutters. No doubt 'bout that! Has been such an amusing visit to this city, but I think 2 days has been enough. Ready to head out east now and hang out in the desert before we hit the bright lights of Vegas.

Before we got here, we checked out posh Santa Barbara and Montecito (alas, no celeb sightings) and then overnighted in a random little town called Ojai in Los Padres National Park. Went there specifically to see their famous pink sunset, but found a neat, natural hot springs instead, so had a soak and got talking to 3 local fellas who were classic 'small town' America. Cool. Nice chaps. Totally missed the sunset :-)

Arrived in LA and headed straight to Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. VB just oozes the outrageous and downright weird. Awesome vibe, with the 'Muscle Beach Gym' (big pecs, steroid - fest), some hard-out & fast basketball with half time entertainment of a couple of rappers, lots of street buskers – and super talented people too (break dancing, singers and acrobatics etc). Plus oodles of odd folk too. Oh and more 'Medical Marijuana Centres'....picked up a flyer (just in case! :-) ) and the centre professes to 'fix' all your problems with their 'doctor' – inc AIDS, nausea, migraines, insomnia, arthritis, loss of appetite (DUH!) and oddly enough, cancer?! We were bemused.

Got ourselves a nice hotel for 2 nights in Hollywood. Had to splash out at some point (our van parked up in town would possibly attract unnecessary attention, haha). YEH! Went for dinner last night at Hard Rock Cafe on Hollywood Blvd - had to be done. Flippin massive meals. Then today we did the obligatory tour to the star's houses....our tour guide was hilarious – an aspiring actor, trying to make a buck – but he made the tour very amusing. Saw the home / garage / retaining wall / trees (yes we saw the trees belonging to Madonna!!!! funny :-) ) - of Keanu Reeves (Matrix-y looking house, oddly enough), Drew Barrymore, Halle Berry, Winona Ryder, Christina Aguillera (pink house of course), Jason Stantham – and also where Shirley Temple used to live. Saw the 'trees' and 'chimney stacks' of Tom and Katie's house (Brent was in despair by this point, but I was entertained!). Checked out ridiculously expensive & posh Rodeo Dv (no celeb sighting tho), Sunset Strip and all the other attractions. This place is buzzing – but I think there is a massive undercurrent of drugs, crime, poverty, gangs....but fortunately we haven't come across that on this trip! OH, and we went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum which was cool. Brent got to race Lance on a road bike. And, me and Britney had a great conversation (was a bit 1-sided though) :-)

Thinking about going to the filming of a Jerry Springer programme tomorrow (they give out free tickets to get an audience)...but we'll see if we get time! I think it would be hilarious. Otherwise, off east we go – to somewhere in the desert, followed by Vegas. Cheerio for now! Bye bye fruitloops and nutters...

Fab day.  Started off checking out the random little town of Solvang - totally and utterly Danish, and very touristy.  Ate a big Danish pastry of course.  Brent went to the vintage motorbike museum which made him quite excited...haha...even had the only unraced Britten in the world, on display.  I thought they were all very shiny and pretty colours!  :-) To be fair, it was a pretty ahsum collection.       
Then headed off to the hills, and to a remote mountain bike ride near Cachuma Lake.  The guidebook said it was a big climb...but we thought...we are tough kiwis, this will be cruisy compared to climbing at Eskdale.  Ummm...we were so wrong. Climbed 1000 metres for 2.5 hrs on gravel road (shouting on every corner to try and warn bears we were coming - found out afterwards that they're not a problem here ..oops) - got up to 1850m elevation with stunning views.  Then started the knarly descent - a bit sketchy in places but think it took us 1.5 hrs to get down!!!  Woohoo!  Few little surprises on the way down. 1st was a couple of slips that we had to run over in order to avoid the avalanche of stones down the steep hillside. Passed that one.  Then Brent literally came within 12 inches of a long snake - skidded to a halt - see photo - I came around the corner, whistling away, to find him cowering (he says it was more like 'backing away'  :-) ) away from this snake.....it wasn't going to move anywhere so we did a detour through the bush on

the edge of the hill.  Susbsequent research on the net shows it has similar markings to a rattlesnake.....although maybe we're just being paranoid!!  

Brent flicked away another tick too, which was preparing itself for a feed (caught it before it dug itself in).  Then, finally had to negotiate some thick bush at the bottom with heaps of Poison Oak in it.  Seem to be free of it this morning though.  phew.  Nerves were a little rattled (no pun intended) by the end of this ride.  Such a cool adventure though.  Was stuffed afterwards.

Rest day today in Santa Barbara!!  Went out last night to a very manic and vibrant bar/restaurant and propped up the bar for them (actually it was propping us up after that ride). Thought I saw Keanu Reeves in there but think I was just getting imaginative.  Apparently lots of stars live here and nearby Montecito!! Inc Oprah!!  (I want to check out the Op Shops here - I reckon they'll be even better than the ones in Havelock Nth haha). Exciting (Emma's comment, not Brent's)! Gone all luxurious and shouted ourselves a motel too.  Off to check out the town shortly..... 

Ojai town tonight to check out their famous sunset, and then staying in West Hollywood on Sun night....

Adios amigos.

Em, Brent Albert and Dolly - heading further south

I know it's the same day as the above post – but....have had a few internet issues lately :-) (i.e. we've been staying in the middle of nowhere)  WIFI is slow in this campground so no photos as yet sorry!

Caught up with a guy we know from NZ last night in San Luis Obispo – a dude called Brendan Pheasant who we met a few years ago mt biking on Queen Charlotte Track! Random, but our paths crossed (thanks Facebook) and so caught up over dinner. Went for a 2 hour fast (and knackering) ride with him this morning too, at Montana de Oro Park again....awesome fun and even saw (what we think were) coyotes not far from the trail! Also – Brent saw a stripy badger last night. Still pleased we haven't seen a mountain lion though. Bears don't really get on the scene til we get closer inland. Oh yay. Anyywayyyy....

Not sure if we attract intersting 'incidents' or what - but when we were driving back from San Luis Obispo last night (after seeing Brendan), we came across a car halfway down a steep slope, with its headlights facing upwards. On a very windy and isolated road. A lady, who was virtually incapable of speaking, she was so wasted – was in the drivers seat. Brent said she was still trying to drive away – despite clearly being in a very precarious position. He also said it was surprising the car didn't flip! He coaxed / pulled her out whilst I rang 911. Cops arrived and she was whisked away – and probably to jail too. Scary to think people drive in that state!!

Cruised further down the coast – via a few interesting spots – and are now in a campground outside Salvong (a random little town totally built and presented like a Danish town...it's bizarre and classic American 'not doing things by halves'). We are surrounded by gigantic RVs that are bling-blinged to the max in this camping spot, whilst we are in our little van. Love it. I am going to check out Salvong tomorrow (maybe eat some Danish, of course) whilst Brent visits a vintage motorbike museum. The van is still proving to be uber-cool. Pretty comfy to sleep in but easy to bang ones head on the ceiling ha ha... Still dicovering crazy gadgets in the car – and storage spots – have named it 'Albert' – and our GPS is called Dolly. She treats us mighty good and helps us find places...she's a darl, that one :-)

Probably go for a ride a little inland tomorrow, and then cruise our way through Santa Barbara. Go and see what the rick folk are up to. Hopefully be in LA by the weekend.

Hope all you guys are keeping warm back there in NZ!!! Hope y'all are keeping well :-)

Central California - ahsum

Sorry - this post is really long, as haven't had good internet access in ages!!  So it's a little dated :-)

Santa Cruz appears to be the mt bike mecca of the Central Coast of California! We like! Found the best local single track trails at Soquel Demonstration and managed to hook in with a chatty group of friendly Americans who were just about to set off for a ride when we arrived. RAD. Epic 5 hour tour of all the tracks (inc significant amount of chatting) but neat trails and pretty technical in places too. FUN! The group taught us heaps about where to ride and what to look out for (Poison Oak – worse than stinging nettles – makes you come out with itchy blisters.. and it's everywhere! So paranoid I was going to fall in to it)...Finished up pretty late so stayed in our new van/home next to the remote mt bike park, and cooked a feed by the side of the road. Made the silly mistake of reading all about mountain lions before we went to bed so was freaking out about that during my nightly loo stops, haha... however we did see a deer which was cool!

Woke up the next morning to find Brent looking most perplexed....there was a critter embedded in to his arm – and wasn't looking like it was going to move any time soon :-) A tick! No doubt the tick was pretty happy feeding away, but Brent was pretty keen to get the thing outta there and it wasn't going to budge. Ended up having to go to docs to get it gouged out, arms n legs n all (it was pretty well stuck in there)...and after a vist to a couple of medical clinics, we finally got it tested for Lyme Disease (nasty illness carried by a small percentage of Deer ticks – which is what it was). Results came back after a day, frrom the lab – negative! PHEW! Lesson learnt anyway...always check yourself out after a ride or walk in the American woods – they're full of creatures ready to bite :-) Not used to this in NZ!

Hung out in a campground afterwards, near Capolito (just south of Santa Cruz) – a very chic, trendy and vibrant holiday town. Looks kinda Mediterranean. Jumped in the ocean for about a minute, which was frickin freezing – but so refreshing! Temp are about 21 / 22 but lush in the sun (already got a red nose dammit) – warm enough for a bikini on the beach (Brent decided not to wear his bikini though – he opted for shorts instead).

Also checked out a bizarre little tourist place called 'Mystery Spot', outside Santa Cruz. Random! Apparently (they claim), it's a gravitational vortex of 150 square feet, where the compass points the wrong way, and forces play havoc on balance etc. Think there were a few optical illusions thrown in to really 'enhance' the effect (Brent says it was just all bull sh!t, his cynicism was in full force haha)...but anyway., was entertaining watching all the tourists get sucked in. Very amusing!

Next day, drove down through Big Sur – famous stretch of rugged, rocky and beautiful coastline. Lovely vistas every 100 metres...although tons of tourists so decided so take a sharp left turn and go bush, in the hills. YEH! After ages on the windiest road in the world, passed thru one of the many military camps. It was vast!! The US government seem to own a lot of land for their military / air forces...the money that must get sunk in to their defence budget!! Ended up at a very neat camping spot, inland at San Antonio Lake. Apparently a very busy fishing spot in summer – but was totally empty when we arrived! Had the whole camping area to ourselves – plus oodles of cute (very friendly) deer and squirrels. No Mountain Lions though. Phew. Checked out their mountain bike trails in the morning and nearly melted. Seems that the temperature skyrockets when you head inland. Think we saw 36 deg on the temp gauge?!? And this is not even mid summer yet! Think we have some acclimatising to do. Weather here has been just lush though – blue skies every day. Can't complain :-)

Headed back to the coast and now in a cute little town called Cambria. Going down to Montana de Oro State Park today, as apparently they have some rad mt bike trails. Ahsum (aka awesome).

Santa Cruz - errands and elephant seals

Drove our awesome MEAN as van (Chrystler Town and Country) down to 'cruisy, laid back' Santa Cruz - about 70 miles down the coast.  Stunning country.  Although seriously busy roads!!  Not quite like the remote West Coast in the Sth Island, aye!  Feel a bit nevous about driving on the right but slowly getting used to it.
Stopped at the Ano Nuevo State Park on the way down to check out one of the world's largest colonies of Elephant Seals.  HUGE creatures - full grown adults up to 17 feet long, weighing 6000 pounds - and with big snuffalupagous type noses that are so ugly, but make them quite elephant- like :-)  Cool to watch.
Stopped at Santa Cruz and set up our van - with a wooden frame, to put our mattress on - and space underneath to store all our gear.  Seems to work quite well!  Just about enough room for the 2 bikes too.  Brent did a fab job of putting it all together (although couldn't believe it - he succumbed to buying a $2 saw from the $2 shop - which worked ok for about 3 minutes then made the job v difficult!).  Think the set up will be ideal for allowing us to stop anywhere and sleep
Another thing we saw in the $2 shop - as an aside - a Pregnancy Kit!?! What the heck!  That was random. Would you trust a Pregnancy Kit from the $2 shop?  Hmmm
Checked out the old Boardwalk / arcade / rollercoaster rides next to the beach...and are just about to go and play on the local mountain bike trails.  Yee haa!

San Fran baby!

Few things about San Fran:
1) It is so liberal - anything goes here!  Smell of pot on every street corner - and 'medical marijuana centres' in some parts of town...definitely some people have taken that 'medical' aspect to the extreme.  Lots of wasted looking people around.  However they seem happy in their little world!
2) Lots of nutty people - makes the experience very entertaining.  Saw a guy hiding next to a rubbish bin holding 2 small branches with leaves on them.  He would jump out at passer-bys every minute or so, making them jump.  hilarious to watch.
3) Golden Gate Bridge is beautiful. Cool piece of architecture.  Haight Ashbury - funky part of town - every other store is a tattoo place, and all others are 'Medical Marijuana Centres' or smoking/pipe shops.  Good vibe there!  Fisherman's Wharf - neat place, vibrant, full of 'randoms' and met a very nice black pastor dude there called Nicolas who taught us a few things about the area.... oh and ate the famous clam chowder in a sour dough bun too!
4) Americans are so friendly!  Curious to know where we are from and not afraid to ask.  Complete contrast to the quiet, softly spoken and humble kiwis.  Two Americans together somehow seem to end up sounding like a 'crowd'. Clever.
5) SF is hilly. Awesome to bike on.  One hill was so steep I had to walk. What the!  Then another street was so steep that the authorities made the road curvy through it - hence now called the 'Crooked Street' :-)
6) Don't mess with the cops!  The room next door to us in the motel got raided at 4am on the 2nd night we were there - SO exciting, had ears glued to the door to try and hear what was going on.  Heard some classic lines from both Cop and Arrested person - was like listening to NCIS!

The long awaited adventure begins!

At last!  After a frantic period of packing, cleaning, organising and running around like headless chooks - we are finally on the road!  No more work for ages.  YAY.  A fantastic 10 day trip to the South Island acted as a pre-holiday 'wind-down'...with heaps of mountain biking and hanging out with good mates.  The hot pools in Hanmer Springs were pretty fab too.  The South Island is just a gorgeous place isn't it?
However, a plane trip beckoned...and the first stop was sunny Sydney.  Hanging out with ma and pa Buttle in S'nives.  A week of cruising and sleeping and hanging out with the 'olds'.  All good.  Mum even through a party with an American theme.  Dolly Parton even turned up with balloons for her boobs!  (Mum always did like fancy dress)  Also visited the Marintime Museum on Darling Harbour and walked through a submarine...Brent was in engineering heaven - see pic.  After a slight hiccup with our visas (long story but basically were not allowed to get on plane on 1st trip to airport- didn't have correct visa for the length of time we wanted to stay in States - unfortunate bad advice from travel agent! Not cool but will be sorted,)....we finally got on our flight to San Francisco!!  America....here we come!!!!