27.04.grand canyon.az
how disappointing that our trip between zion national park and grand canyon national park
was interrupted by a meal that just couldn't compete for beauty nor
appreciation.
26.04.las vegas.nv
ah, las vegas.
fun for the first hour, criminal the remainder.
what can be said about a town that instead of lining the streets with 'usa today' newspaper boxes,
litters them with colour classified magazines advertising call girls and gentlemen's clubs.
all inappropriately at a childs eye line... sick bastards.
we pulled into the first motel we found on 'the strip',
which turned out to be probably to most sour in vegas.
whoever thought carpet was strictly reserved for floors is mistaken
as it can easily be applied to walls as well.
driving into town, lost amongst the sea of casino billboards,
were small signs displaying the ten commandments, set along the road at regular intervals.
if jesus were alive today i'm sure he'd have the sense to take these plain, dormant fixtures
and turn them into rotating, flashing neon signs in an attempt to tap into the gamblers psyche.
all in all, vegas was good for a laugh.
and the casinos did offer 99cent margaritas which you can't afford not to drink
so i guess we're all going to hell.
24.04.yosemite national park.ca
sure it's beautiful, but 3000 people also think so.
yosemite felt more like a summer theme park than a natural wonderland,
contrary to what the pictures below depict.
back in oregon, i bought a bumper sticker for a dollar that read
'i love my country' next to an upstanding american flag.
this paid for itself when we overheard in the parking lot an older gent say to his wife,
'i just don't get it jill, this car's got canadian plates on it,
but an i love america sticker too' ... simpletons.
it's called irony.
23.04.san francisco.ca
near on 24 hours and $350 in repairs later, we got the hell out of mckinleyville on a b-line for san francisco,
where the food doesn't carry diseases and moustached men don't carry guns.
crossing the golden gate bridge we couldn't help but sing the theme song to full house.
amid spectacular scenery... everywhere we looked.
we were soon silenced though by a hefty toll on the other side of the bridge.
we spent a few days exploring the highs of twin peaks - offering 360 degree views of the city,
the lows of the public toilets - offering little privacy, and everything in between.
the best record store in the world is here, amoeba records.
they were selling copies of 'moo, you bloody choir' for 2 dollars
so at first i was a little offended but then i took advantage of this bargain
and stocked up, should i lose my other 3 copies. you never know.
finished our stint in san fran with a night out a the baseball.
i guess the 'athletics' playing the 'twins' was never going to be a ferocious game,
so after the third innings we turned the attention to ourselves, as exhibited in number five.
before the game in the parking lot, dane received a taunt from a couple of jocks in the order of
'hey man, where'd you get your pants, the girl store?'
surprisingly for such a liberal city we've attracted a lot of this kind of attention.
something about two tall, skinny white guys in tight jeans and
alternately sweeping fringes gives the impression that we're a gay couple.
i don't know how we shall fare in the south where their tolerance toward this is much less forgiving.
i suggested to dane, so as not to arouse suspicion,
that we simply discontinue holding hands wherever we go.
he concurred.
20.04.mckinleyville.ca
today was the day our dream machine came to an abrupt halt courtesy of a faulty alternator
(an important car part apparently).
the day started off nicely with light snowfall and a drive through the californian redwoods,
but minutes after ignoring the 'check engine' and 'check gauges' warning signs,
we broke down on highway 101 just north of mckinleyville, ca.
now, for anyone who's ever in the area, i don't recommend passing
through this town let alone breaking down in the vicinity of it.
the aaa refused to come to my aid because i refused to renew my nrma membership,
against my dad's advice. who's laughing now eh? it's not me.
so long story slightly shorter,
we were rescued by a california highway patrol officer (who was camera shy)
that pushed us to a safer part of the road. i'm not talking like get out and push with your strength the old fashion way,
rather 'sir, get back in your vehicle, put it in neutral and i'll push you down the road with my car.'
that was a wild ride.
then we eventually got picked up by a gun toting tow truck driver who took us
not 10 miles south to mckinleyville for the unreasonable but mandatory price of $145.
i can safely say the lowest point of the trip so far was sleeping in a mechanics car lot on a sunday night
in a town that culture and population forgot, restlessly waiting for 9am.
19.04.reedsport.or
left portland this morning a little disappointed that we couldn't locate
the bohemian paradise foretold by lonely planet.
it's supposed to be an easy city to navigate but our cartoonish, tourist-intended map didn't compliment this.
we headed west for the oregon coast... unbelievable.
if i could at all remember what the great ocean road in victoria looks like,
i'm sure there would be obvious comparisons,
as well as conflicting ones like the luxury of not being bound for adelaide.
i took a lot of photos from the passenger seat but the majority of them
were disturbed by a dirty windscreen and a lack of talent.
we pulled into the fishing town of reedsport for some mexican.
the menu was very busy but the restaurant was not. the food reflected this atmosphere.
then decided we'd treat ourselves to a cheap motel room after spending the last two nights
sleeping in the van in subzero temperatures under substandard bedding.
18.04.portland.or
drove down to portland from seattle.
running out of interesting dialogue.
reverting to uninteresting captions.
the map is gaining colour.
17.o4.seattle.wa
finally hit the road today bound for seattle after fare welling our hosts.
crossed the border, stocked up at wal-mart, ate at denny's and slept in our van outside an irish pub in seattle.
that's sol in the second photo by the way, not me.
16.04.vancouver.bc
in hindsight, it makes perfect sense to drive across the usa in an american car.
this is why we abandoned the reliability and reputation of a toyota for the leather seats and cup holders of a
1993 plymouth grand voyager. seemingly perfect, we found it at a used car dealer called 'cars from mars'
run by a czech-come-canadian guy with honest eyes and impressive office decor.
on the drive home after a hasty, but confident purchase, dane and i both had the sad realisation that this
is probably the nicest car we will ever own and wondered if it might be worth moving over here for.
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14.04.vancouver.bc
not content with using the public transport system alone, i decided it time to rent a car.
i named it earl because the number plate, save for one vowel, practically spelled it out for me.
didn't manage to get a side on photo of the car but anyone who watched rove last year will know
what a toyota yaris looks like. inside and out.
i mastered driving on the right (wrong?) side of the road and snapping picturesque landscapes
simultaneously in the space of just a few hours. it was a remarkably comfortable transition.
dane flew in from la-la-land tonight and relished the attention usually displayed for a small puppy.
13.04.vancouver.bc
i was treated to a day out at granville island.
a lively market place just over the river from downtown vancouver dubbed 'the place where locals go to feel like a tourist'.
the atmosphere was rich but the coffee was poor.
i don't mean to sound like a coffee snob but seriously, a bitter blend through dirty water
at 100 degrees with milk flavoured bubble-bath on top does not constitute a latte, i'm sorry.
the ferry ride over was much more pleasant and cooler.
there was a cute little pottery store selling ceramic tiles of dead celebrities and if i knew anyone
that was i die hard james dean fan, i surely would have bought up big. but no sale today.
12.04.vancouver.bc
the street that sol resides in can only be described as pleasantville, canada.
it was actually voted ‘best block‘ in vancouver in 02-03 despite being only a
few blocks away from hastings street (cracktown, canada).
i naively toured this street on my way to sol’s house thinking it was the most direct route from
the train station and in retrospect, should have put my personal safety ahead of my navigational skills.
the park benches in ‘couver tend to be arranged in a circular set-up,
as if to emphasise the locals need for intimate public gatherings.
actually it was just that one park. i shouldn’t read into it.
11.04.vancouver.bc
checked out of this hostel morn’ en route to canada, where brother sol is living at the moment with his lovely girl tiff.
i caught the amtrak train from seattle up to vancouver and it’s possibly the most picturesque ride in the country.
a bold assumption considering i’ve only seen but a fraction of what’s on offer, but it was just that good.
it was even more scenic than that little train that goes around pacific fair.
it runs literally right along the shore for most of the four hour trip. so to paint a picture, it goes ocean-rocks-train tracks.
amazing.
at the customs office in vancouver, the girl was asking me all kinds of what i thought
were personal questions like, ‘where are you staying?, who are you staying with?, are you traveling alone?’.
it was as though she wanted me to invite her to my party or something but i guess
they’re just trying to keep the riff-raff out of the country. suckers to them.
again, please excuse the photos, both subject and quality. i haven’t yet mastered the fine art
of photography but i shall soon get a crash course from young dane when he rides into town.
10.04.seattle.wa
today my task was to buy a camera.
before departure i decided on exactly what model i was going to buy when over here.
the pentax optio z10. it looks like an old 35mm film camera you might find at an op shop.
so my logic was that thieves might take pity on me and not steal it because of it’s dated exterior.
perhaps they’d even try to sell me a better one instead. time will tell.
after chasing it all around town,the last store i tried had only one left, which felt like an omen or something,
like they had spared the last z10 for my arrival. this sort of arrogance was on par with the clerk i bought it from,
who insisted for an extra $200 i could get a top of the linesony with an extra 2megapixels. this didn’t swing my vote.
the photos below are an ordinary bunch i took with my new toy walking back from the store to my hostel.
i took them on the run as i didn’t want to stop and experiment with aperture andoptical zooming
in front of the preying homeless. the last two were taken on an evening stroll.
the one on the left is the illuminated space needle. the one on the right is some illuminated street art. and then some.
09.04.seattle.wa
as i got dressed all by myself this morning, i realized that of the 8 articles of clothing i was wearing,
i only owned one of them: a pair of girls jeans bought at lifeline the day before my flight.
the rest: a gifted shirt here, a borrowed coat there and some trendy hand-me-downsneakers all amounted
to looking pretty sharp on the streets of seattle. i quickly learnt that it’s not a necessity in this town, but a hindrance.
it gives the assumption you have money and to the intolerable amount of homeless beggars, a prime target.
i’d been here less than 24 hours and already given away twelve dollars.
but i did have a karmic moment later in the day when waiting outside the hostel, hopelessly reorganising
my change into a workable order. a polite asian man wandered up to say, “you…you need extra money now’.
and it really was more a statement than a question. so before i knew it he had
thrusted two dollar notes in my hand and i couldn’t help but feel some sort of justification.
it was cold out, as they say, but pleasant enough for street walking. pike place market i guess
is the main tourist hub downtown, with it’s ethnic food stalls and kitschy little souvenir shops
selling ‘i heart seattle’ merchandise. i wasn’t sure if i did love seattle yet so i held off from any purchases.
i did buy a range of postcards, but they suffered water damage from a careless handling error.
the seattleites themselves seemed a self-absorbed bunch, indifferent to foreigners and thus,
my australian charm, which i was banking on to get me places.
that, and a car.
08.04.seattle.wa
howdy y’all.
welcome to some ramblings about my trip across the united states.
i’ll attempt to document the journey under the old adages
‘never let the truth get in the way of a good blog’ and ‘if you can’t say something funny,
don’t say nothing at all’, which i think this sentence conclusively demonstrates.
over time, journal entries are bound to become less frequent as
i run out of humourous observations on cultural differences.
but that’s not to say you shouldn’t check back on a regular basis.
you can track progress of the journey via ‘the map'.
day one.
by the magical reality of time-traveling, i was able to squeeze 41
hours into tuesday the eighth of april. this enabled me to farewell brisbane,
tolerate taipei, and be welcomed into seattle, with enough time to spare to
contemplate if my decision to travel with an already sizeable credit card debt
was the right one. i guess now it had to be.
the less said about the airport in taipei, the better. so here it goes.
it both looked and smelled like a run down rsl club,
except there were no pokies and they hate whites.
this made it a toughplace in which to kill six hours.
usa.
stepping off a plane and later a city bound bus, i did indeed feel like i’d walked into a movie set.
the sea of american accents, people chewing gum, obesity all round, and the novelty of seeing
black people assured me that i wasn’t in kansas anymore, toto.
the fact i’ve never actually been to kansas before should be disregarded as it’s
just a figure of speech to capture the feeling being in an unfamiliar, intimidating place.
own my misinformed walk from the bus stop to the hostel, i was interrupted randomly by a black man
on the street who was kind enough to give me directions to the hostel, as well as spin some street jargon yo.
i checked in at the hostel, checked out the surrounding ‘hoods, and then retired to my bunk after i realized
youth hostels are nothing more than college frat parties, except most occupants are over thirty-five and underprivileged.
.end day one.
