Day 121 - Death Valley National Park

We were up and off by 09:00 as we had a long day ahead of ourselves. We started by making the 2hr 45min drive into the heart of the Death Valley National Park where we located the Furnace Creek Visitor Centre where we could purchase our park pass. The whole drive to this point was very scenic; again offering completely different landscapes to any we’d already seen in America so far. This place was very baron; consisting of lots of rocky hills of varying shades of reds and browns. On the way we made a quick stop at Mesquite Sand Dunes where we hopped out to check out the sandy sights – it was hot; reminiscent of the weather in Alice Springs. Thankfully though it wasn’t this bad; the temperature was 37.7 degrees but the air was like hairdryer heat!

We ventured south east of Furnace Creek until we reached Dantes View. This spot offered a great panoramic view of this desert landscape and also a view down onto the lowest point in the U.S (Badwater Basin) which is 86m below sea level.

We then drove back up the road and made a stop at Zabriske Point where we were treated to even more great vistas for Corrie to be let loose upon.

We got back to Furnace Creek then turned south and made the 13 or so mile journey down to Badwater. We parked here and braved the crazy heat to walk out into Badwater Basin to have a look at the huge salt lake and take a few more snaps.

Driving back up the road we detoured off up the Artists Drive scenic drive and made a quick stop at the Artists Palette viewpoint on this route.

Then it was pretty much time to make our way back to the motel as it was about 15:30 and we had another 2hr 30mins or so drive back. The sat-nav took us a different way back, a quicker way, but this was to our advantage in more ways than one as we saw even more of the impressive country on the long drive back.

Danny was pretty tired after the 6 hours he’d spent driving today but we were both hungry and so we drove down the road from our motel to get some good Asian cuisine at a local restaurant before Danny could finally slob out.

Day 120 - Just More Driving

We were tired from yesterday’s sightseeing and so slept in but were soon on the road again and making our way on a 3hr 15mins or so drive to the small town of Ridgecrest where we had managed to find a Motel 6 to stop at for the next two nights. This place would be our base to venture into the Death Valley National Park from; there were closer places to stay but all of them were more expensive and we at least had a rough idea of what to expect from the M6 accommodation.

After checking in we got a few supplies from a local shop and later grabbed a greasy KFC for tea before going back to finally try and get up-to-date with the blog and Corrie’s diary.

Not very eventful today.

Day 119 - Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

We left a little later than planned, at about 10:00, and hastily made our way about 1hr 15mins to the entrance to the National Park. We paid the $20 fee and continued to our first stop of the day – Moro Rock.

Before we got there though we had to drive a while and wait while before the road was opened to traffic due to massive road maintenance work being carried out here. At 12:00 we were allowed through and the huge snake of traffic meandered its way through the 3 or so miles of muddy road. Danny was unimpressed as this was “tainting the beauty of such a sexy car” and he swore to get it cleaned after our National Park adventures were done with.

The walk up the steps was challenging but incredibly worthwhile once we made it to the top. The 360 degree panoramic view was breath-taking and by far one of the most amazing views either of us have ever seen. We could see for hundreds of miles around, with snow topped mountain ranges on one side and vast hilly countryside on the other. We even saw what we believe to be a beaver sat atop one of the rocks right at the top of this spectacular viewpoint with us. We stayed a while here taking snaps and simply just taking in this wonderful scene before making our way back down.

A short drive took us to the Tunnel Log which we drove through before then stopping briefly at the Auto Log.

We soon pulled over again and made a short walk to the General Sherman Tree (a sequoia tree). This is the world’s biggest tree; not the tallest or the thickest but it has the most wood mass which makes it the biggest in the world! We also saw a few chipmunks here too.

The next quick stop was at a viewpoint called Overlook after about a half hour drive of yet more amazing scenery that this area is entirely comprised of.

NB - The dirt on the car was clearly not detracting from its pure awesomeness as countless passers-by: stared, pointed, and talked about it as we chugged past and pulled into car parks.

We then made it to the General Grant Tree (another sequoia tree) which is the third largest tree in the world, by volume and so stopped to take pictures in its shadow before moving on.

We then had a remarkable cruise along the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway all the way to a viewpoint right near the end of the superbly picturesque road.

On the drive back along the byway we stopped to have a quick look at the Grizzly Falls, though we, thankfully, didn’t bump into any bears whilst here.

We took an alternative route back to the hotel so as to experience more of the epic backdrops and returned in time to dine out at a very nice café in the town.

Today was such a contrast to the: busy, loud, smoggy cheesiness of Los Angeles that it was hard to believe we were in the same country! This is definitely a place we could spend more time and would definitely recommend this area to others.

Day 118 - Damn Impulse Spending

After some more late night planning last night we made our way east on a 130 mile trip to the town of Visalia.

The drive took us into much more scenic landscapes than we’d been used to so far here in the states and made for a really nice drive.

Visalia would be our base camp for two nights as we had planned to explore some of the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park areas. We arrived at about 15:00 and this certainly wasn’t enough time to head out and see any of the sights so we drove to the local mall after checking in to the America’s Best Value Inn here (again a great bargain and good quality accommodation.)

The mall was a bad idea, and may now result in the complete ruling out of any future visits to shopping centres throughout the rest of our travels. Danny purchased some clothes (yep, plural) and some aftershave, along with some flip-flops and a dress for Corrie… and some sweets… and then tea!

Back at the room we tried to fine tune our plans for tomorrow though were, once again, distracted by the American rubbish on TV.

Day 117 - Observing LA’s Horizon and Driving up the Coast

Much to Danny’s disgust we had to negotiate the madness of the LA traffic to weave our way back to the Griffith Observatory after checking out. We arrived at about 11:00 and the parking was still a challenge; it would appear that there was no special event occurring yesterday that caused the mass accumulation of vehicles wanting to park here. We managed to get a space near the top of the hill today and then walked the rest of the way up to the observatory. We spent some time walking around the building and taking in the views of the multitude of districts that make up this mega city. The only downside to these impressive vistas is the shroud of smog that blankets the entire place; the views would be much more impressive if you could just get a huge vacuum cleaner to just suck it all away!

Then we had to make the 4 hour journey along about 200 miles of road that would take us to Morro Bay which would be our stop for the night. Thankfully the traffic on this trip was nowhere near as bad as yesterday’s and we arrived when we should.

This is when we checked in to the Motel 6 chain of roadside accommodation that we’d discovered after some online browsing last night. We were prepared for the worst: paper thin walls, dirty sheets, next to no facilities etc etc especially with some of the lowest prices we’ve seen so far on our travels through the US ($46 per room.) Instead we were thrilled to see that we had a rather spacious air-conditioned room with: bathroom, TV, queen size bed, and brick walls! It would also appear that most of the Motel 6 places have undergone renovations with all their rooms so should all be up to a similar standard. We couldn’t believe it, especially for the price, and made a mental note to try and get M6’s wherever possible en-route to San Francisco.

We walked a mile or so to the harbour where we found a lovely fish and chip restaurant for our tea before making our way back to our cosy bed and its clean sheets!

Day 116 - Quality Time in the City of Angels

Today we wanted to see Los Angeles our way and spend more time in the places we’d liked whilst on the tour a few days ago. Our first stop was the posh Rodeo Drive where we even managed to get some admirers of our sexy ride before we parked up and took a walk along the rich peoples’ shopping street. Needless to say we bought nothing but saw all of the big names in fashion with their: appointment only shops, pristine shop fronts, and fancy window displays. We also got to see a healthy selection of supercars and luxury cars cruising up and down the streets which was probably more to Danny’s tastes than Corrie’s really.

We then drove across to The Grove and had a much longer look around the shops etc on offer here. We also spent a while watching the fancy water display which was basically a large display that allowed water to fall in a programmed way to display words and pictures. This was pretty cool and people were also asking questions to an orb; the answers of which would be displayed in the waterfall.

Our next stop was the good old walk of fame again where we spent quite a while pacing the streets and checking out a seemingly endless supply of the floor stars. We also got to see more of the hand and footprints in the cement outside the Chinese Theatre along with lots more of the people in costumes lining the streets for photographs (for a charge of course.) We even got to see the Hollywood sign today as the sky was clear.

Our final stop of the day was set to be the Griffith Observatory where Corrie had read that we could get a good view of the city and the Hollywood sign. As we got near though it became clear that this would prove difficult as the traffic here was ridiculous. The roads had been bad all day and were taking their toll on Danny once more, and here they were still not relenting and we eventually gave up trying and weren’t for taking a space at the very bottom of the huge hill. We decided that we’d attempt this again tomorrow but earlier in the day so as to avoid this accumulation of tourist traffic.

We stopped for tea at a great Italian restaurant before making our way back to the hotel for a well-earned rest from this hectic, colossal metropolis of cheesy-ness.

Day 115 - No Matter How Nice the Car – Traffic is Traffic

We checked out and then walked up to Little Italy once more to allow Corrie a second look around the craft shop we’d found there the other day. We left the shop with Corrie now in possession of yet another camera; this one a Diana Mini which she was extremely chuffed about.

On the way out of San Diego we decided to try out the new camera and stop at lookout, which had 360 degree views of the city. Corrie spent quite a while doing circuits around the top, taking photos on all 4 cameras!!

Now we were back on the road and making our way back up to LA on a drive that should have taken one hour. This drive was horrible and took about 3 hours due to the unbelievable amount of traffic; traffic that had clogged all 5 lanes of most of the freeway. We later found that this was probably the worst time to have chosen to drive up to LA mainly because: it was Friday, it was rush hour, all the military from south of LA would be making their way up to party in LA, and traffic is just bad here anyway!

We did manage a top off at a nice little historical town called San Juan Capistrano where we had lunch and a look around. We also saw a hummingbird here which was pretty cool.

Danny was drained from the monotonous drive when we got back and was ready for bed but we made a stop at a great little sandwich shop before going back to crash at the hotel for the night.

Day 114 - Seeing San Diego’s Sights

We got up and set off on a walk to the main city which didn’t take long and we were soon on Broadway looking for a phone shop. Danny wanted to get a phone for the USA and Canada and so we thought we’d get this sorted ASAP. This proved to be quite tricky due to all the phone companies offering contracts and very few actually offering decent phones to buy for pay as you go. We had a look around and then moved on down 5^th ave towards the historic Gas Lamp Quarter of San Diego. This place offers loads of food places, bars and nightclubs which would be good if we had more time here and much more money to splash on lavish meals and nights out!

We soon arrived at the Seaport Village area of San Diego and had a wander along the harbour and through the shopping area here. Our impressions of San Diego so far were great and not really what we’d expected but here is a place we both agreed that we could easily come back to.

After a quick stop back at the hotel we hopped in the 5.7 litre monster and cruised up to Old Town where we strolled through the quaint and historic little town and market for an hour or so.

We then moved on and made our way to the Fashion Valley Mall where Danny made a beeline straight to the Apple store – this was a big mistake. 10 minutes later Danny left with a new iPhone 4s and case and then purchased a sim from the AT&T booth outside – Whoops!

The 10 minute drive back turned into a 30 minute drive back due to the GPS lady having a hissy fit… well multiple hissy fits to be precise but we managed to make it back in time to amble down to Broadway for some tea.

Day 113 - Danny and the Dodge

NB: Yesterday Danny received an e-mail confirming his rental car though it clearly stated in the small print that in order to rent the Challenger the driver must be 25 years of age. Danny was devastated and had eventually come round to the fact that he’d just have to make to with the drop-top Mustang.

We slept in a little today and so rushed around getting up and checking out but were soon on track and heading towards the Hilton hotel once more.

We strolled through the lobby of: suited people, Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags, marbled floors, and posh bars with our large rucksacks on our backs and our small day packs on our fronts; complete with greasy hair, scruffy clothes and flip-flops – needless to say we got drew some looks! At the Hertz desk they began processing our rental and soon picked up on the fact that neither of us are 25 yet. Cue Danny’s sad face! The two behind the counter began conferring with each other and eventually one could be heard saying: “Just fix it for him.” Danny enquired and the guy said that he was making it happen and not to worry! Sure enough the rental agreement went through and the keys were handed over to a very excited Danny.

The lift opened onto the basement and it was hard not to see the orange beast lurking at the far side of the car park. Danny was like a kid in a sweet shop and was soon examining the entire car whilst muttering words of absolutely no meaning to Corrie about this and that! The car was impressive to say the least and Danny still couldn’t believe that, after setting his sights on this car from the beginning of the trip, we were now in possession of the Dodge Challenger R/T for 14 days.

We were off and, with the help of the trusty GPS, soon on the crazy highway and in the fast lane heading south to San Diego. Danny happiness was insatiable for the duration of the trip and his ego was further enlarged by the numerous looks that this orange, chunky power machine with its black racing stripes was attracting.

We pulled into a viewpoint along the coast, slowing slightly as we rolled towards the parking spaces to allow a lady to take a snap or two! Here we witnessed millions of very tame squirrels scampering around us and more of the well-pumped seagulls. We also saw lots of the army choppers completing some kinds of drills up and down this stretch of coast.

We arrived in San Diego and found a hotel to check in to. As a final luxury Danny booked the, reduced rate, Jacuzzi room of the hotel and we threw our stuff inside before going for tea.

After a lovely Italian meal we headed back to attempt some more planning of the trip.