Started the day in John Steinbeck country, coffee at Cannery Row, Monterey. now an up market area with boutique shops and hotels and restaurants. Not sure if he would approve!

Headed out and up the coast, past Santa Cruz , then inland and up to San Francisco.

Jill had some fall out today, she was low on battery, clearly not an early riser, and was not well all day. A bit flat and when we asked her to sort something today, she took us to the wrong city ..... it was nearly all over for Jill and she nearly was put out of the car.  Still we have grown fond of her and decided to "jiggle" her along until Sunday. We were very pleased though to make it into the city as San Francisco has freeways that make your eyes water, and Rus and I a bit stressed!    I did not look how many layers, or how many each way just concentrated on the map and Jill. That was enough!


For those bikers that are reading this though..... I will make you cry.... stopped and picked up some new bike gear at Cycle Gear .... $79.99 US for new jackets, and about the same for pants. All good gear. And the answer is no..... we cannot fit extras in. However, we will show you when we are back!

Today was a wow day for me! the two places I particularly wanted to go to were the Getty centre and Hearst Castle. Not sure if many have  heard of either?

So leaving Morro Bay in the morning and only 26 miles and there it was, Hearst castle.

 

look closely and you will see it up on the hill.

 

 

Hearst Castle’s history begins in 1865, when George Hearst purchased 40,000 acres of ranchland. In 1919, William Randolph Hearst inherited what had grown to more than 250,000 acres, and was dreaming of ways to transform it into a retreat he called La Cuesta Encantada—Spanish for “Enchanted Hill.” By 1947, Hearst and architect Julia Morgan had created Hearst Castle: 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, pools and walkways—all built to house Hearst’s specifications and to showcase his legendary art collection.

 

 

so we parked at the visitors centre ( you have to prebook to get in on a tour) and then up on the bus we went and well wow! it is as stunning and huge as you imagine. we had a great tour guide which helped too.

I have put some of the favourite photos but the castles webpage has plenty too.

 

Then off up the coast to Big Sur and on to Monterey beach for the night.  This is a stunning bit of coast and quite a drive!  Rus was complaining that it was two lanes of traffic and a windy bumpy road. I think he is getting too used to the freeways!  he also had trouble when we hit road works and had to drive on the other side of the road........

 

the cocktail room ...

one of three houses Hearst built while he built the big house

Neptunes pool

the view and the road up to the castle by bus

it was hot very hot

the roman pool which was only half finished

and the road

just cut out of the cliff and 87 miles long ...

looking south to LA

 





after finally finding downtown Ventura and a quick coffee we headed to Santa Barbara today

downtown Ventura

Santa Barbara Pier

 

 

then through and up the coast to Morro Bay

 

a bit more relaxed after only 120 miles today.

its a long drive from Vegas to Ventura ....
one of the things you have to get your head around when driving in America, is the maps. we look at a map and think in kms .... and think oh that is not too bad,  but in America....

and even when using google maps they say 5 hours they are correct, but then its 325 miles ... so almost double that for kms.  And the 5 hours is all on Interstate, so four lanes of traffic, road trucks and 75miles an hour min non-stop. It take 4 hours Chch to Dunedin, we went almost twice that distance in another hour, to give a perspective.

the good things though, are the roads are separate , for each way, no oncoming traffic and with two lanes you can pass all the time.

the freeways though, now that's another story .. that's 7 lanes of traffic, one way, so theres another 7 on the other side,  at the least... often more and all doing 75 miles an hour too,  (about 130kmh) all around you and lots of it!

and then you have to navigate the interchanges. no not one land ramps on and off, usually two and the interchanges are often multiple on and off each side and multiple layers. 

so if you get it wrong,  its really wrong and often 20 miles if not more before you can get it sorted.
so today was a long drive......... on the interstate then onto the freeway in to LA then on to the Ventura highway and across to the beach.

Couple of interesting things. Arizona not only doesn't have number plates on the front of cars, motorcycle helmets are not compulsory (and not used much). Riding gear pretty much everywhere consists of T Shirt, shorts and jandels! Very few wear jackets or gloves.

on the road again ....

over there Rus is where we are going ..

Barstow for lunch, Route 66 again.

heading in to San Bernadino

Ventura Highway

 (song from America for those young folk who don't understand these things)

through the

Alivra mountains and down into the coast. Still on the freeway down a 6% gradient and all doing over 75 miles an hour, such fun!!!

you could smell the burnt brakes from all the cars at the bottom

Ventura Beach looking south

looking north

and ... I am off to the sea, possibly not coming home ... it is lovely here!!!!!

Dicks Fish and Chippy for dinner.

 

 

a foot note today... today was made possible by Jill, who with out her we would have never made it to Ventura, from taking the completely wrong road out of Vegas, and she sorted that out, to getting us through LA and out the other side unscathed. Jill Garmin we love you.....

 

 



Las Vegas - man time talking this time..

What can you say about the place? OTT? Tacky? Sleazy? Yes to all that. The glitz is really only paper thin, but it is still glitzy, especially at night when you cant see past. Highlights were the Belligio fountain at night, some of the amazing shops, (we walked into the Luxor and came out on the street 3 blocks later from the Mandalay) We got extremely sore feet from walking about 1/2 of the strip.

Unexpected things were mostly young children in the casino's, (even at 11 / 12 at night) people with bags and cameras in the casino's, (try that in NZ) pokies even in petrol stations.

The photo's can do the talking. Would we ever go back? NO! Just not our thing.

 

Inside the Luxor, it is a big atrium with hotel rooms opening onto each level

 

Bargain at $2500, fully signed. Pat was tempted!

Pat was tempted...



Monday
so it was still raining but we went back up to the rim to check, nope, no luck. Let's try down the other end, says Rus, we are not in a hurry.  And this is what we saw....

Yavapai Lodge where we stayed

and the mist coming into the canyon again

if you look closer at this one you will see the house on the rim, Kolb's studio

Russell enjoying using the zoom lens just over the canyon wall

and one of his friends we watched while having coffee

amazing shots!!

 

after leaving the Grand Canyon we headed back out and onto Route 66, so from Flagstaff which we were in yesterday to ..

Williams, Arizona the next stop on Route 66

and the home of Smokey Bear. then leaving Williams back onto Interstate 40 which runs alongside Route 66 and is also now partly Route 66 and heading to ..

Kingman home of the Santa Fe,

which is truly a big train, I am standing there for the scale!

then we turn off Route 66 and head to Vegas. click on the photo and have a look at the road!

and no those who know me well, I did NOT go on this bridge.....

(Russell is reminding me we did cross it in the car, he walked across though)

and this is why I didn't

Hoover Dam

Lake Mead and ironically solar panels ... one mile from the Hoover Dam

and guess where we ended up!